Tag Archives: Ferrari

July 28, 2024 · 7:24 am

Wet qualifying helps Hamilton as Mercedes abandons new floor

Hamilton believes that a wet qualifying session flattered Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton says that an overnight change to an older spec floor has improved the Mercedes W15 at Spa – but he admits that it was only the wet conditions that allowed him to qualify fourth.

Hamilton was unhappy after Friday’s running with the latest update package, and he was only 10th fastest in FP2.

Prior to the uncertainty of the wet Saturday running the team opted to switch both Hamilton and team mate George Russell back to the floor used until Hungary to provide a stable baseline.

It paid off in wet qualifying as Hamilton took fourth and Russell seventh, with both men also set to gain a place from a grid penalty for Max Verstappen.

“If it was drying I’d be struggling to be in top 10, I would imagine,” he said. “And then I think just out there timing was everything, getting out on track at the right point.

“I think we were a little bit too early at the end, we were first out, and that was when we used our new tyres. And then we didn’t have any new tyres towards the end, when the three guys ahead did. So a bit unfortunate in that respect. But I’m grateful to be up there.

“I’m okay with being on the second row, for sure. It’s close enough. I think today, if we got everything perfect, we could have been on the front row, or even first, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Hamilton admitted that the car was difficult to drive with the update package as used on Friday.

“Our car is not really feeling strong this weekend,” he said. “Yesterday, we were a second off. I’m hoping it’s not the case tomorrow. But it was a real struggle yesterday.

“We made changes overnight, so I’m hoping we’ll be in a better position. But even with the changes, we’re not on par with McLaren. They’re much faster, and the Red Bulls.”

However he admitted that the rain made it hard to properly assess those changes: “It’s impossible to say today, because we didn’t drive yesterday’s car in the rain, but I’m pretty sure it will be better than what we had yesterday.

“It couldn’t get much worse than that! So it will be better, but how much better? I don’t know.”

Regarding the changes Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin confirmed that there were also mechanical set-up changes as well as the floor.

“We weren’t happy with the balance or pace of the car yesterday, so we made some fairly major changes to the mechanical and aero specification of the car overnight,” he said. We’d hoped for a dry window in FP3 to evaluate those, but unfortunately it stayed wet throughout and there was no chance to accumulate any meaningful running.
 
“Wet qualifying sessions are difficult at present as the grid is tight. You need to time your new sets to coincide with when the track is at its quickest. By Q3, we were down to one new set of Intermediates. We’d decided to carry more fuel and do multiple laps to try and land one with the driest conditions. That was similar to McLaren. We lost out to the Ferrari of Leclerc though who used his new set right at the end. Had we not been carrying the fuel, we would have had the pace for P2.
 
“We don’t know where we will stack up on race pace, as the car is quite different to the one we ran in the dry yesterday. Starting from P3 and P6 though, we are hopefully well placed to fight for a podium.”

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July 28, 2024 · 6:29 am

Norris: Verstappen “definitely a threat” to McLaren from 11th on Spa grid

Norris believes that McLaren will have to fight off Verstappen in Sunday’s race

Lando Norris says that Max Verstappen is still a threat for victory in the Belgian GP despite starting only 11th after taking a PU grid penalty.

He added that Verstappen’s qualifying pace indicated that McLaren still has work to do despite the Woking team’s recent strong form.

Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri are starting fourth and fifth after the wet qualifying session, but they are expected to be competitive relative to the cars ahead – those of Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton – in what will be a dry race on Sunday.

However Norris concedes that Verstappen is likely to come through the field and provide the biggest challenge to the Woking team.

“Definitely a threat,” said Norris when asked about Verstappen’s chances of winning. “I think he’s clearly been quickest all weekend, even yesterday in FP2, they just didn’t turn up the engine, and we had. So considering we were only two-tenths ahead, they had a lot more in their bag, basically.

“So yes, in a way, a good thing, it shows that we still have a lot more work to do, even after a lot of great races the past few weeks, I think Red Bull have always been there thereabouts.

“People want to try and count them out at times, but Max was easily on par with us in quali last weekend, and pretty much the same race pace, just made more mistakes than what we did, simple as that, but just as quick.

“At the minute, they look very strong. He has been since the first lap in FP1, he was quite easily the strongest, so going to be a threat tomorrow.

