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Hamilton was cautious in final stint, felt Leclerc to be fair in pass

Darshan Chokhani — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 21:08:18 +0000

Lewis Hamilton was cautious about pushing in F1 Mexico GP on the medium tyre, as he notes that Charles Leclerc was fair in fight.

It wasn’t looking that great for Mercedes on Friday and Saturday in F1 Mexico GP, but they came alive on Sunday especially on the side of Hamilton. The Brit made a good start and passed one Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in the pits amid chances of one stop.

The red flag played in the hands of Hamilton when Mercedes decided to put the medium compound for the final stint. Ferrari were in the hope of a drop off on those tyres against the hard that Leclerc was on, but that never happened.

Hamilton hustled Leclerc and got through him crucially where the Monegasque made it as tight as possible to force him on the grass. But the Brit made it stick and kept his tyres alive until the end where he set the fastest lap as well.

He was cautious though and tried pushing to catch Max Verstappen but when he saw the Dutchman’s pace, he gave up. “I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I’ve saved enough, let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max,” said Hamilton. “I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ah, I’ll leave it.

“He was just cruising at 21.9. So yeah, so I thought I’d leave it there. And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres… if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.

“Honestly, this weekend, we’ve been very, very slow on the straight. In general, we’ve were quite draggy on the straights more often than not but this weekend, you know, like yesterday, we were losing like two-and-a-half tenths just into Turn 1 before we even start braking.

“So, these guys were very slippery on the straights so, trying to follow closely through Turns 16 and 17 was, was really the only way that I could get close enough and have an opportunity to make the DRS impactful. And yeah, finally, I pressed every button on the steering wheel, maximum power.

“And I didn’t know how far across he was going to go. But split second decision, I decided to go to the right. There’s just enough space there but Charles was really fair. But yeah, great racing,” summed up Hamilton, who noted that the team did not change much in the car from practice to race as he expanded on the meaning behind Jenson Button’s finesse.

“We didn’t change anything obviously since qualifying,” said Hamilton. “I think the car is just quite peaky in qualifying on light fuel. But when you put a load of fuel in it, the car just handles nicer. Just nice to drive and I think we struck a really nice set-up this weekend and particularly today for the race.

“Then, other than that, it’s just really good tyre management. And so yeah, I generally enjoyed it. It’s not the most physical of races, being that you can’t push all the way, you’re saving. You’re doing 200, 300 metres of lift and coast to keep the car cool and stop it from failing.

“So, yeah, but I was I was definitely hoping maybe there’ll be an opportunity to get closer to Max. As for the finesse, it’s about how much you’re sliding the tyre, it’s about the balance that you have. If you have too much wing in… too much front end in the car, then the car is like… imagine it a bit like a seesaw.

“You want to start a long stint – or a stint – with the car understeering, because as the rears go off, the seesaw tips, and then it goes to oversteer. And when it goes to oversteer, that’s when you’re lost most often. Unless it’s the other way around, where the front tyres are the issue, for example. And, just finding that balance is very, very difficult.

“And it’s… you go out and do your laps of the grid, for example, on a Soft tyre, it requires a different setting for the Medium tyre. And I think just really then, just focusing on all of the three sections and figuring out how to… where you can and can’t push. And I think today was just a really great balance of lift and coast and tyre saving. And it’s a technique. I mean, all the drivers know about it,” summed up Hamilton.

Leclerc, meanwhile, noted that the pace of Ferrari didn’t work on the hard compound which is why he couldn’t catch Hamilton. “I think it still confirms the weaknesses of our car, where it’s a very peaky car,” he said. “And whenever we get out of the optimal window of the car, we are losing too much time. And that’s exactly what happened on the Hard.

“At first, I thought I could do quite a good job once we stopped. But then there was a red flag, the tyres cooled down, we went back out and the feeling was just not the same and I couldn’t find the feeling again with the tyres. So it’s a bit of a shame because before that it was really good, especially on the Medium.

“But we’ll look into it, again, on the Hard to try and understand what went wrong there, in order to improve that in the future. But I think short term, there’s no big fixes. I think every time we are, as I said, a bit out of the optimal window, we lose too much time.”

Here’s Charles Leclerc on Turn 1 hit

Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Hamilton was cautious in final stint, felt Leclerc to be fair in pass ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Norris had moments but felt good with P5; Stella recalls Valencia

Darshan Chokhani — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:11:18 +0000

Lando Norris was fine with the F1 Mexico GP strategy amid passing spree, as Andrea Stella recalls Valencia 2012 while praising his performance.

It was a mighty run from McLaren’s Norris in F1 Mexico GP to finish fifth after starting from 17th in the grand prix. He opted to start on the soft compound which he thinks was the correct choice as they wanted to get a clean and clear start on the softest tyre.

Even though he gained limited amount of places, it was fine as the idea was to switch to hard and go as long as possible to switch to either medium and or soft towards the end. The safety car period hampered the plans to use the soft compound.

They pitted to switch to mediums in an early call but the race was red-flagged. The re-start actually did not work for Norris who dropped down to 14th. But the way he fought back to pass nine cars in a mighty show – which included a team helped pass on Oscar Piastri.

He ended up fifth eventually after a messy qualifying in a solid recovery drive. At the end of it, the mindset was if only they were in Q3 but even a drive like in Mexico showed his capabilities which surprised himself whether it was the passes or preserving tyres.

He felt good passing George Russell and Daniel Ricciardo, as team boss Stella recalled the 2012 race in Valencia where Fernando Alonso started outside the Top 10 with Ferrari and ended up to win the grand prix when the Italian was part of that team.

Soft tyre start but a fun race –

Norris: “Absolutely, the soft start was good choice. It just helped me a bit in the start, off the line and things like that. It’s always tough in Turn 1, it can go your way, it can not go your way. But I think we played everything smart. I think we played it well. Maybe the safety car and a couple things weren’t perfect times for us. The VSC and so forth. But otherwise, I think everything pretty much went our way, and we maximised. The soft included. I enjoyed the whole thing, apart from my restart. I don’t know if you saw it. But I probably had to avoid a very big crash, just people coming across, not probably realising that people can be three abreast. So, I avoided two extremely big crashes, which would have been very nasty. So, a bit more self-awareness of some drivers would be great.”

Re-start trouble –

Norris: “You can see it from on board. It’s not why I lost out, I lost out because of a bad start. But I lost out even more because of these things. The pace was amazing: From already lap 1, there was a lot of management involved. On the radio when I came over line, the first time I got told to cool the engine. So, we maybe weren’t perfectly set up for these things. And I couldn’t maybe push as much as I wanted to at times. But in the times I could, which was a lot of the second stint. The pace was excellent, to go from 14th/15th to fifth, to have better pace than almost everyone bar Hamilton and Max was very encouraging for us. So yeah, as perfect of a day as I could probably ask for.”

Team work with Piastri and passing Russell, Ricciardo –

Norris: “I didn’t ask to go past or anything. I was happy to race against him. It was clear just from pace and points that I eventually went on to get that it was the correct thing to do from a team perspective. Thanks to Oscar. And yes, George didn’t make it easier but neither did Daniel! Deep down, because I know those guys, not really well. I know Daniel, he’s not going to want to give it up easily. Two tough ones, but enjoyable, all the racing up after the restart was fair, tough and hard. And that’s when it’s good fun.”

What could have been –

Norris: “Of course, of course. I think that’s why right, I know people complain at why I’m so disappointed at times. And it’s because of days like today. Of course, I’m going to be disappointed, right? Like there’s a chance to finish on the podium and get another trophy, score more points. Why would I ever be happy about a day like yesterday? I moved on very quickly, I moved on better than I did in Qatar. And we put a lot of focus on today. That was evident, and then it paid off. I’m never going to be happy after a day like yesterday, right? Because I know what we’re capable of doing. And when you have a day like today, then you think of the ‘what could have been’? There’s too many ‘what could have been’ at the minute. I just need to tidy some things up, and then things can start to roll.”

Summing up Norris’ fight –

Stella: “This race made me think of Valencia 2012. At the time we started 11th and then we won the race. We were having exactly this conversation on the pitwall. Will Joseph, his race engineer, turned to me and he said: ‘That’s one of Lando’s best!’ And I said: ‘Will, that’s one of the best of all!’. So many overtakes in Mexico, when yesterday if you read the quotes everyone was saying it’s so difficult to overtake, while managing power unit temperatures, and having to do lift and coast. I’m just impressed. One of the best days for a driver that I have been part of. On one side, we are excited having seen this kind of masterpiece. On the other side, like Lando said on the in-lap, let’s do a good job on Saturday and we can fight for podiums. The pace was there to fight for podiums.”

Frustration of qualifying –

Stella: “There is a little element of frustration, but at the same time, if you asked me yesterday, nowhere near would I have thought we could have overtake so many cars. I’d rather take the positive out of this race and I hope that the entire team at the factory and all the fans receive the same sort of message. We are there. We don’t give up. We are competitive. But we need to do a better job overall over a race weekend.”

Strategy, pace of the car –

Stella: “We were in a position to be the second best car, possibly shared with Hamilton. But even the stint that Lando did when he went on hard, because we wanted to elect a strategy that would give us as much free air as possible. So after the 10 laps on soft, we went on hard and that pace was even strong. It was a controlled pace because we wanted to go very-very long and then have a final stint on the medium or even soft depending on how long we would have gone. We were nervous going on the medium tyres in red flag.”

Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Norris had moments but felt good with P5; Stella recalls Valencia ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Magnussen hurt his hands as Bottas/Stroll play down their collision

Darshan Chokhani — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 13:43:28 +0000

Kevin Magnussen has hurt his hands in F1 Mexico GP shunt, as Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll play down their clash.

It was going relatively smooth for Haas’ Magnussen in F1 Mexico GP until a wide moment coming out of the final corner onto the main straight after 35 laps. Moments later, the Dane suffered a heavy shunt at Turn 7-8 where he went straight onto the tyre barrier.

He immediately jumped off the car onto the fence as the car caught a bit of fire in the heat when marshals rushed in to douse the flames. Magnussen was taken to the medical center but was cleared of any injuries even though he noted about hurting his hands.

Haas is looking at the cause of the incident but slow-mo replays showed the rear-left suspension going broke which led to the crash. It could be related to him going off in the final corner further straining the suspension which broke due to heat.

“It was the rear-left, I suddenly lost a lot of grip, we saw it a couple of laps before that and then it gave up,” said Magnussen to media. “At the beginning of the race it was better with tyre wear. Then suddenly I fell off more than the others and then the suspension gave up, so I don’t know if it’s related.

“Maybe there’s something there but I need to go and talk to the team. The crash happened in a bad place and I hit the wall, so I got a knock on my hands and they hurt a little bit, but they’re fine. We have to investigate a bit more what exactly happened as it just gave up,” summed up Magnussen, whose teammate Nico Hulkenberg was running in points until the final moments where his tyres gave up.

His fight included Alfa Romeo’s Bottas and Aston Martin’s Stroll, who made contact in the final stages where the Canadian was spun around and forced to retire in the pits. While the duo took it as a racing incident at Turn 13-14, the FIA blamed it on the Finn.

Having started inside the Top 10, Bottas lost the gear sync at the start to drop outside of the points. He was suffering from overheating brakes too. “In Turn 14, there was no space for two cars,” he said. “Obviously, he did keep it pretty tight but like I couldn’t just really disappear.

