2021-04-06
“We are finalising the final details and the goal is to have it wrapped up by Imola,” Domenicali told Rai Radio 1, quoted by RacingNews365.

“What we would like to try is to have a more intense weekend where we have an hour of practice and qualifying on Friday that would decide the grid for the sprint race, which would then decide the grid for the race on Sunday. This would generate more interest, which is something that was asked by organisers and TV rights holders.”

It had been suggested earlier in the year that the new format would be trialled at three venues throughout the 2021 season, likely to be at Silverstone and any two of Canada, Italy (Monza) and Sao Paulo.

However, it now looks as though Canada, scheduled for mid-June, is off the agenda given Domenicali has announced where the first trial will take place.

“Yes, I can confirm that,” he said, when asked if Silverstone, from July 16-18, will host the first Sprint Qualifying.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sprint-races-finalised-imola/

2021-04-07

F1 planning new ‘active aero’ for 2025 cars to slash fuel consumption

https://www.racefans.net/2021/04/07/f1-planning-new-active-aero-for-2025-cars-to-slash-fuel-consumption/

2021-04-07
Revealed: Radical changes on the drawing board for F1’s next rules revolution in 2025

https://www.racefans.net/2021/04/07/revealed-radical-changes-on-the-drawing-board-for-f1s-next-rules-revolution-in-2025/

2021-04-07

Prost says: "I am always a bit sceptical, because I want to see it with my own eyes first. With less time to work on the cars and with stricter rules, I think it could be the case. But we don't know if these new rules will allow things to happen. They are so strict that it is going to be difficult to discover new inventions like we saw in the 80s and 90s," the Frenchman told Le Figaro.

He continues: "I don't think the hierarchy is going to be totally different either, but the differences between the teams are probably going to get smaller." The differences are already small - based on the first race - and that may become even smaller in 2022. That means better competition by definition but, listening to Prost, he reckons Mercedes and Red Bull will always have that little bit extra, which will have no direct impact on the hierarchy.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81424/prost-sceptical-i-don-t-think-the-hierarchy-is-going-to-be-totally-different.html

雷诺惯常退出警告⚠️

2021-04-07

Renault general manager Luca de Meo had to work hard to keep Renault in Formula 1. "Many people asked me to quit Formula 1 because Renault's financial situation is very complicated," De Meo told Motorsport-Total.com. The French company led a record loss in the first half of 2020 and as several factories had to be closed, some 15,000 jobs were lost.

For many people, it was therefore difficult to understand that the Formula 1 team did continue to exist."Formula 1 has become a bit detached from the mainstream and is seen by some people as a rather expensive and perhaps unnecessary hobby. Many people are not interested in it at all," De Meo said.


De Meo eventually decided to continue the Renault F1 team as Alpine F1, named after Renault's sports brand in order to give this branch of the company a big boost. "Formula 1 is a huge marketing platform. If you're in the picture, it's worth hundreds of millions of media dollars that I could never invest to give the Alpine brand that much attention. And attention is value for the brand."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81430/renault-ceo-f1-is-seen-as-quite-an-expensive-and-perhaps-unnecessary-hobby.html

2021-04-07

At Formel1.de Montoya gives his take on the current state of Formula 1. "Formula 1 has been very interesting since Liberty got there. There have been a lot of changes. If you go into the paddock, it's honestly shocking how much more pleasant it is now compared to before," said the Colombian. "It's just more sociable, the people are much friendlier."

With the arrival of Liberty Media, all sorts of things are also being done to bring the field closer together, such as aerodynamic changes and the budget cap. Good points, but Montoya is still sceptical. "Formula 1 is on the right track, as long as they can keep it under control. I'm sure people will find loopholes. That's always the case, but with time it will get better."

Montoya believes that in reality the top teams have no limit. "They do everything that needs to be done to win. The people with the best ideas will probably do even better if you give them half the time. That's the problem."


Another new development that Montoya is looking forward to is sprint racing. "People's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. So you can't hope to have people watching one race on TV for two hours. People like us, who love the sport, will. But the younger generations will have a hard time of it. Sprint racing is the way of the future."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81434/montoya-shocking-how-much-more-pleasant-it-is-now-in-formula-1.html

2021-04-07

He did what most athletes can only dream of doing: stopping at the peak.

In the Beyond The Grid Podcast Mercedes colleagues, including Andrew Shovlin and James Vowles, discuss that special moment when suddenly confronted with the question of who was actually better, Rosberg or Hamilton? James Vowles: "If you give Nico a thousand laps, he slowly moves towards an incredible performance level. If you give Lewis two, he’s there, if that makes any sense. Where Nico was excellent is that you give him time in the car to see what his teammate is doing, he’s incredible, what he achieves."

