Mclaren reveal show - Starts at 0830 seconds of the video. I was watching live. Very fun to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSlJGWM4T7s

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...-red-bull-deal

Red Bull has confirmed Max Verstappen has a performance clause in his Formula 1 contract and believes he will be top of Mercedes' list if Lewis Hamilton quits after 2021.

Mercedes announced last week that seven-time world champion Hamilton had signed a new one-year contract to remain at the team for 2021, leading to speculation about his future beyond the end of the season.

Should Hamilton decide to step away from F1 at the end of the year, it has been suggested that Verstappen could be an option for Mercedes to replace the Briton.

Although Verstappen's Red Bull contract runs to the end of the 2023 season, it has been common in the past for drivers to have performance-related clauses in their contract. One example came in 2014 when Sebastian Vettel triggered an exit clause at Red Bull to join Ferrari for 2015.

Red Bull has previously hinted that Verstappen's contract may include such a clause, but it was confirmed by team principal Christian Horner on Monday during a select media roundtable.

"All drivers have safeguards within performance, and the reality is that as there has always been," Horner said.

"There is an element of performance related to Max's contract.

"I'm not going to go into what that is. It doesn't relate to the power unit in any way, it's just a binary performance at a certain measurement in time.

"As with all these things, though, to force a driver that doesn't want to be there, it's more about relationships than contracts.

"You only pull a contract out of a drawer when you've got a problem, in my experience.

"The relationship with Max is very strong. He believes in the project, he believes in what we're doing.

"He sees the investment that Red Bull is making, very much with the recent commitment on the powertrain, he believes in the people within the team, working within the team.

"I'm confident that we won't need to refer to any contractual clauses.

"I think that it will ultimately be down to us to deliver a competitive car. That's what he wants, that's what we want. He needs that, we need that.

"So in that respect, we're both in an identical situation."

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Asked if he was at all worried that Mercedes could make an approach for Verstappen if Hamilton were to leave, Horner said it was logical he would be at the top of its shortlist.

"I'm sure that should Lewis decide to stop then Max would naturally be the driver at the top of the list," Horner said.

"But they also have George Russell. They've also got other drivers obviously available to them.

"And I think again, as I say, it's all down to relationships and us forming a competitive car.

"There's no guarantees for 2022. It's a complete clean sheet of paper.

"If there's going to be a significant mix up of the order, one would assume it's going to be with that big regulation change."

Verstappen signed a new long-term agreement with Red Bull at the start of 2020, committing to the squad for the following four seasons.

After becoming the youngest race winner in F1 history on debut for Red Bull in 2016, Verstappen has scored a further nine wins for the squad, and finished third in the drivers' championship for each of the past two seasons.

Mercedes is yet to confirm any of its driver plans beyond 2021.

Both Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas are out of contract at the end of the season, while junior driver George Russell will also be a free agent once his Williams deal expires.

I don't see Max going to MB because it would simply not be a financial beneficial. They have George Russell and let's see what Lando Norris does with a MB power until strapped to his McClaren. The boy has serious race craft skills!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

New layout for Aussie GP - https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3...-australian-gp

Tsunoda profile -

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...ver-its-rookie

Why AlphaTauri is raving over its new F1 rookie

Japan's new Formula 1 star Yuki Tsunoda has enjoyed a mercurial rise through the ranks, spending just one year apiece in Formula 3 and Formula 2 before his graduation this year with AlphaTauri. Already he has impressed his team, as ADAM COOPER has been finding out

Tsunoda's ascension through the junior ranks to a Formula 1 race seat happened so quickly that there hasn't been time for the usual apprenticeship of FP1 sessions, or a season spent embedded in the team at the track.

He thus faces a steep learning curve, and like his 2021 fellow rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin he will enjoy only one and half test days in the new car before the first race in Bahrain, plus a little filming day running.

To further complicate matters this is only his third season in Europe, and he still has much to learn off the track as well. Regardless, Tsunoda's brief time with AlphaTauri has seen him impress those around him in a big way.

Tsunoda has already made a big impression on everyone at AlphaTauri, and it's apparent that the team has a lot of faith in him.

"I would say considering his age, he's very focussed on what he's doing," says Graham Watson, AlphaTauri's team manager. "And he has a lot of self-confidence, which is a good thing. When I first met him, I thought he was a little boy, but actually he's really got some self-confidence. Not arrogance, but enough to believe in himself, and then you believe in him as he carries that through.

"I know that the other day that he was asked by a journalist, 'What's your plan for 2021?,' and he said: 'Beat Gasly!'' If that's his attitude, you can't knock him for it. At the end of the day, as everybody says, you're judged on your team mates. He's got to do his job. I think there's going be some fun along the way, for sure. Young guys always have to have their first big accident, and all those things, as you go along. But he's definitely got some talent, there's no doubting that.

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"Franz Tost is a massive fan of his, and when it comes to drivers, he knows what he's talking about. He could see pretty soon that Yuki has got the ability to do the job. We are seeing good, positive signs every day he gets in the car."

The 2021 season is a tough one for a rookie driver, given pre-season testing has been limited to just three days in Bahrain ahead of the opening round of the season. To make up for a lack of mileage in the new car, AlphaTauri has found a way to help Tsunoda to adapt faster, while enabling the team to learn about its new driver at the same time.

It's been possible because AlphaTauri has finally been able to field a two-year-old car and take advantage of the unlimited testing mileage the FIA regulations allow. Testing of previous cars, as the FIA terms such running, has become a routine way for teams to give young drivers seat time now regular opportunities to run current machinery are so limited.


Renault and Ferrari have been very active in this area with their respective squads of young drivers, with Mick Schumacher among the recent beneficiaries. Meanwhile Nikita Mazepin has undertaken extensive and very private testing worldwide with an old Mercedes - a strategy previously employed by Williams with Lance Stroll.

"He's really grown, and we've seen a massive change with him since Abu Dhabi. In Abu Dhabi he did a good job, but every time he gets back in the car now he's just becoming more and more mature, with more understanding," Graham Watson
In recent years AlphaTauri has not been able to do such running with its young drivers due to its regular changes of engine supplier.

In five seasons from 2013 to 2017, the then Toro Rosso team went from Ferrari to Renault to Ferrari and back to Renault, before joining forces with Honda in 2018. The team simply never had the ability to a run two-year old car because it didn't have access to suitable power units.

