Adam Cooper F1

Russell says driving guidelines are not “rocket science” Picture @tinnekephotography

A discussion of Formula 1 driving guidelines in Qatar on Thursday evening focussed on overtaking on the inside.

The consensus that the driver making a pass on the inside should be allowed to run a rival wide, as long as he stays within the confines of the track.

GPDA director George Russell said that it was “not rocket science” to accept that as standard practice.

Drivers also highlighted how track layouts and run-off areas are the main issue in allowing cars to run wide without penalty.

The meeting was scheduled several weeks ago to give the drivers a chance to air their views about the guidelines, which were placed firmly in the spotlight by a rash of incidents and penalties in Austin and Mexico.

With race director Niels Wittich having been sacked in the interim it was also the first chance for the drivers to discuss the subject at length with his replacement, Rui Marques.

GPDA director George Russell said that the discussion had been a positive one.

 “It was pretty productive,” said Russell. “I think we all agree the guidelines, they don’t need massive changes. I think we just need the odd sentence removed or adjusted. But I think everybody’s clear with what happened in Austin, what should have been a penalty. What happened in Mexico was rightly penalised.

“And generally speaking, over the course of the year, I think the decisions have been pretty good. It was just probably Austin that was the outlier. So just fine tweaks.”

Russell said that the consensus was that a driver overtaking on the inside should be allowed to run a rival wide, as long as he stays within the confines of the track.

“The discussion was mainly about overtaking,” he said. “I don’t want to go into detail what was what was spoken about, but I think a lot of drivers are aligned that if you are the overtaking car on the inside, rule number one is you have to be able to stay on the circuit.

“If you’re able to stay on the circuit, you are in your right to run the driver wide, as it has been for all of us since go karts. If you’re overtaking somebody on the inside, you’ve got the right to run them wide.

“And we also concluded that most of these issues are down to the circuits. We spoke about a number of issues in in Austin.

“I think a lot of the overtakes wouldn’t have even been attempted had there been gravel there, such as Austria Turn 4, the downhill right hander, you know you’re going to go in the gravel if you go one or two per cent over the limit.

“Silverstone at Stowe, obviously a great racing a couple of years ago, with Lewis and Checo and Charles, ultimately, everyone was off the track, but that’s because the track allowed you. The circuits are the root cause, and the guidelines are kind of like an interim fix that we need to agree on until we can get all of the circuits in a proper manner.”

He added: “Everyone’s in agreement, to be honest. I know there was maybe a bit of disagreement when we had the meeting in Mexico, but I think that was probably just a bit of self-protection.

“I don’t think it’s rocket science, I think we all feel the same way. If you’re overtaking on the inside and you make the corner and you’re not running off, it’s your corner, and you want to see hard racing.

“You want to see drivers battling wheel-to-wheel. It looks awesome when people are going through the gravel and sparks being flown up. And I think the stewards recognise that.

“If you’re on the outside being overtaken, it’s on you to yield. And right now there is a line of a regulation that says the inside driver needs to leave room to the guy on the outside from the apex to the exit, and I think that’s going to be getting binned off, and I hope it’s going to be from this weekend onwards.”

Russell stress that track design remains the key issue.

“I think the overtaking rules on the outside will not be changing much,” he said. “And I don’t think we’ve really seen much of a problem, as I said, on my personal view, generally this year, I think it’s worked.

“It’s just the issues that came up in Austin were obviously highlighted quite a lot, but ultimately it came down to the same fact, which was the circuit allows you to do that.

“If you take Max’s example of how late he braked into the corner, he wouldn’t do that in a corner that has gravel on the outside, because the risk to yourself is too great.

“Whereas when you’ve got tarmac on the outside, the risk is you just run a bit wide, and you get a track limits warning. So that’s going to change now.”

Max Verstappen also agreed that track layouts was the main issue when it came to overtaking.

“We still need, for sure, a few more discussions about certain things,” said the Dutchman when asked by this writer about the meeting.

“But I think it more has to do with the track layouts. “Some places just have a lot of run-off, and that creates already a lot of issues. So that’s something that we have to work on for the future.

 “The main problem is the track that allows these kinds of things. So if you have gravel, that naturally stops you from doing things, taking a bit more risk than normal.”

Lewis Hamilton welcomed the opportunity for the drivers to air their views on the subject.

