Tag Archives: Ferrari

Russell finished fifth in Monaco after the red flag spoiled his strategy

George Russell thought he had a shot at a podium finish in the Formula 1 Monaco GP before the early red flag ensured that it would be a race of no pit stops for most drivers.

Russell qualified fifth and went to the grid on the hard tyre with a view to running a long first stint, while all those ahead were on the medium.

That gave him some encouragement, and when Carlos Sainz stopped at Casino on the first lap he moved up to fourth.

However the red flag for the Perez/Magnussen incident gave everyone a free tyre change, and obliged Russell to make his mediums last the distance.

With Sainz regaining his third place for the restart Russell eventually finished where he started in fifth, having held off Max Verstappen.

“Yeah, definitely felt like I had it covered,” he said. “I really thought we were in for a good shot today when I saw everyone starting on the mediums in front of me.

“And especially when Carlos had that puncture, I thought we’ve got a minimum chance to fight for the podium here, and maybe even more.

“We were going to play a bit of a team game to boost our chances. As soon as that red flag went out, everything went out of the window.”

Russell was told early on in the race to slow his pace, essentially to preserve the medium tyres fitted after the red flag for the 77-lap run to the flag. While he initially questioned the decision, he accepted it.

“No, it was definitely the right call,” he said when asked by this writer if it was the correct strategy. “We all know how difficult it is to pass here in Monaco, there was nothing to gain by going faster.

“But actually when I looked at the pace at the end, I think the gap was up to 30 seconds behind Charles at one point, and then we brought it down to 12 seconds, and only four seconds behind the McLaren. So yeah, a lot of positives to take away.”

Like other drivers Russell said that changes should be made to make the Monaco GP more entertaining.

“It’s so great racing here in Monaco, but we need to change something to make it more interesting on a Sunday.

“I think if we only brought soft tyres, a soft tyre wouldn’t last the whole race. And you may even need to do two stops, somebody might try a one-stop. I think just having the whole weekend on softs would solve a lot of problems.”

Max Verstappen that the Red Bull team has been “found out” as an increasingly strong threat from Ferrari and McLaren has highlighted the weaknesses of the RB20.

Verstappen said that the car felt like it was running without suspension and acting like a go-kart on Monaco’s bumps and kerbs.

He struggled throughout qualifying and could not better P6, having touched the wall on his final run. His team mate Sergio Perez failed to get out of Q1 and was left stranded in 18^th place.

Verstappen admitted that it has been a difficult day, with changes failing to improve the situation.

“We tried a lot of things on the car,” he said. “Literally, nothing made it better. So then you’re just stuck. There’s not much you can do. We really tried to optimise it.

“You can see it in the second sector, we are so bad, just because I can’t touch any kerbs, because it just upsets the car way too much. You just lose a lot of lap time. And it’s just incredibly difficult.

“We went softer, stiffer, everything. But the car is like a go-kart, it’s like I’m running without suspension.

“So it’s just jumping around a lot. Not absorbing any kerb strikes or bumps or camber changes. The last corner, I think the amount of times that I just jumped almost into the wall, just pretty incredible.

“It’s also not something new. I mean, we have had this problem since 2022. Of course, for the last two years, I think we had a car advantage, so then it gets it gets masked a little bit, because we gain into corners where the kerbs and the bumps are not that much of a limitation.

“But with everyone catching up naturally, when you are not improving your weakest point you get found out. That’s what happened this weekend.”

Verstappen admitted that life has become tougher for Red Bull as rival teams have caught up and pushed the world champions harder.

“It’s been different problems,” he said. “Probably in Miami we didn’t get the balance correct. And maybe also with the tyres.

“At Imola I think we managed to turn it around quite well. But because of all the problems, we were probably not on top of the hard tyre.

“But overall, the performance was quite okay. But I knew that this was going to be one of our most difficult weekends, and for sure it showed that as well with naturally everyone catching up as well.

