Tag Archives: McLaren

Sainz thinks that Qatar could be a difficult venue for Ferrari

Carlos Sainz believes that Ferrari’s winning form in Austin indicates that the SF-24 will be competitive at all the remaining venues of this season – with the possible exception of Qatar.

After a run of venues that were expected to favour the car the team’s potential at a more “normal” track like Austin was unclear ahead of the weekend.

However having qualified third and fourth the cars showed superior race pace to McLaren and Red Bull, allowing Charles Leclerc to head Sainz home in an impressive one-two finish.

The car lost out in the fast sweeps early in the lap, but made the time back in the slower stuff later on.

“I think when you look into the detail of the Austin track as long as we survived the first sector, which in qualifying, we were two-tenths of the Red Bull and the McLaren only in three or four corners, then all of the other corners were perfect for Ferrari,” said Sainz.

“And we managed to make the time back in all the low-speed stuff. We’re still lacking in high-speed corners, especially in qualifying mode, which makes me feel like Qatar will be still a difficult race for us, but all the other circuits just hopefully be on the mix.

“Then whether you win or not, it depends how’s your race pace that weekend? How is the start? How do you qualify? But at least be in the mix, which means you give yourself a chance at winning at almost every track. Except for maybe Qatar, that I think is not a Ferrari track at all.”

Sainz is optimistic about the team’s chances for the remainder of the season: “I’m hopeful. I’m more hopeful after Austin that we can keep up with this.

“At the same time, qualifying remains a bit of on Achilles heel this year, because the moment you qualify P3/P4, in a track like Mexico maybe here with a long straight you can pass in into Turn 1 at the start, but in a lot of the other tracks, you will not be able to do the kind of race that we did in Austin.”

Sainz believes that the team is in the fight for victory in Mexico this weekend.

“I hope that we can be in the mix like we were in Austin,” he said. “I think if we are in the mix, given our race pace this year and what can happen here at the start, even if you’re not on pole, you might have a chance at winning.

“Before Austin, I doubted whether we could be in the mix in tracks like Austin. The fact that we dominated there, and we were so strong, gives me hope that we can be in the mix, and as long as we are in the mix, anyone can win.”

Sainz also made an interesting revelation about the fuel issue he reported on the radio during the US GP.

“I cannot go in a lot of detail,” he said. “What I can tell you is that it obviously made me lose performance for a couple of laps, and with that, the possibility to overtake Max when I was in his DRS.

“And then it also meant that I obviously had to compensate towards the end of the race by having to save a lot of fuel. But happily, nothing happened. I actually think we were quite lucky with the fact that I could finish the race.

“But yeah, let’s say it obviously compromised quite a lot my my race. And a bit of a shame, because I felt like it was very quick that weekend, but also feeling lucky that I could finish the race in P2.”

Lando Norris has rejected the suggestion that he needs to be more aggressive when racing wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen – and he says he doesn’t have to change his approach.

However the McLaren Formula 1 driver acknowledged that there are “little things” that he can do better as he attempts to beat the Dutchman to the 2024 title.

The battle for third between the pair in Austin last weekend has generated a lot of comment, with some suggesting that Norris could have done a better job.

Norris received a five-second penalty that McLaren is now contesting via a request for a right of review.

“It’s not an easy answer,” said Norris when asked if he should be more aggressive. “Honestly, it’s not as simple as just saying ‘yes.’ Do I need to make some changes? Yes, and still adapt a little bit more. But is everything I’m doing wrong? Also a no. So it’s a tough position to be in.

“Because like we saw, Max didn’t care if he won or second or third. His only job was to beat me, and he did that. So he did a good job from that side, and I had a lot of fun, and I respected our battle that we had.

“But yeah, he still ended up on top, and I need to be beating him. Some little things I need to change, but I don’t need to change my whole approach.”

Expanding on the theme he said: “He did what I guess he thought was right. I did what I thought was right. I still disagree, and I think as a team, we still disagree. I think the majority of people who were watching disagreed with the penalty that I got.

“But I’ll make the changes that I need to make, whether it’s being more aggressive at times, or less aggressive, or whatever, I’ll do what I think is right.”

He added: “I think the point if he only stayed ahead of me at the apex because he went off the track. He wouldn’t have been ahead at the apex if you braked where he should have braked, and stayed on the track. So I think that’s the most obvious point.”

