In the round-up: McLaren engine supplier Honda will use its last remaining power unit development tokens as soon as they can this year.
Links
Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
Honda plans to spend all tokens on upgrades (F1i)
"Once we can confirm that, there is no reason for us to wait, we will put them in as soon as we can. We have 10 tokens left for the 2016 season, so our goal is to use all of it within this season."
Gutierrez apologised for Haas outbursts (Autosport)
"Sometimes I was a bit too much on certain occasions. I went and apologised and we've become closer and closer and closer as a team."
FIA evaluating Force India's CFD reliance proposal (Motorsport)
"We’ve asked the Strategy Group to look into a position where we can do a glide path down and a total switch to CFD."
McLaren & Me: David Hobbs (McLaren)
"Later on that year Mike Hailwood was driving the third Yardley M23 when he crashed at the Nurburgring, and broke both his legs. Mike and I were very close friends, and I went to see him in hospital two or three times. He and I lobbied strongly for me to be his replacement, which I was for the Austrian and Italian GPs."
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
For all those that carried me through Silverstone! Footage we filmed at my home race 🇬🇧🙌🏾 #BritishGP #TeamLHhttps://t.co/YEogZB5FTQ
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) August 18, 2016
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Sumedh on the difficulty of ranking 22 drivers who have 11 different cars:
If the driver swap wouldn’t have been conducted by Red Bull, then would Sainz have been this high? Him and Verstappen both would have featured in the six-to-twelve list without Ricciardo pulling them both up the rankings as he has done now. I would even bet that Kvyat wouldn’t be as low as he is now (last but one).
And therein lies the biggest flaw with even trying to make a driver ranking. With everyone driving different cars and different engines, it is downright impossible to make objective comparisons. Once in a while, where a driver drives for two different teams in the same season, we end up with a situation where one of the drivers, Kvyat ends up last but one whereas the other three drivers end up in the top five. Such a big gap between these four drivers? I don’t think so.
Sumedh
Look out for the third and final part of the mid-season driver rankings later today on F1 Fanatic:
From the forum
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Harry Palmer and Sue!
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On this day in F1
Michael Schumacher sealed his fourth world championship title with victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix on this day 15 years ago.
Tata
19th August 2016, 0:35
Nice video of Ham and his fans. They truly love him:)
Ten or so negative comments on the internet is a tiny speck in the ocean of love he gets from his millions of fans. Good on him. Go champ:)
Jabosha (@jabosha)
19th August 2016, 1:01
You know, I’m not a huge Hamilton fan but really respect his intelligence and ability on the track. Thatt said, the guy deserves huge props for literally engaging his fans physically when he can. There’re people that do care about what he’s up to. He keeps them in the loop and informed. During some races at the end when he wins, he goes out of his way to a part of the track, where there are no rubber marbles to pick up and wave to people.
Ham and Ros, along with Alo,Vet, Ric, But, Per, (Massa especially too, always giving thumbs up to the cameras) or mentioning the fans at times during the season. Ros, looks into the camera and addresses the fans during some interviews. Some may say big deal. I get that too.
Mr. X
19th August 2016, 1:13
Then you have Kimi, arguably the most popular driver on the grid and one of all time who simply lives his live outside of F1, OUTSIDE of F1.
We dont care what Kimi’s up to yet we still love him.
Hard to say who’s more popular at the moment, Kimi or Ham, but thats a compliment to both. However, one of them is trying as hard as he can and the other isnt. Which is only a compliment to one….
Tata
19th August 2016, 10:22
Dude, this is not a popularity contest. This is the millionth time someone feels the need to tell Ham fans that no “Kimi is the most popular driver on the grid” on a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with Kimi.
Kimi has his fans no doubt, but since I have never been a fan of his and since I partially see him as someone who is in some ways rude or just chooses to act that way, I don’t think he is any way as popular as some claim. He might be popular among petrol heads but outside of F1 and globally, I doubt he comes close to Hamilton. My opinion.
Hamilton has genuinely engaged with his fans from day one. The guy says in almost every race that he feeds off their energy. He is a people’s person. These things obviously come natural to him. So to keep trying to knock him by saying he is “trying” too hard or whatever makes no sense. He has been like this for years which is precisely why he has his kind of fans. Maybe some are just finding out.