“I don’t know if it was a racing incident but I lost I don’t know a chance of points but I lost at least a chance to fight,” summed up Bottas, as Stroll was equally fine. “Not much to say, it is just racing,” he said. “It is a tricky corner, a bit tight exit leading onto the next, so just one of those racing incidents where I went for a dive and we basically touched.”

Here’s the crash of Kevin Magnussen: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-mexico-city-grand-prix-race-red-flagged-after-big-crash-for-magnussen.1781125674302254057.html

Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Magnussen hurt his hands as Bottas/Stroll play down their collision ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Perez would risk again if need be as Horner, Leclerc add on

Darshan Chokhani — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:04:03 +0000

Sergio Perez reflects on Lap 1 incident in F1 Mexico GP as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Christian Horner add their views.

It wasn’t a sight that the Mexican fans wanted to see at the start of F1 Mexico GP and something that Red Bull boss Horner feared for as well. A good launch from fifth helped Perez to go on the outside of Ferrari’s Leclerc and Verstappen.

But while turning into the corner, Perez and Leclerc made contact which sent the Mexican flying onto the tarmac run-off. It was enough to damage his underside of the floor and rear suspension as his day ended at Turn 1 itself, much to everyone’s disappointment.

Perez had the killer push to win the grand prix which is why he wasn’t too regretful for going all in but he paid the price for the risk. He accepted it as well even though he was naturally disappointed to go out in that manner while fighting for second in the standings.

Perez was surprised by Leclerc’s late brake but didn’t blame him for the incident as in those split seconds things can happen. Verstappen too understood the Mexican’s intention to go for it and same was for Horner, even though he had fears of a crash.

But the blip isn’t putting them down as they will be pushing in the next three races to help Perez keep second from Hamilton, who is now only 20 points behind. Even for the 2024 season, there is no clause to let him go if he doesn’t end up second in the standings.

Perez (how was it): “It’s certainly pretty high up there. I’ve had some really sad moments in my career, but certainly this is, as a race, the saddest one, because of the end result. But at the end of the day, this is just racing. I go home very sad, but I also go very proud of my team, of myself. We gave it all. I knew that today a was not enough for me. I really wanted to go for the win, and when I saw the gap, I went for it. I was not expecting Charles to brake that late. I was already ahead of him, he was in the middle, so there was a lot less room for manoeuvre. Once you are committed to the braking zone at those speeds, it’s just too late, but he was obviously there, and with these wide cars, three cars into Turn 1 is not going to end up well. But you decide to take a risk, I decided to take it and I paid the price.”

Perez (bounce back and letting fans down): “Not difficult at all [to bounce back]. It’s a weekend where I risked it all to go for the win, the pace was there, but it just didn’t happen. This is just how racing is. I’ve been here long enough to understand that you have days like this. But what makes me feel proud is that I gave it my all and that’s it. Yes, it is really sad, the last thing you want to see happen is this situation but it is how it is sometimes but we look forward. To be honest, I feel I would have let them down more if I didn’t go for it. I saw the gap, I went for it. I decided to take a risk, I knew it was going to be very risky, and I ended up paying the price. It was a pretty high risk to take, but it was worth taking it. And yes, I would [take the risk again and do same if need be].”

Leclerc: “A lot of booing… A lot of booing. Guys. I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. So I was a bit in between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. It’s life. It damaged my car and unfortunately it ended the race of Checo. But yeah, on our end, we maximised our race. It’s life and of course I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose and I had nowhere to go. I tried to stay on the right as much as possible, as close as I could to Max. But unfortunately, there was no space anymore for me to be any more to the right. I think Checo was probably not aware that I had Max on my rights and started to turn in. And when I saw that, I knew that we will collide at one point, which we did. And after that, I was extremely surprised that I could the finish the race anyway.

Verstappen: “No, not nervous at all at the start. I mean, it’s not the first time that I’ve been two-wide or three-wide into Turn 1 here. But also, I mean, we all trust each other. And of course, we’re all on the limit, braking into the corner, but it was all fine, I think. But then yeah, of course, I saw on my outside that something happened. But yeah, luckily, on the inside, we could stay out of trouble. I understand [Checo’s push] because it’s his home Grand Prix. You want to be on the podium, I fully understand that he went around the outside and he tried. Looking, of course, at the footage, I think he could have left a little bit more space but on the other hand if it would have worked, you look amazing. I think it’s just more that excitement of wanting to be on the podium and this time it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”

Horner (thoughts on crash and if there was no crash): “I’m absolutely gutted to see Checo go out on the first corner. He had probably his best start of the season, got the draft and the tow from the three cars ahead, so arrived with massive over-speed. And you can’t blame him, at his home race, going to try to take the lead of the grand prix. I think you’d have to call it a racing incident, because three into one doesn’t go, and Charles, obviously, couldn’t get out of it and he braked late. So, yeah frustrating for Checo, and really disappointing for his fans to lose him at the first corner. The guys did their best to get him back out but there was just too much damage to the floor and underbody of the car. You could see on the replay that Charles was in a bit of a Red Bull sandwich. The radio was okay, it was just the underside of the car which was damaged. Had he not crashed, it would have been a straight fight between the two of them. So it could have been an interesting afternoon. Checo had good pace this weekend, it’s just frustrating that it was a first corner incident. That was my fear going into the race.”

Horner (what said after): “It’s a tough moment for him. It’s in front of his home crowd, and he was very emotional, and I just said to him, ‘The next race is next week. You’re going for the lead in your home race, you wouldn’t be a racing driver if you weren’t going for it’. I think he would have been on the podium for sure without a shadow of a doubt. It’s a big loss for him here with a car that was capable of being on the podium.”

Horner (P2 in standings and 2024): “He’s got three races now to convert that second place, it is 20 points between him and Lewis. He’s had some misfortune, he’s had some issues but we still believe he can do it between now and the end of the year. It is not as binary as that (if he loses to Lewis for second). You have to got to look at the circumstances and so on, Checo has an agreement with us for next year and that’s our intention to for him to be in the car in 2024 but we will give all the support to ensure he finishes second but there is no pre-requisite that if he doesn’t finish second, you are out. He’s a tough operator, and that’s why he’s in the car, because mentally, he’s always been able to bounce back. He’ll brush himself down and he’ll turn it into motivation. A sprint race in Brazil. Las Vegas, a street circuit, he’s always run well at street circuits. Abu Dhabi, he’s always been competitive there as well. He’ll have the full support of the team to try and achieve something that we’ve not done before.”

Here’s the crash involving Sergio Perez: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-mexico-city-grand-prix-drama-on-the-race-start-as-perez-collides-with-leclerc-and-verstappen-takes-the-lead.1781122202817478487.html

Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Perez would risk again if need be as Horner, Leclerc add on ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mexico GP: Verstappen dominates from Hamilton after red flag

Darshan Chokhani — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 22:12:47 +0000

Max Verstappen was dominant again in F1 Mexico GP after red flag as Lewis Hamilton ended up second from Charles Leclerc.

It was a busy start in F1 Mexico GP as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the lead from third after taking the inside line into Turn 1 from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who collided with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. The Mexican tried the outside line which didn’t work.

He turned right into Turn 1 and their wheels touched which sent Perez onto the run-off as Leclerc damaged his endplate which shed away later on. The Mexican pitted as Red Bull tried to fix the damage but it was too much for him to get back out in his home event.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was third as AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo maintained fourth from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. His teammate George Russell lost to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at Turn 12 for sixth, with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg gaining four places to eighth.

He brought Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in ninth with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in 10th as teammate Valtteri Bottas dropped to 12th after a wide moment behind Williams’ Alexander Albon. McLaren’s soft gamble with Lando Norris didn’t yield great results at the start.

He was only 15th from 17th and stuck behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. It was clean for the next couple of laps but Leclerc’s endplate needed VSC to be cleared off, as the Monegasque still managed to keep his teammate off from second.

Hamilton, meanwhile, tried a couple of times to pass Ricciardo for fourth which he finally managed to. His teammate Russell was hustling Piastri, as Gasly tried to push Hulkenberg. Just behind them, Albon made a move on Guanyu to be 10th in the points.

There was a brief yellow flag for AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda when he went off at Turn 1 after locking-up while trying to pass Haas.Kevin Magnussen outside the Top 10. The Japanese driver pitted early as did Norris after his soft tyre gamble didn’t work.

At the front, Verstappen led well but pitted early on Lap 19 as others around him continued on. Leclerc assumed the lead of F1 Mexico GP as the FIA put him under investigation for driving a car which was running in unsafe condition at the start of the F1 grand prix.

Once both the Ferrari drivers pitted, it was Verstappen in the lead of F1 Mexico GP again with Leclerc in second from Hamilton who managed to pass Sainz. Ricciardo was fifth from Piastri and Russell as Norris climbed up to eighth ahead of Albon.

There was a moment for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen on the straight which seemingly damaged the left-rear suspension. It failed at the exit of Turn 7 as he went straight onto the barrier at high speed. The safety car was out but it converted into a red flag.

Verstappen, Norris and Albon pitted from the Top 10 but the Dutchman retained the F1 Mexico GP lead with the Brit dropping to 10th and the Thai in 12th. Leclerc was second from Hamilton, Sainz, Ricciardo, Piastri, Russell, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg and Norris in the Top 10.

Post red flag –

The re-start worked well for Verstappen who led from Leclerc and Hamilton as Sainz was fourth from Russell. The Brit managed to pass Ricciardo while Piastri was seventh from Tsunoda, Albon and Hulkenberg in the Top 10 where the Thai made up four places.

Norris dropped out in 14th from 10th where the Alpine pair gained places. At the front, Verstappen started to stretch out as Hamilton tried a couple of times before making his move on Leclerc to take second at Turn 1 after electing to use the medium tyre.

Russell tried to pass Sainz but he couldn’t. It was same from Tsunoda who kind of made it stick on Piastri but the Australian was back ahead. Hulkenberg was chasing Albon for ninth, as Norris started to make inroads after clearing couple of cars.

It was getting tasty at the fag end of the Top 10. Tsunoda tried hard to pass Piastri for seventh. The two made small contact at Turn 2 initially but the Australian stayed in front. The Japanese came back on the next lap but turned in early to make contact.

He went off to rejoin in 16th with Piastri continuing in seventh with the collision under investigation. His teammate Norris passed Ocon, Hulkenberg and Albon to move up to eighth. It was a brave move on the Frenchman at Turn 1 with the German just ahead.

Albon was ninth from Hulkenberg, with Ocon, Gasly and Bottas close behind. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, was asked to retire from the race. With Verstappen stretching a big lead to Hamilton, the Brit was comfortably ahead of Leclerc.

His teammate Sainz held off Russell well as Norris passed Ricciardo for sixth after team orders was played around against Piastri. The Australian was well ahead of Albon in eighth, while Hulkenberg in 10th had Ocon and Gasly on him for a good number of laps.

Finally, Ocon and Gasly both cleared Hulkenberg with the former in the points in 10th. There was contact at the back of field when Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll tried to pass Bottas. The Finn left room but there was contact still which has been put under investigation.