Norris acknowledged that it’s not easy to wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen, but insisted that equally he’s

“Clearly Max is very good at what he does, and is probably the best in the world at what he does,” he said. “So when I’m going up against the best in the world, it’s not going to be an easy thing to do, and he’s been racing in this position for longer than I have. I’m definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job.

“I’m still staying there, I’m avoiding collisions, which a lot of things that we’ve done could have easily been and turned into worse things, like bigger crashes and stuff. And I avoided them and stayed in races which easily could have ended earlier than they have.”

Continuing with the driving guidelines theme he said: “I think there’s certain things I don’t agree with, but I still want to be racing. I don’t want there to be rules for absolutely everything.

“I just believe the slight way of how I got a penalty last weekend, and the consequence of how that happened, I didn’t agree with, and that’s the only thing I think that needs to be changed.

“But it’s clear what his intentions are. It’s a difficult route for me to get around, getting caught up in collisions, and things like Turn 1 easily could have been, or Turn 12 easily could have been. So he’s in a much more powerful position than I am. It’s up to me and team to try and overcome him.”

RBR boss Christian Horner said in Austin that he was surprised that Norris hadn’t given the place back and then used his superior pace to re-pass Verstappen.

When asked by this writer if the team could change its approach and perhaps react differently in such situations – taking the cautious route of assuming that there will be a penalty, handing the place back and then trying to pass again – Norris disagreed.

“It’s too easy for people to say this,” he said. “My tyres were getting hotter and hotter, and getting away for me more and more. My pace difference to Max was decreasing. So if I let him back past there probably might not have been a chance to get past him again.

“But just hindsight, and people’s opinions on the outside, is very simple thing. So I don’t agree with a lot of people, and what they said. That might have been my only chance. Who knows? I know best. I’m in that position.

“So I’ll give my opinion. Sometimes I’ll be right, sometimes it’s wrong. I don’t mind if people disagree with my opinion, but I’m always just trying to do what I think is best at the time, and within the rules that I believe is correct, and those kinds of things, and sometimes it’s difficult.

“Hence, I asked the team, what do you guys think? Ideally the stewards would come on and say, we don’t think this was right, give the position back. That would have been a much simpler thing to do.

“But that’s not how it works. I believed I was in the right. I’ve asked the team for confirmation. They believed that we were in the right, and therefore I’ve continued.

“So no, I think we’re doing a good job as a team. I think our approach is correct, but sometimes you just don’t come out on top.”

Max Verstappen has joked that he needs to have “the book in the car” in order to keep track of the FIA Formula 1 driving guidelines.

Those guidelines and the raft of penalties awarded over the US GP weekend were the main talking point in Mexico on Thursday, with the incident involving Verstappen and Lando Norris generating different opinions from drivers.

Norris received a five-second penalty for going off-track and gaining an advantage, dropping him back to fourth behind Verstappen.

On Thursday McLaren requested a right of review, which will be heard by the FIA stewards on Friday.

“I think we are getting to a stage where I almost need the book in the car,” he said. “That’s how it is. I mean, I think if you look, of course, over the years, the book has grown quite a lot, there are more and more rules.

“It is definitely over regulated. But then also, I can see the other point of view, if you take rules away, and then there is again an incident, [it will be] like, ‘Oh, we need more rules. We need to be strong on this.’

“It is always the same thing. In the past, we have maybe some lesser rules, and then you have the same argument. ‘We need to be strong on this or that.’ It’s always the same story.”

Verstappen also countered Norris’s suggestion that he wouldn’t have made the corner and was attempting to ensure that it was ahead at the ape.

“Yeah, it’s quite impressive that people can read my mind. It’s crazy. I mean, I always tried to make the corner. I didn’t want to look for shortcuts. I don’t even know what to answer.”

Asked if he will talk discuss the situation with Norris he noted: “We always said that we wanted to race each other hard. That’s what we like to do.”

Verstappen also reflected on a tricky Austin race in which he couldn’t repeat his sprint winning form, and was vulnerable to attack from Norris.

“Yeah, it was quite a difficult second stint,” he said. “I mean, I lost a lot of grip on the front axle. It was very difficult to brake. And I think that’s what made my defence more difficult, because I knew that if I would brake a little bit too late, I could lock up, and I really didn’t have the front grip.

