FORMULA 1

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F1 Paddock Pass | Driver Pre-Race Press Conference

F1 Paddock Pass | Pre-Race At The 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

F1 2019 BAKU Azerbaijan FULL PRESS CONFERENCE TEAM PRINCIPALS

 

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Red Bull slowed Verstappen amid driveshaft failure fears

Max Verstappen's bid for third place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was reined in as a precautionary response to his Red Bull Formula 1 teammate Pierre Gasly's driveshaft failure.

Gasly suffered a driveshaft failure after charging from the pitlane to sixth, and his stopped car triggered a virtual safety car just as Verstappen was mounting more pressure on Sebastian Vettel.

After the VSC period ended, Verstappen struggled with tyre temperatures and fell away from Vettel, but Red Bull had also told him to back off to avoid a potential repeat problem.

"We struggled a little bit to get the warm-up going again, but after the failure that we'd seen with Pierre we didn't want to take too much risk," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained.

"It was a driveshaft failure and we don't know why, so having seen that we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks with Max. His third P4 in a row, it's always frustrating when you're the first place off the podium, but I thought he had a strong race today."

Verstappen was given a message to avoid the kerb on the exit of Turn 16, where he had run wide earlier in the race.

Asked by Motorsport.com if there were any other measures, Horner said: "We turned things down a little bit so as not to put as much energy through the drive lines. Obviously up until the VSC he looked in pretty decent shape."

Verstappen finished 5.7s behind Vettel and almost a minute clear of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who stopped for new soft tyres after the VSC to set the fastest lap of the race.

Horner said chasing that bonus point was not an option for Verstappen, which was another reason to remain cautious following Gasly's failure.

"If it had been a normal safety car he would have stopped," said Horner when asked how strongly the team considered pitting Verstappen under the VSC. "But with it being a VSC it didn't really make any sense.

"He didn't have any new soft tyres available to go for the fastest lap. So looking at it with the reliability, we thought did we really want to put an extra load through the driveshaft for one point, which might cost us 12? It didn't make any sense."

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Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 4

Stefan Johansson, former Ferrari and McLaren F1 driver, has come up a with a template for a radically revised version of the sport he loves. Here is the fourth and final part on what needs to change and why, with Stefan discussing the relevancy of the sport.

Does motorsport need to be “relevant”?
Does anyone know what Formula 1 stands for today? This may be the most important question of all in order for F1 or motorsports in general to survive. In order to be relevant it is obviously important to understand in what context you want to be relevant. In the case of Formula 1, does this mean you must be socially relevant or more relevant towards the fans? Or can both be achieved in a realistic way.

If you focus on being socially relevant, it is critical to understand if you are following an objective and realistic path or just a narrative. Is it more important that we have an engine formula that is seen to embrace the environment than it is to have fast, loud and spectacular cars? Is it more important that we have engines that can last one-third of a season than it is to have a hugely powerful engine that may break every now and then, but will either reward with a win or punish the driver and team if the engine breaks? Is it more important that we have racetracks that are so sanitized and safe that it’s become almost impossible to have a bad accident than it is to have tracks that will punish a driver if he goes over the limit?

Political correctness has now crept in to every aspect of life. In some cases, it seems that companies are more interested in doing what is perceived to be the politically correct thing, than it is to make a profit or even do what makes good common sense. Everyone is paranoid about not upsetting anyone. Is motorsport about being correct in every way, does it have to satisfy all the various agendas that are currently being promoted through every possible platform by anyone who cares to voice their opinion? Is it even possible to keep everyone happy anymore? I think it’s time to do some serious soul-searching in order to work out what it is that really matters both for the competitors and the fans.

F1 could become the global leader in innovative thinking and implementation of new technologies
By creating a formula that will be based around a maximum amount of energy, wherever the source is coming from, it could be gasoline, electric, hydrogen fuel cells, kinetic, or something that may not have even been invented yet. I believe this is the one area Formula 1 could really make a difference and lead the automotive world towards a truthful and honest direction in power unit technology.

Instead of following one politically motivated directive it would be better to do the complete opposite and create its own directive, that will by default eventually become the correct and obvious path forward. It will very soon become apparent which is the most efficient alternative based on the principles of thermal efficiency, energy consumption, weight and power output. For the first time in a very long time, F1 could justify the spend of the manufacturers by inventing and creating things we may not even know exist at this point. Unleash all the bright minds that are already working in F1 and let them get creative! Instead of pouring away money on silly aerodynamic tweaks, it could be spent on something that would truly make a difference.

Imagine if someone realized some of Nikola Tesla’s ideas, for example, or a number of other incredibly brilliant concepts that are already out there. Sport is the perfect arena for this as we are talking about competition before a concept is proven. Once it is proven and everyone can see how brilliant it is, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle and the world will have to follow whether or not it is in accordance with the politically correct agenda. Whomever comes up with any of these new concepts will be known worldwide for doing something that really made a difference in human history and Formula 1 will again find its rightful place in the automotive world.

Eliminate the importance of aerodynamics
I’m repeating myself here, but it’s important to understand that aerodynamics is the only item that falls under all four categories that are key areas of Formula 1. The fact that aerodynamics is affecting all four categories in a negative way should be a wakeup call. Aerodynamics have the least relevance of anything on a racecar, except making the car go fast. Yet it’s the highest spend by a massive margin for every team (see Economics part of this story), it’s the largest contributor to the lack of competition (see Competition part of this story [[[[xxxxxxx]]]]]) and the entertainment is suffering because of this, yet we just keep on piling on more and more of the same, year after year! Eliminate the importance of aero package and shift the focus to other areas to gain back the speed.

Summary

It’s become quite evident that in order to get things back on the right track it will not be enough to continue with small band-aid fixes here and there. In fact, it will only make it worse as history has shown over and over. What I am proposing is based on what I believe is a realistic and objective analysis rather than following a narrative based on a number external factors and political motives – motives that will never add anything to help maintain the popularity or grow the sport in the future. In order for the sport to survive, it is imperative that we all understand that it’s unsustainable in the long run to deviate from the core elements of what made Formula 1 such a huge sport to begin with.

There are a number of initiatives being proposed – adding to the show, bringing the costs down, make the racing less predictable, branding , digital media etc. None of this will make any difference unless we get to the core of the problem, which is the cars and how they are designed. If I may use the analogy of a restaurant, you can do all the slick and fancy stuff, new signs on the front, social media campaigns, celebrities, new menus, etc. but if the food sucks no one will come back or show up in the first place.

If we don’t fix the cars and make them exciting and interesting to watch again it won’t matter what else we do. Once we fix the cars, everything else will fall into place automatically. The tracks will become interesting and challenging again, the racing will be close and exciting to watch, the human component will become at least as important as the technical, and the drama will unfold accordingly.