Stroll retired eventually as in the points Norris passed Russell smartly at Turn 5 on switch back to get himself in fifth from 14th on re-start. At the front, Verstappen eased in to win F1 Mexico GP by 13.875s from Hamilton who took the fastest lap on the final lap.

Leclerc was third from Sainz with Norris in fifth ahead of Russell who just resisted Ricciardo for sixth, as Piastri was eighth from Albon and Ocon in the Top 10. Teammate Gasly was 11th from Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Guany, with Sargeant classified in 16th despite pitting to retire on final lap due to fuel pump issue.

UPDATE: The FIA cleared both Piastri and Tsunoda of their double contacts at two occasions, while they also cleared Leclerc for driving in unsafe car. The stewards put him under investigation as data suggested a scenario of waving the black and orange flag.

But since the endplate detached, the situation was under control and warranted no penalty. Here: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Car%2016%20-%20Alleged%20driving%20a%20car%20in%20an%20unsafe%20condition.pdf

Bottas, meanwhile, has been handed a 5s time penalty and two penalty points for colliding with Stroll. The stewards reckon that while returning to racing line, the Finn made contact with the Canadian who had passed him at Turn 13 and so he is predominantly to be blamed. This drops him behind teammate Guanyu in 16th.

Here: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Infringement%20-%20Car%2077%20-%20Causing%20a%20collision.pdf

L'entrada Mexico GP: Verstappen dominates from Hamilton after red flag ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Lawson says Super Formula a big influence despite losing title

FormulaRapida.net — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 18:16:42 +0000

Liam Lawson is not fussed at losing the 2023 Super Formula title after the final round in Suzuka as he credits for good learning.

Round 9 of the 2023 Japanese Super Formula Championship was held on Sunday, October 29th at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, and Katsunoshin Ohta took his first win in the final round of his rookie year. Also, Rio Miyata won the Drivers’ Championship in his fourth year racing with Super Formula.

The Suzuka Final was held over two days, Saturday and Sunday, with two races. Due to the crash in the Round 8, held on the previous day, Ukyo Sasahara (VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S) and Hiroki Otsu (TCS NAKAJIMA RACING) were unable to participate in the race, leaving 20 entries at the 22nd JAF Suzuka Grand Prix. The knockout style qualifying for Round 9 kicked off at 8:50am.

In Qualifying A, Tomoki Nojiri (TEAM MUGEN), who is aiming for his 3rd consecutive Drivers’ title, went through Q1 with the top time. In Qualifying B, top ranked Ritomo Miyata (VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S) was 2nd, and 3rd in the Championshipʼs ranking Liam Lawson (TEAM MUGEN) passed Q1 with the top time in B group.

In Q2, where the top 6 drivers in each group, 12 drivers in total, were to compete, Lawson showed a determined time attack and took pole position, Ohta came in 2nd and Nojiri in 3rd, and Miyata, the seasonʼs top ranked driver, finishing 4th in the Qualifying session. The starting grid for the seasonʼs final race, which will decide the Championship, was lined up with the top three ranked drivers from the bottom to the top, promising a very exciting and a fierce final race.

At 2:30 p.m., under the temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and track surface temperature of 29 degrees Celsius, after one lap of formation lap, the 31 lap Round 9 race kicked off at the 5.8 km Suzuka Circuit. Nojiri, who started 3rd, was passed by Miyata and dropped to 4th as he was blocked by Lawson, who got off to a slow start. In the early laps of the race, the top four cars were evenly spaced, but after 10 laps were completed when tires could be changed, Miyata went for the mandatory pit stop at the end of lap 12. The team made quick work to get him back on the course.

At the end of lap 13, Lawson came into the pits. He, too, made no mistake and returned to the course, but was locked in a fierce battle for position with Miyata, who was right behind him. However, Lawson was able to hold off Miyata on the inside at each corner to prevent Miyata from making a comeback. Meanwhile, the leader, Ohta, pits and successfully returns to the course still in the lead.

Nojiri stayed on the course without changing tires until the end, but his pace did not improve and he finally made the pit stop on the 23rd lap. On the out lap after the tire change, he allowed Nobuharu Matsushita (B-MAX RACING TEAM) to pass him, but on the 26th lap, Nojiri was able to regain the lead at the chicane, and moved back up to 4th position. However, he could not reach Miyata, who was running in front, and finished the race in 4th position.

The gap between Ohta and Lawson, who was defending the lead, remained close, but Ohta held on until the end to take his first win in the final round of his rookie year. As a result, Ohta won the 9th round, Lawson came in 2nd, and Miyata came in 3rd. With the result of Round 9, Miyata, in his fourth year in the series, was crowned the long-sought Driver’s
Champion.

“I think it’s been a really great, amazing year. It’s been a very tough season too,” said Lawson after finishing second in the drivers’ standings. “Nick Cassidy, who raced in Super Formula in the past I’m good friends with him, and I’ve heard the same thing from him, and he always told me. It takes time to see results.

“But, do your best! I thought it was a big challenge for me (participating in Super Formula), so I wanted to get as much help as possible from everyone and make it all my own.Season Looking back, I think it was a really good season. It’s a shame that we didn’t win the championship, but I think Miyata ran a great and stable race throughout the year.

“He was always on the podium. I am truly honored to have been able to compete with TEAM MUGEN for one year. I learned a lot in preparation for F1, and it had a big influence on me. The growth I was able to do with TEAM MUGEN in Super Formula also helped me in F1 as well. I think we connected. I’m very grateful,” summed up Lawson.

Here’s full standings and results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Super_Formula_Championship

[Note: The story is as per press release]

L'entrada Lawson says Super Formula a big influence despite losing title ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

F1 Mexico GP, Sat: Surprise from Ferrari; up/down results & more

Darshan Chokhani — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 15:12:50 +0000

The Saturday in F1 Mexico GP threw in a surprise with Ferrari taking centerstage in a hectic qualifying which saw jumbled up result.

The result at the end of Saturday in F1 Mexico GP wasn’t an expected one where Ferrari ended up 1-2 with Charles Leclerc taking another pole from Carlos Sainz. The duo’s first quick laps were enough for a front-row finish and beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman did improve but it was still not enough as almost everyone struggled to get a quick lap in. But front-row in Mexico is something no one likes considering the long run to Turn 1 and the slipstream that the drivers behind will get to ease past at Turn 1.

Even on race pace side, Ferrari are a bit cautious against Red Bull but they are ahead of the likes of Mercedes and McLaren which is a win. While the former saw both the cars make it in Q3 even though they struggled to get a good lap, the latter had a mixed result.

Lando Norris exited in Q1 after a tyre gamble and a mistake didn’t work for him where his teammate Oscar Piastri made in Q3 but could only manage fifth. The Australian was ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as the trio of the F1 teams will be in a tight battle.

They will have Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who was surprised by Ferrari’s result as he expected a Top 3 finish. The Mexican got pipped by even AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, who surprised everyone with a fourth place finish on his own after tow from Yuki Tsunoda in Q1 and Q2.

Leclerc: “It’s again a really big surprise. But we keep saying that every time we do a pole position, so people will stop believing in what we say. But I did not expect it. And this time until really late in the session. I think in most of the other sessions from Q1 we were on it and then we saw that there was a potential for pole position. There, until Q3, we had no idea that it was inside the car. And yeah, for some reason in Q3 I managed to put more or less everything together apart from the last sector. And straight away the lap time came straight away. So that was a good surprise. But I think it still shows us that our car is still a bit peaky. And we need to work in that direction for it to make it better in all conditions. Just having a cleaner lap. In Q2, it was a bit messy with the traffic exiting the pit lane. The warm-up is super important and it’s very, very difficult to put the tyres in the right window here. So everything makes a difference. It was a very bad on the out lap and then I had a bit of traffic also in my lap, and all of that made a huge difference.

“But it made a much bigger difference than what I thought, because even though I knew there was a bit more time coming, I did not expect to gain eight tenths. It’s a very difficult race here. Everything can happen, especially with the cooling. Whichever car is behind will do a bit more management, so that can play in our favour. But for that we need to do a good start. And starting first here, it’s always tricky to keep that position into the first corner, but we’ve had pretty good starts this year. So I’m confident we can keep that first place into Turn 1 and then we’ll try and do our best race. Like in karting! Well, to be honest, we haven’t discussed yet and we’ll discuss about it but at the same time, it’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen at Turn 1. It’s basically a result of how good a start one will have. And then we’ll adapt. I think, obviously, we won’t take too many risks in between cars. But apart from that, it’s difficult to plan what’s happening at the start. It depends if I have a good start, if I have a bad start, so difficult to plan that.”

Sainz: “Honestly, it’s been a tricky weekend again. Putting laps together has been extremely difficult for me on the Soft tyre. And yeah, up until Q3, run one I hadn’t done a good lap all weekend. And then suddenly that lap, even though it had a snap in Turn 8/9, that I nearly lost the car, it was a pretty good lap. But when I saw 17.2 on the dash, I was like, ‘yeah, I don’t know where this is coming from right now’. But it just shows, like Charles said, that there’s still something that we need to understand, something that we need to look at – why our car suddenly, when it comes to low fuel and Soft tyres and Q3, high grip, it comes alive and then suddenly, in some sessions, or on higher fuel, more worn tyres, then it’s a trickier car. It’s something that we’re working on and something that sometimes gives us some very good surprises and sometimes some other not so good ones, so we’ll work on it. As for the race, I don’t know.

“I think it’s impossible to tell around Mexico. Obviously if we do laps like we do today we can aim for the podium or the win but to do that for 71 laps in our car is a bit trickier. Also, with our tyre management, it’s trickier and 71 laps, I think, normally that is where Red Bull makes a difference but together with Charles, we will try and do everything we can do to keep him behind and try to challenge that win. I think it’s impossible to predict these kind of things. Only thing I can say is I’m starting, maybe, on the dirty side, which here is quite a big difference. I was almost kind of expecting Max to beat me a bit and maybe put me on P3 to have a better launch tomorrow. But even like that, I think it’s impossible to say. I think it will be a fun start, a fun run down to Turn One. I think Max will be on the attack. We will all be trying to get slipstream, so it’s always a good run down to Turn 1 here.”

Verstappen: “I mean, it’s always difficult to tell, you know? I’m not part of their team, so I don’t know what’s going on. But yeah, I personally just expected it to be a little bit better in evolution through Qualifying from our side. And I think that’s what we were lacking a little bit. I think Q1 was okay, Q2 wasn’t too bad but then it just seemed to like, fall away from us, like the improvements were not big enough, coming into Q3. But this track is also extremely difficult in qualifying, to basically almost, let’s say, hit the perfect lap. Because it’s so low grip, if you tried to push a little bit more, you might overheat the tyres, or you have a little slide. And that’s, I think, what happened to me today, where I tried to find a little bit more time, but then the balance wasn’t exactly there. And then you’re sliding, you overheat your tyres, and then in the last sector, you have no tyres left. And that’s basically a bit I think what happened. Yeah, it’s just this track is very, very difficult to put a perfect lap together. My race pace? Good. Yep. I also have two Hard tyres. So, nobody else has them, really around me. So that’s also maybe an advantage for tomorrow. But yeah, again, I mean, a lot can happen into Turn 1 already.”

