Tag: Formula One

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Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 on final day of first test

Valtteri Bottas lead a Mercedes 1-2 on the final day of the first pre-season test, posting the fastest lap of any driver across the three days.

Bottas posted his time of a 1m 15.732 in the morning session on Pirelli’s C5 tyre, the softest available. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton also set his fastest lap on that tyre, but wound up almost eight tenths behind in P2.

Both drivers completed over a Grand Prix’s worth of laps each – 65 for Bottas and 73 for Hamilton – underlining the reliability and solid pace shown by the team across the three days of the first test.

In third, and +1.3s off Bottas’s pace, was the Renault of Esteban Ocon. He was followed by Lance Stroll, who completed 116 laps, with Daniil Kvyat rounding out the top five.

Antonio Giovinazzi completed the most laps by a single driver with 116 and wound up in P6 ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who caused one of the day’s four red flags when he stopped on track on approach to Turn 9. Ricciardo was back out on track for the final hour of running, where a late surge moved him above former team-mate Max Verstappen, who had another solid day and finished P8 on 86 laps.

Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon both took over driving duties from their respective team-mates in the afternoon and completed the top ten.

Sebastian Vettel suffered an engine failure in the morning session, but recovered to complete a century of laps, albeit in P13.

Lando Norris was garage-bound for a while with brake issues before emerging to finish P14 on 49 laps, while Nicholas Latifi also hit problems when his engine also failed not long after the afternoon session began.

Kevin Magnussen finished the day last. He took over from Grosjean in the afternoon but only managed three laps before a puncture sent him into the barriers at Turn 8.

[Featured image – Wolfgang Wilhelm]

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Raikkonen fastest on second day of testing as Mercedes cause intrigue

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen topped the timing sheets on the second day of pre-season testing ahead of the 2020 F1 season, but all eyes were on Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes debuted a new steering wheel system.

Raikkonen posted his fastest time – a 1m 17.091 – during the final hour of the day’s running whilst on the soft tyre, displacing Sergio Perez, who had topped the timing sheets for much of the day. He completed 134 laps, but also brought out the first red flag of the test when he stopped on approach to Turn 9 with less than 15 minutes left on the clock.

The day’s headlines, however, were stolen by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, after it was noticed that the German team had introduced a new adjustable steering wheel system – called ‘DAS’ – to the W11. Technical director James Allison said that the FIA was aware of the system and was confident it was within the regulations, but declined to explain for what reason it was added to the car.

Hamilton completed 106 laps in the morning and posted the ninth fastest time before handing over to Bottas in the afternoon. The Finn turned in 77 laps before an electrical problem forced him to miss the final hour of running.

On the whole though, it was another day of noticeably strong reliability and high mileage.

Sergio Perez finished in P2 having been on top of the timing sheets for much of the day, with Daniel Ricciardo a further +0.4s back and Albon and Gasly rounding out the top five.

Sebastian Vettel made his first appearance on track and finished P6 with 73 laps to his name. He had been due to drive yesterday but pulled out at the last minute owing to illness.

George Russell completed a healthy 116 laps on his way to P7, with Charles Leclerc, Hamilton and Lando Norris behind him in P8, P9 and P10 respectively.

Romain Grosjean completed 158 laps and finished in P11 despite a spin at Turn 5 that left him with damage to the rear-wing and floor. Behind him were Esteban Ocon and Bottas.

 

[Featured image – LAT Images]

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Hamilton fastest on first day of pre-season testing

Lewis Hamilton has finished fastest on the first day of pre-season ahead of the 2020 F1 season, three tenths ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton set a 1m 16.976 on the hard tyres during the afternoon session, making him the only driver to break into the 1m 16s. He completed 94 laps, having taken over the wheel of the W11 from Bottas – who had led the morning session – after the break for lunch. The pair completed 173 laps between them, the most of any team.

Sergio Perez of Racing Point finished an impressive third with 58 laps to his name, almost four tenths behind Hamilton.

Verstappen completed the most laps of any single driver with a whopping 168 on his way to fourth in the timing sheets. He suffered a couple of spins on his way into the final chicane in the afternoon, but suffered no damage.

(Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Daniil Kvyat finished fifth in his team’s first outing as AlphaTauri ahead of Sainz and the Renault duo of Ricciardo and Ocon. Ricciardo was delayed in leaving the garage at the start of the afternoon session due to continuing work being carried out on the R.S.20, but eventually completed 54 laps.

George Russell finished an encouraging P9 for Williams, who are looking to recover from a miserable 2019 season, while Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten.

It was a late call-up for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Sebastian Vettel was originally slated to drive today, but he was feeling unwell and opted to leave the circuit early to recover. Leclerc stepped in in his place and finished P11 on 131 laps.

Williams’s Nicholas Latifi finished P12 in his first official outing as an F1 driver, with Alfa Romeo’s reserve driver Robert Kubica in P13, and Kevin Magnussen and Antonio Giovinazzi rounding out the timing sheets.

In something of a rare occurence, not a single red flag was shown all day. Every team completed over 100 laps and there were no issues or incidents aside from Verstappen’s spins, and a relatively small off for Magnussen.

Testing continues tomorrow morning.

 

[Featured image – Wolfgang Wilhelm]

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Mercedes unveil 2020 challenger

Mercedes gave their fans a Valentine’s gift of their own on Friday morning, as they unveiled the car they are hoping will take them to a seventh consecutive title sweep.

Following the unveiling of the 2020 livery on the 2019 season’s car on Monday, the new car features red hints on the end-plates of the front and rear wings and on the front of the engine cover. This is part of their brand new partnership with sponsor INEOS.

Sporting a unique wing intake on the sides of the front nose, Mercedes have predominantly stuck with their imperious winning formula, opting to keep the car largely the same as last year.

Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance – Render

They will run their car today for a shakedown session at Silverstone, as Red Bull did yesterday with Max Verstappen when they released the RB16. World Champion Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas will both run the car.

Hamilton is chasing more records this season, as are his team. Mercedes look to extend their record of consecutive constructors’ championship successes, while Hamilton will attempt to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of seven drivers’ championships, as well as beating his staggering record of 91 race wins. He needs eight more victories to achieve the latter.

Hamilton feels well equipped to do this, saying that he feels ‘on another level’, both in terms of fitness and focus heading into what could be a very pertinent year in the illustrious career of the 35-year-old.

Alpha Tauri, the renamed Toro Rosso, will also reveal their car later today.

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McLaren unveils MCL35 ahead of 2020 season

McLaren has become the latest F1 team to unveil their 2020 design, in a launch held at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking on Thursday.

The MCL35 – the team’s second design to be powered by Renault – features a livery akin to the 2019 car, with a blue front wing, blue stripes along the airbox and sidepods, and a matte orange main body and halo.

Visible changes include tighter sidepods and a narrower nose, a philosophy that no doubt continues under the bodywork.

McLaren Media Centre

Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris will drive for the team once again, hoping to build upon their 2019 successes which saw them finish sixth and eleventh in the drivers’ standings respectively.

The highlight of their year undoubtedly came at the Brazilian Grand Prix, which saw Sainz finish third behind Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly and claim McLaren’s first podium since 2014.

McLaren finished a relatively comfortable fourth in the constructors’ championship, 54 points ahead of fifth-place Renault. It was their best result since 2012, and one they will be hoping to build on in 2020.

In a statement, Chief Executive Officer Zak Brown said, “I’m immensely proud of the entire team today. Last season we delivered what we set out to do – secure a hard-fought fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Our positive on-track momentum and the renewed energy in the team has seen us grow our valued partner family and global fan base and we look forward to a hugely competitive season.

“While we are enjoying going racing again, we remain measured and focused, and all of us at McLaren keep pushing fearlessly forward.”

Mercedes and AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso) are next on the list, set to launch their cars on Friday 14th.

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Haas F1 Team Takes First – 2020 Contender Reveal

Haas F1 Team gave the Formula 1 world a pleasant surprise yesterday by revealing its 2020 contender early. The VF-20’s new livery presents a welcome return of the design elements of the team’s first years in contention. The return to the gray, red, a different, lighter gray (I suspect we could be forgiven for thinking it white), and black color scheme presents a welcome evolution of the team’s 2018 livery as well as a return to the branding of Haas Automation.