That changed in 2020, when the first Honda-powered Toro Rosso STR13 from 2018 became eligible. It was first used before the delayed start of last season to help Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat get up to speed, and latterly it has been run regularly by Tsunoda.

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"As a team we have the opportunity for the first time to use a previous car," Watson explains. "Normally we have been changing our power units every other year. Because of our stability with Honda we've managed to get to the point where we actually have a two-year-old car with a PU that we can run. It worked out very well for us. And it's given us an opportunity to put Yuki in the car just to pound around the circuits.

"We obviously want Yuki to succeed. I feel that he's got a very big talent. He hasn't done a lot of European racing, and yet he still was fairly strong in F3, and then really came to his own in F2 last year against Schumacher and Mazepin and those guys. So I think he deserves his chance."

Tsunoda ran his first F1 miles in the repainted Toro Rosso at Imola in the week after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last year. He subsequently enjoyed a public outing in the 2020 AT01 at the Abu Dhabi test in December, before logging more miles over four days in an older machine - now upgraded to the 2019-spec Toro Rosso - earlier this month.

Preparing and running 2018 and 2019 spec power units has required considerable effort from Honda, and the fact that it has happened is a sign of the manufacturer's faith in the youngster.


"We did two days in Imola, then two days in Misano," says Watson. "And luckily, I don't know how, we ended up on those four days of running with blue skies and a bit of wind. We dodged a bullet, I think! He's going to be well prepared when he gets to the first grand prix. We're doing another three days in Imola on 23-25 February. But we'll split that between both the guys, between Yuki and Pierre [Gasly], to give Pierre a chance as well."

The team has seen steady progress from Tsunoda on each outing, which is the point of the exercise: "It's just miles really, and the chance to understand all the complexities of the steering wheel and everything else that goes with the engineering side," Watson adds.

"He's really grown, and we've seen a massive change with him since Abu Dhabi. In Abu Dhabi he did a good job, but every time he gets back in the car now he's just becoming more and more mature, with more understanding, as you'd expect. He's only a young guy, 20-years-old. He's done very good work for us, actually. And I'd say when you get to the test in Bahrain, he'll be probably one of the highest mileage rookies for many seasons."

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Full days of testing on an empty track have allowed the team to guide Tsunoda through run plans that would not usually be possible, given how precious any running is, further bedding him in for his F1 debut in March.

"I don't think people can quite appreciate the speed these things are doing," says Watson. "And with an engineer yelling in your in your ear to change a switch, default this, and default that. So basically we are just bombarding him with lots of unnecessary changes, just training for when they do become necessary, and giving him the opportunity to deal with it.

"And then on top of that just giving him a chance to try some different springs and bars and ride heights and downforce levels, just so he's got a really good feel for the car, and how it should feel, as opposed to how it shouldn't feel. It's a luxury to have this previous car to do that, because a lot of young guys will turn up at their first race probably a bit like Schumacher - he had a run in the Ferrari the other day, but his experience will be quite small compared to Yuki.

"It's a benefit for Yuki, but it's also a massive benefit for us, because it gives him a good experience, and creates a line of trust in what he's telling us. And vice versa, what we're telling him."

"He has a lot of self-confidence, which is a good thing. When I first met him, I thought he was a little boy, but actually he's really got some self-confidence. Not arrogance, but enough to believe in himself, and then you believe in him as he carries that through," Graham Watson
Getting used to F1 tyres is one of the main challenges for any rookie. Running a two-year-old car does not allow use of proper Pirelli race rubber, but it still helps to provide an education.

"One of the biggest performance advantages is understanding the tyres," says Watson. "You watch these young guys come into the sport, and they generally burn the tyres up in the first few laps, and are screaming for a new set, so this is quite valuable as well.

"Although the tyres aren't race tyres, they are still a Pirelli product, and they give him chance to understand about making them live, and how to get the best out of them without destroying them. So it's a good training ground as well. One thing I noticed in F2 last year was he was probably one of the few drivers that could really find lap time in qualifying. I think his direct competitors weren't always able to.

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"Maybe I'm wrong, but I just felt like if he had to find a couple of tenths, he was able to do it, while the guys he was fighting in the championship were never quite there. And it's something we see with him in the F1 car. He knows where to find the time, which is a good sign."

Tsunoda has spent a lot of time in Italy in recent weeks, although he's not seeking a permanent home near the factory. He's also been getting to know his new physio.

"There's a golf course up the road in Faenza, with a hotel, and we've put him in there," says Watson. "It's a very nice hotel, but I'm sure he's bored! His physio is here with him - Noel Carroll, who was with Dany [Kvyat] last year. It's a new relationship, and it seems to be going really well.

"I know Yuki is not a big fan of the gym, he told me himself! Unfortunately it's part of the job, so he has deal with it. He's pushing hard, he's going for it. And they're basically using the gym here on site at the factory for training for three or four hours a day, and staying in the hotel.

"I think the plan long-term is for him to live in Milton Keynes and be near the simulator, so he can use it. Then he can just fly in and out of the UK. Hardly any driver needs to spend much time in a factory these days other than for the simulator, so it makes sense to be located as close as possible."

Despite pretty much being thrown in at the deep-end for his F1 debut, AlphaTauri's efforts coupled with Tsunoda's own approach to his rookie campaign looks like they will ensure he will be prepared for his first grand prix next month.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...elation-issues

Christian Horner says Red Bull has had to fix a correlation misalignment in its Formula 1 design and windtunnel work, which contributed its 2020 car problems.

Red Bull's RB16 machine had several spins during winter testing last year, a problem that continued when the pandemic-delayed season got underway.

The team initially attributed the spins to its drivers finding the limit, before accepting that it had something going wrong aerodynamically after the opening rounds of the season revealed the scale of its gap to the Mercedes squad at the head of the pack.

Red Bull's approach of bringing regular updates to the RB16 throughout last season helped it close the gap to Mercedes, and Horner hopes this decision will pay off with the RB16B in 2021 - along with its efforts to address problems related to the design stage.

"We've worked very hard to understand why we struggled for correlation at the beginning of last year," the Red Bull team principal told Autosport in an exclusive interview for this week's Autosport magazine.

"When it [the season] eventually got going, compared with what our simulation tools were telling us - both windtunnel and other tools [something was amiss].

"So, we learned a lot during 2020. And, of course, the challenge now is to apply that in 2021."

When asked if Red Bull had fully addressed the correlation issue, Horner replied: "I don't know - we'll see when the car runs!

"I think we gained a lot of understanding through last year, and I think some of it [was] the complexities of our windtunnel, which has its limitations in some respects.