Norris: “I locked up, I went off on my one lap. We had one problem on the first run, and then the yellow flag from Fernando’s spin on the final runs, so it was a shame, but my one opportunity that I needed to put a lap in I locked up and I went off. I mean, it’s difficult to go backwards, I’ll be worried if I go backwards tomorrow. The pace is good, Oscar’s doing a good job. I probably should have gone P1 if I put my lap in before, but there’s a lot of ‘shoulda woulda coulda’ for me at the minute. Yeah, a shame, but points will be our target so we’ll see what we can do.”

Ricciardo: “There’s lots of good energy right now. I just want to rip my shirt off! Look, I’m very happy with P4, it’s an amazing result for us as a team. So on the one hand, I think the result is crazy – but already from yesterday, even from the first lap, I just had a lot of good feeling in the car. A few things that didn’t go our way last weekend – I certainly carried a little bit of a chip on my shoulder this week coming into the weekend; I couldn’t wait, couldn’t wait to get back in the car, I was as excited and hungry as I’ve felt in a very long time. Obviously today is half the job. We’ll focus on tomorrow in an hour or so, but in the next hour, we’ll enjoy this and it feels very, very nice.

“On one hand, I say that would be awesome and crazy, but I don’t know if I should use the word ‘crazy’, because I think today wasn’t a fluke. I think Q1 and Q2, Yuki was great and gave us a slipstream, so that definitely gave us that extra little tenth or two to get in. But Q3, we were out there on our own and we had raw pace, so I think from that point of view: no fluke, we’ve got the pace to do it. You would expect the top teams to maybe show a little bit more on long runs. But personally, I feel great in the car, I feel confident, so I’ll put up a fight and if we’re here, P4 or somewhere around there tomorrow, I think we’ll be pretty happy. As I said, half the job’s done. I’m still keeping that fire in the belly for tomorrow.”

Hamilton: “I had been struggling all weekend with this car. The car has been a bit of a nightmare to drive, and to be able to piece it all. It just doesn’t like this track. We made some good changes going into qualifying, was much happier with the car. I wish we had done it in the morning, but then Q1 and Q2 weren’t looking too bad. Q2 second lap was great but the car is just really peaky, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and I just wasn’t able to extract much more from it in the end. In a perfect world, maybe I could have been fifth but that’s about it. It’s going to be a real challenge with that car tomorrow. We are overheating, brakes are overheating, it’s going to be very hard for us to battle. So, I don’t know what kind of race we are going to have but it’s going to be on the knife edge.”

The Top 10 also had the Alfa Romeo pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, where the former made it in after lap deletion for Williams’ Alexander Albon. The Thai had a disappointing qualifying after showing solid pace all-through practice.

As the team were baffled to see the strong pace, they were equally confused to see the dip in pace in qualifying. His teammate Logan Sargeant not only had his laps deleted but was handed a penalty for overtaking under yellow flags.

It wasn’t a good run for Aston Martin either as Fernando Alonso admitted of struggle to be knocked out in Q2, with teammate Lance Stroll unable to make it out Q1 which was the case for Haas and also Alpine pairs in a mixed situation.

Bottas: “It’s great to have both cars in Q3, especially considering where we were just a week ago. I am really proud of the team for the work done: everything ran smoothly today. The track definitely suits our car quite well, so it’s been good fun out there: I think I got the most out of our car today, despite a lock-up in the last sector on my final lap. Looking ahead to tomorrow, with the pace we’ve shown so far, as well as what we have learnt in practice, I reckon we have a concrete chance to bring home some good points, so I am looking forward to getting in the mix.”

Albon: “I don’t think it was track limits, however, I might be wrong. Based on the external view of the shot, it looked to me that my rear tyres were still on the white line, however, it is what it is. It’s really frustrating but what’s more frustrating is the lack of pace in Qualifying; I was four or five-tenths slower than I was in FP3, losing a lot of grip, so I almost had to do tyre management to keep the tyres alive into sector 3. It was the same from FP1 to FP2 and now FP3 to Quali, so we really need to look into it. We’ll look to tomorrow and see what we can do.”

Alonso: “It was a very tricky Qualifying session today and we’ve not been performing at our best so far this weekend. We’ve tried a few different things with the set-up, but we seem to be losing pace everywhere over the lap. The race will be tough for everyone with the high temperatures and usually there is a lot of traffic around this circuit. However, we remain hopeful of scoring points tomorrow. After all, we were running in the top 10 in Austin despite having started from the pitlane. It’s a long race tomorrow and we will keep pushing.”

Hulkenberg: “You’re always hoping for more. With the weekend that we’ve had, it’s been a real struggle and we’ve played a lot with the set up, but I’m happy with the changes made going into qualifying again. It felt good, positive, and to be honest, if you told me P12 before the session, I would’ve definitely taken that. It’s tough, we’re not quick enough on merit so we’ll need outside circumstances to help us get a result, but we’ll hang in there and hopefully get something from it.”

Ocon: “It’s been a tough Saturday and an unfortunate day for us. After a positive Friday, and with the target of reaching Q3, it’s certainly a tough one to take to exit in Q1. We tried to be aggressive in Q1 on two sets of tyres and, in the end, it did not pay off with some traffic and incidents on my second push lap. It’s certainly frustrating as we were not able to show our true potential and I know there was more on the table today, especially given the close margins throughout the field. Points are scored on Sundays and I remain optimistic for tomorrow’s race. I have had some good starts this year and another one tomorrow will be important. We have to put ourselves in a position to take any opportunities and scoring points remains my goal.”

Here’s how F1 Mexico GP qualifying panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada F1 Mexico GP, Sat: Surprise from Ferrari; up/down results & more ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mexico GP: Leclerc takes surprise pole in Ferrari 1-2 finish

Darshan Chokhani — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 22:06:36 +0000

Ferrari surprised with a 1-2 finish in F1 Mexico GP as Charles Leclerc took pole from Carlos Sainz, with Max Verstappen in third.

Q1:

It was a hectic first part of F1 Mexico GP qualifying as traffic and strategy played a key role in the order to be decided. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led the way with a 1m18.099s lap to lead McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo in the Top 10.

McLaren opted for a single run on the soft tyre after starting out on the medium along with Mercedes and Ferrari pair. But the gamble for McLaren didn’t work as Lando Norris was knocked out after he made a mistake on his soft tyre which left him only 19th.

He set a 1m21.554s lap as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m19.080s) was also knocked out in 16th from Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m19.163s) and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (1m19.227s), as Williams’ Logan Sargeant had all of fast laps deleted due to track limits.

There was a late spin for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso which brought out the yellow flag and resulted in multiple drivers being put under investigation for failing to slow under the yellow flag which had Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Sargeant.

Mercedes’ George Russell, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Norris were put under investigation for failing to follow the maximum delta time. Russell is also under investigation for impeding at pit exit along with Alonso and Verstappen.

Q2:

It was still hectic in second part of F1 Mexico GP qualifying as a late lap from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton put him on top with a 1m17.571s to displace Verstappen with the other Mercedes of Russell slotting in third in the Top 3 places.

AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda did not set a time but helped teammate Daniel Ricciardo with a tow. A late push from Williams’ Alexander Albon helped him into the Top 10 but post-session, his lap was deleted due to cutting the corner by riding over the kerb at Turn 2.

It helped Guanyu to be inside the Top 10 to make it a double with Valtteri Bottas already in. Williams were also put under investigation for putting an equipment in the pitlane which was knocked over by Tsunoda while he exited his garage for qualifying.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was first to be knocked out in 11th after his 1m18.521s lap with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m18.524s) in 12th from Alonso (1m18.738s) and Albon (1m19.147s) to make it 14 drivers with a classified time.

Q3:

The third part in F1 Mexico GP started with a bang as Ferrari were 1-2 in the provisional pole situation with Charles Leclerc (1m17.166s) ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz (1m17.233s) to drop Verstappen to third after replays showed the Dutchman going aggressive at Turn 8.

AlphaTauri’s Ricciardo was fourth from Mercedes’ Russell in the Top 5 before their final run. The Top 2 didn’t improve but still held onto a 1-2 finish with a gap of 0.067s as Leclerc took F1 Mexico GP pole, with Verstappen (1m17.263s) in third where he was 0.097s off Leclerc.

Ricciardo (1m17.382s) was fourth from Perez (1m17.423s) in the Top 5 as Hamilton (1m17.454s) couldn’t get well on his final attempt to be sixth from Piastri (1m17.623s), Russell (1m17.674s), Bottas (1m18.032s) and Guanyu (1m18.050s) in the Top 10.

UPDATE: The FIA cleared Russell, Norris and Guanyu who were investigated for going beyond the maximum time between the two safety car lines. Here: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Qualifying%20SC2-SC1%20Times.pdf

The FIA also cleared Russell, Verstappen and Alonso of the pitlane impeding case where the Dutchman drove slowly while the other two stopped at the pit exit. The stewards state the drivers create gaps while exiting the pitlane to maintain the safety car line time, which they feel is a better way to manage the time rather than driving slowly on the track.

Details (same explanation for all three): https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Car%2063%20-%20Alleged%20impeding%20at%20Pit%20Exit.pdf

The FIA cleared Hamilton of failing slow down for the yellow flag as the light box showcased green followed by yellow light. The Brit was slower in the mini sector than his previous lap as well. Here: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Car%2044%20-%20Alleged%20failure%20to%20slow%20under%20yellow%20flags.pdf

Sargeant, meanwhile, was handed a 10 place grid drop for overtaking Tsunoda under yellow flag. His light board also showed green in patches but the FIA reckons overtaking under yellow is still enough to penalise the American who did not set a time after his laps were deleted but is allowed to start.

Here: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1718508634957549589?s=20

Also, Williams were handed a fine of €20,000 for having a jack placed in the pitlane which was run over by Tsunoda. Of this, €10,000 is suspended for a period of 12 months provided a similar offence is not repeated by the F1 team.

Here: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1718507842020184342?s=20

L'entrada Mexico GP: Leclerc takes surprise pole in Ferrari 1-2 finish ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mexico GP: Verstappen fastest in FP3 but only 0.070s from Albon

Darshan Chokhani — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:44:27 +0000

Max Verstappen remained on top in F3 of F1 Mexico GP but by just from Alexander Albon, with Sergio Perez in third.

It was mostly smooth running in FP3 of F1 Mexico GP but the sliding continued for majority of the drivers. It was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen making it three in a row to top the session with a 1m17.887s lap but he was just ahead by 0.070s over a Williams.

Like FP1 where he was just 0.095s ahead, Alexander Albon was closer this time in second, with a repeat of the results where Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was third. Mercedes’ George Russell was fourth in a better run despite a moment he had in the session.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fifth on his second quick lap after his first lap was slightly hampered due to a moment at Turn 12, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas continuing his fine show in sixth from AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda after his late improvement.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was down in eighth from the other AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in 10th who also had a moment at Turn 12 on his fast lap. The other Williams of Logan Sargeant did well in 11th despite the gap to Albon.

Even Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu did well in 12th from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who went around the second time after his final run was disrupted by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was 14th from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

The Canadian had his own moment on his quick lap as he was noted for impeding Sainz but cleared. The Spaniard had a spin behind him on his fast lap which left him only 15th ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and the other Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard too had a low-key run amid a difficult time, with Alpine going downwards where Pierre Gasly was 18th and Esteban Ocon 20th. Both had moments with the former doing so early in the session and the latter having late in the session.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was 19th after his run was hampered due to rear-left wheel damage on his first stint. Considering he only had one set left, the team could only do one stint to undertake on the soft compound.

