Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, Circuit of the Americas, 2018

Gasly expects no more engine penalties this year

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Pierre Gasly believes he shouldn’t have to take any more power unit penalties this year.

What they say

Gasly has had to start from the back of the grid in three of the last four races due to power unit penalties:

Touch wood, I think that’s the last one, that I will have until the end of the year. That’s why we introduced a new engine, now we have two in the pool for the two last races.

So hopefully I’m going to be fine and be able to start in our normal qualifying position. With some more performance I think we can be quite optimistic about the fact that we will have more performance than this weekend in the last couple of races.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Is Bob’s experience typical of F1 fans who are switching off?:

I was a huge F1 fan years back, lost touch with the sport and came back five or six years ago. Ever since I have heard and read uncountable discussions about how it will improve “next year” or “post 201x” or “post 202x”. New rules, new formats of qualifying, new tyres, new races, new whatever (when they got to “new graphics on TV” is when it became a bit desperate).

Don’t get me wrong: there have been good races and interesting stuff. But the constant promises of “next year it will be so much better” hasn’t materialised.

I have given up on the idea that F1 will improve. It is the way that it is, so better evaluate it on that, rather on pie-in-the-sky plans and promises for sometime in the future.

This year was the first year where I didn’t make any particular point of arranging to see any races. If I was at home, and didn’t have anything particular else to do, I tuned in and watched the race. I guess I have watched about half or a bit less, and I don’t really feel that I have missed a lot.

Maybe that’s all for the better?
Bob C.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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38 comments on “Gasly expects no more engine penalties this year”

  1. Re COTD, Bob is right on the money, I’ve been waiting for F1 to get away from gimmicks and back to exciting racing for over 20 years, and while I’ve been waiting F1 has become harder (more expensive?) to watch.

  2. “In my day, everything was better”.

    F1 could have the best, most exciting and equitable racing in the world, and people would still whine and moan about it.

    1. Hahaha… And this, of course, is not a whine… ;-)

    2. @aesto Sadly, I think there is some truth to this. I started watching F1 in the 2005-2006 period, and hence I look back at that time as being “special” for me personally. Even 2007 is a season I fondly look back on. However, I have seen multiple races from that time period over the past year, and I see myself thinking “was it always this boring and unexciting?”. 2007 was a classic season with four drivers vying for the title, yet there really wasn’t any memorable races during that season, bar maybe Germany. And yet in my memory, it was a season filled with multiple exciting races.

      1. Very good point Mashiat – Memories (Barbra Streisand)…

      2. @mashiat I think this is a really important point. we look back fondly on entire seasons, generally ones where the title battle went the distance, but overlook the individual races (with some exceptions). it’s very hard to be objective. I recall 1997 being an absolute bunfight for the title, but many of the races were extraordinarily dull (luxembourg gp anyone? could be the worst race ever, if I recall correctly). 2000 was similar. 2005 was an fairly uninteresting fight for the title (alonso had it in the bag from a long way out due to raikkonen’s unreliability), but had quite a few memorable races. 2007 is a good example of a fascinating season but one that had few classic races.

        I would tentatively say that 2010 was similar, though there were some goodies in there. 2012 was a great year, for races and for the title fight. 2014 had some cracking races but the title fight, despite going to the last round, seemed less interesting for some reason.

        the best years for races and title fight have had a greater number of competitive teams – now we have only two teams (and by extension 2 drivers) who have any reasonable chance for the title, and one other team that can occasionally challenge for wins. the variety of different winners in 2012 is something the sport should be targeting.

      3. I guess the general opinion would be much different if they were focused on the positive of F1 publicly (while taking into account some of the critics to move the sport forwards).

        How do you want to sell a product by constantly reminding the potential buyers that it’s not quite good but it is getting better… At least Bernie kept a brave face to defend his product as being great and making it even better (whatever the reality).
        And let’s be honest, it will never satisfy all fans at once.

        1. F1 has had many interesting races this year. The “golden” age is fake.
          It is just we are now emotionally wired by blockbuster movies and TV series with cliffhangers and hyper produced emotions.

          I was a fan in 80’s seeing races that ended with 2nd place 30- 60 seconds from 1st. By mid race in most we already know the winner bare a reliability issue, reliability since the Ferrari 2002 improved several fold and took a a leaf out of the unexpected.
          With 20 races or so this year not 14-16 like in past, Vettel might end 2018 championship with no DNF due to reliability.

      4. @mashiat, it is indeed the case that, when you look at how the fans have behaved over the years, the era that is always held up as special is the one when the majority of the fan base started watching.