“But that’s low fuel, and hopefully high fuel is a little bit more even, but 100% he’s going to be coming through quickly, and I’m sure he’ll be a threat for us at some point.”

Norris said he wasn’t worried about Sergio Perez potentially holding the McLarens up and allowing Verstappen to close.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a concern, honestly,” he said. “For our race against Max, we have to get past all of them. I know Checo potentially will have bit more defensive mindset than the others, but Charles is still fighting off pole and for a win, so he’s going to be fighting hard for it.

“He’s not just going to let things go easily. Same with Hamilton. He’s always going to be aggressive and defensive what he needs to be.

“So I wouldn’t say Perez is any more of a threat from that side, but he’s in the quickest car, so in terms of getting past that, kind of making the tyres last better than him, and that kind of thing is going to be harder than some of the others.

“I think when you look at the pace from Friday, it gives us decent amount of confidence that if we can just keep our heads down and focus on ourselves we can hopefully get through them at some point in the race. And try and keep Max behind.”

Piastri suggested that a big delta between old and new tyres means that it won’t be hard to overtake.

“I pitted at one point in practice, and I was three seconds a lap faster than the car ahead of me,” said the Australian.

“So if you manage to defend and the car behind is three seconds quicker than you, then that’s pretty impressive!

“So I think it will kind of work itself out naturally, let’s say, depending on how the race goes. But obviously we’re in a fight with Red Bull in the constructors’, and Max is leading the world championship in the driver’s standing.

“So of course, I’m expecting Checo to put up a fight. I think even for his own sake, it’s not been the easiest run for him.

“And I think, of course, more than anyone, he probably wants a really good result for himself. So I think he’ll fight hard for it, but I don’t think any harder than he would if was another situation.”

Piastri says that Red Bull has been more competitive in recent races that many people might think.

“I think we definitely do still have some different characteristics,” he said. “I think in my opinion, Budapest is really the only weekend for us where you can clearly say we were the quickest.

“And even in saying that, I think had Max got through the traffic a bit quicker in the race, he would have posed a serious threat at the end. So I think they were still, very competitive, and qualifying obviously it was very close.”

Piastri says that “little things” have helped to determine the pecking order: “I think just some days we’ve made mistakes. Some days Red Bull have made mistakes.

“Last weekend, I think our car probably favoured that track a little bit more. This weekend it probably favours Red Bull a little bit more. So all these little things put together is what’s making the difference at the moment.

“And I think we just need to try and make sure we maximise the ones that are in our control, really. But I don’t think we’ve necessarily had the edge over them for the last five or six races.

“I think it’s fair to say we’ve been very even, but I don’t think we’re quicker week in, week out. I think again, Budapest is really the only one where I think we did have a bit of an edge.”

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July 28, 2024 · 6:22 am

Alonso: Higher downforce is key for “into the unknown” Spa race

Fernando Alonso believes he has the right package for Sunday’s race

Fernando Alonso believes that the Belgian GP will be a step “into the unknown” for all teams and drivers given the limited preparation time.

Having qualified ninth the Spaniard is hoping that a higher downforce level than some of Aston Martin’s immediate rivals will prove beneficial in terms of tyre usage during the race, due to less sliding.

Rain on Saturday meant that teams only had Friday to prepare for what is expected to be hot and dry race on Sunday, with a new track surface making it hard to judge how tyres will behave over the full distance.

“We go into the race into the unknown I think for everybody,” said Alonso. “We had a little bit of long runs yesterday, but in this track, being so long the lap, you cannot do more than six or seven laps, because of time restrictions on the sessions.

“So with the new asphalt, it’s very grippy, but we don’t know exactly the degradation tomorrow.

“The good thing is that with a wet qualifying, we have all the dry tyres available for everybody, so we should be able to push all the way through.”

Asked who his competition will be in the race he said: “Not the cars in front, unfortunately! But I think we will have to see behind us. It’s going to be a challenging race in terms of tyre degradation, some nice battles for sure.

“I think we have the Alpines very fast this weekend. We have, I think, Albon as well, very fast. So, yeah, I think that will be our battle.

“They are a little a bit quicker on the straights. We have a little bit more downforce in the car, maybe we take care better on the tyres. So hopefully that comes to us at the end of the race.”

Alonso, who will gain a place on the grid thanks to a PU penalty for Max Verstappen, believes that he couldn’t have done better in qualifying, indicating that it was the best he felt in the car all weekend.