"So yeah, I think we're only going to know what sort of progress we've made once we get racing from Bahrain onwards."

At the end of last season, Max Verstappen expressed his frustration that Red Bull "just depend a bit more on track running" with new parts and that "we have to find a way of making sure that what comes out of the windtunnel works straight away on the car, and it's immediate, and puts us in the right direction".

In response to these comments, Horner said he feels that Red Bull has "had quite a high hit rate" regarding updates.

"When something new is introduced to the car, it tends to stay on the car.

"And of course, you don't have the benefit of testing anymore, so you have to test components at a grand prix circuit or in your virtual world.

"I think we were led off at a tangent at the beginning of the year. And we managed to recover from that throughout the 2020 season.

"And of course that's what we'll be looking to learn from as we head into the 2021 season."

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...pt-to-red-bull

Sergio Perez says he can understand why drivers have struggled to adjust to Red Bull's Formula 1 car concept, finding it "quite different" to what he has previously driven.

Perez has sampled Red Bull F1 machinery for the first time this week, completing a run in the 2019-spec RB15 on Tuesday before completing a filming day shakedown in the new RB16B on Wednesday.

The Mexican has joined Red Bull on a one-year deal after leaving Racing Point at the end of last year, replacing Alexander Albon.

It marks Perez's first time racing for a front-running team since his single-season stint with McLaren in 2013, handing him the chance to add to his shock maiden F1 victory in Sakhir last year.

But Red Bull's cars have traditionally been tricky for drivers to adjust to, with the RB16 proving skittish for both Albon and team-mate Max Verstappen in the early part of last year.

Asked by Autosport how he has found adjusting to a new car concept both during the filming day and in the simulator, Perez noted there were definite differences to what he has previously driven.

"It is quite different, I can already spot the differences," Perez said.

"[You can feel] the strong front end that the car has and so on, those are things that as soon as you jump into the car and the simulator. You can spot them out fairly quickly."

Perez is Verstappen's fourth team-mate in the last four years, replacing Albon who was dropped after just one full season in the Red Bull seat.

Albon himself had been drafted in as a replacement for Pierre Gasly, who lost the seat after just 12 races in 2019 amid similar struggles in matching Verstappen.

Perez acknowledged from his initial running for Red Bull that he could understand why his predecessors may have struggled to adapt to it.

"I think it's obviously a car [that] I can see why not every driver can adapt to it," Perez said.

"I can already spot that. In terms of the timing that I need, to know exactly where to set up the car, where to take the final tenths out of it.

"That comes with experience in the car, and learning how to make the most out of it. That's something that will come just once I fully understand. I hope it doesn't take me too long."

Although Perez was unwilling to draw any firm conclusions from his brief shakedown run-out in the RB16B at Silverstone, conducting on demonstration tyres, he felt there were positive signs in the car for the year ahead.

"It's a filming day, so it's all about trying to get myself comfortable in the car," Perez said.

"I can kind of already see that there is potential in it, and I can spot some of the differences.

"It's on test tyres and so on, so I don't want to draw any conclusions.

"But I can just see there is some good potential in the car."

Does this mean we have to look for MV's 5th teammate?

I think Sergio is stating the obvious. That car is based on last years machine, was not easy to drive from testing. Was improved but never was even close to Mercedes. Also he see's what the Honda PU offers and drives compared to the Mercedes motor. The other piece missing is the fact that the tires used for Sergio's drive were Pirelli demo tires not at all race tires. That is a big data point missing.

I am hopeful he'll do well and better than PG and AA. I was being facetious.

The big F1 questions of 2021


https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature...stions-of-2021 - Nice long read to keep your interest lol :)

Can Red Bull - or the rule tweaks - stop the Mercedes steamroller?

The boring answer, of course, is no. Mercedes has stability in terms of personnel, it stopped development of the 2020 car early to focus on 2021, and it has the reliability and momentum of success on its side. So why would the steamroller stop?

But let's take an optimistic view and look at the back end of last season when, in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen was genuinely on the pace of the Mercedes drivers.

Red Bull started the season further behind than it would have liked, with a car that seemed to have a much narrower operating window than the Mercedes. Rival aero people in the paddock seem to suggest that the higher-rake philosophy that Red Bull sticks with means it is always going to have a smaller optimal operating window than the flatter set-up of the Mercedes. Red Bull is a top-class team and it's acutely aware that it needs to start the season stronger than it has in recent years.



The team is also aware that its last two cars were edgy to drive. Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon are both very good racing drivers, but Verstappen is exceptional and Red Bull's cars have needed his level of talent to deliver the results over the past two campaigns. But having machinery that relies on just the exceptionally talented to deliver results is not always the best game to play.

Red Bull only need look at Benetton's example from the mid-1990s. The car was brilliant in Michael Schumacher's hands, but the other drivers were never able to extract the same performance. After Michael left, the team didn't reach those heady heights until the exceptional Fernando Alonso came along - a decade later!

In terms of the rule changes, if you ask the data-driven boffins in the pitlane, they will tell you that the 2021 aero rules are massively different, with downforce levels cut back and heavier tyres of a different construction. They're right, of course, but let's be honest: for us watching on, I really doubt we'll be able to tell much of a difference. The aero changes may not be enough to alter the pecking order, but we know how tricky it is to set up the cars for the Pirelli tyres, and therefore the new rubber for 2021 may affect some people more adversely than others.

Will Lewis Hamilton retire at the end of 2021?

This is a really interesting question, isn't it? I think that Toto Wolff and the Mercedes PR team have done a brilliant job of telling the world that everything was fine and normal throughout last year and through the winter. They were extremely nonchalant and, in general, we believed them because they're very good at their jobs!

But actually when you take a step back, it's not normal that the last seat on the grid to be signed for 2021 was the reigning world champion's. It's not normal that we would go into February before a deal is announced for a driver in the most coveted seat in F1. It's not normal that after saying last year that they didn't just want to sign a one-year deal, they do just that.


Hamilton may be one of F1's oldest now, but there's no question that he's still at the top of his game

Something just doesn't quite add up. On the one hand, Toto says money wasn't a sticking point, but then mentioned that the ongoing uncertainties about the impact of coronavirus on F1, and especially in relation to team budgets, meant that it was difficult to make certain commitments now about a longer-term contract.