        Usually, that comes with about a 20-30 year lag, since that usually corresponds to when the person watching was a child or teenager and first began watching the sport. If we were to go back and look at the discussions from the 2000s – roughly when you started watching – you’ll probably see that there were a lot of people back then harking back to the 1980s turbo era, and sometimes to the late 1970s, as the supposed “golden era” of the sport, whereas these days it has shifted to the early 1990s as the fan base becomes more heavily biased towards those who began watching the sport in the 1990s.

        That is often combined with the fact that, given the selective way we store and reshape memories over time, a lot of fans will have unconsciously filtered out memories of boring races from a particular season, or even created their own false memories that make the individual races within a season seem more exciting.

        If a particular season was exciting, we believe the races should have been exciting and therefore our memories tend to focus on the more interesting bits, or we even create false memories because we believe those events should have happened and we are retrospectively making individual races fit that overarching narrative.

        That is exactly what you are describing when you talk about the conflict between your memories of the 2007 season and the experience you have when you rewatch them. Because you believe that the season was exciting, your mind is telling you that it should have been “a season filled with multiple exciting races”, as you put it: if your memories of those races fail to match what your conscious mind wants to believe, your conscious mind is effectively rewriting your memory to force it to fit the story that it believes they should.

  3. Ok, Hamilton may attract some attention, but has F1 convert it in terms of audience – not only marginal web presence?
    Apart from design and competition problem, I think that F1 has a star problem.
    Hamilton is cool and stuff, but I’m not sure how this translate to traditional audiences.
    Vettel is not cool, has 4 titles, and its stardom barely can convince Germany to pay for a GP.
    Rosberg: who can’t relate to a F1 champion son who lived between sweden, germany and monaco.
    Ricciardo is cool af, but the winless streak and the goodguyness detract from the murder mind some would like to see in a F1 driver. Maybe that is what some see in Verstappen – thus the hype.
    In Alonso some saw the talented not so nice (cheating capable) driver.
    The situation is such that the most charismatic driver is Raikonnen.
    I don’t think most of us would ask for a modern version of the Piquet-Mansell-Prost-Senna photo, but give us some guys/girls onwe can genuinely root for.
    Maybe the lack of dispute in the race make it harder for most people to form an idea of driver’s character. I mean, take the drivers on that photo and one can describe each “driver’s character” based on how they behave in the GP weekend and how they win. Prost, minimizing risk, mining the other guy1s advantage. Piquet, highly involved in car setting up. Senna, maximazing returns. Mansell, the incarnation of the British lion in a car. All of them had different approaches in regard to wheel to wheel battles.
    Today, we barely see any of those battles and it is not clear how the driver take part on “building” the car during the weekend, besides not f’ing-up the plan devised on the mission control rooms. On the otherhand, any time the driver’s character would reveal, I get a bad impression: Hamilton is utterly dejected by anything other than a win; Vettel is even suspected of not been able to deal with overtake; Verstappen aggressiveness is still confounded with lack of calculation.

    1. Maiagus – fascinating observations…

  4. Hamilton might be F1’s only show in town, but Liberty must realize that he is building the “Hamilton” brand and not the F1 brand. As long as he continues to compete, there will be some mutual benefit, with F1 providing him a platform and eyeballs, and Hamilton the razzmatazz. Once he moves on to pursue his endeavours (music, clothing line, etc.) there will be little that F1 can gain from him. So, if Liberty want to milk his stardom, then now is the time.

    I have to admit that a future post-Hamilton post-Alonso grid looks a bit squeaky clean and dull. Who might the “characters” be – Max/Ricciardo? Gasly/Ocon seem to be capable motormouths!

  5. Gasly’s comment is interesting – I thought there would be further experimentation on the PU side occurring. Unless Honda have decided to run experimental engines only on the two Fridays, and Dr. Marko/Franz have decided to chase after a few more points (and overhaul Sauber, however hard that might be?) on the weekend.

    1. @phylyp Toro Rosso has become a pawn for Red Bull. It’s a bit infuriating because Toro Rosso actually has some tremendously talented engineers that, without RB’s constant poaching and tinkering, would probably be comparable to Force India. For the last several races, Toro Rosso has been solely focused on advancing and preparing the Honda engine for RB next year.

      1. @ajpennypacker – fully agreed. Despite their size and budget, they’ve impressed with good aero designs, particularly noticeable at the start of some seasons.

        Unfortunately, I feel that next year, the use of Toro Rosso as a moving testbed will only increase, as RBR will seek to prove new PUs on TR before accepting them into the big team.

        1. @phylyp I think we’ve already seen much the same with Ferrari and its “customer” teams, such as when they introduced the newest spec engine in the Haas cars first in order to (I assume) test it for reliability, before it was installed into the Ferraris. I think we can expect red bull/TR to go much further with these kinds of practices, thus increasing the gap between the haves and the have notes (F1 and F1.6??)