“P9 behind the top four teams probably was the maximum today,” he said. “So happy with that. The car felt good in qualifying. I struggled a little bit the rest of the three practices this weekend. I was never confident in the car. I needed three or four laps to get the rhythm into the session.

“So finally now in qualifying I was flat out since lap 1, and yeah, that extra confidence, it was very important in these kinds of conditions.”

Regarding the latest updates he added: “We’ve been experimenting with the setup yesterday as well. So yeah, the new upgrades are a little bit more optimised.”

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July 27, 2024 · 1:11 pm

How GM and Cadillac can solve Renault’s Viry F1 problem

Alpine is set to align with Mercedes in 2026 – but could the Viry PU become a Cadillac?

On Friday Alpine’s outgoing Formula 1 team principal Bruno Famin confirmed that the Enstone outfit is planning to use a customer power unit in 2026, thus abandoning the in-house project that has been underway at Renault’s Viry-Chatillon base for the past couple of years.

He also stressed that the customer plan is pending agreement with the unions and French authorities, and a guarantee that the Viry employees will still have a job.

Famin talked in somewhat vague terms about the facility’s resources and the 250-300 people who work on F1 being reallocated to Alpine’s road car programme.

However there is a far more straightforward solution to the Viry problem, and one which will potentially actually earn the Renault Group a lot of money – sell the 2026 project to General Motors and create a Cadillac PU that could put Andretti on the grid.

As is well known Andretti’s original strategy was to be a Renault customer in 2026-’27, and then bring its own US-built Cadillac PU onstream in 2028.

Those plans remain in limbo given that F1 steadfastly refuses to approve Andretti’s entry.

In the rejection letter it sent on January 31 F1 specifically cited the customer engine plan as one of the key reasons, seemingly ignoring the fact that McLaren, Aston Martin, Williams, Haas and Sauber are all currently customer teams.

However the last paragraph appeared to leave the door open: “We would look differently on an application for the entry of a team into the 2028 Championship with a GM power unit, either as a GM works team or as a GM customer team designing all allowable components in-house.

“In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the applicant would bring to the championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport as a PU supplier.”

This was written on the basis that, as per the plans submitted by Andretti, the Cadillac PU would not be ready until 2028. However, it was perhaps not as generous a concession as it might appear.

The entry process that Andretti took part in and which was approved on the FIA side was for 2025, 2026 or 2027. In other words an entry for 2028 would require a whole new process, and there’s no guarantee that Andretti would get past the FIA stage. It would also require the team to spend ‘25, ‘26 and ‘27 on the sidelines, spending a huge amount on salaries with no reward.

But what if Andretti could turn up with a Cadillac PU in 2026, or even 2027 if it takes more time to put the pieces together – in other words within the currently approved FIA entry window?

Renault has a PU project that has been full steam ahead for a couple of years and which is about to be canned, along with all the hybrid V6 knowledge gained since 2014. The IP of the 2026 project will be worth absolutely nothing – all that investment and no return.

Alpine may not want to use the Viry PU, but in theory there’s no reason why someone else can’t take over the project.

Renault could retain ownership of the Viry facility and simply provide IP and services to GM, in so doing creating a useful income stream that keeps the place running and still able to do other Alpine racing and road car work.

GM using Viry to create an F1 PU is little different to Ford doing it via Red Bull Powertrains, but to add some legitimacy it could bolster the French staff with a few US engineers, or perhaps undertake specific projects – as it is doing with the Andretti chassis – at its American facility. All of which would of course have to be done within the restrictions of the new PU financial regulations.

If it happened Cadillac could have a PU two years earlier than planned, the Viry operation could continue with barely a blip, and the Renault shareholders would surely welcome the funding that will be pumped in. And F1 will still have six PU manufacturers in 2026.

It all makes so much sense in theory. However, the reality is that the political complications will be hard to overcome. Renault boss Luca de Meo would have to be keen to make it happen, and any deal would have to be discussed at CEO level with his GM/Cadillac counterparts.

And given that Flavio Briatore is his advisor, the former Benetton boss would also have to have good reasons to support a GM deal.

It’s widely believed that Briatore’s longer term goal on De Meo’s behalf is to increase the value of the Enstone team in preparation for an eventual sale. Many observers believe that taking a Mercedes PU in 2026 is seen as a simple shortcut to better results, which will in turn boost the value of the team.