“I’m just aware we are not perfect, and we need to work, we need to really understand our limitations more, and try to work on that.”

Verstappen indicated that the issues seen in Monaco will not be addressed in the short-term: “It’s a fundamental problem. So it’s not something that will be fixed within weeks.

“Already the last two or three races, of course, it has been incredibly difficult. But yeah, this is worst case scenario, I would say, this this kind of track.”

Verstappen said that the car felt Ok at some points around the lap.

“I felt quite comfortable in terms of, let’s say, medium-to-high speed, the car is quite quick, but everywhere where there are bumps, it was just jumping around a lot.

“So I’m just driving around that, and trying to optimise everything, but everything was just really difficult to control. So I was surprised for most of qualifying that we were actually that close.

“I guess some didn’t nail the lap yet or whatever. But it’s always if, if, if. You can always do better. I’m not disappointed with my laps, or trying to even improve more, because just look at where we are, we are P18 and P6. Normally Checo is always very good around a street circuit and he really comes alive there.

“I think that already says enough that he is in that position. So I cannot be disappointed with P6 in that sense.”

Asked about the title battle he said: “I don’t even think about that. You know, it’s so long. So many things that can happen and one bad race won’t define the championship. But I know that to win a title, you need to be consistent, and that’s what we have to try and be.”

Lewis Hamilton was fast on Friday but the team may make compromises

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits that team will probably have to compromise qualifying pace in Monaco in order to make the W15 a more raceable car on Sunday.

The Brackley outfit had a good Friday in the principality, with Lewis Hamilton topping FP1, when the team used new softs as it feared rain in the afternoon, and taking second place to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in FP2.

Meanwhile his team-mate George Russell was third in the first session and 10^th in the second after suffering a steering issue.

However while Hamilton’s one-lap pace was encouraging for a team that has endured a difficult season thus far the performance quickly fell away over a longer run, and that will probably mean overnight set-up changes that could impact the car’s potential in qualifying.

“On a single lap it was good, the car is good,” Wolff told this writer. “On a long run, it was less so. I think after lap six, seven we really lost the front.

“And then if you can’t get the car into the corner any more, then the Sunday could be pretty grim. So we need to find a compromise.”

Asked if potentially dialling out one-lap performance would be frustrating he said: “It could be, but we’ve got to see. Single lap is better than we thought. But you always need to obviously find a compromise.”

Hamilton said it had been a positive day, while conceding that the team had to do work to reduce graining.

“It’s been a good day, probably the best we’ve had so far this year, and the car is feeling very positive,” he said. This track is just amazing in an F1 car, and I’ve been enjoying my driving today – I was pleasantly surprised by the grip level and the way the car was responding, which made it a much more enjoyable ride than the last two years. 

“In the second session, it felt a bit less comfortable, and we’ve got lots of work to do overnight to improve the long runs and the front graining. It was a feeling positive on the lower fuel, and we don’t want to lose that, but our focus now is to improve on the long run.”

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin noted: “Our long run needs some work as we’ve got to be a bit kinder on the front tyres on Sunday but we’ve got some options for that.”

Meanwhile Red Bull Racing also had issues that will require overnight changes, with Max Verstappen complaining of poor performance over the bumps and saying that he had a headache, and Sergio Perez noting that he couldn’t see at some points on the circuit.

Verstappen was still fourth in FP2, albeit 0.535s off pacesetter Leclerc, while Perez was eighth. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted that the team has work to do.

“It shows that we are too stiff,” he told this writer. “To identify it is simple, but to cure it is not so simple.

“We had very good long run times, which doesn’t help here if you cannot start in the front. But we get an idea where we have to make our changes.”

James Allison says that the Mercedes factory in Brackley is working flat out

Mercedes Formula 1 technical director James Allison says that the team’s Brackley factory  is on a “war footing” as it rushes upgrades through the system.

Allison noted that the way part of the latest package was fast-tracked for Miami with the remainder seen at Imola as an example of how hard the team is pushing to improve the W15.