Here’s what was said after Friday in F1 Mexico GP

L'entrada Mexico GP: Verstappen fastest in FP3 but only 0.070s from Albon ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

F1 Mexico GP, Fri: Close pack on one lap; rookies run & more

Darshan Chokhani — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 12:15:21 +0000

The Friday in F1 Mexico GP was back to normalcy as Pirelli brought a new compound to test and teams got more track time being a normal weekend.

It was mostly a smooth run on Friday in F1 Mexico GP where the grip levels played a role with drivers sliding but it wasn’t too harmful. The one lap pace showed a tight grid but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led the way comfortably in the front of the pack.

The Dutchman felt good but is wary of the degradation on the long run. His teammate was off him but not too far away. Considering the tight field, he is behind few cars with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the mix.

The Monegasque reckons McLaren to be ahead of them so far which will be the aim to beat. Their teammates did not have a superb run where Oscar Piastri spent time learning the circuit, while Carlos Sainz had his soft tyres overheating quickly.

In the mix, Mercedes seemed a bit off pace with the car sliding a lot in the high speed section. This made it tougher to extract much on one lap and they will have to improve their one lap pace with Lewis Hamilton facing clear difference from Austin.

The two sessions saw surprise entrants too as Williams’ Alexander Albon was second in FP1. He was outside Top 10 in FP2 but completed his one lap run way early than others. Also, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was fourth in FP2 despite missing FP1.

Verstappen: “I mean of course we look competitive so that’s good, but there are always a few things to still improve. But overall, I think it was a positive start to the weekend, probably a little bit better than I expected. But you can see the track is very slippery, tyres are very difficult to manage as well in the long run, so there are still a few things that I think we can work on. I mean McLaren have been close already for a few races now, so for me there is no surprise there. Tomorrow is going to be incredibly competitive over one lap. The race pace again is different story.”

Norris: “Is that the challenge, within one and a half tenths? Many drivers were within three tenths! I think it was a good Friday. A good start to the weekend anyway. It’s close, so it seems it could swing very quickly either way. I did a very good lap, maybe too good for this early in the weekend! We’ll continue to try to improve, but it’s a good start. Not a lot [we could change]. We started the weekend off well. I think we generally always start weekends off well. I think we always have a good idea of where to put the car to begin with, and it’s not far off normally where we end the weekend. There’s not a lot to gain through the weekends. There’s always little things and those little things add up. There’s still stuff to improve, also from my driving, little things here and there, but to challenge the Red Bull I think is going to be tough around here.”

Leclerc: “Yeah, we still have a lot of work to do as the McLaren seems to be extremely strong, obviously the Red Bull and Max seem to be very strong. The Mercedes seem to be a bit difficult to read into now, but focusing on ourselves, we know the areas we need to work on and hopefully that will help us to do a step forward for tomorrow. It will be a huge surprise if we do pole position tomorrow but never say never. It’s a tricky track, it’s difficult to put the lap together but I feel this weekend we are a bit too far away.”

Hamilton: “Not that great. Dodgy, not dodgy, but not the greatest. A bit of a struggle in the car today. I mean the car is night and day different compared to last week. And yeah, I don’t know what to say, you just never know what you’re going to get with this one. Some days she’s great and some days she’s not. I think it’s hard to extract the lap, I think there is definitely performance there. It’s just hard to extract it and it’s quite peaky this weekend with the aero map or whatever it might be. So, we are going to work on it overnight but definitely it wasn’t a fun day compared to FP1 in Austin. We are a bit off but hopefully overnight we can find something and tomorrow the car will be better to drive. I’m not sure. Again, we never know what to expect with this car, maybe we make the changes, and we’ll pick that pace up. I think there was definitely some performance in there to be closer, maybe in the top three. But we’ve got to figure out how to make it easier for us to extract that performance, so that’s what we’ll be working on tonight.”

Albon: “I don’t think we were slow in the FP2, but we obviously had a good run in the first session. We were better than expected but I think we just hit the ground running and optimised the window from the first lap, whereas other teams potentially took a bit longer to get up to speed. We were quick on the Test tyre but my lap on the Softs wasn’t very good. This is a circuit that doesn’t feel great for anyone with the low downforce; you feel like you’re sliding around a lot, however comparing year on year, it’s a big step, so let’s see how we go tomorrow. I don’t think we’re top five or top 10 but I do think we’ll be in a position to fight for Q3 tomorrow.”

Bottas: “I am pleased with how today went: thankfully, we found the issue that affected our car during FP1, and we were able to address it and quickly solve it between the sessions; I would like to thank our mechanics for the hard work put in to get the car back on track. Of course, it was a shame for Théo to miss such an important outing, but I am positive he’ll be back in the car soon. Overall, FP2 has been a clean session, which is important as it was the only practice of the day for me. I got a good number of laps under my belt, and the feeling with the car was generally pretty good. Still, it is only Friday: now our focus will go onto further improving both the setup and my confidence with the track, to fine-tune our car and place ourselves in comfortable positions ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Much like Albon and Bottas, the Top 10 got AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo too who showed good pace and seems confident to make it in Q3. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda will start last after taking power unit elements which is why he focused on long run pace.

Also, Alpine looked to be a good shape especially for Esteban Ocon who was also inside the Top 10 and felt good in the car. Aston Martin, meanwhile, were behind again but they did not do a soft tyre run after a half spin for Fernando Alonso.

They were forced to undertake long run plan while Lance Stroll had a wheel stuck which hampered his session. Haas got more time with their new package but one lap time side, they were a bit behind amid the pack of F1 rookies.

While Theo Pourchaire was unlucky to not get a proper run in the Alfa Romeo, the likes of Haas’ Oliver Bearman, AlphaTauri’s Isack Hadjar, Mercedes’ Frederik Vesti and Alpine’s Jack Doohan got plenty of laps in a trouble-free run.

Ricciardo: “Since the race in Austin, I’ve been hungry to keep going and get back in the car. After last week’s race, we discovered some things that made me want to prove that we have pace. Today was a very good day. I enjoy this place, and the car was solid. From the get-go, I was certainly comfortable, and because it isn’t a Sprint weekend, we have more time to try some things. We continued to chip away and made good progress with our setup, and we look like we’re in a good place, so I’m confident we can carry this performance into tomorrow. The field is close, and you never know what other teams are doing exactly, but I know what I felt in the car today was good, and I believe it’s a top 10 car tomorrow.”

Ocon: “It was a very good Friday for us here at the Autódromo. We got through a very busy programme without issues and made good progress between the sessions. We are, of course, keeping our heads down, debriefing as a team, and focusing on how to best approach Qualifying tomorrow. We’ll be working hard overnight to be in the best position to try and reach Q3 and put ourselves in a strong position ahead of Sunday’s race. I feel good in the car, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Alonso: “Today we focused a lot on race pace and high fuel running. It’s difficult to read too much into the times, but the set up felt good and we will continue to optimise the AMR23 in Free Practice 3 tomorrow.”

Hulkenberg: “It was a challenging day. Obviously, coming to Mexico each year we have the same challenge with the thin air, it has some pretty significant side effects. It didn’t feel too good today and the timesheets also don’t look too good so there’s some homework for us to do to find some performance overnight. We’ve had two solid sessions of work, progress, and exploring things, so that was definitely a positive.”

Vesti: “This is a very special weekend for me, it’s a dream come true and I’m very grateful to the team for the opportunity. Since I’ve joined the team’s junior programme, there’s been a lot of work going into getting the right results and lots of preparations in the simulator to prepare me for today. It was a good session for us overall, we managed to get some useful information from the long run stints and understand the prototype tyres and degradation at this track. I’ve never raced here before and it’s definitely a difficult track with low grip, which you can also really feel in the car. So, lots of learnings for me and the team today in this one-hour long practice session and hopefully good preparations for decent results on Sunday. And I can’t wait to be back in Abu Dhabi and sit in the car for the team again.”

Doohan: “It was a really good session and I felt very comfortable in the car right from my first lap. I was glad to contribute to the team’s programme, which, on my side, focused on a couple of future test items. It was important to get through the session without any issues and tick all the boxes on our run list, which we were able to achieve trouble-free. I’ve been testing throughout the year in the 2021 car, so I definitely felt ready for today and it meant we could be right on it from the start. I’m very grateful to the team for the opportunity and for their trust and support both in the build-up ahead of the day and during the session itself. I’m now looking forward to seeing how the rest of the weekend unfolds for the team and offering my support where I can.”

Hadjar: “It’s the best day of my life! My first ever time in an F1 car was incredible, so I’m happy. There was so much going on with the procedures and traffic that it was overwhelming at first. It was tough, but I got into a rhythm quite quickly, and my confidence grew. During my first runs, I was struggling to get a lap without traffic, but in the last run, the race pace was quite good and consistent, and I could manage the soft compound for a few laps. It was a really good experience, and now I can’t wait to be back in the car.”

Bearman: “My first goal was to have a clean session and we did that, so that was the main thing. Secondly, I got up to speed quite fast, I had confidence in the car – it was my first time on the soft tyres, my first time doing a long run – and I’ll do better the second time, but for my first FP1 I’m happy. The thing that surprised me was how much quicker you arrive at Turn 1 on a quali sim, compared to the race. The guys have given me pointers throughout, especially because the track is so unique due to the altitude. It was over so fast, but I’m going to be back on the sim preparing for Abu Dhabi.”

Pourchaire: “I’m grateful to the team for this opportunity, even though we didn’t get much in terms of laps today. Unfortunately, I suffered an issue on the braking system at the beginning of the session, which prevented me to get any running throughout FP1 – the priority was, rightly, to promptly investigate the problem. Of course, it is a bit frustrating, as I was really looking forward to driving the C43 out on track; still, it’s all part of motorsport, and something like this can happen at any time – and, at least, it was during practice. On a positive note, the team was able to quickly address the issue and solve it between the sessions, so that Valtteri could get some proper track time this afternoon. I am hopeful I will get some more time in the car, but now, I will resume my reserve driver duties, while putting my focus on the Formula 2 finale which will take place in a little less than a month. There’s a job to be done and I want to give 100% towards my objective.”

Pirelli: “After two weekends run to the Sprint format, Mexico City marks a return to the usual one, with Friday given over mainly to an evaluation of the various compounds we have chosen for this event. In addition, we also had a test programme for a new version of the C4, with each driver having two sets available to use as they saw fit. We would like to thank all the teams for their support in this important phase of development, because it’s not easy squeezing something extra in what is always a very busy programme. I think we have gathered a lot of useful data – with significant results from some of the comparative tests between the current Medium and the prototype – which will see us make a decision in the coming days over its eventual inclusion in the 2024 range.”

Here’s how FP1 of F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s how FP2 of F1 Mexico GP panned out

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada F1 Mexico GP, Fri: Close pack on one lap; rookies run & more ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mexico GP: Verstappen stays on top in FP2 from Norris, Leclerc

Darshan Chokhani — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 23:01:24 +0000

Max Verstappen set the pace in FP2 of F1 Mexico GP as well as Lando Norris slotted in second from Charles Leclerc.