Thus helping Andretti to get on the grid, diluting the prize fund and potentially reducing the value of all 10 current teams, would not be in De Meo’s interests. In addition he is close to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, who strongly opposes the Andretti entry, and it makes little sense to rock the boat. Indeed sources suggest that De Meo is not been keen to help Andretti in any way.

Has a Cadillac/Viry deal already been discussed by GM and Renault? Given that it has been several weeks since the first stories of the Alpine customer PU plan emerged, potentially leaving Andretti without an engine for 2026 and ’27, it would be naïve to think that there hasn’t already been a conversation, and Halfway house scenarios such a sale of specific IP to fast track a full US Cadillac project, for example battery technology, may also be on the table. How far any such talks have got is another story.

The clock is already ticking in terms of an Andretti entry in 2026, and also in terms of key Viry staff sticking around rather than jumping ship to Audi or Red Bull, the obvious destinations.

The question now is what can GM and Andretti do to convince De Meo and Renault to play ball?

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July 26, 2024 · 3:10 pm

Next Alpine F1 upgrade package will be basis of 2025 car, says Sanchez

Alpine has a big package at Spa – but the next one is more significant

Alpine Formula 1 executive technical director David Sanchez says an update package due after the summer break will form the basis of the team’s 2025 machine.

The team introduced a new package at Spa on Friday, which includes a revised front wing, beam wing, rear wing, engine cover, and rear brake ducts.

Sanchez says the next package will be an “extension” of this one and will lead into next year’s car.

All teams are planning to carry over a lot of their 2024 cars into next season, the last with the current regulations, as they start to switch resources to their 2026 projects.

The Spa package includes a low-drag rear wing, but it wasn’t used in initial running in FP1.

“So from what you see today, all the changes are full season upgrades I would say, non-track specific,” said Sanchez. “It’s only a new rear wing, which is not on the car for now, which is track specific. The rest, which is a front wing evolution, bodywork, rear brake duct, is for everywhere.

“So the wing which we may try, depending on conditions, is the one which we may race here, in Monza, and in Vegas.”

Asked if the Spa updates had been brought forward he said: “I wouldn’t say it’s been fast-tracked. But for sure, it’s been pushed very hard through the system.”

Unsurprisingly Sanchez said that the priority is chasing downforce.

“I think the number one problem is for everyone finding more downforce, and trying to design out some anomalies which we may see with the current car,” he said. “So this package is intended primarily for more downforce.

“So this is a first step in the pipeline. We have another one which will be more big, and that will be the basis for next year. So we will do more on this year’s car.

“We’ve been working on this one [for Spa] since day one. The other one is an extension, using a bit more time to go further.”

Regarding the time of that package he said: “A few races after the break.”

Having been at Enstone since May and had time to assess its facilities Sanchez remains confident that Alpine has the potential to make progress.

“From an infrastructure point of view the team was already well advanced with the plans,” he said when asked by this writer what he had found.

“We looked together, whether we needed to prioritise a few items more than others. I think where we are now, the plan we have, if I look at ’26 and beyond, we should be in a good position.

“Now, it’s more to get everything in the right direction with this car and the next one, and build more confidence in the team.”

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July 26, 2024 · 11:51 am

Alonso: Aston Martin F1 team “more calm” after Hungary upgrade boost

Alonso says that the AMR24 upgrades worked well in Hungary

Fernando Alonso says that his Aston Martin Formula 1 team is “a little bit more calm” after the upgrades introduced for the AMR24 worked successfully.

This season the Silverstone team has struggled to get performance out of the car, and earlier upgrades haven’t always worked as planned.

Despite the fact that the team came away from Budapest with only a humble 10th place for Lance Stroll Alonso says that the new parts made a difference.

“I think we are quite happy with how the new package worked in Hungary,” he said. “It’s doing what the wind tunnel was saying.

“And we had a very good correlation, which was very important, after a few other upgrades were a little bit more up and down.

“So I think the team is quite happy with Budapest. Not forgetting that this is only the first step, and we are still long way off where we want to be.

“But now that it seems that we found a path, and we see on track what we see on the wind tunnel, maybe it’s easier for us to add downforce now, without any scare of not seeing it on track.”