Formula 1 has always been about brave young men driving these crazy fast cars on the limit, and if we lose that, there is nothing that makes it unique in any way. It will be just as interesting to watch a bunch of gamers racing online. From a driver’s perspective, there is nothing that comes close to the experience when you’re on the limit and decide to take a high-speed corner flat for the first time in order to gain that extra tenth or two, not knowing for sure what the outcome will be – when you’re literally staring at your own soul for that brief moment. Those are the things that every driver worth his salt is craving. They define who you are as a person and go much further than just that brief split second. Everyone who is present at that moment can see and appreciate it, and this is what makes – or at least, used to make – our sport so incredibly different and special compared to most other sports.

Formula 1 should and could write its own rules. It’s a big enough sport to set the directive for anyone who wants to compete in it or follow it. If not, as we can clearly see at the moment, we will end up with a very confusing and complicated product that’s neither here nor there, and no one can fully understand it. We want to see brave drivers on the racetrack, but we also need brave leaders in the boardroom to make this happen.

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Rio de Janeiro reveals desire to poach Brazilian GP

The Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro has gone public on F1’s desire to switch the Brazilian Grand Prix from Interlagos to a former Olympic site in his city.
Wilson Witzel, a lawyer and judge who was elected last October and took office in January, noted in a tweet that the F1 organisation has written to him expressing its support for a Grand Prix in Rio.

He wrote: “I was honoured to receive the letter from Sean Bratches, director of commercial operations of F1, who showed interest in bringing the Brazil GP to RJ.

"I have been talking for some time about the design of the track in Deodoro. We will work hard for F1 to return to our RJ.”

An F1 spokesman played down the significance of Witzel’s tweet, telling Motorsport.com: “It’s normal to explore every option. Many cities have received letters.”

F1 boss Chase Carey visited Rio last November and had a meeting with Witzel, who had just been elected but not yet take office.

MotoGP promoter Dorna has also expressed its interest in racing at the venue via a letter of intent. Design company Tilke is involved in the project, which has been in the planning stages since last summer.

Deodoro is a military base that was utilised for some of the lower profile events at the 2016 Olympics, including hockey, rugby sevens, shooting, BMX, mountain biking, show jumping and the modern pentathlon.

However, efforts are being made to make Deodoro an environmental protection area, which would put a stop to the development of a circuit.

Ironically, the main Barra Olympic Park was built at the expense of the former F1 venue at Jacarepagua, which hosted the Brazilian GP in 1978 and from 1981-’89 before the race returned to a rebuilt Interlagos in 1990.

Liberty has a strained relationship with the city of Sao Paulo and the race promoters. The event is the least lucrative flyaway race in terms of the fee paid to the F1 organisation.

Previously the fee paid by the city was backed up by an extra payment from TV Globo, but that ended after the 2016 race, leading to a shortfall that Liberty had not anticipated when it bought the F1 business – and which was even highlighted in the 2017 annual accounts as a justification for the company’s financial performance.

 

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Hamilton: ‘I was too friendly in Turn 1’ at the start

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff must have been holding his breath when the racing got underway in Azerbaijan, as he watched his two drivers going wheel to wheel for the first few corners of the Baku City Circuit before Valtteri Bottas eventually came out on top.

But having made the better start of the two off the line, Lewis Hamilton was left wondering afterwards whether he’d been too kind to his team mate.

As he did at the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, Hamilton enjoyed a better initial launch than Bottas from second place on the grid, and once again appeared to have the advantage heading into Turn 1.

But the onboard cameras from Hamilton then picked up the nose of Bottas’ W10 coming back at him, the Finn toughing his way back ahead on the run down to Turn 2 before decisively sweeping across a respectful Hamilton to take a lead that would eventually see him record his second win of the season, as Hamilton went on to finish second.

For a team boss, the opening three corners of the Grand Prix had been a perfect demonstration of how team mates should handle wheel-to-wheel racing. But the selfish racing driver in Lewis Hamilton couldn’t help thinking after the chequered flag that he may have left too much on the table in the on-track battle...

“I was too friendly in Turn 1,” said Hamilton simply, “and basically gave it to him, but he drove a fantastic race, made no mistakes and so he deserved the win this weekend.”

Hamilton went on to justify his deference to his team mate, however, explaining how he’d been conscious of not wanting to hand any advantage to the chasing pack behind – and especially the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who eventually finished the race third.

“It’s very difficult,” said the world champion. “Ultimately, you always have to remember when you’re a team as a big as this, you’re only one. Selfishly, I could have pushed a lot harder, I could have gained, he could have lost and maybe lost to Ferrari. So while I wanted to overtake, I had to be cautious so we could block the front row. We did that and sometimes that sacrifice, you have to make if you want to win.

“Valtteri [and I], we’ve always had respect for each other. We discussed it before race. We’re real gentlemen.”

Hamilton can at least take comfort in Mercedes have secured a new record for one-two finishes at the start of the season, the Silver Arrows now having headed the first four races of the year – to trump Williams’ record of three from 1992 – while Hamilton and Bottas now have two wins apiece – although Bottas’ fastest lap from Australia sees him enjoy a one-point advantage over Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.

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2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Race Highlights

 

[Lotusguy]

Yay - another Mercedes 1-2...

Boring

[skalls]

I really dislike this circuit.  But it seems it always helps generate some chaos.

If leclerc doesn't go into the barriers in q2 I think he wins the race.  But he did, so he didn't.  And then Ferrari screwed up his strategy in the race by keeping him out 1-2 laps too long on dead tires.

I still think Ferrari has the better car and engine this year.  But Mercedes is maximizing their car at each circuit, and more importantly, aren't making any mistakes during the races.  I know this may be annoying to some, but the analyst in me is amazed at how well Mercedes is doing this year.  If their car is a diva, they've tamed it fully just 4 races into the season.

[Lotusguy]

I really dislike this circuit.  But it seems it always helps generate some chaos.
If leclerc doesn't go into the barriers in q2 I think he wins the race.  But he did, so he didn't.  And then Ferrari screwed up his strategy in the race by keeping him out 1-2 laps too long on dead tires.
I still think Ferrari has the better car and engine this year.  But Mercedes is maximizing their car at each circuit, and more importantly, aren't making any mistakes during the races.  I know this may be annoying to some, but the analyst in me is amazed at how well Mercedes is doing this year.  If their car is a diva, they've tamed it fully just 4 races into the season.

I could tolerate it better if that sandbagger Wolf would STFU about “oh we’re so scared of Ferrari - I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off” before every race.

[skalls]

41 minutes ago, Lotusguy said:

I could tolerate it better if that sandbagger Wolf would STFU about “oh we’re so scared of Ferrari - I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off” before every race.

I think they believe that Ferrari has the better car.  I certainly do.  It's just that Ferrari isn't executing things as flawlessly as Mercedes is currently.

I think they also aren't trying to sound too overconfident since those types of soundbytes can come back and bite one in the ass.

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6 hours ago, skalls said:

I think they believe that Ferrari has the better car.  I certainly do.  It's just that Ferrari isn't executing things as flawlessly as Mercedes is currently.

I think they also aren't trying to sound too overconfident since those types of soundbytes can come back and bite one in the ass.