Lewis clearly has thoughts and aspirations on his life outside of F1. On a number of occasions I've personally supported his very public ways of pushing for diversity and inclusivity in the sport. Clearly this is a guy who is not afraid to use his position of power within the sport to lean on the companies and people he works with to invest in the causes he believes in. Good on him!

He may be one of F1's oldest now, but there's no question that he's still at the top of his game. Mercedes could of course sign George Russell alongside Valtteri Bottas for 2022 and still be very competitive, but I'm pretty sure that they will still be working hard to convince Lewis to stay on beyond this new deal.

Is Sergio Perez the right choice for Red Bull?

Yes, I think that out of the drivers who were available on the market, he was the right choice. The extent of Daniel Ricciardo's loss to Red Bull has really become clear in the past two seasons. Neither Pierre Gasly nor Alex Albon was able to deliver results alongside Max Verstappen in the way that Ricciardo could.


Perez has shown the maturity that he lacked during his stint with McLaren in 2013, and seems ready to capitalise on a second opportunity with a top team that very few drivers get. He's worked extremely hard to shake off the pay-driver tag that seemed to unfairly follow him around. Checo's tyre management in the Pirelli era has been right up there with Lewis Hamilton's and Verstappen's, but it seemed like in 2020 he was able to raise his game in qualifying as well.

The fact that Perez ended the season fourth in the championship, despite missing two races because of COVID-19 and having an early engine failure in Abu Dhabi, says an awful lot about his ability to consistently hoover up points.

Red Bull doesn't need Perez to beat Verstappen. It needs him to qualify right behind and stay within five seconds of him in the race, so that they can use two cars to mess around with the Mercedes strategy. If Perez can do that, he could be at Red Bull for a few years ahead.

Will Carlos Sainz Jr thrive at Ferrari?

There are some great intra-team battles shaping up, but this is the one I'm most interested to see in 2021. There seems to be this belief that Ferrari has always looked to have a number one and number two driver in its line-up, and therefore Sainz has been signed as a docile sidekick to Charles Leclerc. While that may have been true in some quarters of Maranello, I think that the Spaniard is going to surprise some people.

Make no mistake, Leclerc is an exceptional talent, and some of his qualifying performances last year were among the best we saw all season. Sainz will have to improve his performance over one lap if he wants to get the psychological (and strategic) upper hand from outqualifying his team-mate.

Sainz will have to improve his performance over one lap if he wants to get the psychological (and strategic) upper hand from outqualifying his team-mate

But on a Sunday, I think there's little to choose between them and, in fact, Carlos probably makes fewer mistakes. His clumsy shunt in Sochi last year was an exception, and it's worth remembering that Leclerc had three first-lap incidents in 2020.

Being an Italian speaker will help Sainz get integrated into the team quickly. He's moving to Italy to be closer to the factory, and his work ethic that's been inherited from his father will certainly be appreciated by a team looking to rebuild after a miserable 2020.

Can Sebastian Vettel resurrect his F1 career?

If Sebastian Vettel hadn't won those four world championships and was only being judged on the past two and a half seasons, then it would be a surprise that a team would actually choose him over Sergio Perez. As my friend David Coulthard often says, "past success is no guarantee for future performance".

But Aston Martin has decided to bring in Sebastian along with the star power and experience that he will bring to a marque that is re-entering F1. There's no doubt that if we get the on-form, error-free Sebastian Vettel, then he can be a brilliant asset to the team. The reasons behind his spiral downwards since Hockenheim 2018 remain a mystery to everyone except Seb (and maybe even to him!), but perhaps a change of environment will help to unlock the talent and potential that's in there. Just look at how the switch back to Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri worked for Pierre Gasly in that respect.

Whatever happens, you get the feeling that this could be Vettel's final team in F1. His legacy has undoubtedly been damaged by the recent past but, with a team closely aligned with Mercedes, and which has a fresh dose of funding and motivated owners, he could leave F1 on a high in a few years' time.


I have a great deal of respect for the race team from the Silverstone factory, which has consistently operated superbly at the track, irrespective of all the ownership and financial rumblings in the background. People like Andy Green, Tom McCullough, Andy Stevenson and Bernadette Collins are top-quality personnel who will give Sebastian the respect and support he needs. It's up to him to channel that into on-track performance.

Can Fernando Alonso lift Alpine to the front of 'Class B'?

Renault had arguably the sixth-fastest car on average across the season and finished fifth in the 2020 constructors' championship. You could say that's where it deserved to finish, but it had a realistic chance of ending up third in the table.

There were a few things that didn't help the 2020 campaign. First off, the reliability was a weakness, with points lost on five occasions. The team also didn't seem to unlock the full potential of the car during pre-season testing and the opening triple-header. Arguably this also led to Daniel Ricciardo opting to jump ship to McLaren early.

But, once the team got to Silverstone, trimmed off some downforce and got the set-up more sorted out, the RS20 was very quick. Esteban Ocon also took about two thirds of the season to find his feet and, certainly early on, he was some way off Ricciardo's qualifying pace.

Fernando Alonso is a hard charger with a big personality, and the team will benefit from his leadership and experience


You could use all three of these factors to draw up a hypothetical scenario for the team finishing third last year, but the reality is it didn't. There have been lots of changes in terms of the rebranding to Alpine as well as on the management side, with Davide Brivio replacing Cyril Abiteboul. On the technical front though, the line-up of Marcin Budkowski, Pat Fry, Alan Permane and Ciaron Pilbeam still leads the way, so at least there's stability there.

Fernando Alonso is a hard charger with a big personality, and the team will benefit from his leadership and experience. I doubt he's lost any of his speed, and he's done enough days in the 2018 car now to knock off the rust, so I suspect he'll arrive at the opening race fully ready for battle.

The one downside for Alpine could be that, without McLaren as a customer now, it's lost an extra source of data for the power unit side as well as a reference of where the 'Enstone' chassis is when compared to someone else with the same engine. This is something Renault/Alpine will need to look at for 2022 and beyond, as it's a good and objective way to keep perspective of where the performance of your car is.

How will Lando Norris stack up against Daniel Ricciardo?

In some ways, I think McLaren has an almost like-for-like replacement from Carlos Sainz Jr to Daniel Ricciardo. The difference, of course, is that the Aussie comes with proven race-winning pedigree, whereas Sainz is yet to break his duck in F1.

In terms of race pace and consistency, I think that Daniel and Carlos are equally matched, but over a single lap Ricciardo is probably a small step ahead, as his exceptional quali laps at Silverstone, Mugello and Sochi showed last year. This one-lap pace is something Lando Norris also excels at, so the quali battle between them will be brilliant to watch.