Mercedes also has new parts slated for this weekend’s race in Monaco, with more coming for the following event in Canada.

“It certainly has been a push,” said Allison in a team Q&A. “The factory is really on a war footing at the moment, and the reason that upgrade package came in two parts is originally it was slated to arrive in one slab, but we brought forward what we could to get it a little bit quicker.

“It has been a big old push, and our challenge now is just to keep that momentum coming. We have some more pieces for the car, aerodynamic and others parts that will arrive for Monaco, again for Canada and again in the races to follow.

“We will keep on slogging the assets back in the factory that find the lap time to design them, build them, get them out on the car and hopefully just force our way up the grid.”

Allison said that the updates seen at Imola, which included a revised floor and rear wing, had done what they were intended to.

“It is always hard to judge because you are comparing whether your stuff is working on a playing field that is continuously in motion,” he said.

“A lot of other teams were bringing new kit, Ferrari with their upgrade in Imola and McLaren with a load of stuff for the previous race.

“You measure what you measure on your car, but ultimately the truly telling thing about whether your stuff worked is did you move forwards? Because that is the purpose of upgrades, is it propelling you up the grid in any meaningful way?

“And I would say based on the race pace that we saw in Imola that we took a gentle step forward. We are several tenths of a second now nearer the front than we were at the start of the year and in Imola itself, we moved a tenth or two nearer to the front.

“We are pretty happy with that. Everyone at the factory has been working so hard to bring these upgrades.”

Poor starts have handicapped the VCARB F1 team in 2024

Yuki Tsunoda admits that his VCARB Formula 1 team still has to work on its starts after both the team’s drivers lost valuable places in the Emilia Romagna GP.

Starts have been an issue for the Faenza team this year, but the problem was very obvious at Imola as both Tsunoda and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo lost two positions each.

Having started seventh Tsunoda ran ninth for much of the race, but he lost a spot to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the closing laps, with the latter helped by fresher tyres.

He felt that with a better start he would ultimately have enjoyed a better result than the 10th he ultimately earned.

“With a perfect race, probably I would have been able to end up a step higher position,” said the Japanese driver when asked about his race by this writer.

“For sure that start where I lost two positions hurt my race today, but I was still able to finish in the points. It wasn’t easy with the tyre management. Still, we take it.”

Tsunoda admitted that losing two places off the line proved to be expensive.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal, especially when you’re aiming for probably more fighting with Mercedes,” he said. “Today I even lost a position even to one of the Astons.

“For sure Aston had a good pace today. But still, we would have able to end up in front of him. So yeah, that start for sure hurts a lot.

“The positive thing is we’re still able to make it work with a 50-laps hard tyre, which wasn’t easy. And I think that’s positive for us at least.”

Tsunoda conceded that starts have been an ongoing issue for VCARB.

“It’s a kind of topic at our team,” he said. “We’re really working hard on the two starts throughout the races so far. We improved a little bit, but for sure, we need a step more, because I would say consistency is not enough there. So we have to look for the future.”

Asked what has to be improved he said: “I thought it was tyre preparation, and I think we’ve done a lot of preparation, but it’s not enough.

“I think it’s coming from consistency with the clutch. I will say Red Bull have the same engine, and they are able to have a consistent start.

“So for sure, there’s something that we are missing, or we have to improve. But obviously, we are individual team, so we have to think about our strategy to make it work.”

Tsunoda showed good pace from the start of the Imola weekend, and having been as high as fourth in Q1 and third in Q2 he was disappointed with his eventual seventh grid spot.

Asked if he anticipated that sort of form at other venues he said: “It depends on the track. I mean, to be honest, this week in Imola I didn’t expect this much performance, and obviously every track there’s always something like this car suits well to this track, or not.

“In Monaco historically I’m performing well, so I feeling more confident into the race week, but obviously we never know what’s going to happen. I’m feeling optimistic about Monaco. And we just keep pushing with the development as well.”