Mercedes aren't being overconfident either... it's just that they simply love annoying @Lotusguy 

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ROSBERG: I AM VERY SURE MERCEDES DON’T HIDE THEIR TRUE PACE

After four rounds of the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship it is pretty clear that Mercedes are going to be hard, if not impossible, to beat on current form and although suspicions of them having the horsepower reserve abound, Nico Rosberg believes his former team are playing their full hand.

In his post-race vlog, the 2016 F1 World Champion asked and answered the question: Are Mercedes always hiding their true pace?

Rosberg replied without hesitation, “No. They’re not. They’re definitely going for it in qualifying, of course, they always have the party mode at the end of qualifying there which brings a few tenths but apart from that they’re always going for it and they can’t afford to hold back.”

“Of course in the race they’re going to try and turn on the engine when possible but the other guys were so close behind and they had to rev the engine pretty much all the way there. I’m very sure about, that so are they not.”

“Mercedes is on it, they’re showing their true pace. They just have the fastest package at the moment and they never make any mistakes – not the team, not the drivers – just awesome how they keep it together.

Rosberg knows a thing or two about going up against Lewis Hamilton. Until now Valtteri Bottas has had no answer to his teammate, but this season there has been a marked change in the cool Finn’s attitude and as a result, he leads the championship and looks intent on slugging it out with his teammate as their rivals already fall by the wayside.

Rosberg said of the situation, “Great to see the battle between the two. Valterri did an awesome job just around the outside, he really did a great job holding on and hanging in there. It was really, really great to see so he deserved to be ahead after that. Great to see him holding his position and not just playing second fiddle this year.”

“He’s really holding up against Lewis and staying ahead, so that’s really cool and then, apart from that, it was just a great race from Valterri.”

Bottas won the race in Baku from pole position but was not given an inch of breathing space as Hamilton stalked him all the way to the line, giving it a big push in the final laps fo the Grand Prix.

“Lewis I think was marginally quicker,” explained Rosberg. “But there was no way for him to pass and he was really trying at the end, which was exciting to see, but when you have the same cars and not much pace difference there’s just not much you can do there.”

Four one-twos is a formidable way to start a championship campaign and right now the Mercs look invincible no matter which way you look at it, but Rosberg has hope that the Reds will rise to the occasion next up in Barcelona.

“Mercedes is really looking strong, but Ferrari might have a small chance depending on how the tyres are. Looking at Barcelona also in winter testing Ferrari was quickest so I think they can come back and they have a chance for pole there. I think we all want that because it would be awesome to see them fighting back a little bit, that would be great.”

“On one of my first videos of the season, I said that Valtteri really has a chance this year to be champion because it’s a different Valtteri we’re seeing. Everything is going his way as well, last year he had a lot of bad luck now he’s had a start of the season where everything’s going his way.”

“It just gives you a completely different mindset and puts you in a different confidence level, as well, and that just matters so much in sports. Valtteri now has really high confidence and therefore he can continue fighting Lewis now and in the next couple of races.”

“He does have a chance to win the championship, there’s no reason why not he’s driving strongly in all and in qualifying he’s right there all over Lewis. He’s really doing well amazing how it can go from one season to the next isn’t it how last year Valtteri was just in no man’s land and then suddenly just over winter reset.”

“Probably he learned some things from me as well, I suppose, and then just come back fighting strong and not focusing on Lewis and just focusing on yourself and getting the job done that’s what matters.”

“Valtteri is doing that so our hats off to him, he is doing well,” added Rosberg who drove for Mercedes from 2010 until he retired at the end of 2016, sharing a pit garage first with Michael Schumacher and then with Lewis Hamilton for four years.

 

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HAKKINEN: TEAMWORK IS KEY TO BOTTAS AND HAMILTON STRENGTH

Double World Champion Mika Hakkinen reflects on last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and looks forward to Barcelona.

I could not have been happier for Valtteri Bottas on Sunday. In winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he not only gained revenge for the puncture which robbed him of the win in Baku last year but also re-established his lead in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Four races into the season and Mercedes have scored a 1-2 each time, which is the best start for any team in the history of Formula 1. From the outside, this looks easy, but Mercedes have had to work hard every weekend and Azerbaijan was no different.

The Baku circuit is basically two long, fast sections with a twisty part in the middle, and on those fast straights, the Ferrari’s were very quick. In practice, it looked like Charles Leclerc might dominate the weekend.

I always say that to be successful in Formula 1 you have to focus on attention to detail. In Baku, this included watching the temperature of the track at the time qualifying took place, and also being on the best tyres for those conditions.

An accident involving Robert Kubica’s Williams in the first part of qualifying delayed the rest of the session. This meant that track temperatures dropped and then Leclerc, using the harder ‘medium’ compound tyre while the other teams were using softs, locked a wheel and crashed his Ferrari at Turn 8 – the narrowest corner in Formula 1.

It was a small mistake with big consequences both for Charles and Ferrari.

I have said before that one of the strengths enjoyed by Valtteri and Lewis Hamilton is their teamwork. In qualifying in Baku it is important to try and benefit from a tow from another car on the long straight at the end of the lap. You do this by using the slipstream of the car in front – the hole it makes in the air – to give you better top speed.

Valtteri timed his qualifying run perfectly to get a tow from the McLaren of Lando Norris, while Lewis got a tow from Valtteri. Valtteri had managed his tyre temperates better and was much quicker over the first part of the lap, so this secured his 8th Formula 1 pole position.

This teamwork continued into the race because, although the two Mercedes cars were side-by-side through the first two corners, they gave each other plenty of room and did not touch. Valtteri was then able to drive a fantastic first lap; he was two seconds ahead of Lewis by the end of it.

This performance from Valtteri was one of the very best we have seen, and from lap 1 onwards he completely controlled the race. A few laps before the end Lewis was told by his race engineer that he could go flat out, but although he closed to the gap, Valtteri responded. This was his race, and no one was going to steal it from him.

He now leads the World Championship by one point; the point he scored for fastest lap in Melbourne at the start of the season. He knows that in order to beat Lewis Hamilton every single point is going to matter, and that’s how he is playing it; winning when the opportunity arises, getting the maximum points finishes at other times.

At the moment the Championship battle is between the two Mercedes drivers. Ferrari has a very quick car, but at the weekend we saw that you cannot afford to have accidents, tyre temperature problems and only one car to race against two very competitive Mercedes drivers.

Going into the next race in Spain I expect Ferrari to push very hard to recover ground. They need to. This time last year Sebastian Vettel had won two Grands Prix, so it has been a tough start to the season for the Italian team.

I am certain they will come back and attack Mercedes. Charles Leclerc is learning all the time and showing how quick he is. Sebastian is reacting to that too, and if they can manage the tension between them they have the ability to challenge Mercedes for wins.