I was really impressed with Lando's race performances last year. I thought in 2019 he still had too many races where he lost out to Carlos in terms of tyre management and race pace, but in 2020 he made a good step forward in that area. One thing that Sainz and Ricciardo seem better at is positioning their cars in the right places on the opening few corners of the race, where they seem to gain spots and set themselves up for a good race result.

McLaren is unquestionably a team on the up again. Zak Brown has done what he does best and put together a fresh influx of investment that the F1 team needed to separate itself from the challenging position that the road car company finds itself in at the moment.


Andreas Seidl, James Key and Andrea Stella do an excellent job of leading the race team. The Mercedes engine will of course also give the team a bit of a boost, although not perhaps the half-second that some people seem to think.

Who will be the season's best rookie?

Mick Schumacher comes into F1 with the highest profile of the three rookies. As F2 and F3 champion, he's proven that he fully deserves his place and it's not just about his surname. Mick seems a very level-headed young man and I think he's shown good mental strength to climb the ladder with all the pressure of being Michael's son, but sadly without having Michael at the track to help and support him.

I'm slightly confused with where Ferrari has put Mick, though. I think it would have made more sense to place him at Alfa Romeo alongside Kimi Raikkonen, whose experience would have been invaluable in guiding the rookie through his first season in F1. Antonio Giovinazzi had some solid races in the second half of the year, but it doesn't look like he's actually going to end up in the works red cars, so why not place him at Haas? That way, both Ferrari customer teams would have had one rookie and one driver with some F1 experience.

Yuki Tsunoda had a very good rookie season in F2 in 2020. Trevor Carlin, whose team the Honda protege raced for last year, reckoned that Tsunoda is probably as fast as F1 podium finisher and Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato (another Carlin/Honda graduate to F1), which bodes well. He seemed to be particularly good at tyre management and biding his time in the races while others around him destroyed their rubber. This could prove to be a useful tool for him in this Pirelli era of F1.

It would have made more sense to place Mick Schumacher at Alfa Romeo alongside Kimi Raikkonen, whose experience would have been invaluable in guiding the rookie through his first season in F1

AlphaTauri has a good team of engineers led by Jody Egginton and Jonathan Eddolls, who are well-versed in looking after and educating young and inexperienced drivers. They of course now have a race winner in Pierre Gasly in the other car, and he will be a good benchmark for Tsunoda.

As I mentioned before, I'm confused by the Ferrari driver placements, because Haas is now left without an established benchmark driver. Nikita Mazepin showed flashes of speed in his F2 days, but also seemed to get into skirmishes and unnecessary incidents with other drivers. The Russian has actually done quite a bit of mileage in Mercedes F1 cars in private and young driver tests, so he probably comes into this season with the most F1 experience under his belt of the three rookies but, based on their past racing history, you'd expect him to be a step behind Schumacher.

Mazepin has already started his F1 career on the back foot. His well-documented incident with a young woman has, rightly, raised a great deal of criticism. The silence in terms of the punishment and disciplinary action taken against him hasn't done him or the team any favours with the fans, and has ramped up the pressure even before he's set foot in a Haas F1 car.

Will we finally see a Williams revival?

F1 teams are more like cruise liners than speedboats when it comes to turning around momentum. Through 2018 and 2019, Williams looked like it was firmly headed for the shore, but in 2020 it at least managed to drop the anchor and stop outside the shallow port.

Williams was the most-improved team of 2020, gaining a massive 1.3% on pace from where it was in 2019. Considering that the benchmark team Mercedes wasn't standing still, that's an impressive effort, although of course Williams was looking for performance from further behind.


The next 18 months are critical for Williams and Dorilton Capital. Thus far, the new owners have done a good job by coming in and immediately putting their money where it mattered by paying off suppliers and creditors. They've also made key decisions such as the hiring of the well-respected Jost Capito, and switching to the customer Mercedes gearbox for 2022. The latter, of course, is a philosophical departure from the family-run Williams operation, and is a clear sign from Dorilton that it is prepared to do things differently.


On the downside, despite having a slightly quicker car on average than Haas, the team didn't manage to sneak into the points all season long. George Russell could and should have picked up a couple at Mugello and Imola, but ultimately, for 2021, the team will be looking to take the next step towards the midfield by getting ahead of at least the Ferrari customer teams.

Are 23 races too many, and what should the calendar look like?

With the ongoing COVID-19 issues, I don't think we'll get to 23 races this year but, even in general, I do think it's a few too many. I really believe that something around 18 or 19 is the maximum number in terms of striking the balance between a wide variety of races and making each one a 'special event'. Once you get up to 23 races, it gets to a point where people start to think, 'Oh, we can miss this one because there'll be another one next week'.

It's also a tricky balance to sustain for the workforce. The drivers and TV folks like us are lucky because we swoop in on a Thursday and leave straight after the race but, for the majority of team personnel, they're gone for a week at a time, which really makes family life hard to sustain. Once you add in testing, it basically means they're gone for half the year. This has already started costing the teams some good people, who are willing to earn less money but do Formula E or the World Endurance Championship instead, and only be away from their children for half as many weeks per year.

In terms of the balance, I think we've got it right, with new and historic venues, street tracks and permanent facilities

In terms of the balance, I think we've got it right, with new and historic venues, street tracks and permanent facilities. It was nice to go to Mugello and Algarve as they created some great racing, although I do think these cars are now a bit too big and fast for Imola, which was largely processional apart from after the restart.

All of this is of course dictated by the commercial model and for 2021, once again, by the pandemic. F1 did a brilliant job of putting 17 races on last year and, if we can get to 18 or 19 again this year, that will be a great achievement.

New Mercedes! https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3...es-new-w12-car

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...r-unit-changes

Mercedes has explained the changes it has made to its Formula 1 engine to address reliability concerns it had ahead of the new season.

The German car manufacturer's engine chief Hywel Thomas caused some intrigue recently when he suggested that Mercedes was battling some 'issues' with its 2021 engine prior to the start of testing.

Speaking now after the team revealed its new W12, he has detailed exactly what the team has done to make progress.

"We've completed some work on improving the reliability of the PU," he said.

"In 2020, we used an aluminium structure which wasn't as reliable as intended, so we've introduced a new alloy for the engine block.

"We've also made some adjustments to the Energy Recovery System, to make it more resilient.