Haas F1 Media

In the press release accompanying the reveal, it is entirely unsurprising that neither Haas Automation founder and team chairman Gene Haas nor team principal Guenther Steiner mentioned the debacle that was Rich Energy’s sponsorship. The usual nods to lessons learned were suitably dispensed, along with the hopes that 2020 will see an evolution of 2018’s form in both design and results.

The livery suits the 2020 design well. For the sake of Haas fans, here’s hoping that the on-track performance will match its visual appeal.

The VF-20 will make its physical debut as scheduled on 19 February 2020, the opening day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in the cockpit.

Haas F1 Media

 

[Featured image – Haas F1 Media]

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Chandhok believes ideal F1 format includes sprint races

F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes F2-style reverse-grind sprint races on Saturday afternoons would be a beneficial change to the current Grand Prix weekend format.

Sprint races, either as standalone races or in place of qualifying to set the Grand Prix grid, were mooted as potential ideas for F1’s 2021 overhaul, but were ultimately rejected by teams last year.

Despite this pushback Chandhok still believes sprint races could improve F1, although only if they are introduced as an F2-style secondary race and not as an alternative qualifying format.

McLaren Racing

Speaking to ThePitCrewOnline about his ideal Grand Prix weekend, Chandhok said: “You’d have a Saturday morning qualifying with the same format that we have now. I think qualifying is one of the most exciting things we have in the [current] format, it really works with three segments. So I’d have that on Saturday morning, and that would be the grid for the Grand Prix.

“But on Saturday afternoon I’d have a 45-minute sprint race with the top 10 [from qualifying] reversed, with half points because it’s half the distance.

“And you don’t do it at every race. For example, you wouldn’t do it at Monaco where overtaking’s impossible. I would take eight races in the year, or half the races in the year, and do that on a Saturday afternoon.”

Chandhok said that awarding points for the sprint race was essential, as that would incentivise drivers to race their way through the pack and teams to set up the cars for overtaking rather than peak qualifying pace. He also said he believes his version of a sprint race would help bring in new and younger fans, while not upsetting F1 traditionalists as the races aren’t being used to set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

In addition to a Saturday afternoon sprint race, Chandhok said that his idea of the F1 weekend would see FP3 dropped to make way for the sprint race, and include a requirement for all teams to run at least one young driver in every FP1 session throughout the season.

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F1 wants to use eSports racers to trial new sporting regulations

F1’s rulemakers are planning to use drivers from its eSports series to trial any major changes to the sporting regulations, to ensure they work as planned before being introduced.

Speaking at Autosport International, F1 technical consultant Pat Symonds said the idea is part of plans to make sure new rules in the future don’t have unintended negative consequences on the sport, by putting them through the same evidence-based simulations as his technical team used to refine 2021’s new aerodynamic regulations.

“We’re working a lot with simulation. We’ve produced what I think is a world-first in an overtaking simulation, but we found a problem with it in that [the AI driver] is too good.

“So what we want to do now is use the physics of those simulations but put real drivers in a virtual environment, racing against each other, so we can see whether these changes to the sporting regulations are good. What I’m hoping…is that we’ll use some of our elite gaming racers from our eSports series to test out some of our ideas.”

Ferrari Media

One of the ideas Symonds said F1 were keen to test out in simulation was alternative grid formations, while sprint races to determine grid position could also be trialled in this way despite teams rejecting early proposals for this last year.

Symonds also said that F1 is using technology to analyse viewers’ responses to races, to better understand which areas of the sporting regulations actually need addressing:

“We have people wired up while they’re watching races and we look at their galvanic skin response, we look at their emotions. By looking at all these various research areas, we can really start to build a picture of what makes good racing.”

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Symonds: 2021 regulations helped by 2009 “mistakes”

F1 technical consultant Pat Symonds has said that he has remembered the mistakes he made in designing the 2009 regulations to ensure the new 2021 rules work as planned.

Symonds was part of the Overtaking Working Group set up by F1 to design the 2009 regulations overhaul, while at the same time being in charge of engineering for the Renault F1 team.

As well as Symonds, the OWG also included input from Rory Byrne and Paddy Lowe, who were still part of Ferrari and McLaren at the time.