I expect Red Bull to be competitive in Barcelona, and it is interesting to see that Max Verstappen is only one point behind Vettel in the World Championship. The young Dutchman is maturing, and with Honda introducing an engine upgrade last week both Verstappen and teammate Pierre Gasly should start to interfere with Mercedes and Ferrari more often.

The final point about going to Barcelona is that all of the teams know the track very well thanks to pre-season testing. Behind Mercedes and Ferrari, I expect the battle to be very close between McLaren, Renault, Haas, Racing Point, Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo.

All of the teams except Williams, which is having an extremely frustrating time with a car which is 4 seconds per lap off the pace. An extraordinary reversal of fortune for the team which gave Valterri his big break in Formula 1.

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DUTCH GRAND PRIX TO REPLACE SPANISH GRAND PRIX IN 2020

According to the doyen of Formula 1 journalists, Joe Saward the Dutch Grand Prix will happen in 2020 while the Spanish Grand Prix is set to face the axe.

Saward reports on his blog that, “The Dutch Grand Prix will be confirmed on May 14 and will take place at Zandvoort on May 10 2020 – so long as there is some work done to upgrade the paddock area.”

“The bad news for Spanish F1 fans is that we may be heading to the last Spanish GP next week, as the problems between Spain and Catalonia (which have dominated the general election that was held at the weekend) will make it impossible for a deal to be struck for the future.”

“Things will obviously not be helped by the fact that Fernando Alonso has left F1,” concludes the brief report.

The Dutch Grand Prix was last held at the seaside venue in 1985, Zandvoort’s 30th hosting of the race, which was won by Niki Lauda in a McLaren.

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HERBERT: ROLAND IS ALMOST FORGOTTEN BUT I WILL NEVER FORGET

Perhaps Roland Ratzenberger was always destined to be an understudy, as a Formula 1 driver and a man, however, he more than deserved his share of the limelight as we, led by Johnny Herbert never forget a man stolen too soon.

Twenty-fours hours after Ratzenberger was killed during practice for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, three-time world champion Ayrton Senna died in the race and, in the outpouring of grief for the Brazilian which followed, the Austrian was almost forgotten.

Ratzenberger, who died at the age of 33, had to work hard to fulfil his dream of becoming a F1 driver.

He had started out in German Formula Ford in 1983 and after spells in British Formula Three and the Touring Car championship, he moved to Japan in 1990.

He enjoyed only moderate success in the Formula 3000 Championship but did enough to earn a five-year contract with the Simtek Formula 1 team in 1994.

Ratzenberger failed to qualify for the Brazilian Grand Prix but finished 11th in Japan before arriving at the Imola circuit in Italy.

During Saturday’s qualifying session, the front wing of his car was damaged after he went off track but he carried on driving because he was so desperate to claim the last spot on the grid.

The front wing broke off and lodged under the car. Ratzenberger was unable to make the turn into the Villeneuve corner, named after the late Ferrari great who had died 12 years earlier in Belgium, and piled into the wall at 315 km/h.

He fractured his skull and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Twenty-four hours later Senna lost his life. In the wreckage of his car, investigators found an Austrian flag he had been planning to wave at the end of the race.

“It’s always Ayrton but then you can understand why it’s always Ayrton because Ayrton achieved what Ayrton achieved,” former driver Johnny Herbert, a good friend of Ratzenberger, told Reuters.

“Roland is almost forgotten. Whenever I talk to people I never say Ayrton’s weekend… it’s always Ayrton and Roland. And I’d never forget that and I don’t want other people to forget it either.

“We lost a really nice guy in Roland who worked very hard to get himself in that position of being a F1 driver. We got robbed of Ayrton, but we got robbed of Roland the day before. A really nice guy. It was very rare to see him not smiling.”

Herbert was adamant that Ratzenberger was not the journeyman driver he is often portrayed as, “He didn’t have a background of money and the early days was Transit van and a trailer.”

“But he won one of the biggest races in a young driver’s career, the Formula Ford festival, and then he did Japan. But he always produced the goods. Sadly we never really saw the best of Roland. He wasn’t a journeyman type whatsoever, he was a very talented man.”

Former world champion Damon Hill also paid tribute to Ratzenberger, “He was someone I respected because he had pretty much followed a similar route to myself.”

“He’d got into Formula One at 31, quite late in his career, but he’d stuck at it. He’d clearly got talent but he didn’t shine like a Senna or a [Lewis] Hamilton. He was a guy who loved being a racing driver. He was talented, able and very competitive.”

Ratzenberger will also be fondly remembered for his personality.

“He was a wonderful man,” Herbert said. “He had a really nice, wicked sense of humour. You could always have a laugh and a giggle with him.”

Ratzenberger finished only one Formula 1  Grand Prix while Senna topped the podium 41 times, third on the all-time list, and will go down as one of the finest drivers in history.

Max Mosley, President of the FIA at the time, told Reuters, “Ratzenberger… was more tragic to me than Ayrton because he’d come up by his own efforts and the help of his family.”

“He’d no money, he’d done it by his own work and he was a thoroughly good person. Ratzenberger’s death would have been a very big thing except that Senna’s came the next day.”

Mosley had to make a decision about which funeral to attend, “I went to Ratzenberger’s funeral rather than to Senna’s where all the great and good of Formula 1 were because I felt somebody needed to support him and his family.”

“It was desperately sad because [Ratzenberger] hadn’t had what Ayrton had,” Mosley said. “At least Ayrton had had the success, the brilliant recognition worldwide, the state funeral in Brazil and so on.”

“Ratzenberger was just as dead and it was just as sad for his family but he’d never experienced all that,” lamented the former FIA president.

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ITALIAN GRAND PRIX SET TO CONTINUE AT MONZA UNTIL 2024!

The Italian Grand Prix is set to continue at the famed Monza circuit for another five years after race organisers struck a deal with Formula 1 owners.

The current deal expires at the end of the season but on Tuesday the Italian Automobile Club said it reached an agreement in principle with Formula One owner Liberty Media on ‘the economic details of the contract’ to keep the race at the historic circuit until 2024.

The president of the AIC, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, also posted on Twitter, adding: ‘we will continue negotiations with (at) F1 to quickly reach the signing of the contract.’

Monza, which first hosted an Italian GP in 1922, is one of the most beloved tracks on the circuit.

No circuit has hosted more F1 racing. It was on the inaugural 1950 calendar and dropped off only in 1980 when Imola hosted the Italian GP.

The next Italian Grand Prix will take place on September 8.

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Lando Norris heartened by McLaren reponse to China setback

Lando Norris says McLaren can be lifted by the manner in which it responded to its China setback at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as the team moved into fourth in the standings.

Norris took sixth on a strong weekend in Bahrain but the team subsequently endured a challenging time in China, with both drivers hampered by first-lap contact with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

In Azerbaijan Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. spent much of the race towards the front of Formula 1’s midfield pecking order, with Norris challenging Racing Point’s Sergio Perez for sixth.

Sainz Jr. moved ahead until Norris jumped clear via the undercut, though the Spaniard ultimately re-gained seventh when the rookie made another stop for fresh tyres under the Virtual Safety Car.