Underlining that he now expects upgrades to work well from now on Alonso noted: “We are a little bit more calm after the Budapest upgrade in terms of what is coming for the future, or what will come in the future.

“Maybe the team has now a better understanding of where to put performance, with the safety that it will add lap time, and it will make the car faster. So this was a key upgrade for us, I think, and it worked as expected. So it gives us more confidence, for sure.”

Alonso says the progress made by rival teams has shown Aston Martin that a package can be improved.

“Mercedes this year and McLaren last year, both of them they proved that it’s possible to recover a significant gap to the leaders,” he said.

“Mercedes was fighting with us for four races, and now they won two Grand Prix. McLaren was out of Q1 for few races at the beginning of last year, and they were fighting for victory. So it is possible.

“It’s up to us, it’s up to the team to understand the upgrades. Where are the key parts of the car to find performance? How to find that performance? We have the facilities. We will have the wind tunnel at the end of the year.”

In the short-term Alonso expects the AMR24 to be competitive in Belgium this weekend.

“I don’t see any reason why not,” he said. “I think Budapest probably was, at least on our expectations, a little bit more difficult. Maybe Spa is a little bit better for our package.

“But we changed the car so much in Hungary that we come here with some extra tests to do, after all the learnings of Budapest. So I think FP1, FP2, we still have to dedicate them to test the new package. And let’s see where we are.”

He added: “We have a lot of test ideas to maximise the package. But also the weather is not looking great for tomorrow, so maybe we don’t have that possibility.

“It will be gold if it’s dry, because I think we can optimise a little bit the car, and then we need to be in the points. Both cars in the points, both cars in Q3, that’s the clear target.”

Alonso made an interesting observation about why it’s so hard for teams to optimise their cars under the current regulations.

“The pursuit of adding downforce the car is more fragile, and more peaky on everything that you do,” he said. “Obviously one thing is testing cars on the wind tunnel, on ideal and consistent conditions.

“And on a racetrack, here in Spa you go at 60km/h in Turn 1, you go at 300 in Tune 10-11. The last corner, it goes uphill, I think, 8%.

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July 26, 2024 · 11:26 am

Norris: “Silly” and “stupid” to postpone Piastri pass in Hungarian GP

Still pals! McLaren team mates Norris and Piastri at Spa

Lando Norris says he was both “stupid” and “silly” not to let his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri past earlier than he did during the Hungarian GP.

Having been given the earlier pit stop to help protect him from rivals Norris got ahead of leader Piastri, who had dominated the first part of the race.

However when asked by the team to switch the positions back Norris delayed the move and argued his case on the radio, until finally letting Piastri by in the closing laps.

Norris says he now accepts that he should have let the Australian by immediately – and had he done so potentially then had the chance to race him and legitimately earn a victory.

He also conceded that by creating a team orders controversy he had taken attention away from Piastri’s first win and a one-two for his team.

“Could it have been handled slightly differently from both a team side and from a personal side?,” Norris said at Spa on Thursday. “Yes, absolutely. And I think we would not be having this conversation now.

“Whether people on the outside think and kind of come up with their own stories of what happened, and what I would have done, and wouldn’t have done that kind of thing, I don’t mind about that.

“But it’s the things that I could have done, the fact that I kind of clouded over Oscar’s first race win in F1 is something I’ve not felt too proud about.

“The fact that we had a one-two, and that was barely a headline after the race, and nothing was really spoken about it from that side. Yeah, that’s the kind of bits I felt worse about.

“But apart from that, yeah, we discussed it, we’ve spoken about it. Both sides could have done things a little bit better, and a little bit differently. It’s not good that we had it, but it’s a good moment that we’ve had it, we’ve learned from it, and hopefully it’s done better next time.”

Asked by this writer what he would now do differently Norris had one simple answer.

“Just let him past straight away,” he said. “Such a stupid thing that I didn’t, because we’re free to race, and I could just let him pass and still try to overtake and to race.

“It sounds so simple now, but it’s not something that went through my head at the time. So, yeah, such a simple thing like that, I could have done, but I was just in a good rhythm, and things were going well at the time.

“So I questioned it a few times, questioned the team a few times, but I knew as soon as they boxed me ahead of him, or before him, that I was going to have to let him go. I was a bit silly, and didn’t think of letting him go earlier.”