On the other hand, I don’t really see Kimi doing anything apart from mumbling a few replies to serious questions. But I don’t see Hamilton’s fans going around trying to knock Kimi’s hustle as it is not a popularity contest. If some find him interesting, so be it.
This is not a good argument I would like to get involved in. It’s just that I felt like replying to this millionth unsolicited mumbo-jumbo of Kimi is more popular on a story that is purely about Hamilton.
Tata
19th August 2016, 11:33
@asanator
How can my innocent comment above and the subsequent one by @jabosha lead to a Kimi popularity contest?
Neither my comment nor @jabosha‘s made any mention of Kimi.
As I pointed out in my later comment, this happens over and over. And somehow you have turned it around to be “Hamilton’s problem”?
A simple comment about Hamilton and his fans is somehow “Hamilton’s problem”?
That doesn’t make any sense. But I am not surprised.
Sumedh
19th August 2016, 2:52
Thanks for the COTD Keith (and also for the one three days ago of the caption competition).
Objectively ranking drivers is very difficult no doubt and we appreciate the efforts you put into it. Yes, there will be few commentators who will call you biased and partial but that is just their bias speaking.
mog
19th August 2016, 6:02
Excellent cotd. Thanks sumedh
frood19 (@frood19)
19th August 2016, 8:08
this guy tried a very complicated objective method, which is poorly understood by many of the people who comment on his posts. i think it supports taking an entirely subjective approach! although i do like the idea of rating drivers on points per finish (surely the whole point of racing in this championship).
https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/
Patrickl (@patrickl)
22nd August 2016, 10:43
The problem with those mathematical approaches in driver ranking is that they favor drivers with poor team mates (or “number two” team mates).
It’s also very difficult to correct for errors in team strategy. For instance Perez outscored Hulkenberg in Monaco and Silverstone when in fact Hulkenberg was initially in front but was severely let down by mistakes made by the team. or vices versa that a strategy lucks out and wins.
In fac it’s neigh on impossible to do that manually as well.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
22nd August 2016, 10:52
Why must it always be calls on bias? How about people we correct him on overlooking things. If you look at the race results you might overlook things that happened during the race which impeded the driver finishing lower.
For example people say Kvyat outperformed Ricciardo in China, but that was due to a puncture. Or the other way around how people think Ricciardo should have won in Spain. Even when he was on the fastest strategy and wasn’t able to keep his tyres in one piece. Let alone that he would have been able to do what Verstappen did. Ricciardo does have a tendency to go “wild” and ruin his own chances. As he did in Spain.
People can also have different interpretations.
pcxmac (@xsavior)
19th August 2016, 5:31
“Yes, there will be few commentators who will call you biased and partial but that is just their bias speaking.”
Opinions are not necessarily facts.
Neil (@neilosjames)
19th August 2016, 6:06
Used to do driver rankings for another website so I know they’re very tricky… so many different thing you need to think about, and it’s almost impossible to do them with complete impartiality, even if you’re trying your hardest to be neutral – everyone has at least a little bit of bias. And of course, the problem mentioned in the CoTD surfaces every single race – trying to determine exactly how competitive each car was is pretty much impossible, bar the two Mercs.
Probably the thing I miss least about that particular job, but I always enjoyed the comments because it wasn’t a refined, respectful community like the one here… just lots of explosive, indignant passers-by. Hell hath no fury like a commenter who thinks his favourite driver deserved a higher score…
Tata
19th August 2016, 10:34
I had to laugh reading the end of your comment. There will always be accusations of bias.
On a serious note though, anyone thinking that human feelings don’t come into play when judgements are being made is misinformed. The extent of our personal bias that is subdued while taking that decision is a major part of what gives credibility to any judgement.
Tango (@tango)
19th August 2016, 10:50
CotD and you are both right,bu ti’m happy Keith engages in the exercise. It’s a pleasant read for F1 deprived F1Fs like me.
As for Keith and the site’s “bias” I have always thought he was a Button man (understandable) myself and well, none could truly accuse him of over classifying him in the latest DOTY installment.
Neil (@neilosjames)
19th August 2016, 16:09
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he does them too, and I like reading them. Always well-written and reasoned, and Keith always seems very neutral. I know some level of preference towards some driver or team must exist on some level, but I’ve never seen it!
John H (@john-h)
20th August 2016, 1:22
I still can’t believe Gutierrez is back in Formula1.