The result promoted McLaren to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

“We knew that kind of track, China, is a weak track for us, but we bounced back well,” said Norris.

“We didn’t dwell on it, didn’t get frustrated, we understood it wasn’t going to be a good weekend for us and this weekend would better.

“We maximised it and bounced back in a pretty good way.

“I always want more as a driver, the team always wants more, we’re happy with how we’ve done but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Explaining the decision to make a second stop, Norris said: “As a team we didn’t win or lose points from where we were before the stop.

“We just wanted something to see if we could have a bigger advantage over Checo to get ahead as we didn’t have the straight-line speed to pass him.

“I’m fine with the decision [to drop behind Sainz]. It was a team decision. It just didn’t work out how I wanted to.”

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FIA opens tenders for more standardised F1 parts

The FIA has opened tenders for standard brake parts and wheel rims for Formula 1 teams from 2021.

Formula 1 owners Liberty Media and the FIA have been working with teams regarding the next regulatory cycle, which is due to come into effect in 2021.

Both the sporting and technical regulations are due to be extensively overhauled and one key aspect being addressed is cost, with senior figures keen to introduce standardised components for teams where there are now minimal performance gains.

The tenders issued cover the years 2021 to 2024 though could also cover 2025 depending on the outcome of the commercial discussions that are still ongoing.

The tender regarding brakes outlines that “the aim of single source supply is to retain current levels of braking performance at a much-reduced cost, while also removing the requirement for competitors to design or source their own brake hydraulics.

“The components can be carried over between seasons, thus removing the need for costly continual performance development.”

The FIA outlined that the “brake hydraulics system consists of front and rear brake callipers, a master cylinder and a brake-by-wire system.”

It is stressed that those components will be used in conjunction with the specific brake lines, hoses and reservoirs layouts designed by teams.

The second aspect of the brakes tender revolves around single-source brake discs and pads.

Regarding wheel rims the FIA outlined that the design will be for the 18-inch rims that are set for introduction in 2021, while there remains scope for the wheel width to be modified as well.

It was also outlined that each team will be supplied with a minimum of 60 wheel rims for their respective drivers to last for the duration of the season.

The deadline, on both tenders, for interested parties is May 22, with the FIA set to notify the outcome on June 14.

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British Grand Prix saved as Silverstone agrees new Formula 1 deal

Good news for Formula 1 fans, Motorsport Week can reveal that the British Grand Prix will remain at Silverstone until at least 2022 following the conclusion of a new deal between the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) and Liberty Media.

British Formula 1 fans can breathe a sigh of relief with the news that the British GP won’t be dropping off the calendar after this year’s event, which was due to be the last race at Silverstone after the BRDC activated a break clause agreement in its contract shortly before the 2017 race.

Silverstone attracts huge crowds in excess of 250,000!

Silverstone had originally held a deal to host the race through 2026, but in 2017 activated a clause which allowed it to end that deal earlier, a decision which was made due to strained finances caused by a multiplier agreement, which saw the hosting fee increase year-on-year.

That deal was struck under former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, and many believed that the break clause was activated by the BRDC purely hoping to negotiate a better deal with new owners Liberty Media. But Chase Carey and his team held firm in negotiations and with just two months to go until what was supposed to be the last race at the Northamptonshire circuit, all seemed lost.

But yesterday Joe Saward, Group F1 Editor of sister publication Motorsport Monday confirmed via his JSBM confidential weekly newsletter that the race had indeed been rescued and that the event would continue beyond this year’s grand prix. 

Although it isn’t known exactly what compromise has been agreed to, Saward is confident that a successful accommodation has been reached for the race to continue at the historic circuit. Given that the British GP has been a staple of the F1 calendar since the very first championship race in 1950 and seven of the ten teams being based in the UK, not having a British GP would have been unfathomable.

The presence of Hamilton alone should guarantee the race!

Saward’s sources confirmed to him that the new deal is a multi-year agreement, destined to run from 2020 through to 2022. But coming as a further surprise, is that there is no guarantee that the Silverstone race will remain the only UK event on the F1 calendar!

This is because commercial rights holders Liberty Media are hoping to add a second UK-based race to the calendar as early as 2021, with the obvious location being London’s Docklands area.

Although this remains in the very early planning stages only, there are moves to make it a reality in the hope of reviving the idea of a grand prix in the Docklands area, which recently confirmed plans for a Formula E race at the ExCel Exhibition Centre next year.

Meanwhile an agreement for the return of the Dutch GP next year, which was revealed by Motorsport Week earlier this month, is due to be announced by Liberty Media in mid-May.

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Feature: Talking points from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Mercedes made it 4-0 to the Brackley boys as it finished the flyaway phase of the season with another lockout of the top spots. Motorsport Week takes a look at the talking points from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Mercedes the maestros once more

Perhaps once Mercedes has racked up its 15th win of the season it might become clear that it actually has the fastest car. Right now its overall package – or at least, what teams can extract from their packages – is the pacesetter in Formula 1. Ferrari has admitted such. To look at the results provokes thoughts of Mercedes’ 2014-16 dominance but that is far from the case. It is merely that Mercedes is currently a team operating at the top of its game – perhaps the best in Formula 1 history – in turn made to look even better by a floundering Ferrari. Mercedes knows how to build up its weekend and remain calm under pressure. Witness, for example, its inspired tactics to dummy Ferrari in Q3 by sending out its drivers only to instruct them to carry out practice starts. All of a sudden Sebastian Vettel had no tow. Clever. If it had backfired they would have appeared foolish, but the fact that Mercedes pulls off its bold ideas merely underlines its strength. Hamilton and Bottas were both respectful on the opening lap (Hamilton admitting he was a bit too passive) and thereafter executed the perfect strategy: a dull one-stopper in flying formation. It makes it 2-2 between Bottas and Hamilton; Bottas also could have led the championship at this stage last year – without his Baku puncture – so it would still be remiss to make any conclusions at this moment, given that 0.059s in qualifying effectively decided the race. But, given Ferrari’s malaise, observers can only hope that Bottas maintains this momentum – rather than drop off as in 2018 – if there is to be a tasty fight between the Silver Arrows. Mercedes is almost employing rope-a-dope tactics in 2019 and it cannot be faulted for being, so far, perfect.