"We've got a big challenge in 2021 with 23 races on the calendar, we will need to ensure that the reliability of the power unit is spot on. We've worked hard on that area and hopefully it's paid off."

One of the major changes that Mercedes has made is in revamping the design of its MGU-K, after feeling that the concept it used last year was not ideal.

"We introduced a complete redesign in 2020, a very different MGU-K to what we had run previously," added Thomas.

"It helped us make a solid step forwards in performance, but it was a design that turned out to be difficult to manufacture and assemble consistently.

"We had lots of examples where the MGU-K ran a full cycle and did exactly what we wanted it to do, but we also had some cases of midlife failures. For 2021, we've gone back, looked at that design and built an understanding of where the failures have come from.

"We have changed it for this year, to allow for a more consistent manufacturing route which should help to improve the reliability of the MGU-K."

Thomas also says that the revamped power unit for 2021 features a number of new ideas that he hopes will deliver a step forward in performance.

"We've got some completely new innovations that will be in the racing PU for the first time," he said.

"That was particularly challenging because last season finished late, so the winter period has been shorter than normal and has given us less time to prepare, which put extra strain on the business."

He added: "We've continued our quest for better thermal efficiency in the internal combustion engine. Most of the developments can be found in the core of the power unit, with a desire for maximum output from the combustion process.

"Hand in hand with that, we've introduced changes to the turbocharger to minimise the impact on the heat rejection. Those are probably the most striking when it comes to crank power and the performance of the power unit."

Which livery do you like so far?

I saw Alpine just now and thought it looked pretty good. Alpha Tauri looked good as well.

Alpine is well balanced with the multi-colors. Very cool.

Not too sure about the Mercedes Livery this year. Defiantly liked the stars on the back more than the AMG. :ugh2:

Hot dang, Aston Martin! It's a fantastic looking race car....and a LOT of sponsors.

Well its about time lol. The results do speak well for Mercedes lol :)

Renault evaluating switch to Mercedes F1 engine design concept

Mar 3, 2021, 12:12 PM
Renault is evaluating a switch to the Mercedes concept of a split turbo and compressor on its Formula 1 power unit as part of an engine overhaul for 2022.

No that is not a Russian Flag at all LOL

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3...ew-livery-2021

The colors are though.

Of course it is not a Russian flag. LOL
Because the Russian flag is banned by IOC (of which FIA is a member), so it couldn't possibly be a Russian flag. Even though it is!

Tis a company advert not a flag LOL! :driving:

Isn't ironic how perhaps unintentionally subliminal this is. The colors show how an American team is sponsored by a Russian behemoth.

You ALMOST had me... except Uralkali's colours are red, white and GREEN. Perhaps the artist was colour blind?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...i_logo.svg.png

:icon17: :icon17: :icon17:

Of course, the livery will likely be continued on the drivers suits and all clothing, too. So Putin can really thumb his nose at the rest of the world, with glee.

EDIT:
I wonder how many clueless American fans will rock Haas apparel this year? LOL

Free advertising for the Motherland!! I have to be somewhat careful as the woman does speak Russian as one of her 5 lol :)

Formula 1's budget cap was introduced to make the championship more sustainable and keep the big teams under control, but Mercedes believes the financial constraints can actually help it improve.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ho...t-cap/5604296/


Along with sustainability a key aim of Formula 1’s budget cap is to rein in the performance of the top teams by levelling the playing field.

And yet in typical glass-full style Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sees the cap not as a hurdle for the Brackley team, but an opportunity to become even stronger.

F1 has long been about spending power. It’s no coincidence that the teams that have dominated have had the biggest budgets, and until now, there has been no official limit to what they’ve been allowed to pump in.

The 2021 FIA financial regulations, headlined by a budget cap of $145m, have changed all that. Many areas are excluded from that number, but it still represents a huge change of approach for Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.

All three have been busy shuffling staff into non-F1 projects, which explains why Ferrari has committed to a sportscar programme, and why Mercedes has been busy seeking customers for its Applied Science division.

Given that extra cash is a benefit in all areas it’s obvious that reducing spend will impact competitiveness. However, there’s another key outcome – the disruption caused by the necessary reorganisation and downsizing.


Erstwhile midfield teams hope they can benefit from problems for F1's big-spending teams. In its previous guises Aston Martin made a virtue of being lean, mean and efficient, and the budget cap had landed in just right the spot, and thus the team hasn’t had to dramatically adjust its way of working. It’s a similar situation at Alpine.

“It's all about getting the car to go quicker, but also efficiency,” says Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski. “We are working a lot on the efficiency of the team, working better, working smarter with the resources we have.

“Luckily, we've never been the best funded team. We've always been known as an efficient team, and we are probably in a better position than the top teams for the cost cap, so we obviously want to capitalise on this in the future.”

The regulations show to what level of detail the discussions extended when they were being finalised – there is mention of subjects like how to allocate maternity leave, sick pay and the salaries of mechanics whose main role is preparing historic or demo cars. Teams now have to dig into every pound, euro or dollar they spend that falls under the cap.

The process of going back to basics, tracking and justifying from scratch all spending in each department of a company, is known as zero-based budgeting.

“My experience in my personal business life was that sometimes going through a zero-budgeting approach shows you how much you have actually left on the table,” says Wolff.



“And how much you have carried over from year to year, that was cost of what could have been avoided by simply streamlining processes and the organisation overall.

“Performing in the F1 world is not only down to money. You can have the most money, but not perform how you should. And we have seen examples of that in the past.”

One of the key advantages of spending power is in R&D, and the ability to put groups of people onto special projects that might not pay dividends on track for a year or two.

Aero testing restrictions have to some extent already levelled the playing field in that teams are no longer able to run 24/7 in more than one windtunnel, as was the case a few years ago.

However, the wealthier teams could still bring more bodywork iterations to the track more often, because they had the production resources. Meanwhile on the mechanical side there have been no restrictions, allowing the big teams to pursue innovations.

Now all teams have to have the discipline to spend where they believe it will count – they can no longer afford to pursue multiple solutions to the same problem, and then to eventually discard those that don’t work. They have to be smarter, and make calls on what direction to go before too much time and effort has been spent.

“We have never wasted [resources],” says Wolff. “Because for us prioritising has always been key to how we function, rather than to trying to do A, or A and B. We have always approached with A and/or B, because you simply put more emphasis on what you think will bring you more performance.

“But the cost cap has brought that to a new level, because we were not operating before within a regulatory cost constraint. And that means you need to understand your processes.