“It’s very complex, because all these different corners, so many different scenarios,” said the Mercedes driver.

“They don’t have an easy job at all. I think it helps us all sitting with them, having a discussion. In their minds this year it has been better in terms of consistency, but obviously everyone wants it to be perfect.

“But until you have those discussions for them to fully understand from where we’re sitting, from where we’re fighting, what we’re fighting for, and where what we think is right or wrong in certain scenarios, it’s good for them to hear and for us to work on real clear guidelines so that also from in the car you know exactly what you have.”

Franco Colapinto admits that James Vowles “wasn’t very happy” after his huge crash in Q2 in Las Vegas – but says that the support of the Williams boss helped him to bounce back on race day.

Colapinto had his third crash in two race weekends when he went off in Q2 while trying to break into the top 10.

He was able to start the race from the pitlane in the spare chassis, and had a solid race to 13^th place at the flag.

The crash added to the strain on resources that the team has experienced with the high level of crash damage this season, and Colapinto concedes that it wasn’t easy to face Vowles afterwards.

“He wasn’t very happy, but he has been always very, very supportive,” he said. “I always take out of every bad moment very positive things, and it’s every time because of James, his thinking and his mentality and his way of moving forward as a team leader and as a team.

“I think I learned a lot from him, and he has been an amazing team leader for the little time that I’ve been working with him. I know how important how all this is for him, and it also is for me.

“But when these things happen, when two tough weekends in a row happen like this, the mentality and the will to keep pushing forward, not giving up and always finding a solution to the problems is its strength, and always finding a positive thing in the negatives.

“And I think that is very important, and is what is going to move this team back to the top.”

Colapinto admitted that he took too many risks in Q2, while acknowledging that his life was made harder by Pierre Gasly being in front of him.

“When you are driving, you are going to a limit,” he said when asked about qualifying by this writer. “And I think for what the situation was in the beginning of the lap, I had to take more risks to try to get into Q3 – probably not that much!

“I tried my best, I think was difficult to manage that last run in Q2. We were very close to Gasly at the start of the lap, I did a very big gap, I did a four-second gap before starting the push. And then I think he really, really slowed down after Turn 16, after that kink to a left. And before starting the lap, he slowed down so, so much.

“I was eight-tenths behind him. It was Piastri behind me finishing the lap. I was in a very, very awkward position and really not ideal. And I started the lap eighth-tenths behind Gasly.

“So I had to take more risks than what I should have. I had a lot of dirty year in that lap, so just a tough quali for us. I think the pace was there to be in Q, or very close. So it’s tough. I think a tough day for us, because we should have been close to it into the top 10.”

Colapinto admitted that keeping out of trouble was his priority in Saturday evening’s Grand Prix.

“The idea was to have a clean race,” he said. “I think it was not ideal after such a big crash to go straight in the race. And I wasn’t feeling so comfortable the first stint there.

“I was really, really struggling with the balance. I had a lot of oversteer, very difficult to manage the tyres. And just not in a good window. I think as the car kept running and the track also kept getting a bit better, it came a bit more towards us.

“But it wasn’t feeling well at the beginning. I lost a lot of time in the first in that strategy, a lot of dirty air, and the tyres were opening very quick, a lot of graining straight away and dirty air and a lot of sliding.

“I think at the start of the race, I was taking a bit more margin,” he said. “It’s difficult after a crash to get back in the rhythm, going straight into a race start from the pit lane, it wasn’t what I wanted. But I think slowly, I started to get back in the pace.

“So I think a very difficult race to manage in terms of strategy, in terms of pit stops, of a lot graining and the degradation that we had. So we need to focus now on the next few races.”

Zhou Guanyu is still awaiting a decision on a future Formula reserve role, with Ferrari currently favourite to secure the services of the Sauber driver.

Zhou is well known to Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who was his team boss at the then Alfa Romeo outfit in 2022.

The Chinese driver has a had a difficult 2024 season with an uncompetitive car, and has often been behind team mate Valtteri Bottas on upgrade specs.

However his three seasons of recent race experience makes him an obvious candidates for any teams requiring a reserve driver for 2025, with the 24-race schedule ensuring that it’s not a one-man job.

“We are talking to several teams, and of course Ferrari remains one of the teams really interested in me,” he said of his future.