It was a smooth running in FP2 of F1 Mexico GP where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued to set the pace with a 1m18.686s lap ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to make it three different teams in the Top 3.

In fact, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas made it four different teams in fourth after the Finn returned to drive having given up the car to Theo Pourchaire. The problems faced by the Frenchman was solved in between the sessions with the car on pace in FP2.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fifth after his initial soft run was hampered by double yellow flag and he had to do a couple of cool down laps. He led AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, who did well in sixth from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.

The Brit made it inside the Top 10 but still had to fight the car with teammate George Russell in 10th behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. There were several drivers using the kerbs heavily at certain section of the track and having some moments too.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was 11th and outside the Top 10 with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in 12th from Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, Williams’ Alexander Albon, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly – as the Top 16 ended up within a second of Verstappen’s time.

Williams’ Logan Sargeant was 17th from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who didn’t get a proper soft tyre run to have his best time on the medium compound. He lost time after the team had to use hammer to get the front left tyre off the Canadian’s car which got stuck.

His teammate Fernando Alonso was 20th on the medium compound behind Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, as the Spaniard’s soft tyre run was ruined due to half spin. The start of the session saw light drizzle and the end of it too saw light rain falling.

Here’s how FP1 of F1 Mexico GP panned out

L'entrada Mexico GP: Verstappen stays on top in FP2 from Norris, Leclerc ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mexico GP: Verstappen only 0.095s quicker than Albon in FP1

Darshan Chokhani — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 19:45:14 +0000

Max Verstappen was fastest in FP1 of F1 Mexico GP but not far ahead of Alexander Albon, with Sergio Perez in third.

Half of the F1 field ran FP1 drivers in Mexico GP in a normal weekend as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the pace with a 1m19.718s lap which was only 0.095s quicker than Williams’ Alexander Albon, who put in a surprise second place lap.

Verstappen had minor issues with his pedal but it didn’t hamper him much with teammate Sergio Perez ending up in third from McLaren’s Lando Norris. The Brit also complained of rev issue early on but it was a trouble-free run all-through the session.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fifth after missing early part due to a suspected engine issue. The other Ferrari also had hydraulic issue with Carlos Sainz in seventh behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who set his best time on the C4 prototype compound.

AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo was eighth from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounding off the Top 10 whereby the first of Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was 11th. Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was 12th after a late improvement on his final lap.

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was 13th from the other Williams of Logan Sargeant, who was more than a second away from Albon. The first of F1 rookies was Oliver Bearman in 15th, having taken over the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was only 16th but he spent a lot of time in the pits with the mechanics working on the car. He led rookies Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Frederik Vesti in the AlphaTauri, Alpine and Mercedes cars respectively.

They filled in for Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly and George Russell, with Alfa Romeo’s Theo Pourchaire unable to set a time due to brake system issue which the team tired to fix but they couldn’t despite changing the steering wheel. He replaced Valtteri Bottas.

The session was smooth all along but there were several drivers going over the kerbs and sliding over them, while some also had off moments too. Even though Tsunoda did not run, he has taken up a new ICE, TC, MGU-H, MGU-K, ES and CE where he is set for a grid penalty as all of the new components are beyond the set number.

Here’s the note: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition.pdf

L'entrada Mexico GP: Verstappen only 0.095s quicker than Albon in FP1 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Verstappen talks having security in Mexico GP, fan behaviour

Darshan Chokhani — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:27:40 +0000

Max Verstappen talks about having more security in F1 Mexico GP, but plays down any big issues with crowd and Sergio Perez as well.

Ahead of the F1 Mexico GP weekend, Helmut Marko talked about hiring extra security for Red Bull’s Verstappen. It was just done to not disrupt any potential dangers for the Dutchman who could have faced troubles from the local fans.

Red Bull didn’t want any potential problems and wanted to keep the flow of his weekend at a smooth level. Verstappen was fine to have two extra people around him and noted about having no troubles in the marketing events prior to Thursday.

“I mean, why not,” said Verstappen when asked about extra security. “I mean I have, of course, a bit more security here, but there are always a few countries around the world where it is very busy in the paddock. For example, last year here, it was really, really busy to get from your hospitality to the garage and it just helps to make things smoother on-track, off-track, from your hotel and stuff like that.

“We will do it whenever we think it’s helping with the general flow of the weekend. I feel very safe, on [Wednesday], I had a full day of marketing and honestly, it’s been a great reception here like I have always had, so it is good to be back,” summed up Verstappen, who felt the ‘Racepect’ campaign from Mexico GP organisers is a good measure.

He feels it is more in general scenario and is a good awareness tool. But he played down any troubles or rivalry between him and Sergio Perez as has been played about in the lead-up to the weekend in Mexican press. He feels the Racepect is more towards the fans.

He brought about the boos from F1 US GP which didn’t gel well as he felt, even if you don’t like someone, there should be respect at the very least. “That’s made up, Checo and I, we get on really well,” said Verstappen. “For us, I don’t think there is any rivalry. Of course, as a driver on track you always try to be first or be faster, but I think we have a lot of respect for each other, and we appreciate each other’s performances.

“I think it’s a good thing that it maybe starts here now, but it’s not only here. I think in general, the behaviour of the crowd in some places, I think can be a bit better. For example, in Austin, maybe it was a bit towards me, but in general. I think the behaviour of supporting your favourite driver is fine. But then you also have to respect the competition.

“But this is not only in our sport. It is a general problem in a lot of sports that needs to be looked at and needs to be improved. Luckily, I don’t spend a lot of time on social media, because it’s quite a toxic place. People who don’t need to show their face or whatever, they can say whatever they want. And again, this is not only in our sport.

“In a lot of different sports it’s the same problem So I think it needs to be much better regulated, what can be said and done and written to people in general,” summed up Verstappen, as Perez also feels that there is no rivalry with the Dutchman as such.

“I think obviously, we are all rivals but at the same time we are all sports athletes, and we all want to do the best for ourselves,” said Perez. “Max and myself, we are in the same team so we both want to win and we are all giving our best so I don’t think that there should be any rivalry.

“For example, if I’m fighting in the race with Fernando, he’s not my rival out of the track, it’s just that we are just fighting on track. But like I say, the media likes to create this rivalry out of the track which I don’t think is right and it’s important for the fans to understand that.

“And I think it’s important that we give this message, because I think media likes to create this sort of rivalry outside the track and I think we are a great sport. We are a great example for a lot of young generations and we should just be focused on the sport side. And whatever happens on track should always stay there and that’s the best message we, as a country, want to give to the rest of the world. And yeah, there is nothing else going on. The most important thing is that everything stays on track.”

Here’s F1 drivers on post-race checks

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Verstappen talks having security in Mexico GP, fan behaviour ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

F1 drivers in a fix about post-race random checks and its handling

Darshan Chokhani — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 11:10:37 +0000

F1 drivers discuss about all cars checking post the US GP disqualification where it is just an unfortunate situation where only handful are checked.

The post-race random checks came in question after the US GP disqualification of both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, while Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were safe. Only four cars were checked as is the case at several events with such checks.

Considering the back-to-back weekends and also the general lack of time to check all the 20 cars for everything, the FIA selects cars randomly and perform those extensive analysis. All the 10 F1 teams know about this and have agreed to the regulations too.

But considering the track surface in US GP and it being a sprint weekend, the F1 drivers are certain that there were more cars whose plank would have been deemed illegal. And no one has one clear solution to this problem as it can be anyone in the next grand prix.

Here’s what the F1 drivers feel regarding the situation –

Lewis Hamilton: “I just came out of the press conference, got back, and I was about to get in the ice tub. And then Toto came running down and told me. Obviously, I was devastated as it had been such a great day and great race. But yeah, and then I didn’t find out fully until I was back home. Yeah, just a bit deflated after the day, but there were lots of positives to take from it. Firstly I’ve heard from several different sources that there were a lot of other cars that were also illegal. But they weren’t tested, so they got away with it. I’ve been racing here 16 years, there’s been times where there’s been many other scenarios like this where some people got away with certain things, and some people have just been unlucky they got tested. So I think ultimately there probably needs to be some sort of better structure in terms of making sure it’s fair and even across the board. We’ve never had that problem in Austin before. It was just because we had the sprint race as well, so an easy solution, an easy fix for that one, for example, is that we are able to change the floors after the… Well, just approach the weekend differently, where the car is not set already from Friday morning.

“Especially at the bumpiest track that we’ve been on, because that’s really the only reason that there are failures, it’s just because it’s so bumpy, and some cars have better ride quality than others. Look at the Ferrari, look at Charles’ head and my head. We have pretty bad ride, and our heads are bumping around quite a lot because the car is hitting the deck. It’s not because we generally are just pushing the car too low. I think firstly we need to just address the point that last year, our car was best when it was low, super low. So we were low and stiff. Our car works better at high ride heights now. So it’s not that we’re just pushing the car too low. It was just an unfortunate scenario. 0.05 [mm] failure on the rear skid, it’s not going to make the difference between winning and losing. So that error wasn’t the reason that we were as fast as were. So that’s why it’s just been painful for us. Because, you know, if we had changed our rear springs, for example, perhaps we would have had better ride. But anyways, we’re hopeful that the performance will continue this weekend. And yeah, just making sure that guys don’t overreact. I think we’ll be fine.”

Charles Leclerc: “It was a complete surprise. Because on Friday, when we could change the car, there was zero wear – it’s not like we were touching anywhere. Then you get to the race and obviously things had changed, but we were illegal. Rules are rules and they need to be respected whatever, so it’s no excuse to say that Friday we were fine. We need to look into it to try and better anticipate what’s going to be the wear on Sunday. There are so many more things. There’s also kerb riding, there’s different things, but kerb riding also is a thing. But at the end, yes, we should’ve anticipated better and we’ll look into it for the future. I was surprised because, again, also on the Saturday night, we could see more or less where we were touching and we thought there was still plenty of margin. Then we finished on Sunday and it was a big surprise, so we are still in the analysing part of where exactly did we wear the plank more than what we expected – because it wasn’t expected.”

Max Verstappen: “I don’t think anyone does it on purpose. It’s just even more because of this sprint format that you only have one practice session where you try to nail everything and once you are in the wrong, there’s nothing you can do. I think we should just get rid of the sprint weekend and then everyone can just set up their cars normally, because it wouldn’t have happened on a normal race weekend. These things only happen when you have a sprint weekend where everything is so rushed in between FP1 and qualifying and you think: ‘Hmm, we might be okay’. On our side, we were a bit too conservative but that is still better than the other way. The only thing you can do is pump up the tyre pressures, but then you’re driving around on balloon tyres. So it’s of course not what you want to see, I guess also for them, as a team.

“Of course we know that dropping the car, it gives you performance, but I think it’s also just because of that whole format that you put yourself in this position, because normally I don’t think anyone in a normal weekend would run like that. Then you only get the race result on Tuesday if you check every car. The problem is that it’s just impossible to check everything. But the thought process from every team is no one wants to be illegal, so no one sets up their car to be illegal. Then, of course, you have these random checks that get carried out and sometimes it’s the top four, sometimes it’s in the middle of the field, the back, that’s just how it goes, you can’t check every car for every single part of the car, otherwise we need 100 more people to do this kind of thing. I think when you check one car of the team and it’s illegal, then I think you should check the other one as well. That’s for me, the only thing. Because otherwise you DQ one, then the other one moves up one position where normally you always run quite similar set-ups.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “Or I might have been illegal myself! You never know. Obviously these cars are incredibly sensitive to the ride height. The lower you get, the more downforce you get, that’s the constant fight we have, and we need to find the right balance. I think Austin is a bit specific with the bumpiness and also with a lot of apex and exit kerbs where you can run them quite aggressively – but you do use the plank and wear down those shims a lot, so maybe there is something to be to be looked at in a different way. Yeah.