Stupid mistake

The highly self-critical Charles Leclerc nobly accepted responsibility for his costly Q2 crash in a very public manner and the youngster was correct to hold up his hands and admit his mistake. But it was an error facilitated by another questionable Ferrari decision. Small margins can spiral and add up. How the top teams used their tyres through the weekend proved crucial. Ferrari sent out its drivers on the harder Medium compound in Q2, thus upsetting their rhythm at a venue where confidence and flow is more important than at most circuits. The situation was also accentuated by Baku’s natural low-grip nature, the buildings often leaving the track surface in the shade, and the very scheduling of the session in the early evening, with conditions rapidly cooling in the April climate. The 30-minute delay after Robert Kubica's crash had also cooled the circuit further. At some events discarding the Soft tyres to run a Medium/Hard strategy is favoured by the top teams but there was widespread bemusement at Ferrari’s approach given Baku’s characteristics, especially so given the difference in grip between the compounds. Would Leclerc have won on a Medium/Soft strategy had he started from pole, or at least the top two rows? Possibly. We’ll never know. But the decision to adopt such an approach in Q2 was an unnecessary risk – even Sebastian Vettel almost came to grief through Turn 8. Leclerc may well have won on a simple Soft/Medium strategy, given how Vettel was able to give chase to Mercedes for much of the race despite a continual ill-feeling with the SF90 that, according to Leclerc, is not impacting the younger Ferrari driver. “I’m convinced we’ve been, partly this weekend, looking very strong but overall not strong enough,” Vettel said. “So, it seems that for us it’s more of a conscious effort to get the car in the right window, whereas maybe for them [Mercedes] it seems to click a little bit easier. Especially a place like around here, you need the confidence in the car. I’m not yet there. I can feel that I’m not driving at my best because simply the car does not answer or does not respond the way I like. And then I think it’s unnatural.” Vettel compared Ferrari’s situation to solving a Rubik’s Cube. Given how many people struggle with the colour coordinated puzzle that was perhaps not the best analogy. Ferrari repeatedly maintains it has a strong package that it is merely unable to sufficiently unlock – perhaps similar to Mercedes’ ‘diva’ in 2017. But unless it seriously begins unwrapping the car in the coming races then any hope of a title fight will be but a pipe dream.

Ricciardo, Renault, desperately dire

Perhaps reality is now setting in. The idea of Daniel Ricciardo joining an on-the-up Renault team and driving them towards some form of long-term glory appears more and more like a fantasy. Renault has seriously underdelivered in 2019 and, aside from Williams, is Formula 1’s biggest disappointment so far. It has lacked reliability and performance and, given McLaren’s relative year-on-year gains, it only accentuates Renault’s plight. Ricciardo’s late lunges became a symbol of his Red Bull tenure but his clumsy lock-up epitomised where he and Renault are currently lacking. Whereas last year he’d lick the stamp and send it, this season he missed the delivery date and then reversed back into the post box. Ricciardo – and his victim Dany Kvyat – were both mature enough to shake hands and brush it aside, but the bigger picture for Renault is its lack of competitiveness. Ricciardo was scrapping at the fringes of the top 10 all weekend. Nico Hulkenberg, who has a dire record in Baku anyway, was practically a backmarker, finishing almost half a minute behind the struggling Haas team. “I had no response or anything to offer,” said a dispirited Hulkenberg. “I felt like I was driving as best as I could but couldn’t extract the maximum from the car. We’ve consistently struggled.” For a manufacturer determined to prove its worth as a title contender this was a dismal display. One or two sources pre-season had Renault down as a scarcely-believable ninth-best, but on evidence from Baku that is close to the territory in which it competed.

Williams drained

This has not been a good season for Williams and in Azerbaijan it took on an almost comedic value – if the outcomes weren’t so disheartening, that is. George Russell cancelled some Thursday commitments in the wake of picking up a “horrific” viral infection post-China that left him bedbound for days and unable to train as he grappled with a fever. He maintained he felt much better come the weekend but his face suggested a different story. On just his second lap in FP1 Russell struck a drain cover that had worked its way loose on account of a damaged clip on the underside of the cover. Detecting such a failure was nigh on impossible (it was not a case of weld done Baku) while in the cockpit Russell had no chance of avoiding it. Russell’s chassis sustained substantial damage and a change was required – leaving him out of FP2 – while the remainder of FP1 was cancelled while extensive checks were carried out on the other drain covers on the track. In an intriguing twist, speculation mounted that the new chassis given to Russell was the one that was being set aside longer-term for Kubica, who remains unhappy at the differences between ostensibly identical FW42s. Williams received a bouquet of flowers from the Baku City Circuit as way of an apology (a kind gesture) but the team is likely to seek compensation for the damage – and understandably so. Now it merely depends on who is responsible. It took Haas 18 months to sort its Sepang 2017 drain incident. As if to compound matters Kubica then went and shunted heavily at Turn 8, and the dispirited Pole appeared almost lost as to how he had made such a mistake. He maintains that the lacklustre FW42 is masking his potential and, while it is difficult to disagree with such a stance, Russell has been ahead more often that not and has cut more of a team player image during the struggles. Part of that is likely down to Russell’s youth and knowledge that he has a long-term career (backed by Mercedes) while for Kubica – who has been to hell and back – this may be his one chance to prove to his doubters (and more likely himself) that he remains a top-level Formula 1 driver. You can forgive him for being a little on the surly side. The bigger sadness for the championship is that the Kubica comeback story will be full of back-row starts, blue flags and misery, and that his true competitiveness is unlikely to ever be fully established. At least he kept it out of the barriers in race trim, even if he came perilously close to an embarrassing shunt at Turn 2 straight after his pit lane start.

Tired of tyres

Haas started the season as Formula 1’s midfield leader but that has proved the high point. Three straight 13ths have followed for Kevin Magnussen – there’s definitely a joke about the number 13 and a lack of fortune in there somewhere – while Romain Grosjean is yet to score. Magnussen was again despondent post-race while boss Guenther Steiner labelled its form as “very disappointing.” Haas’ pace has historically fluctuated depending on its use of tyres and that has been its bugbear through the last three grands prix. “Other people can get it to work so we need to get it to work,” said Steiner. “There’s no point saying ‘Oh, it’s not working’. Nine teams can get it to work. Who’s better? Who’s worse? We are absolutely the worst one to get it to work. I’m very conscious about that one. It’s [a] very serious [problem], it’s disappointing because you go slower. That’s what it is. We know the cause now, we just need to find out how to fix it. We can talk for half an hour about it, we know what it is, we just need to fix it. If you ask me ‘what is (the fix)?’ I don’t know, otherwise I would fix it.”  Steiner went on to add: “We were fast at the test, we were fast in Australia, we qualify… But at the moment we seem not to get it right. Everyone has got issues with the tyres, you can see it. You go into the graining phase, and then when we go into the graining phase we cannot get out of it anymore because our tyre then gets too cold and then we are done. Then we slide around. We’ve got four or five laps, we go fast, then the graining starts to go and then other people recover after the graining but we don’t, because our temperature is too low and we just cannot get it to work anymore once the graining clears.” At the moment it is costing Haas dearly in the Constructors’ battle.