“And yeah, we need to see. Obviously, there’s a lot of things coming up in the next few weekends for us to make a decision, but it’s clear that we are going through all the options we have, and then to see where we are.

“But of course, from my side, obviously, I don’t want to be committed to the future just yet, because I need to making sure everything is set down and it’s clear, and I have a massive commitment to the next project. So hopefully something will be happening or decided soon.”

Regarding the timing he said: “I think it will be somewhere around the next few weeks, I’ll have a clear idea. But when would I announce, I don’t know.

“At the moment, I haven’t signed anything. You need to find the right time, so nothing has been fully [agreed] until the details are right. But we’re working on it, and we’ll see what’s the future.”

Zhou had one of his best weekends of the season in Las Vegas thanks to a successful upgrade package introduced for the last three races. From 13^th on the grid he had a solid race to 14^th at the flag.

“I think that’s the best we’ve be in a while, since the summer,” he said. “First of all, I’m just really happy obviously with the upgrades working, and the team gave me a car that I can finally fight with, and feeling of finding the confidence back, which is a main topic I’m extremely happy with.

“It’s been very positive this weekend in terms of that. Today’s race was clean, but not a lot happening ahead, so we can’t really make much more than what we were.”

He added: “We have a new package, and I think it’s been a while that both cars are having that. And also for me, this weekend it’s good to be finally trying that, not just having something new straight away for a sprint race weekend like we did in Sao Paulo.

“It’s good to at least test that, and finding this rhythm, this balance we needed before qualifying to make it work. So clearly, I think this direction for next year is in the right way, this new package. But a bit late than I hoped! But I’m just going to try to enjoy it as much as I can.”

Zhou admitted that the car’s poor form had not helped his efforts to secure a seat for 2025.

“It’s been one of bitter disappointment this season obviously,” he said. “And especially the second part, not having the upgrades we wanted to have, and always having the old package. So it forced me back a little bit while it was a very important timing for my future.

“But in another way, like I said, I’m very relieved and looking forward for the next two races and together with the next chapter. So I want to make sure I give the guys as much credit as I can for the remaining races, and to see where we are.”

Fernando Alonso was left frustrated in Las Vegas on Saturday evening after being edged out of the points by Sergio Perez in the closing laps.

Having started only 16^th the Alonso driver was running 10^th behind Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda when Perez demoted him.

The Spaniard has now endured a run of four race weekends without scoring for the first time since early in his 2022 season with Alpine.

“I think every point is gold for us at the moment, even if we are not fighting for many important things,” he said when I asked him about his frustration.

“I think it’s good to give something back to the mechanics and to everyone in the team, after all the struggles.

“But as I said yesterday, only two races left this year, but there is a lot of trust in the team, and a lot of new people and new ideas that will come in the future. So looking forward.”

Alonso was the only driver in the field to start on the soft tyres, and while he initially gained two places he quickly slipped back down the order, and was last by the time he pitted.

“We were different, but I don’t think that it made really a big difference,” he said. “We just stopped very early, which we could have done it also with the medium, if we started with those.

“So it was not a big benefit on lap one or the start. And then we committed to stop very, very early.

“But the pace was much better than the race. We were in the points until three laps to the end. So to finish so close to Red Bull, Haas, Tsunoda, it was a little bit of a surprise.

“Obviously the taste is not great now, because there is no reward for P 11, and I think we deserve it. We did a very good race to put the car in P11. So hopefully in Qatar, we have another chance.”

Regarding the balance the said: “It was just a little bit happier today, the car, than yesterday. It seems maybe with fuel or something, already the laps to the grid, the car felt a little bit better than yesterday.

“It was a difficult weekend to understand the balance, this super low grip level as well.”

“We have to review the weekend. There are some things that we learned for sure, on the car. I think today as I said the strategy was great. The pace was better. Pit stops were very, very fast. I think we did a decent race.

“So if we started a bit further up in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, the points are possible. So that’s the target. We have two possibilities in Qatar with a sprint, obviously one Saturday, one Sunday.

“So right now, looking forward for Qatar, because you want to jump in the car again and try.”

Leclerc and Ferrari had a fraught Las Vegas GP

Charles Leclerc admits that the early tyre graining he suffered in the Las Vegas GP was “my bad” after he pushed too hard while fighting George Russell.