Pierre Gasly: “I think there’s a couple of things which we could do to improve what’s happened in Austin. I think starting with the Sprint weekend when we’ve got only the FP1 session on such a track. You’re doing 15 laps with quite a low amount of fuel in the car. So, to get a gauge of what you’re going to get for the next 70 laps, with two Qualifyings, a Sprint race, a complete Grand Prix of 59 laps, with a lot of fuel. You’re going pretty much blind after FP1 with very few informations on where to base yourself. So, I think it’s a tricky thing. Probably we can improve that process giving us more time to readjust if needed. I just remember my karting days, where you know, all top three cars were always checked. Whenever you finish on the podium, you should be checked every single time, and then on top of that, there could be random checks as well, running down the order. But yeah, I think it’s been always from the past, only in F1, where it’s not a standard to check all top three cars. But it was tricky, and I think the Sprint format made it even more even more tricky, considering we have a very short amount of time to set the car up.

Alexander Albon: “Same as Pierre and Nico. I don’t think there’s too much to add. I think, as Pierre touched on, what the teams have in terms of data and information to set the ride heights for the weekend is very marginal, there’s not even really enough time to fill the cars up in FP1, just to get a feel for where they need to be. But on the same side, I do think, maybe you don’t need to check every car, every race all the time. But, you know, if there’s one, one driver in one team illegal, there’s a very, very high chance that the other car, the teammate of that driver, is going to be illegal as well. So I don’t know how much it would take to check a couple more cars, but I don’t think that would be such an issue. But I don’t know, I’m not a scrutineer.”

Esteban Ocon: “Yeah, I’m rejoining these guys. I think it is an extremely difficult exercise. Just to be guessing, you know, what your ride height has to be. There is a risk and reward, obviously, in that, sort of, exercise – that if you get the car lower you get more performance, but you know, it’s at the risk of are you going to be illegal with your plank. Yeah, I mean, we’ve seen cars changing set-up throughout the weekends because of those things. And yeah, it is just too short in FP1 really to set your car up. So yeah, I’m sure it’s not the first time that there were cars illegal like that on such weekends or such a Sprint weekend. I think on normal format, it’s a lot less likely to happen. But yeah, I’m sure on the other races there was as well.”

Yuki Tsynoda: “Yeah, pretty much aligned to everyone. But we got a prize from the previous race. So, so far, I don’t have to change I think.”

George Russell: “I think it’s a very different layout here. Obviously, with the one session in Austin, we did all of the standard checks after FP1 and the plank looked absolutely fine. So there was no reason after the practice session to make any changes, but obviously we got that very wrong. I expect the nature of this circuit to be naturally more conservative and with the three practice sessions, I don’t foresee any issues there.”

Here’s more from Mercedes on the findings

Here’s Mercedes, Ferrari reacting to DQ

Here’s what the FIA said about the DQ

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada F1 drivers in a fix about post-race random checks and its handling ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

FIA shares Mexico GP track limits, DRS, circuit changes & more

Darshan Chokhani — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 20:51:21 +0000

The FIA has shared details for Mexico GP with regards to track limits, DRS zones, changes to circuit and more.

The white line remains as the track limits boundary as per the FIA Race Directors’ Note for F1 Mexico GP but like we saw in US GP, things can change if deemed so after Friday running. They have added a pointer for safe re-joining though.

It deals with Turn 11 run-off area. “Any driver whose car passes completely behind the red and white kerb at the apex of Turn 11 must re-join the track by keeping to the right of the first polystyrene block arrangement and then wholly to the left of the second polystyrene block parallel to the on the exit of the corner,” stated the FIA.

In terms of the DRS zones, the detection point for the first one is at 70m after Turn 9 while its activation is at 80m after Turn 11. The second and third’s detection zone is at the exit of Turn 15, while its activation zone is at 165m after Turn 17.

At the same time, the third’s activation zone is 115m after Turn 3. Moving on to the circuit changes, they are minimal since the last event. One is ‘removal of TecPro on LHS between Turn 4 and Turn 5’ and other is ‘removal of the combination kerb on LHS at Turn 4’.

As for the FIA stewards, the panel will be led by Garry Connelly, who will have support from Loic Bacquelaine, Danny Sullivan and Alfonso Orgos Trigueros. In other news, Ferrari informed about Carlos Sainz missing Thursday media day due to being unwell.

He will only join Ferrari trackside on Friday for the FP1 session. “Carlos won’t be at the track today as he’s feeling unwell. Nothing serious, so we expect him to be back tomorrow and ready to jump in the car,” a small statement stated.

Here’s the full FIA Race Directors’ note: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Mexico%20City%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Race%20Director’s%20Event%20Notes.pdf

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada FIA shares Mexico GP track limits, DRS, circuit changes & more ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Norris perplexed by Aston Martin going slower as Ferrari is target

Neil Farrell — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 17:07:13 +0000

Lando Norris reckons Aston Martin is going slower with their updates, as he says McLaren is on course to catch Ferrari in F1 2023.

Third place on Sunday became runners up spot for Norris in the wake of the disqualification of fellow countryman Lewis Hamilton. Since the British GP where he took second place also, he has in fact been the second best driver in the championship behind Max Verstappen.

Five second place finishes plus a third place at Qatar have seen not just Norris but McLaren as well as rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri’s stock rise massively. Currently now lying sixth in the title race, his target is Carlos Sainz who is just 12 points ahead.

Fernando Alonso is fourth with the gap of 24 points. McLaren, like Norris are definitely on the up and with four races remaining. The team went past Aston Martin for fourth in the US GP and now sit 80 points behind Ferrari with four races remaining.

Norris feels they managed to get Aston Martin because the team went slower and slower with their updates and now they can catch Ferrari knowing the pace McLaren is showing. “I just wish it had got bigger (the gap against Ferrari),” he started. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that! That’s I guess where we’re looking? It’s our target.

“I think we are in a good rhythm. It’s been clear that Aston… I don’t know, they seem to have managed to make the car slower and slower with every upgrade that they’ve bought… They have! I mean they were racing Aston in the beginning of the year and I don’t know where they finished”.

“But you know, they were out in Q1 and then they’ve been struggling, so I don’t know what their issues are. But you know, they were very strong, they had a lot of points in the first half of the season and in the second half they’ve been struggling, and for us it’s vice versa”.

“So I think the main thing is that when you look at where we were, how bad Bahrain was for us, how many seconds off pole we were, you know my six pit stops in the first race of the season, I lost my PU straight away… So there are things that sort of put us on the back foot from the beginning and when you look at where we are now, to be fighting against a Red Bull, which was an unrealistic target for almost anyone, and fighting against a Mercedes”.

“As much as we are disappointed that we can’t go for a race win, when you put it in perspective of where we were and how much we’ve improved, I think it’s still an amazing day for us,” summed up Norris.

As a team, they have really come back majorly strong in the second part of the campaign. As per above, a massive difference compared to Bahrain and having gone above Aston Martin as noted above in the constructors’ championship, it is a very long shot at Ferrari but stranger things have happened and if they keep up their current form, who knows what the remaining four Grands Prix could throw up.

Here’s Lando Norris on leading and duel with Lewis Hamilton

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L'entrada Norris perplexed by Aston Martin going slower as Ferrari is target ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Opinion: F1 could borrow MotoGP’s weekend format to ‘spice up’

FormulaRapida.net — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:18:11 +0000

Other racing series has adopted bits and pieces from F1 in the years gone by but do they need to borrow some ideas from MotoGP?

Since a few years, F1 has tried to spice up the weekend and make it more attractive and exciting for the fans. Their latest gimmick is the sprint race weekend, where free practice and qualifying for the main Grand Prix on Sunday, is already done on Friday. For Saturday, F1 has chosen a stand-alone sprint race, with qualifying in the morning and a shortened race in the afternoon. Many fans are still not warming up to the sprint format and also a number of drivers aren’t really happy with it.

Since the idea isn’t measuring up to the expectations, F1 is now searching for another way to spice things up. Ideas like a reverse grid, a sim race with a prize or even a stand-alone sprint championship are on the table, but I’ve had an idea a long time ago, which never got considered (naturally).

Here’s my idea and it is almost the same as the (old) MotoGP format:

On Friday, FP1, as always, will be used for short runs to tweak the baseline set-up of the car BUT… lap times matter. For a full hour and a half, teams can set-up the car as they want but qualifying runs will be needed at some point as the fastest lap time will be taken into FP2. This way, a usually slower car can do a low-fuel run and set a Top 10 time, which makes it more exciting for the fans to watch. Also the weather conditions can play a part in it because, if it starts raining and the top teams haven’t set a fast time yet, it can make it more difficult for them in FP2.

During FP2, a one hour session, it’s all about fine-tuning the car for qualifying and the classification of FP1 will be used as a starting point for FP2. This means that teams and drivers need to be at their A-game as their position on the timing screen can drop if they don’t set a fast enough time. On the other hand, if a driver during FP1 had trouble with rain or set-up issues, they have a chance to make up places by setting a better lap time. Like in qualifying, a driver with an overall great time can feel safe, but if others do a better lap time on a rubbered track, that driver needs to go out again to improve his time.

This should be more fun and exciting for the fans to watch as well. At the end of the Friday sessions, we have a classification of 20 drivers and their combined times. The 10 fastest times, don’t have to start Qualifying 1 and are straight through to the second part of qualifying. The slowest 10 times will start Q1 on the Saturday afternoon. On Saturday, the morning starts with FP3 and other than FP1 and FP2, the lap times don’t matter. All drivers will get one hour to do their long-runs in order to prepare for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The reason to do the long runs on Saturday morning instead of Friday afternoon, is the fact that the track and air temperature will probably be slightly different to the temperature on the Sunday afternoon, which gives it a slight off-set of what to expect.

It results in a tiny bit of guess work, which makes it also a bit more exciting and unpredictable. The Saturday afternoon is the time for qualifying. Instead of the current Q1, Q2 and Q3, I’m thinking of a session in two parts. Q1 will last 25 minutes and has the 10 cars that had the slowest combined time on the Friday. Of those 10 cars, the fastest two will go through to Q2, which makes Q1 pretty exciting as the slowest car on Friday, can have an awesome Q1 session and is still able to go for a great qualifying result. After Q1 is finished, positions 13 to 20 are set for the Grand Prix on Sunday. Between Q1 and Q2 will be a 10 minute break, not only to get 13 to 20 back in the garage, but also to get the fastest 2 of Q1 ready for Q2.