“It wasn’t easy for me out there. I think all in all, it was still a positive weekend for us, but still a few things, of course, that we want to do better to be in that fight, because I honestly believed going into the race, that I would be in the fight, and we weren’t. And so that wasn’t ideal, but at least it did show some promising signs that maybe we could be back in the fight.”

Regarding the value of the Austin upgrades he said: “It was definitely performance. The car felt a bit more in control, at least more balanced, and that’s what we were looking for as well.”

Stella says there were reasons why McLaren lost its winning form in Austin

McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella says it was “no surprise” that McLaren struggled in Austin and was outperformed by Ferrari and Red Bull.

Stella stressed that Ferrari has been consistently competitive recently, while not always optimising that performance.

In addition he said that the nature of the COTA layout played to the strengths of the rival cars, and didn’t help McLaren.

“I think in terms of competitiveness, there’s some multiple factors to consider,” said Stella. “When it comes to Ferrari, they have been quick over the previous races pretty consistently. If anything, they’ve not been capable of maximising their potential.

“I think in Baku Leclerc, in fairness, was definitely in condition to win the race. In Singapore we were expecting Leclerc to be very competitive for pole position, and therefore then it would have been the same in the race. So we are not surprised that Ferrari is so close.

“And then when we look at the characteristics of this circuit, in particular because of the braking into very low-speed, and some very high-speed sections, we know that in these two situations, our car is not at the best of its performance.

“And for instance, the very low-speed and the very high-speed is also where Red Bull are very good.

“So if we consider that Ferrari, they were already competitive, if we consider the track layout, and if we consider that Red Bull had three weeks to look at data and think what is going on with their car – and we talk about Red Bull, a very competent group of engineers – then I’m not surprised that in Austin we kind of struggled.”

Stella is more optimistic about the team’s prospects in Mexico City this weekend.

“I think the next circuit should be a little bit more suitable to the characteristics of our car. We also have to keep developing the car, like here.

“We took some developments at the front of the car, but they were nothing too large in terms of potential lap time impact. We have a couple more things that are coming in the next two races. We will see if we are in condition to alter the competitiveness of the car.”

Stella reiterated that the upgrades that didn’t make it to Austin should be proven when they do arrive on track, which has been a theme all year for the team.

“If we were in condition to release them and produce them in time to have them in Austin, we would have brought them to Austin,” he said. “I think the time of new parts and upgrades landing trackside is the natural time of designing, finalising and then producing the new parts.

“I’ve said before that we wanted to make sure that what we bring trackside is well-behaved. And we are quite encouraged.

“And I have to say, well done once again to our aerodynamic team that the parts we took [to Austin], they worked as expected, and hopefully this will be the case also for the parts coming for Mexico and Brazil.”

RB Formula 1 team CEO Peter Bayer says that Liam Lawson’s grid penalty at the US GP allowed his engineers “to go a bit extreme” on the setup of his VCARB 01.

After a disappointing sprint the team tried something different heading into qualifying as it tried to optimise the latest upgrade package, which included a revised floor.

As Lawson was destined to start at the back of the grid due to his PU change penalty there was little to lose by taking a risk.

The changes worked and the New Zealander duly made his point by earning a token third place in Q1 before putting in a charging drive from 19^th to ninth in the race itself.

In so doing he earned two valuable points on a weekend when Haas scored seven and moved ahead in the battle for sixth place in the championship.

“I said to Laurent [Mekies] on the pit wall it’s true we have lost the lead, but we have gained again performance,” Bayer told this writer. “And I think the guys, Alan [Permane] and the team, did a very, very good job in bringing this new floor.

“And especially what happened in qualifying with Liam, because they had no pressure on Liam’s car, and they went a bit extreme on the setup, just trying some stuff. And that’s really what unlocked a lot of performance.”

Bayer was full of praise for Lawson’s drive into the points.

“What a statement!,” he said. “First weekend in the car. And honestly, we thought that probably with the penalty that P3 in Q1, that was a high, and we should be proud and happy.

“Obviously he did a very good job in Turn 1, there with a bit of turmoil, and he kept it clean. And then, honestly, he was faultless in the end.

“He did very good laps, good pace. I think what played into his hands is that the overcut was a lot stronger than we thought.