          1. @frood19 – quite true, and you’ve also rightly called out a good distinction. Haas trialling a newer spec (in Monaco, I think) is similar behaviour but at a much lower scale. Given that TR and RBR share their major source of funding, it will become harder (nigh on impossible, tbh) for them to refuse a request to test an engine. One can only hope that RBR don’t compromise TR’s season to the point that they aren’t able to mount an effective campaign.

          2. @phylyp, Newey has already confirmed that Toro Rosso’s design independent will reduce in 2019 and the team will shift to a Haas-type model, where they increase the amount of part sharing that can go on to the absolute limit that the rules allow.

            It’s part of the reason why Key seems to have chosen to get out of Toro Rosso – Red Bull can’t make Toro Rosso a full customer chassis, as they did in the past, but their intention is to push the rules to breaking point on quite how close the 2019 Toro Rosso car can be to the parent teams car. It doesn’t completely eliminate the roles for figures like Key, but it massively downgrades them and cuts out most of their design independence.

    2. I would expect Honda to want to run every one of their latest engine configurations before the end of the season in 2 races time. I can’t see Honda getting excited about whether or not they earn points between now and the end of the season. Getting ready for next season is far more important.

    3. Maybe they want to finally see if the latest Honda engine can actually go at least 3 GP weekends in a row without popping. Since they haven’t even tried that one yet @phylyp, @ajpennypacker, @drycrust

      1. @bascb I have nothing against Honda, but I must admit that it puts a smile on my face when Toro Rosso struggles with engines, but only because of the comments Franz Tost and Pierre Gasly. Their efforts to rub their occasional good results on Mclaren’s nose have annoyed me quite a bit. I find it quite tasteless for a team to mock a struggling team. Full disclosure though, I’m a Mclaren fan.

        1. @bascb – ha ha, as @jimmi-cynic pointed out, that would be the Holy Trinity for Honda :-)

          @ajpennypacker – has Franz Tost passed such comments mocking McLaren? I’d be surprised, he seemed a level headed guy. Gasly, I’m just waiting for Verstappen to wipe the floor with him next year, since he’s been quite snotty this year ;-) (and I’m a guy who generally likes TR!)

    4. Woohoo…..Only two PU’s for the last two races and they ‘should’ be ok!

      That’s progress?

    5. I 100% agree with you here. Why doesn’t Gasly expect his engine to fail in the next races? Are Honda not trying enough? I know that sounds silly, but we are told failure is part of Honda success.

      We are told constantly that Honda is using TR to experiment. But Honda introduced their Spec C engine a few races ago, and aren’t prepared to race it. They run it in practice but them pull back and say they have vibration issues and don’t run it in the races. They seem unable to solve the problems even though they say the problems are minor.

      If TR really were the testing ground we are told and Honda’s new engine is so good, then they would 100% run it. Even if they thought it would blow up. But they aren’t. There are 4 most likely reasons for that.
      – Honda and TR are lying about them being prepared to blow engine to get ahead next year.
      – The new engine is a dog and Honda can’t figure it out but are confident they have sorted the issues. (Unlikely as Gasly would be this confident of no more engine penalties if they were going to run it)
      – The new engine is a dog and Honda have decided to go back to the drawing board and not try with it anymore.
      – Gasly is just answering media questions with hype and we shouldn’t listen to him because he knows nothing.

      I am sorry about this. I would really really love Honda to challenge. But I am seeing nothing that proves that this will be the case.

      I know Max and Marko are talking big for next year. WDC and all that. But all I can see right now is McLaren. I think that RB have a massive challenge in front of them next year. Even if the Honda engine is really good, RB need to integrate that new engine into their chassis. That is a massive task. The engine forms part of the car structure and cooling, exhausts, weight and so on effect the entire car. Aero and mechanical.

      It is a huge task for RB next year. And that is assuming the Honda is on the money. If it isn’t…. ouch.

  6. @phylyp: Maybe they’ve decided to chase that overrated reliability thing.

    1. @jimmi-cynic – ha ha ha, you crack me up. Not as much as Toro Rosso, but still…

    2. @jimmi-cynic

      Well.. It’s quite commendable that Honda doesn’t need a new engine for their last 2 races. I can already feel the Power of dreams coming true in 201o

      At the end of the day Renault is rubbish and that’s all that matters.

  7. I think the problem with trying to make F1 more of a spectacle and a fairer playing field is that while the top teams will say that’s how it should be and are all up for supporting it, none of them want to compromise their advantages.

  8. Bob nails it in the CotD. For at least fifteen years, maybe longer, there has been constant talk about how the next big rule change is going to really spice it all up. Definitely in the years running up to the major 2009 revamp, where people were going nuts about how bringing back proper slicks and getting rid of all the flippy appendages would result in loads of close racing after years of Trulli Trains and unpredictable blistering tyres. Then there was the talk about how the DRS and switch to Pirrelli tyres would revolutionise everything. Then it was the switch to V6 engines. Then it was the changes to the engine points system, and changes to the aero.