The men also briefly discuss the departure of Rosberg. The news obviously came out of the blue to the team. "Toto called us into the office. And we didn’t really know what to expect. But if Toto asked us to list five things that he was going to say, Nico retiring wasn’t on that list. And it was just a bizarre moment. And even now it’s kind of hard to work out why he asked to be released from his contract. Because even if he wasn’t going to beat Lewis again, he was in a good car, he’d be winning races, he’d be part of a team that was doing something amazing."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81442/where-rosberg-needed-a-thousand-laps-lewis-could-do-it-in-two.html

2021-04-07

Then Mercedes employees James Vowles and Ron Meadows are still employed by the team, and also worked with Schumacher. It still hurts the men that the team could not live up to expectations at the time. James Vowles says about it in the Beyond The Grid Podcast: "Michael Schumacher never got the results he deserved with us. Everyone at the factory wanted so badly for him to succeed. It was obvious to all of us how much time Michael had put into the team."

Sporting Director Ron Meadows said, "When I think about how involved he was in building the team, my biggest regret is that he never won for us. Michael just operated on a different level than any driver we had dealt with before him. We all wanted him to win, but he never did. A few years later we started winning, and he's one of the reasons we're still winning. He's done so much to make us a better racing team."

"He was aware that he was getting older. But he never gave up. I just wish we could have given him that one victory. Or he could have driven the 2013 car that gave us three wins and eight pole positions."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81446/according-to-mercedes-michael-schumacher-is-still-the-reason-for-the-team-s-success.html

2021-04-07

Alain Prost, former driver and current team advisor for Alpine, is not only a great supporter of the budget cap, he even calls it crucial. In conversation with Le Figaro, the Professor says that teams that can spend twice as much as Alpine are able to hire more staff, something that can only benefit the development of the car.

Prost says: 'In my day there was less emphasis on finance, but you could still make the difference by being ingenious.' According to the Frenchman, the arrival of major manufacturers and sponsors has created a climate in which teams have been formed that are difficult to disrupt. He also believes that the budget cap and the inclusion of the driver's salary is the best way to bring the teams closer together.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81450/prost-in-my-day-you-made-the-difference-by-being-ingenious.html

2021-04-07

Mario Andretti guaranteed that his son Michael would have become World Champion at McLaren, but there were too many politics.

In 1993 Michael made the move to Formula 1 and so gave himself the opportunity to repeat his father’s achievement, that being to win the World Championship.

At McLaren the American racer had the perfect tools for the job in theory, but after only 13 races he returned to the United States with just a single podium finish.

Sadly, Mario said there were just too many factors working against his son for him to reach his true potential in Formula 1.

“Michael was hired by McLaren when Ayrton [Senna] was supposed to go to Williams. They had Mika Häkkinen. He should have been Michael’s team-mate, but suddenly Ayrton’s deal [with Williams] didn’t materialise and Michael was already there as a high-paid driver. It was difficult,” Mario explained during the Starting Grid podcast.

“[Häkkinen] was suddenly sidelined, and Häkkinen cost McLaren almost nothing.”

McLaren team principal at the time Ron Dennis did not want Michael in the car, informing him that the Italian Grand Prix would indeed be his final race with the team so that Hakkinen could be brought into the line-up.

He only got to race in Italy after Mario had begged Dennis to allow it.

“He said to him, ‘Mika Häkkinen will replace you from Italy and finish the season. And I can’t tell you if I’m going to renew your contract until Ayrton knows what he’s up to. It could be November,'” Mario explained.

“I begged Ron to let Michael drive, at least in Italy. And there he went on to finish on the podium, after starting ninth.”

One thing was clear though, Senna respected Michael’s speed, and this shone through during a test at Magny-Cours that year.

“Ayrton had great respect for him, Michael and Ayrton were within five hundredths of a second [at the test], with a time that would have put them in the first two rows,” Mario explained.

“Michael showed he can compete, but there were so many factors against him.”

Among those factors were McLaren’s switch from Honda to Cosworth, and also heavy restrictions on testing time for the drivers.

“In that year there was the new rule that you were not allowed to test on the track where the next race would take place,” said Mario.

“In addition, the maximum number of laps allowed in testing was 23 laps. That was a stupid rule that shaped the year. Because Michael came to every track for the first time. He had never been able to test there.

“And then McLaren lost the Honda engines and switched to Cosworth, and he had never tried the Cosworth. There was a lot going on against him.”