“Every single item is costed down, or evaluated [as to] what the costs are. And you need to trim how you operate. But we believe that this is a performance advantage, because it has obliged us to rethink what we do, and how we do it.

“And it will mean that there's even more emphasis and focus on the areas that, we believe, bring the best performance.”

Crucial to all this is that the budget cap has landed in the very year that teams have to race and develop their 2021 cars while honing brand new concepts for 2022.

Until 31st December they could work without financial restriction on both, at least on the mechanical side, as aero research was banned until 1st January. That helped the bigger teams to get a head start on 2022, simply because they had more people available to look at the long term.

That window of opportunity has closed, and teams now have to split precious funds between racing this season and developing for 2022, just as they have to make a call on how to divide up windtunnel time and CFD usage.

“This is a question you need to find solutions for every single year,” says Wolff. “How do you balance the current car and the development time you want to give it versus next year's car?

“And for 2022 it becomes an even more critical topic, because of the scope of changes. And there will be teams that will very much focus on 2022 from early on, and other teams that will see great opportunity for the 2021 World Championship.

“And for us, it will be crucial to take the right view on how we want to balance development for next year. It is subject to discussions every week.”


A spending limit isn’t just about R&D - it impacts every area of going racing. Mercedes technical director James Allison revealed at the launch of W12 that the team is cost-cutting by simply reducing how many parts it has to produce.

“[There are] developments to try to make it so that the bits underneath can live longer,” he said. “So that we don't have to replace them so often, so that in a budget cap we can operate more efficiently.”

With the dual projects underway 2021 is clearly a difficult season for the top teams. However they will also have to adjust to a budget cap drop from $145m to $140m in 2022, and then to $135m in 2023, which is sure to mean further cuts in head counts.

Can the usual frontrunners adjust to the new world of limited spending and remain a step ahead of the rest? Wolff is confident that his team at least is on the right path.

“The budget cap is extremely important in my opinion,” he says. “Because the costs were escalating over the last 10-15 years, and it became unsustainable.

“And in that way, we are now operating in the same financial framework. And it becomes exciting, because there will not be many differences in terms of spending between the teams.

“We love the challenge. We have taken it on, and it is at times very painful because all your processes need to be adapted in the end to achieve more efficiency.

“We found out during the process that actually efficiency means performance. The group that has worked around the project did a fantastic job. And I believe we're in a good in a good position to extract the most from the limited resource that is available.”

Not a fan of Jalopnik but they're spot on on this one.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopni...1846421487/amp

Consensus is he is NOT able to handle more over-steer. This has been assessed over and over including how Ricci soundly defeated him in a car that was no 'planted' LOL. I guess he knows the truth???

Vettel's driving style not as extreme as Perez, says Aston Martin
By: Luke Smith
Mar 8, 2021, 8:21 AM

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ve...perez/5635536/

Aston Martin has no concerns it can get its 2021 Formula 1 car to suit Sebastian Vettel, believing he has a less extreme driving style than Sergio Perez.

Four-time F1 world champion Vettel has joined the rebranded Aston Martin team for 2021 following a difficult final season with Ferrari, replacing Perez.

Vettel finished a lowly 13th in the championship for Ferrari, scoring just one podium and barely one-third of team-mate Charles Leclerc's points total.

Recurring errors by Vettel in recent years led to questions about how much Ferrari's cars suited his driving style, which has been said to be dependent on a stable rear end.

But Aston Martin technical director Andrew Green said there were zero concerns about accommodating Vettel with its new AMR21 car, believing his driving style is not as extreme as that of Perez.

"Yes, [Vettel] does have his own personal driving style, but that's no different to the driving styles that we've seen from other drivers," Green said.

"I'd say [it's] not as extreme as the driver he is replacing, who had a very extreme driving style which was very difficult to get right at all tracks. It shone at certain tracks and didn't at others.

"I think Seb's style is a lot less extreme. And we have the tools and capability to tune the car to suit him for sure.

"We've already started working on that. We've been working on that for the last month in the simulator. And he seems very happy with the directions that we've taken. So, yeah, no problems there."


Vettel got his first taste of his new Aston Martin F1 car during a brief shakedown at Silverstone last week, with his maiden extended outing scheduled later this week at the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

While Vettel was curious to get an idea of the car concept Aston Martin has following a long spell at Ferrari, he moved to dispel the myth surrounding his need for a stable rear end.

"I think the whole rear end thing has got a little bit out of hand," Vettel said.

"If you look at the cars that I had when I was at Red Bull, or the beginning of Ferrari, I think there's always been times where the rear was nervous, and that's OK.

"I don't think I'm more vulnerable than the others in this regard. If anything, I don't like when the car is really just understeery, because at least with the oversteer, you can do plenty of things.

"With the understeer, as well there's some driving techniques, but your hands are a bit more tied or a bit more limited. So actually, I prefer when the car is a bit more loose, that really helps you to rotate, and so on.

"Obviously, if it gets too much, then you lose a lot of time. And then nobody likes that because it's slow.

"But coming back on the philosophy, I think it is interesting. By the sounds of it is very different. I hope it's coming my way. We'll see how it goes."

Testing tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! -- https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wh...-2021/5656010/

The effect of F1’s coronavirus cost-saving measure has been seen throughout this year’s launch season, with the car designs largely carried over. At teams where no livery change has been made, the resemblances are particularly striking. This approach also meant a reduction in testing overall, with this week’s event the only chance the teams have to fully trial their 2021 challengers ahead of the first race.

The knock-ons keep coming. As there is only one 2021 pre-season test, many teams opted to hide various important elements of the cars during their launches – a subterfuge aimed at reducing the scope for rivals to copy neat solutions (particularly regarding the new rear floor requirements) in time for the Bahrain race in two weeks’ time.

Mercedes’ technical director James Allison openly stated that the world champion squad has already spent its two allotted design development tokens, but openly said it “won't reveal how we used them just yet”. Red Bull held a filming day at Silverstone after its 2021 launch, but only released images of its 2019 car running on track. So, the question is, what are F1’s leading team’s hiding?
Mercedes W12 F1 team launch


The token restriction requirements suggest that a double diffuser-like gamechanger is unlikely, but as the changes to the floors are aimed at cutting downforce levels by 10%, any team that has found a clever solution to negate or overcome that impact stands to gain significantly. Therefore, expect plenty of camera lenses pointed at the backs of the W12 and RB16B when they emerge from their respective garages on day one of testing.