Speaking at Autosport International on Thursday, Symonds said he has learnt from the mistakes the 2009 OWG made and has used his experience to avoid a repeat with the 2021 regulations:

“2009’s very interesting because…myself, Rory Byrne, Paddy Lowe and the late Charlie Whiting, we formed an Overtaking Working Group and looked at producing the regulations for 2009. But at the same time, I was trying to win races and win championships. And it’s quite interesting because we did leave loopholes in there.

“The great thing is, you do learn from your mistakes. I think it’s absolutely fundamental we had [an] independent group, because if you work in a team you’re paid to win races, you’re paid to exploit performance, you’re paid to find those loopholes in the rules. It’s really unfair to expect the teams to look above that and look at what’s good for the sport.”

Symonds added that the aerodynamic group behind the 2021 regulations is currently working to close off any loopholes with the 2021 regulations by trying to add downforce to a car in the same way a working F1 team would, and analysing what developments have a negative effect on the wake of the car.

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The decade that was: F1 in the 2010s

A lot can change in a decade. This time ten years ago, Jenson Button and Brawn were the reigning F1 champions, Fernando Alonso was preparing to take on the mantle of Ferrari’s title hopes, and a 12-year-old Max Verstappen was just about to step up to international karting.

As we approach the start of another new year and a new decade, we’ve taken a look back at what’s characterised F1 throughout the 2010s and how these last ten years might be remembered.

Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

The decade of dominance

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. When people look back on F1 in the 2010s, they will see one headline figure: that Red Bull and Mercedes cleaned up every available title between them, and won 149 out of the decade’s 198 races. It’s the first time in F1’s history that two teams have had such a stranglehold on the sport—and hopefully the last.

Mark Thompson, Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

The decade of record-breaking

Sebastian Vettel, the youngest-ever World Champion. Lewis Hamilton, the most pole positions. Max Verstappen, the youngest-ever Grand Prix entrant and winner. Kimi Raikkonen, the fastest-ever F1 lap. Mercedes, the most consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. The 2010s weren’t just about dominance, they were about excellence.

Mercedes AMG

The decade of comebacks

When Michael Schumacher came out of retirement to lead Mercedes in 2010, he probably had no idea he’d started a trend. Before long, Kimi Raikkonen was back in F1 with Lotus, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan were brought out of the noughties, and Brendon Hartley, Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon were all given second chances by Red Bull after being dropped from the junior team.

But of course, the biggest comebacks of all have to be Felipe Massa returning after being placed in an induced coma in 2009, and Robert Kubica stepping back into an F1 cockpit this year for the first time since his 2011 rally accident.

Pirelli F1 Media

The decade of rules changes

Fans of F1’s rulebook were treated to an absolute feast over the last ten seasons. After 2009’s massive aerodynamics shift, the tweaks, refinements and total overhauls kept on coming. DRS, stepped noses, the halo. V6 turbos, the virtual safety car, and the fastest lap point. And of course, knockout qualifying and 2014’s double points finale. Not all of them were popular, but they’ve certainly kept us on our toes over the years.

Foto Studio Colombo / Pirelli F1 Media

The decade of silly season

Lewis Hamilton leaving McLaren for Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen returning to Ferrari, then to Sauber. Sebastian Vettel leaving Red Bull for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso rejoining McLaren. Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement. Red Bull’s midseason merry-go-rounds. F1’s driver market has never been tame, but the 2010s really set it alight.

Mark Sutton, LAT Images / Haas F1 Media

The decade F1 returned to the US

F1 has spent a lot of time since the disastrous 2005 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis trying to repair its relationship with the States. Things started going in the right direction with the return of the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas and Alexander Rossi’s brief F1 appearances with Manor in 2015. But now with Haas on the grid and Liberty Media in charge of the sport itself, F1’s standing in the US finally looks to be on the mend.

Foto Studio Colombo / Ferrari Media

The decade of farewells to old friends

Rubens Barrichello. Michael Schumacher. Mark Webber. Jenson Button. Nico Rosberg. Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso. Robert Kubica. So many key figures of F1’s recent past hung up their helmets over the last ten years. Thank goodness we still have Kimi Raikkonen for another year at least.

What’s been your favourite moment from the last ten years of Formula One? Let us know in the comments below.

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