    Important lesson – Stop talking about how it’s going to be better in a few years time and maybe focus on what’s good about it right now? Because the message you’re constantly bombarded with from just about everyone involved with F1 is – F1 is rubbish.

    When you devote all your energy to talking about how rubbish F1 is, don’t be surprised when people start switching off. Q.E.D.

    1. @mazdachris

      Important lesson – Stop talking about how it’s going to be better in a few years time and maybe focus on what’s good about it right now?

      Exactly, is there any other sport that so constantly undermines itself? A lot is from the constant whining of midfield teams and drivers, some of whom have the resources to be doing much better. Just improve the ability to follow closely (clean up the aero turbulence) and I’m fine how it is. The array of driving talent right now is phenomenal. The cars are fast. Formula 1 just needs to be more confident and stop giving air time to some of the serial moaners who simply can’t do their job properly.

      1. I really still have to disagree. The majority of the whiners are fans. F1 itself is not whining, but rather is talking about making F1 better post-BE. How many have whined about BE and his ways?

        I simply do not understand peoples’ lack of patience here. New owners have just taken over. As I have said before, can they not have a minute to try to improve things? Or should they just continue with gadgets and terrible tires and processions from clean air dependent cars, and let the top teams rule the roost and watch the lesser teams leave with nobody to replace them? Would that make everyone happy?

        I’m grateful a new entity is now in charge compared to BE’s last 10 years especially, so I have all kinds of patience for Liberty and Brawn. I don’t see how they were supposed to just jump in and snap their fingers and improve on the problems just like that. For now it has to be talk, while they sort things out and try to get all the teams on board, and while they wait for BE made contracts to expire. If you want more knee-jerk stuff I guess just sit there and bemoan BE’s absence, or otherwise how about we give Liberty their day in the sun for the risk they have taken by taking over F1.

  9. No idea who KSI or Laurence McKenna are, but I’m all for it if Formula E becomes available to everyone sooner rather than later. That’s gonna give F1 a good wake up call, if it hasn’t already.

    1. @fer-no65 Formula E has been available for everyone since the start, All of there races are posted on Youtube both in full & varying levels of Highlights as well as live streams in many regions & they haven’t exactly drawn that big an audience..

      The problem the series has is that there struggling to attract an audience & the only reason there making this move fully to Youtube is because they don’t have any interest from traditional broadcasters. Both ITV & Channel 5 backed out of there respective deals due to low audiences & nobody else has stepped forward to take there spot.

      This is the strange place the series has found itself in. In terms of manufacturer & motor industry interest they have grown but there struggling to attract & maintain a steady audience & that is hurting them & going to hurt them more given how moving to youtube is going to cost them a big chunk of revenue which they would otherwise be making from TV deals.

      1. This makes me wonder if ‘going electric’ is moreso the politically correct thing to do, for manufacturers to appear to be environmentally conscious and doing the right thing, all the while with very small numbers of people actually interested in buying electric cars, such is still their impracticality for many people’s needs. Here in Ontario electric car sales were around 2% of purchases and that number immediately has dropped now that the new provincial government has taken away the rebates offered if you buy an electric vehicle.

        So…electric is a thing…and manufacturers have to jump on board…but that doesn’t mean the demand is there for the cars or the racing series, at least not for now.

        1. @robbie

          There is an interesting new study available at hiddentribes.us where they identify various groups in the US (presumably, other Western countries have similar groups). ‘Progressive activists’ are only 8% of society, but punch way above their weight in some ways. They are very well educated, very white and very much into activism, which includes working for the media to educate society and engaging in political activism. They also feel strong guilt & anger at many problems or perceived problems in society.

          Because of their activism, they seem much more common than they actually are because they write most of the news stories, stage protests, are more often in positions of power, often make policy for organizations, etc. However, since they only represent a small percentage of the population and have a strong social bubble, they tend to have little understanding of many other groups in society. An example is how most of them were completely surprised by the rise of Trump.

          Anyway, the disconnect you see between what this group presents as the right thing to do and what society as a whole actually does can be explained by this, as that small minority loudly proclaims their willingness to make large sacrifices for certain causes, while the rest of society is mostly far less extremist and more practical-minded (also because they have less money than the progressive activists).

          PS. The owner of Racefans, Keith, also seems to me to be one of this group and he tries to push his activism on us, while many readers don’t share his outlook.

      2. @gt-racer I guess C4 aren’t interested then, after re-upping with Sky/FOM for F1 highlights and British GP live?

  10. Hopefully, he indeed won’t have to. The Guardian-article is interesting reading.

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