“Obviously, with the hard, we were expecting to go long, but the way it turned out was definitely more than what we had calculated for.

“So that was great. And then in the end he was managing it really well. And he also said he felt very comfortable in the car. He was working a lot more with the switches than he usually would have done. Overall a very, very impressive performance.”

Bayer believes that despite dropping behind Haas in Austin RB will ultimately be able to recover sixth place.

“We have to be careful, but so far, we believe that we’re ready to fight until the end,” he said. “It’s a very long straight here. Also I felt in the debrief that the guys put their smiles back on their faces, and so they’re confident.

“To see that you have a car that when everything works well, and the driver is capable of exploiting that to the maximum, that you can put it on P3 in Q1 that gives me the confidence to take the fight to those guys.”

Christian Horner admits that it was important for his Red Bull Racing team to “get off the back foot” with a strong performance over the Formula 1 US GP weekend relative to rivals McLaren.

Helped by an upgrade package Max Verstappen won Saturday’s sprint race and then finished third in the main event, behind the two Ferraris.

He outscored Lando Norris for the first time since the summer break, extending his advantage by five points and ending a frustrating run for the team.

“I think it’s a combination of factors,” said Horner. “I think the team have worked very hard, and I think they’ve definitely added performance here. I think there’s more to understand, and more to fine tune.

“But I think coming off the back of Singapore it’s been a strong turnaround. We’ve outscored our nearest competitor in the drivers’ championship by five points this weekend. Three weeks ago, that looked very difficult.”

He added: “Five races to go now, and a 57-point lead. Nothing’s ever comfortable or assured, but it was important for us.

“This is the first time we’ve outscored Lando since I think Spa, so that was important for us to get off the back foot, and more onto the front foot.”

Expanding on what the latest upgrades have achieved Horner said they have helped to address the balance issues that have troubled Verstappen for much of the season.

“I think what it’s done is brought the balance a bit closer together,” he said. “So this disconnect between front and rear, it’s brought more of a balance into the car. And really, from the first lap, Max was much more competitive.

“He was much happier with the car as soon as we got here. So that’s encouraging for some of the races coming up as well. First part of this triple header, sprint race weekend as well, as I say, this is as much as we could have hoped for coming off the back of Singapore.”

However Horner acknowledged that Verstappen had struggled on the hard tyre in the second half of the main race in Austin.

“I think we seemed to engineer into the car a bit more understeer today, and that then sort of killed the front tyres,” he said.

“And compared to yesterday [in the sprint], where we didn’t have any understeer, the car was very quick.

“So we were quick enough to get the pole for the sprint, won the sprint, and had good degradation in the sprint, and the McLaren looked to be the one that was fading.

“Ferrari looked quick all weekend, in fairness. And then, arguably, we should have had the pole yesterday. We had a car that was very strong in quali. And then the weakest that we’ve been has been really on the hard tyre, with a bit too much understeer throughout the race.”

Regarding this weekend’s race in Mexico he said: “The form is moving from day-to-day, circuit-to-circuit. I think Ferrari have brought performance here.

“They’ve looked very strong, particularly in the race trim. It was interesting, obviously, they sacrificed perhaps a little in quality, to benefit in the race. And I’m sure they’ll be competitive in Mexico City.”

Piastri had a relatively quiet race to fifth in Austin

Oscar Piastri says that his McLaren MCL38 “very tricky all weekend” after he started and finished the US GP in fifth position.

His team mate Lando Norris secured pole for Sunday’s race and finished fourth having been demoted from third by a penalty, thus ending a long run of podium finishes for the Woking outfit.

McLaren brought a package of upgrades to Austin, although Piastri did not have the new front wing that was on the sister car.

The Australian admitted that it was difficult to understand the car’s performance over the course of the weekend.

“It’s not been straightforward, that’s for sure,” he said. “I think today seemed a little bit more positive than yesterday. I think my pace relative to Lando, at least, was pretty similar for a lot of it.

“To be honest it’s not a complete surprise where we ended up, and where Ferrari ended up. I think Lando made us look more competitive than we were yesterday [in the sprint]. Fourth and fifth today is not completely unexpected.

“The car has been very tricky all weekend. I think over one lap it’s had potential to be quick, but trying to go unlock it has been incredibly tough, and then over the race, you can’t get away with the same things that you can over one lap, and the true pace really shows itself.”