Any other business

Pierre Gasly has endured a fraught start to his Red Bull career and on-paper it was another lacklustre weekend: a pit lane start caused by missing the weighbridge followed by exclusion from qualifying for a fuel flow irregularity that was then compounded by a driveshaft failure. Team boss Christian Horner was nonetheless encouraged by Gasly’s pure pace through the weekend and asserted he is now over the worst of his problems. Sergio Perez had another Sergio Perez Baku race as he displayed strong pace throughout – team-mate Lance Stroll had a strong recovery drive but needs to start qualifying higher if Racing Point is to extract its potential. McLaren scored its first double points in a year. Carlos Sainz Jr. passed Lando Norris, Norris used the undercut to jump ahead, then opted – along with the team – to make a second stop under the VSC. It didn’t change McLaren’s points haul, aside from Sainz Jr. moving back ahead of Norris. Kimi Raikkonen kept up his and Alfa Romeo’s record of scoring in each 2019 race though did so from the pit lane after the front wing flexed more than the permitted 5mm post-qualifying. Raikkonen revealed that a problem detected in China gave no performance gain but that the part in question could not be rectified in time for Azerbaijan. Elsewhere, Netflix has been filming in the paddock since pre-season testing and prior to Azerbaijan the contract to produce a second season of its Formula 1 documentary was formally confirmed, as expected. It is not yet known who will participate but Mercedes and Ferrari are thought unlikely to be present, as per season one.

2020 vision

It’s only the end of April but already talk is focusing on the composition of next year’s calendar. It is understood that the return of the Dutch Grand Prix – at Zandvoort – is highly likely, joining the already-confirmed new-for-2020 Vietnam race in Ha Noi. Vietnam is set to run back-to-back with China. This could facilitate a return to a June spot for Baku, which wants to move its race from April to mid-season, though this will also be dependent on its Euro 2020 hosting duties. The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro went public with its desire to prise the Brazilian Grand Prix away from Sao Paulo’s Interlagos venue, revealing talks have been held with Liberty Media. But any project currently remains in its early infancy and may never happen. Interlagos is Formula 1’s least lucrative flyaway event owing to pre-Liberty contracts while security remains a concern every year. Formula 1’s upcoming Spanish Grand Prix could still yet be the last in Barcelona. There is no word yet on its future, its city council is unwilling to provide as much funding (though elections in late May could change this), the Spain/Catalonia arguments are ongoing, while the country is a less attractive market for a sport trying to reach new areas, particularly in the wake of Fernando Alonso’s retirement. Zandvoort would slot nicely into Spain’s current date. There’s no concrete developments yet on other 2019 events – Germany, Italy and Mexico – that are without 2020 deals. Proposals for a race in the Biscayne Boulevard area of Miami, which was originally slated for 2019 but later postponed, is officially off. A race in the district of the Hard Rock Stadium has been mooted but nothing is likely to happen in a hurry.

Baku

Baku is a little peculiar – and that’s not meant as a criticism. Parts of it feel Parisian, others as if inspired by Budapest, while it mixes opulence with poverty, sometimes on the same street. It is trying to align itself with Western Europe while at the same time having that unavoidable ex-Soviet feel. It is a city that is always looking to the future – using the method of bringing in tourism via sport, based on oil riches – but unavoidably proud of its past, with Old Baku a beautifully cobbled area surrounded by the current track. It is a well-liked circuit, even if it did not deliver an enthralling 2019 race, while the city itself is admired by the paddock (or at least those who ventured beyond the plush circuit-side hotels). One amusing aspect is that the street circuit must be guarded and thus an army (perhaps literally) of men – and it is all men – line the circuit perimeter throughout the weekend. Their dress code? Camouflage gear and a hi-vis jacket. It is also home to unpredictable weather and has a reputation as a windy city. You can go from baking hot to feeling frozen in strong gales just by walking around a street corner. More than a few journalists regretted a lack of thermals on Saturday evening after the delayed qualifying session caused media duties to be postponed, with several in the TV pen requesting patio heaters for future years! Baku is also tricky to reach from Western Europe and that meant some differing methods of travelling. Between a group of eight journalists we worked out that we had – or would – have stops in either Ukraine, Turkey, Germany, Hungary, Qatar and Russia. No sympathy required given that travelling is part of the fun, but it just shows how Formula 1 truly is an international game, and provides a competition to see who best can marry cost with convenience!

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Brawn defends Ferrari's Baku qualifying tyre strategy

Formula 1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn has defended Ferrari’s decision to use medium tyres in Q2 in Azerbaijan – even though the move triggered Charles Leclerc’s crash that derailed its weekend.

Ferrari had looked to be the pace-setters in Baku up until qualifying, and the Italian outfit stood alone in trying to make it through Q2 on medium tyres so it had a strategic advantage in the race.

But the move proved to be Ferrari’s downfall, as Leclerc made a mistake in failing to adapt to the braking characteristics of the medium as he locked up and hit the wall at Turn 8.

With Leclerc out of Q3, Vettel was left alone and without potential for a tow – and that allowed Mercedes to lock out the front row, which Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton turned into another 1-2 finish.

While many have suggested Ferrari was wrong to change tyre compounds in Q2, Brawn is clear that he believes the team did the correct thing – because if it had paid off it would have helped the outfit win.

“The decision to try to qualify in Q2 on the medium tyre was the right one in my opinion, because on the softs, Mercedes had shown they had a better race pace on Friday afternoon,” said Brawn in his regular post-weekend F1 debrief.

“If Charles had managed to get ahead of them in Q3 – and there was a chance of that – and then run a long first stint, as he went on to do, then he would have been in with a good chance of finishing at the front.

“Unfortunately for him, despite a strong climb up the order, he finished fifth, for the third time this year. And I doubt that taking an extra point for setting the fastest race lap would have cheered him up. However, even after this race, he bears all the hallmarks of a driver on the way up, destined for great things.”

Ferrari’s failure to win, allied to Mercedes delivering its fourth consecutive 1-2 finish, has left the outfit aware it needs to turn things around swiftly if it is to remain in championship contention.

But despite the situation looking difficult, Brawn reckons that all is not yet lost for the Italian outfit.

“As the first tranche of races that make up this long championship comes to an end in Baku, one could ask oneself if we can still expect to see at least two teams fighting it out for the titles,” said Brawn.

“At the moment, a negative response would seem logical, given that Mercedes has taken four consecutive one-two finishes, but I feel there is still time for Ferrari to fight back, as it showed in two of the four races that it has what's needed to win.

"The duel between the two Mercedes drivers is definitely wide open, with Bottas and Hamilton only separated by the point scored by Bottas for fastest lap in Australia.”

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The next F1 records that Mercedes can target

Mercedes became the first Formula 1 team to score a 1-2 in the first four races of a season with its result in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Here we look at the records the German squad has broken and some that it can still break.

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton helped Mercedes break a new record in Baku, as it became the first team in history to finish 1-2 in the first four races of a Formula 1 season.

That four-race run beat a record set in 1992 when Williams took three 1-2s at the beginning of the campaign.

Mercedes is now just one 1-2 short of the all-time record of five consecutive 1-2 finishes, which has been done four times before. The first was Ferrari's run from the 1952 Belgian GP to the 1952 Dutch GP.

Ferrari also managed a run of five 1-2 finishes from Hungary to Japan 2002 – which included Michael Schumacher's famous effort to secure a dead heat at Indy that year.