Mercedes has outlined how the changes to the floor rules, although minor compared to the regulation overhaul now coming for 2022, could turn into a major problem for teams that don’t adapt successfully.

It’s unlikely that any squad will openly admit to getting this wrong once testing has been completed – Red Bull insisted that the succession of spins its drivers suffered in testing last year was about finding the limit, an explanation that later became an inherent aerodynamic issue a few races into the delayed 2020 season – but it will be worth listening to the drivers describe the rear handling characteristics of their latest cars for clues regarding the squads that may have lost out.

While the changes under the various car skins will be naturally covered up, several teams have already stated their intention to introduce early aerodynamic updates this year

Sergio Perez has joined Red Bull to replace Alex Albon, who could not match team-mate Max Verstappen’s pace and results with the recalcitrant RB16. Now the RB16B, it will be worth paying close attention to Perez’s fortunes over the test, as the limited scope for design changes suggest the updated version will still be tough to tame.

Perez has already said Red Bull’s car concept is “quite different” to what he has previously experienced and its worth recalling how Pierre Gasly had a massive testing crash two years ago as his short-lived Red Bull tenure began to unfold. That’s not to say Perez will encounter such problems, but he has been hired to close the gap to Verstappen and this test will give Red Bull its first indications of his full suitability for the job.


Just like last year, anyone following testing will want to keep a close eye on the speed trap figures.

These will provide an early indication of how successful Honda’s ambition to leave F1 on a championship-winning high may be, while also stimulating/deflating hopes at several other squads, namely those running Ferrari engines.

In 2020, the Scuderia’s dramatic downfall in the power stakes was eventually explained by its design “settlement” with the FIA, but just how much it was losing was evident from early in testing. The power deficit meant Alfa Romeo and Haas took significant steps back last year, so there will be plenty of people hoping that Ferrari’s cautious recent optimism about its redesigned engine translates into real-world gains.

Engine performance is also a theme to watch at Mercedes, particularly regarding the health of the W12’s powerplants. Last month, Mercedes’ engine boss Hywel Thomas said the manufacturer had “got some issues with the power units”, although he then explained the steps Mercedes had taken to fix these – including changing the engine block alloy and tweaking the Energy Recovery System – when the W12 was launched.

But, again, last year Mercedes made similar noises about its engine, which then encountered a series of reliability problems across the pre-season (at both the works squad and at Williams) and it subsequently emerged that the problems were severe enough that they could’ve wreaked havoc on Mercedes’ results had the 2020 campaign started on time and it took the time afforded by the initial pandemic lockdowns to address the issues.

While the changes under the various car skins will be naturally covered up, several teams have already stated their intention to introduce early aerodynamic updates this year. That’s not unusual for the big squads, but, with the 2022 reset looming large, many teams are intending to apply developments during the initial races then quickly shift resources.

Alfa Romeo is among the teams set to conduct early performance evaluations with an eye to switching focus early, with testing the first step in these trials, while Williams has “a range of parts that we’ll get on the car” in testing, per team principal Simon Roberts, which could become a “first race upgrade”.

It’s always vital to avoid unnecessary accidents, but this year, with pre-season track time reduced by 50%, it will be even more critical that drivers don’t crash their new cars.

Staying on the road will be particularly important for the rookies at AlphaTauri and Haas, as well as the drivers making new starts (Perez, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr, Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren and Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin, plus Fernando Alonso’s return to what is now Alpine).

The times will ultimately be meaningless this weekend, but pre-season testing means racing is just around the corner

Alonso, who missed Alpine’s team launch due to the current COVID travel restrictions for UK arrivals and has been recovering from his cycling accident last month, is never one to shy away from making his views known publicly, so it will be worth listening to his thoughts on the state of play at the former Renault squad.

Additionally, expect the drivers to have gripes relating to the new tyres (because some things in F1 never change!) and be asked about the ongoing discussion on Saturday sprint races, where opinions are split.

The times will ultimately be meaningless this weekend, but pre-season testing means racing is just around the corner. After a long, hard winter for so many, that alone is a reason to get excited.

watching testing and the amount of blowing sand all over the place WOW,
Merc's have had transmission problems in the morning, HAAS too..
Ferrari had a mechanical issue at the end of the morning..

Testing was crazy today lol. Nice its not in Spain so good change!!

Via BBC F1--
What went wrong at Mercedes?

World Champions Mercedes' day started badly when Bottas suffered a gearbox problem after just one lap.

Mercedes decided to change the gearbox and investigate the problem later, but that cost the Finn nearly all his first day's running and he managed only a further five laps before handing over to Hamilton for the afternoon.

Team principal Toto Wolff said:"It wasn't a good start because we had a gearbox issue that came out of nowhere that we haven't yet been able to identify and understand."

When Hamilton went out at the start of the afternoon session, conditions were at their worst, the Sakhir track enveloped in a sand cloud and conditions on track treacherous, the cars throwing up plumes of sand.

Hamilton found the car's balance to be poor and returned to the pits for set-up changes.

When he returned to the track, the team concentrated on long runs with high fuel loads and used only the hard 'C2' tyres while others explored the faster and grippier C3s and C4s.

Still the car did not look comfortable, though, with Hamilton clearly struggling for grip and having a number of 'moments' where he struggled to keep control, ran wide or locked a wheel.

it will be interesting to see what happens on Saturday, the other odd thing to me, is how little HAAS ran for 8 hours... no sure what HAAS is up too, but as of right now, expect them to finish dead last

I already was expecting that! :rofl2:

Thats perfect for the little Russian Troll and the team. By default its his team lol

One can see testing on SKY F1 here - use this weekend if you have no normal viewing options.



https://cricfree.sc/watch/live/aramc...live-streaming

Use Link 1 under 'Others'

https://www.planetf1.com/news/murray...-away-aged-97/


RIP Mr. Walker, you will be remembered forever.

Very well said!! All the best for his family!

my thoughts from testing
-- red bull might have gotten it right
-- Tsunoda, should give gasly a run, will be interesting
-- Riccardo and Norris will be another fun team battle
-- Williams looks super reliable with Russel turning 157 laps
-- dittio for alfa
-- if either Haas driver can get into the points it will show driver skill and not car
-- AMR a bit concern
-- Mercedes well if they are not on par, might have an interesting championship this year

Has anyone used the F1TV Pro app here in the States? Interested but not available on Amazon Fire Stick / TV. Any other comments or feedback about it? I read somewhere that live TV but no commentaries.