Piastri had no explanation for why his pace picked up later in the race.

“I really don’t know,” he said. “Even the first two or three laps, both of us, it looked like we were really struggling to hang on to the pack ahead. The first 10-15, laps, we really struggled. Don’t know why.

“I was struggling a bit with the tyres, and they came back, and the medium looked very strong, considering it was pretty dead. So a bit of a confusing one to read. And I think even the pace in the second part of the race was maybe not amazing, but not terrible.

“So some things to try and understand, because e obviously can’t change the car from lap 15 to the rest of the laps! We need to understand why we suddenly found some pace.”

Piastri is hoping that Austin will prove to be the most difficult race for McLaren in the last part of the season.

“I hope this is our weakest of the [last] six,” he said. “We obviously had some good races at the tracks that are coming up last year, we had some bad races at some of the tracks coming up.

“I think in general, we should be a bit more competitive. We’re certainly not expecting Ferrari to be out of the picture for the rest of the year.

“They’ve kind of gone a little bit under the radar in the last few races, Monza they were obviously very quick, Baku was very, very tough to hold them back. And Singapore, I think, without their poor qualifying, they would have been very, very competitive.

“And this weekend is the same. This is not a completely unexpected result for them. We just need to try and turn that around next time.”

Ferrari enjoyed a perfect Sunday in Austin

Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur says that the US GP was “very well executed” by the Maranello team after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz moved up from the second row to finish one-two.

From fourth on the grid Leclerc jumped into the lead at the start, while Sainz went from third to second on strategy.

The team showed good race pace throughout the weekend having found an optimum set-up that was kind to the tyres of the SF-24.

The result showed that earlier upgrades are now working well across a range of circuits.

“For sure we did a step forward after Monza, with Monza, Baku, Singapore,” said Vasseur. “But they are not conventional tracks, and it was probably a bit more important to be performant on this weekend, and we did a good job.

“It went well, mainly on the race pace, but in quali we struggled a little bit Friday and Saturday. But I’m very pleased with the result of the weekend, because at the end of the day, the car was okay, but we did also a very good job from the beginning to the end.

“Very well executed on the strategy, the pit stop, the start. Everything went well, and it’s a good weekend.”

Asked by this writer how satisfying it was to have such a perfect race and win from the second row he said: “It was not the plan and to start third and fourth! I would have preferred to start one and two.

“But it is like it is. I think Carlos was in a very good lap before the yellow flag or the red flag in quali, and I could have done the pole, but I think

“It was true also between Friday and Saturday, that we had a better pace on the race pace and the long stint than on the quali. It’s not a drama in Austin, because you have occasions to overtake, and it’s one of the tracks if you start third and fourth, then you have a good pace, you can still win the race.

“It’s not always true, and I’m not sure that it would be true on every single track until the end. I think that sometimes we will have to do another choice, and but I think this weekend was the good one.”

While Vasseur acknowledged that the team was missing qualifying pace in Austin, he indicated it wasn’t due to a specific weakness on the soft tyre relative to rivals.

“I’m not whether it’s related to the compound,” he said. “I think it’s more of the pace on one lap, but it’s also a choice in terms of a setup.

“Austin is also a strange one, because you have the first part very high-speed, bumpy, and the last part more load, low-speed, smooth, and you have to decide where you want to be competitive. And the same for the race.

“I think the other teams went a little bit in our direction between Saturday and Sunday, but we kept the advantage, and at least on the tyre deg, it’s big advantage to be in a good shape on the last part.”

Ferrari came to Austin with a stable package in terms of aero parts declared to the FIA, although Vasseur hinted that there were changes under the skin of the SF-24.

“You have to do it step-by-step,” he said. “And honestly, when you speak about upgrades, it’s what we are declaring, and that means that it’s aero, but performance is not only the external shape of the car. And everybody’s pushing, and we are pushing.

“I think honestly now we are the point of the development that when a team is bringing something, we are speaking about tenths of seconds, not more, and you have much more into the setup and so and sometimes.

“And it’s true, I think, from the beginning of the season, when the team is bringing something, it’s perhaps sometimes a step forward in terms of pure performance, but it’s also creating a bit of mess into the setup. And it’s not always a step forward in terms of results.”