Then Q2 will also last 25 minutes to give 12 cars the chance to have a few runs to set their fastest time. After Q2, the Top 12 is set and so is the (provisional) grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The reason to have two separate sessions for qualifying and have the sessions last 25 minutes is to eliminate the chance of impeding, which is a big issue at times. As for the tyres, I would stay with the allocated amount that the supplier delivered BUT, I would give the teams free choice on what to use in which session. If they run out new tyres by the time the race starts, that’s their own fault. They can use softs for the Q1 session or go with two sets of medium during FP2, it’s all up to the teams. I would like the tyre supplier to keep the fans updated with what the teams have used during the weekend and which sets are still available for the race.

This way the fans can also speculate on what could be possible. On Sunday afternoon, the race will be as always, same time, same length. Difference is, even though the grid might have been shuffled up a bit, the teams have no accurate data about long runs as they have been done in different temperature conditions. So there you have it. My idea on what an exciting weekend might look like. For teams, for drivers but especially, for the fans.

I’m old school and didn’t think there was anything wrong with the old format because, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But… if the way forward is to make a change in the weekend format, then why not make a change for the better to spice up the show, without adding gimmicks like the sprint race, where nobody really asked for.

The opinion has been written by MsportXtra

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L'entrada Opinion: F1 could borrow MotoGP’s weekend format to ‘spice up’ ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Mercedes explains findings after analysis, adds on US GP strategy

Darshan Chokhani — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:51:46 +0000

Mercedes explains their findings from F1 US GP disqualification and how it came about, as it adds on handling the moment and strategy.

What looked like a promising weekend for Mercedes in F1 US GP with the updates they brought looking towards 2024, it ended up in a disqualification from second for Lewis Hamilton. Although, it helped George Russell gain places but they lost points too.

Hamilton is fighting for second in the standings against Sergio Perez, while Mercedes is defending second from Ferrari in the constructors’ side. The sprint weekend coupled with the bumpy nature of the Circuit of the Americas proved handful for certain cars.

While it is unknown how many cars would have failed the post-race plank test, the FIA found Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s cars to be below the required number from among the four cars they had randomly checked. It was just unfortunate situation.

In their analysis post-race, James Allison noted that post FP1 they checked the plank and it looked all fine and so they chose the set-up they used which eventually wasn’t good enough with the margin and they fell short by the end of the race.

It was disappointing for Mercedes but they had to endure it and in a couple of days they were fine. Allison also discussed the strategy aspect where they went long with Hamilton and Russell with a hope to try one stop but it was clear that it isn’t possible.

Situation with plank and how it came about –

Mercedes: “The skid blocks are basically little discs of metal that are put into the plank material. At the end of the race have to be a guaranteed thickness. They begin the race at 10mm thick and by the time you get to the end of the race they must be no less than 9 mm. You are allowed a certain amount of erosion of that skid block by touching the ground but no more than 1 mm, else if your car is inspected and found to be below that 9 mm then you will have been deemed to running your car too low and you’ll be disqualified. Indeed, that is what happened in our case. The weekend was a very cast-iron vote of confidence in favour of what we put on the car, and that gives us great hope for the races that remain. But, the disqualification had everything to do with the setup and the bumpiness of the track, amplified by the fact that it was a sprint weekend. Normally in a race weekend you have three untimed sessions; Free Practice 1, 2 and 3 in which you gradually hone the setup of the car, getting it ready for qualifying on the Saturday and the race on Sunday.

“In that period of practice you are trying to get the car as fast, reliable, and legal as you can, making sure that you are ticking all the boxes that enable the car to get through to the end of the weekend fast and good shape for when you go into parc fermé. At a sprint weekend, you are under much more pressure, you have just a solitary hour at the very front of the weekend. In Free Practice 1 you have to get the car ready for the next session, which is qualifying, the next session which is sprint shootout, the next session which is the sprint race and then the race itself. After that one hour you have cast your die. You have chosen your setup and you have then got to run the rest of the weekend with the bets you placed in that one hour of running. That means much less time to assess things than normal and much less time to make corrective action ahead of the remaining sessions later in the weekend.

“Austin is a track with a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground. We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of Free Practice 1. When we had done our setup we checked the plank and everything all looked fine, untouched after the FP1 running. But the results of the race speak for themselves. We were illegal, so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin. It’s of course a mistake, it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track. But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”

Strategy decision to keep Lewis Hamilton out –

Mercedes: We should have done. We should have pitted Lewis, we should have kept ahead and we would have given ourselves a better chance of the win had we done so. But it’s good to understand where we were coming from, and also understand a bit more of the strategists’ dilemma. When we discussed the race that morning, our thinking was roughly this: We knew that we had been pretty pacy during the sprint race the day before, but we also knew that Max just had the edge on us. Austin is the sort of track where generally speaking the track tends to deal out the cars in pace order by the time the chequered flag falls at the end of Sunday, so we didn’t actually think we were in the same race as Max. We thought he would find a way of coming through the field. That’s the first thing, just in the back of our heads as the laps were playing out in that first stint on Sunday.

“The second thing is that when we did our analysis of the circuit and the running of the weekend thus far we thought that it was most likely a two stop race. We thought it would most likely be a race where the tyre degradation was high enough that it would be a two stop race. However, we didn’t discount the possibility on race day that if the degradation and lap time we saw ,it might move us from a two-stop into a one-stop race. The first stint was good. We were able to overtake those two Ferraris, going at a pace that was on par with Max and, a little bit quicker than the McLaren in front of us. When Max came in for his stop, we knew .The would undercut us a few laps later. That wasn’t a surprise. But we were in that period of optimism, looking at the flat lap times Lewis was producing and thinking this might be on. We weren’t going to beat Max just by doing the same thing as him because we knew from the Sprint race that we knew he was quicker than us. We were seeing if we could make this one stop work then we could beat.That’s why we didn’t cover Max off.

“We left Lewis out there and waited to see what would happen, hoping to see , hoping that the flat lap time progression continue. A lap went by and we’d effectively been undercut and we were were crossing our to see whether the pace evolved as we hoped. Unfortunately,Unfortunately, within a very short period of time, we had lost the ability to protect against Max, and Lewis’ lap times , Lewis’started to turn south, and we experienced as we went through the same degradation as everybody else, turning us into a two stop already. We to cover him off because actually the raw pace of the car was good enough to compete on equal terms with him and if we had just done a two stopper against his two stopper it could have been a different race.”

Highs and lows post race –

Mercedes: “Of course the disqualification is a significant blow. It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and everybody here feels it. Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points. Give it day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that’s hard to do. But we did it and we did it by a decent amount. And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules. The initial feeling hurt, disappointment and frustration will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”

Here’s Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton on their duel

Here’s Mercedes, Ferrari reacting to DQ

Here’s what the FIA said about the DQ

Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact

L'entrada Mercedes explains findings after analysis, adds on US GP strategy ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Hadjar not under pressure ahead of FP1 drive with AlphaTauri

Darshan Chokhani — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 17:27:16 +0000

Isack Hadjar has been doing extra work in the simulator as he his gearing for his first FP1 run in F1 Mexico GP, with several others in action too.

With the sprint events and Pirelli tyre rule at two events, F1 teams had limited chances to run young drivers in FP1 session. Now at the fag end of the 2023 season, a lot of the teams are to run young drivers this weekend in Mexico GP.

One of them will be AlphaTauri’s Hadjar who will replace Yuki Tsunoda in FP1. The Frenchman is current racing in F2 as a Red Bull junior and has got a chance ahead of the likes of Ayumu Iwasa and Dennis Hauger with a F1 test chance in a competitive session.

Hadjar has been in the simulator not just preparing for the FP1 run but also filling up for Liam Lawson, who was subbing for Daniel Ricciardo to help them during the weekends. “I’m super excited to be driving in FP1, but at the same time, I’m a bit apprehensive, as I’ve never driven a Formula 1 car,” he said.

“To do so for the first time at an official practice session for a Grand Prix is quite something. The team has not set me any targets, so I don’t feel under any particular pressure, and I think I’m as well prepared as I can be. After Daniel was injured and Liam stepped in, I did a lot more work in the simulator to help the race drivers prepare, so I have a good understanding of how all the controls in the cockpit work.

“I’ve spent time in Faenza getting to know the team, and the engineer who will work with me in FP1 was also with me at the sim, so we know one another already. The altitude in Mexico means this is an unusual track to drive with less downforce than usual, but I can’t wait to get in the car and do my best for the team.

“Since I started karting as a young child, I have dreamed of being in Formula 1, and I want to thank Scuderia AlphaTauri and Red Bull for giving me this great opportunity,” summed up Hadjar, who could get another run with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi.

Hadjar won’t be the only FP1 driver with Alfa Romeo confirming Theo Pourchaire as well in place of Valtteri Bottas. The likes of Frederik Vesti, Oliver Bearman and Jack Doohan were already confirmed to take part by Mercedes, Haas and Alpine respectively.

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L'entrada Hadjar not under pressure ahead of FP1 drive with AlphaTauri ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Colapinto gets Abu Dhabi F2 drive ahead of full 2024 season

FormulaRapida.net — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:34:38 +0000

Williams junior Franco Colapinto will make his F2 debut in Abu Dhabi with MP Motorsport replacing Jehan Daruvala ahead of full 2024 season.

Argentinian racer Franco Colapinto will remain with MP Motorsport as he moves up to the FIA Formula 2 Championship for 2024. This year, the tight bond between the Williams Racing Driver Academy member and the Dutch team resulted in a strong run to fourth place in the FIA F3 series. Preceding his 2024 debut, Colapinto will get his first taste of F2 in the final 2023 round in Abu Dhabi.Colapinto has been an MP driver for much of his single-seater career, and by staying with the team, the Argentinian aims to build on a relationship that led to two wins and five podiums in this year’s hotly contested FIA Formula 3 Championship. As part of his preparation, Colapinto will join MP’s F2 squad in Abu Dhabi, where he will take part in the three-day post-season test on the Yas Marina circuit. Before that, he will have his first race experience in F2 by taking part in the final round of this year’s championship already.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be moving up to Formula 2 with MP”, said Colapinto. “MP are proven race winners in the category, and staying with them feels absolutely right. It’s a familiar atmosphere for me, and it will be to our advantage that we know each other so well as I enter my debut season in the category. I very much look forward to the fresh challenge of a new series, with a brand new car to help develop. I can’t wait to get in the car in Abu Dhabi and then work with the team to be ready for a long and challenging 2024 season.”

“It’s great news that we are able to announce Franco’s promotion to our F2 team so early”, said MP’s team principal, Sander Dorsman. “This will give us a headstart in our preparations for an exciting 2024 F2 season in which we all start from zero, with the new F2 car offering everyone a new baseline to work from. Retaining Franco helps us to maintain stability in that transition, apart from the fact that he’s become a member of the MP family and is an extremely quick and talented driver.”

In his first full season in single-seaters in 2019, Colapinto stormed to the Spanish Formula 4 title right off the bat, an accomplishment leading to the Argentinian teaming up with MP for the first time. As a rookie, he went on to grab third place in the 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup, taking two wins and nine podiums in the process. Staying with MP for his first season in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2021, two more wins, four podiums and three poles resulted in sixth in the final standings, before Colapinto embarked on his first season of FIA Formula 3, claiming two wins on his way to ninth. The Argentinian then rejoined MP once more for a highly successful second season of F3.

[Note: The story is as per press release]

L'entrada Colapinto gets Abu Dhabi F2 drive ahead of full 2024 season ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.