From fourth on the grid Leclerc jumped past Pierre Gasly and his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz to claim second place.

He then pushed leader Russell hard in the early laps, just failing to go around the outside of the Mercedes driver on the fourth lap.

However soon afterwards front graining became so severe that he let Sainz past, before also losing a place to Max Verstappen.

He eventually finished fourth after what was a difficult race for Ferrari to manage.

“I felt like I had everything under control,” said Leclerc of the early laps. “But then from one corner to the other, I lost three seconds per lap, which was absolutely crazy. So yeah, that took me by surprise, and we lost quite a lot there.

“But then on the hard we were strong. But obviously it wasn’t enough to do anything better than third and fourth.”

Leclerc admitted that the graining in the opening stint was made worse by his battle with Russell.

“I think so,” he said. “It didn’t affect him too much. It did affect me, though. Being in dirty air, you pay a lot the price of this.

“So that was difficult to manage for me, but I just went a bit too much, I just put too much stress on the tyres in the first stint. So it’s my bad.”

He added: “When I started to feel the medium going at lap 6, I was like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t look great for the rest of the race.’

“But then with the hard everything felt a little bit more in line with what I expected, and then we were in a good place. I think if you had told me that we’ll finish fourth after the first stint, I probably would have taken it.”

Leclerc expects McLaren to have the upper hand in the title battle at the next race.

“It’s going to be until the very end,” he said. “I think they are going to be very strong in Qatar.

“So we’ve got to have a good weekend, and I will be very surprised if we recover points from them, but we’ve got to. So we’ll do our best, but I expect it to be tricky.”

Gasly had to retire early after a PU issue

Pierre Gasly says his retirement from the Las Vegas GP was “a slap in the face” for his Alpine Formula 1 team after he stunned the pitlane by qualifying third.

The Frenchman lost places to quicker cars in the early laps, but he was still set for a healthy haul of points.

However he felt a PU issue even before the team spotted it on the pitwall, and he had no choice but to stop the car with just 15 laps completed.

The retirement had special significance as Alpine’s double podium finish in Brazil had propelled the team from ninth to sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

With Gasly dropping out Nico Hulkenberg scored four points for Haas and put the US-owned team back ahead in sixth place, while RB also closed the gap to Alpine thanks to two points earned by Yuki Tsunoda.

“It’s a tough one to swallow, because obviously we had such a high yesterday,” said Gasly when asked by this writer about the costly retirement.

“Going into the race we were very optimistic that we’ll be able to fight for some good points. I think the first stint was good, and as we expected with Norris, Max and Lewis overtaking us – but we knew they were quite a few tenths faster than us.

“I think we were on for a good fight for best of the rest with Yuki. We were ahead of him, and he jumped us in the pits. But then I think we’d have taken the fight on track.

“So we know there were big points on the table. It was such a good weekend so far that it’s frustrating just to end up having to retire after only a few laps.”

The team is still investigating the cause of the PU issue.

“We need to review exactly,” said Gasly. “But for me, it was pretty clear when it happened. I just lost all the power, I could not achieve downshift.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail because I’m not too sure, but when we know how important these points are, especially in the championship, it’s going to cost us big time today.”

Gasly is hoping that that he won’t face any grid penalties: “I think I have quite a few PUs in my pool, so I think I should be fine. You never know.

“But obviously this season, I had quite a few problems, quite a lot of races which didn’t take part in. And it’s just a tough one to have another one, starting from P3.”

He conceded that his strong qualifying result did give the team some reward from the weekend.

“I think there are definitely a lot of positives,” he said. “It’s obviously a lot of disappointment right now. And there is obviously a lot of positive looking at yesterday, it was definitely a fantastic qualifying.

“There is some performance. We know we’ve got work to do in some areas, but I think we are in a position to take the battle, the new battle that we sort of gave ourselves after Brazil.

“And it just feels a bit tough now going from such a high in Brazil, such a high in quali yesterday, and it’s like a bit of slap in the face right now. But anyway, we have two more chances.

“It’s going to be a matter of executing strong weekends. Unfortunately, we don’t score points for qualifying, but for the races, and we didn’t get it right this weekend.

“So we’ve got to learn from it and make sure we get last two good weekends in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to finish on a high.”