So, if the cards had not been stacked against his son, then Mario guaranteed that Michael would have won the World Championship with McLaren.

“There were a few things that didn’t work in his favour. I’m not saying that because he’s my son, but if Michael had stayed, he would have been world champion with McLaren. I guarantee that,” he concluded.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/michael-andretti-mclaren-politics/

2021-04-04

That season(2013) though McLaren failed to make a single appearance on the podium, and despite scoring 49 points Perez left the team at the end of the season with several drivers, including team-mate Jenson Button, unimpressed with Perez’s aggressive driving style.

But Perez felt there were a lot more politics in play.

“In that year I think there were a lot of politics because the driving side wasn’t that bad. I went into a team fairly inexperienced next to Jenson and basically it was his team, he was a World Champion,” he told Sky F1.

“I outqualified him so in terms of pace I think you could see the young kid had the speed. But there were other things around and I’ve learned from them. I think I’m a more complete and rounded driver. If it doesn’t work now it’s not going to work ever.”

Skip forward to 2021 though and Perez now finally has another chance in a team expected to challenge for race wins in Red Bull. It is the same situation though as he goes into a team very much built around a driver, that driver being Max Verstappen.

Perez’s first impressions of the Dutchman is that he is laser focused on going as fast as he can, but outside of the car Verstappen is a fairly laid back personality.

“With Max, I’ve been hanging out with him in a way that I can say he’s just about going as fast as possible and out of the car he has been pretty chilled out,” said Perez.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio-perez-recalls-mclaren-politics/

2021-04-08

“You have clearly Red Bull in front and Mercedes not very far [away],” he said. “I think they’re behind at the moment but I would be curious to see where they are in two or three races, because I think they are a big, very well-structured and very competent team and they clearly have some issues that they will sort.”

“You have McLaren who are strong, AlphaTauri were strong, Ferrari were strong, a little bit stronger than we expected them [to be]. And then there’s us, there’s Aston Martin.
“I think that group with McLaren, with Ferrari, with AlphaTauri, with ourselves and Aston Martin – and I think Alfa Romeo were not far off either – that group is very, very tight. It’s almost like fifth or sixth to 16th is going to be tight. Circuit to circuit and conditions to conditions it’s going to be variable.

“So our objective is to be at the front of that group rather than at the rear. At the moment we’re somewhere in the middle of it and we’re short of a few tenths to get to the front.

“It could be different the next race and it’s going to be interesting to watch because people are going to develop their cars a little bit, but not that long this season because of the ’22 regulations coming. So it’s going to be interesting. That midfield is going to be very, very competitive all season long.”

https://www.racefans.net/2021/04/08/mercedes-will-sort-car-problems-within-three-races-budkowski-suspects/

2021-04-08
According to the 66-year-old quadruple world champion, a “psychological game” already emerged at the Enstone based team last year, when Esteban Ocon was paired with the now departed Daniel Ricciardo.

“It is normal for a psychological game to arise between the two drivers,” Prost told Le Figaro. “There is always a driver who takes the upper hand in the battle.

“When one driver finishes one grand prix better, and the other driver is better in the next one, then things go well. It is in balance,” said the famous Frenchman.

Prost said that at present, there are no such problems between Ocon and his new teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso – who has a reputation for obliterating teammates both on and off the track.

“If it goes as Ocon experienced with Ricciardo last year – that one of the drivers continuously performs better – it becomes more difficult,” Prost said.

“It is important for the drivers to work together, as the atmosphere within the team is extremely important for performance,” he added.



“You have to be very careful about that, because problems between the drivers can kill you as a team.”

https://grandpx.news/alpine-careful-with-alonso-ocon-relationship-prost/

2021-04-08

Asked to assess Alpine's pace, Alonso answered: “It’s difficult to say. 

"I think we saw different results and a bit of mixed feelings for everybody including us. Sometimes we looked a little bit better, sometimes we looked a little bit down. It was the same for everybody so far.

“Even for the top teams and top guys. On Saturday we had an impression, on Friday we had an impression, after the race we had a different impression."

In recent years, pre-season testing has taken place in Spain ahead of a curtain-raiser in Australia, but with the Melbourne race postponed this year until November, the test was moved to Bahrain in a bid to cut down travel. 

The negative of this is that, aside from filming days, the 10 teams have completed running at only one venue and Alonso believes more circuits need to be sampled before a pecking order can be established. 

He added: “Things are moving up and down for everybody so we will need a couple of races to really have a more established order of things. 