Mercedes itself also delivered five consecutive 1-2s in the modern era – from Malaysia to Monaco 2014 and then from USA 2015 to Australia 2016.

To capture the most 1-2s in a season, Mercedes will need to take 13 in total this year – with it having delivered 12 during its 2015 campaign.

The Baku win was Mercedes' sixth consecutive victory – but it still has some way to go to match the 11 straight wins that McLaren pulled off between the Brazilian and Belgium Grands Prix in 1988.

McLaren's record is all the more impressive because it was from the first 11 races of the 1988 season in which it achieved it. Its record ended when Ayrton Senna famously tripped over backmarker Jean-Louis Schlesser at Monza.

McLaren never got a chance to try for the most 1-2 finishes at the start of the 1988 season, as Senna's gear selector broke on the grid in the Brazil season opener and he was later disqualified for switching to a spare car.

Mercedes has nearly matched McLaren's 11 straight victories tally: taking 10 consecutive wins from Japan 2015 to Russia 2016, and Monaco to Singapore in 2016.

Mercedes has had the perfect start to the season, but it will still likely struggle to match its 2016 record of the most wins in a season – when it won 19 races out of 21. Only Max Verstappen's win in Spain and Daniel Ricciardo's triumph in Malaysia stopped it getting a clean sweep.

 

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Top F1 teams diverge in Spanish GP tyre selections

Leading Formula 1 teams Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have each selected a different amount of soft Pirelli tyres for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Ferrari, which was the outlier in picking the fewest sets of the red-walled tyre last time out in Baku, has gone for nine sets this time for both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel.

The pair will have the joint-highest amount of softs in the field alongside Renault drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo, and Alfa Romeo pairing Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

Barcelona, which was the venue for F1's two weeks of pre-season testing earlier this year, marks the second race weekend this season that Pirelli will bring tyres in the C1-C3 range. The C1 tyre was previously used in Bahrain, but was largely avoided by teams.

Mercedes will have eight sets of the C3 tyre available for both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in Spain, whereas Red Bull drivers Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen will have seven sets.

The only other outfit to select seven sets of softs for its drivers is the backmarker Williams team.

While Red Bull has opted for a uniform selection between its drivers, Mercedes and Ferrari have both gone for a subtle split, with Leclerc and Hamilton getting one more set of the C1 and one fewer set of the C2 than their respective teammates.

McLaren is the first team this season to select more than two sets of the C1 tyre, as Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will both have three sets of the hard available in Barcelona.

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Ferrari's tyre woes "nothing to do" with upgrade - Binotto

Ferrari's struggles with Pirelli's Formula 1 tyres in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had “nothing to do” with its Baku upgrades, according to team boss Mattia Binotto.
The Italian outfit introduced its first update of the F1 season in Azerbaijan, fielding a revised bargeboard package and lower-drag wing at the street circuit.

Ferrari looked to have the edge over its main rival Mercedes for much of the Baku weekend but was bested again in the race, with Sebastian Vettel's poor first stint on softs allowing Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton to claim another 1-2 for Mercedes.

Vettel described tyres as the “dominating factor” hampering the SF90's performance after the race, and when asked by Motorsport.com how the Baku upgrade factored into this, Binotto played down any impact.

“I think it's nothing to do with the upgrades or the overall, let me say, performance of the car,” Binotto said. “Certainly managing the tyres is not easy, this circuit is a very difficult circuit related to tyres, due to the very little level of energy you're putting into the tyres.

“Bringing temperature into tyres is difficult, the window somehow maybe very little - I think generally speaking it's not easy to manage them, but not related to the upgrade or nothing to do [with it].

Asked to assess the performance of the updates, Binotto said: “The updates work as expected. These are only the very first one, a few updates are expected as well in the next races, so we'll not stop here and our hope certainly is that we can do a better job in the future.”

Vettel's teammate Charles Leclerc swept the three practice sessions in Baku but crashed out in the second qualifying segment, while Vettel himself was then unable to prevent a Mercedes front-row lockout, thwarted by a lack of tow and falling track temperatures.

For Binotto, his drivers having to start further back on the grid than the main opposition is what proved key to the outcome of the race.

“I think we got a good car for qualy, potentially we could have been on pole, we didn't, and I think the race is certainly a different matter," he added.

“I think that being in front or staying behind, it's quite different to manage your pace, your tyres, and when you've got fresh or clean air it's really a lot easier. I think our pace today has been as well affected by our position on the grid, at the start.

“Not only [that], certainly the others are very strong, and we are facing a very strong competition.”

 

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Steiner: Haas rivals Renault will also be ‘scratching their heads’ after Baku

Haas and Renault may have fought a fierce battle at times last season, but the former’s Team Principal Guenther Steiner has some sympathy for his French rivals after both squads struggled in Azerbaijan.

After suffering issues getting the Pirelli tyres to work at two of the first three races this season, Steiner had primed himself for a tough weekend in Baku even before practice started. His pessimism turned out to be well-placed, with neither Kevin Magnussen nor Romain Grosjean reaching Q3 or ever looking a serious threat for points,

But with Renault also enduring a difficult race – Daniel Ricciardo retired in unusual circumstances and Nico Hulkenberg was a lowly 14th – Steiner says both teams will be trying to understand how to unlock more pace from their respective cars ahead of Spain.

“At the moment it’s still very close in the midfield because everyone is suffering the same problem one day or another,” Steiner said. “There is nobody who is completely in control of what we need to do. Each race you go along and you say ‘Oh they just gained a few points on us’, but a few points after a while is a lot.

“So you need to be careful, you cannot be too positive about it. It’s not a positive, but Renault will be scratching their heads as well as we do. We have the fastest cars but we are now at the back.”

Despite predicting an uncompetitive weekend, Steiner says it doesn’t make the form Haas showed in Azerbaijan any easier to take, with Magnussen finishing just ahead of Hulkenberg in 13th, and Grosjean retiring with brake problems.

“It’s still never good when you get the disappointment. So it is quite disappointing. Or very disappointing.

“Other people can get it to work so we need to get it to work. There’s no point saying ‘Oh, it’s not working’. Nine teams can get it to work. Who’s better? Who’s worse? We are absolutely the worst one to get it to work. I’m very conscious about that one.

“We will fix this problem, obviously, it’s just like we were fast at the test, we were fast in Australia, we qualify… But at the moment we seem not to get it right.

“Everyone has got issues with the tyres, you can see it. You go into the graining phase, and then when we go into the graining phase we cannot get out of it anymore because our tyre then gets too cold and then we are done. Then we slide around.

“We’ve got four or five laps, we go fast, then the graining starts to go and then other people recover after the graining but we don’t, because our temperature is too low and we just cannot get it to work anymore once the graining clears.”

Haas were strong during pre-season testing in Barcelona, but Steiner says the recent struggles mean he is not taking an improved showing in Spain for granted.

“Well my confidence level at the moment is not very high, obviously, as you can imagine! Confident? No. We need to see where we are going [to improve].”