Norris insists that he’s not too stressing too much about what happened.

“I don’t need to overthink it, overcomplicate it,” he said. “A couple of very simple things, I feel like it’s turned into a much bigger deal than it needs to be, and that kind of thing.

“It was always clear, I always knew that I had to let him go, but the longer I waited, just because it didn’t matter if I let him go straight away or at the end, necessarily, the longer I waited, the more people questioned whether I would have done it or not.

“I think that’s the main thing, and a lot of people think that I wouldn’t have done. But I knew I had to. That made no difference.

“But I don’t need to replay it. I just know that I should have let him past earlier, and I still could have had a chance to try and win the race myself, and that’s what I should have done.”

Asked if that was now the obvious choice he said: “If I thought of that at the time, 100%. But I didn’t think of that for whatever reason. I just probably wasn’t thinking of the right things at the time more than anything.

“As they basically said, let him past now, I let him past straight away. So it wasn’t never a fact of was I ignoring and not listening, all of these types of things. It was always clear what I wanted to do, I needed to do, but I just let it go on for a little bit too long.”

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July 26, 2024 · 11:21 am

Verstappen: No sim racing “ban” on F1 weekends

Verstappen says late night sim racing doesn’t hurt his performance

Max Verstappen insists that sim racing on Grand Prix weekends does not impact his performance in the real car – and he denies that he has agreed to no longer race late at night.

The Dutchman, who is set to land a power unit change grid penalty in Belgium, took part in a Spa 24 Hours GT event the night before the Hungarian GP.

His eventful race to fifth place, which included some heated radio comments, led some observers to speculate that his late night had had an impact.

However Verstappen is adamant that was not the case, citing previous occasions when he stayed up late.

“I raced until 3am,” he said when asked by this writer about his Budapest sim activity. “It’s not something new. And for me, it’s something very important in my life. Now there are no other sim races coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that.

“Always when you don’t win the race, you will always blame it on, ‘Ah, he was staying up until 3am,’ or ‘He’s one kilo overweight.’ There’s always things to make up that you can argue about when you don’t win a race.

“But for example, in Imola, I did win the race, both of them. So for me, this is not something new. I’ve been doing this since 2015, so for me, this is not something that is any different in my preparation.

“I’ve won three World Championships, I think I know pretty well what I can and what I cannot do, and I’m always very hard on myself, what is allowed and isn’t allowed. So I think with all the experience that I have in F1 I think I know quite well what is possible.”

Verstappen denied a suggestion from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko that he had agreed not to compete into the early hours of the morning on F1 race weekends.

“We talked about it,” he noted. “I said anyway, you don’t need to worry. Like I just said there’s no other race coming up so, but no, it’s not that I have a ban or whatever.

“I also don’t need to tell them what they do in their private time during the weekends. And that’s the same for me.”

Verstappen also downplayed criticism of his colourful radio comments in Hungary, when among other things he complained about the strategy that he had been given.

“People that don’t like my language, then don’t listen in, or turn the volume down,” he said. “I am very driven to success. I think I’ve proven that already. And I always want to optimise stuff.

“Now, people can argue that you might not be so vocal on the radio, but that’s their opinion. My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time to maybe also try and force that the second pit stop would have been a bit different.

“And yeah, that’s how it goes. We are very open-minded. We’re very critical to each other as a team. And that’s been working for us very well, so I don’t expect that to change.

“That’s our approach. I think it’s important that we can be critical, because in this world that we are living now, I feel anyway, that a lot of people can’t take criticism anymore like it used to be, and I don’t want to end up like that.”

Verstappen disagrees with the principle of radio traffic being broadcast.

“In other sports people say things, but they don’t have a mic, of course, attached to their mouths,” he said. “I say what I want, but that’s our sport as well, naturally. You’re communicating a lot with the pit wall. You have, of course, the opportunity to talk.

“In other sports, maybe you swear yourself about stuff that you didn’t like, or a teammate didn’t pass you the ball. You call them whatever it is, but there is no mic. So just how our sport is, I guess.”

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July 24, 2024 · 8:59 pm

Temperatures are key to Mercedes W15 form, says Russell

The Mercedes W15 doesn’t like hotter conditions

George Russell says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team has to understand how fluctuating temperatures impact the form of the W15.

Russell recovered to eighth in Hungary after starting 17th following a miscommunication in Q1 that saw him miss the dry window at the end of the session.