“Let’s wait and see and meanwhile our job is to work hard and identify our weakness if there are any and work on those and keep our strengths. It’s an interesting season in front of everybody.”

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/63479/alpine-pace-difficult-to-decipher-alonso/

"If a driver is destabilised, that's not normal," said Prost in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro. "What is normal, however, is that a psychological game is set up. There is always one driver who gets the upper hand.

"If that's one driver one time, and then the other one [another time], it's balanced and things go well.

"When it's more regular, as Esteban experienced last year with Daniel [Ricciardo], it's more complicated. So it's very important that the drivers work well together and that there are no dangerous games.

"It's going to be a long season, and these COVID years are also complicated to manage. It's not much fun, locked in bubbles with incredible restrictions.

"The dynamic and atmosphere of a team are extremely important for performance, so you have to be very vigilant to ensure that there is no degradation, first and foremost, among the drivers."

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alpine-wont-let-alonso-ocon-rivalry-get-out-of-hand/6148094/

2021-04-08

Fernando Alonso will bank more than Vettel on his return to F1 with Alpine. He is thought to be F1’s third-highest-earning driver, behind Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
But the days of such sky-high salaries may be numbered. F1 teams have to operate within a budget cap for the first time this year, and though it does yet not cover payments to drivers, that may change in the future.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/04/08/2021-f1-driver-salaries-top-earner-hamilton-takes-pay-cut-in-one-year-mercedes-deal/

2021-04-08

"Since I’ve left, the other drivers have come through and him having different teammates, I think it’s probably increased his respect for me even more," the Australian said in an interview with Square Mile. "I mean we never hated each other, we just wanted to end each other’s careers! It’s as simple as that.” "I would say that those outside of the team maybe underestimated what Max and I did to each other, to push each other to that level. And yes, obviously, Pierre or Alex, couldn’t get on top of that. Or at least not soon enough," Ricciardo said.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81488/ricciardo-on-rivalry-with-verstappen-wanted-to-end-each-other-s-career.html

2021-04-08

“To answer it diplomatically, I think Lewis isn’t the only one that could win races in that car," Ricciardo told Squaremile.com.

"That’s obviously my opinion and I think that George Russell, in a way, showed the possibility of that by pretty much beating Valtteri [Bottas] in his first race. So you could argue that just maybe Lewis doesn’t have the strongest competition.


“I think, where we can’t be too aggressive or disrespectful to Lewis, is that, do a few of us believe we could beat him? Yes. I’m quite sure of that.

However, where the McLaren driver is somewhat critical of Hamilton's opposition, he is also keen to emphasise how well the Brit has done to consistently manage the pressure - and turn up on the top of his game year after year.

https://racingnews365.com/ricciardo-russell-showed-hamilton-doesnt-have-the-best-opposition

2021-04-08
"He(Hamilton) has some windows where he’s unbeatable," continued de la Rosa. "When the compounds are very hard, like in the wintertesting and they don’t switch on the temperature, he’s at is best. Because everyone of us always struggle to get the Michelins for example, to a consistent tyre operating window. And he was just mashing everyone. Everyone."

This, according to de la Rosa, is because in terms of his driving style, Hamilton is sliding with his car. "His strenght basicly is when the tyres degrade. When the tyres drop down, he caries a lot of speed into the corners. So he’s not so dependend on the rear tires to exit the corners with a lot of traction."

In short, the points at which Hamilton is unbeatable is at a specific state of the tyres and at the way he cuts corners. According to de la Rosa, Hamilton is also powerful not just over a lap, but over the entire race. Or in his words, "But actually his strenght is not over one lap, he’s strenght is on the race distance, where he kills Valtteri or any other teammates basicly on the entry speed."

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/81504/hamilton-is-unbeatable-on-a-few-points-says-de-la-rosa.html

“We have a bit of homework to do to understand why we were less competitive in the hot sessions than in the evening sessions,” he told Autosprint.

“I don’t think it will be a problem at Imola or Portugal, but it could become one in the summer months. In testing, we were quite satisfied with the car, but we were less so in warmer temperatures.

“The first and third free practice sessions were more difficult for us, while in the night sessions like qualifying and the race we returned to a more representative level of competitiveness.

“The temperature was quite extreme, it was warmer than in testing. At the start of FP3 the temperature was 38 degrees, while the track temperature was 47, much higher than in winter testing.”

To get back to where they want to be, Budkowsi believes that they need to find around a quarter a second in pace.

” [We are] still two or three tenths behind to actually fight with the teams we thought we were going to fight with,” he concluded.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/alpine-heat-struggles/