Team mate Lewis Hamilton secured third after a tussle with Max Verstappen, although he couldn’t match the pace of the McLarens ahead.

At one stage in the race Russell asked if a one-stop strategy was possible, although in the end he stuck with two stops.

“That hard tyre was feeling pretty rubbish, to be honest,” he said when asked by this writer about his race. “I think that compromised us slightly having the two hards, but I’d say as a team, this was probably our least competitive race weekend.

“Obviously Lewis got on the podium. It’s five podiums in a row for us now as a team. So we’ll take the positives from that.

“But I think we just need to understand there seems to be a fluctuation in our performance based on temperature. We need to understand that.”

Regarding the team’s current form he added: “Without doubt, we’re ahead of Ferrari. I think we’re not a million miles away from Red Bull, but as I said, in these five races, we’ve been clearly the quickest in two, and we’ve been second or third fastest in the other three.

“So maybe it’s just the natural fluctuations through a season, but there definitely seems to be some correlation with temperature.”

Russell admitted that he didn’t expect to lose out to Sergio Perez, who started a place ahead after a crash in Q1.

“His pace was surprisingly good to be honest,” he said of the Mexican. “I think following his recent form, I don’t think we were expecting to be in a fight with him, but I think his pace was almost in line with Max’s pace today.

“So P7/P8, the damage was done yesterday. That’s how it should be in the sport. You make a mistake, you get punished.”

Regarding the debrief on the qualifying debacle he added: “We all took responsibility and understood what we could have done better. Ultimately, it all came down to communication.

“Probably, between us all, we probably made three errors in the course of that one session, and we just only need to avoid one of those errors, and we would comfortably gone through. It was all down to comms. So yeah, one to learn for the future.”

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July 24, 2024 · 8:55 pm

Tsunoda says one-stop strategy was “not even in our conversation”

Tsunoda was surprised to find himself stopping only once

Yuki Tsunoda says a one-stop strategy in Hungary was “not even in our conversation” before he used it for an impressive drive to ninth place in Hungary.

The VCARB driver started 10th after the team had to build up a brand new car following his huge crash in Q3.

He managed to make his medium tyres last for 29 laps and then used a set of hards to get to the flag as the only driver in the field to pit once.

While he inevitably lost out to the faster cars of Sergio Perez and George Russell that started behind he managed to jump the Astons of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, as well as his own team mate Daniel Ricciardo.

“One stop was not even in our conversation before the race,” he said when asked by this writer about the strategy. “So I’m very surprised that we’re able to achieve one stop and hang on until the end of the race.

“That was good, and obviously big thanks to the team that they repaired very fast and precisely overnight. Without that, I wouldn’t be here, so big credit.”

Tsunoda admitted that he didn’t know that the race would pan out so well for him.

“The start wasn’t that great, I wasn’t able to gain a position,” he said. “So I think what I did for the tyre management, also what the team decided to make, that was really decisive and really good.

“To be honest, I thought we were just waiting for a safety car. But actually, I heard that pace is actually faster than the people who pitted. So that was actually an unexpected thing. And I was very surprised.

“Inside, the feeling wasn’t that great. Obviously, it’s quite on edge pretty much everywhere. But I guess the management I did in the beginning was pretty good.

“And also I was feeling rushed, because a couple of fast cars that pitted tried to overtake me, so I lost out couple of times there. But I hung on quite well.”

He added: “It was important to be able to finish in front of all the competitors where we fighting, especially Haas. I guess they’re very fast, and they will be very fast even more in Spa, I’m expecting.”

Coming after a solid 10th at Silverstone the timing of Tsunoda’s Budapest performance was ideal, given the current speculation over Red Bull’s plans for Sergio Perez, and how the company might juggle its drivers around.

However RBR Christian Horner is known to be lukewarm on Tsunoda as a potential candidate for the senior team.

Asked if his Hungarian drive might help his case with those who don’t see him as an RBR driver Tsunoda said: “I don’t know. Hopefully they’ll change their mind, obviously, just keep improving myself with these results.

“These things, I can control with the results and everything, and those mindsets or whatever, about their thinking, is out of my control.

“So hopefully, with my efforts with the last two tracks I’ve done, and also next track, will count a little bit, and hopefully that will make a little bit change for their mind.”

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