In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo tips Nico Rosberg to win the championship.
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Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
Daniel Ricciardo backs Nico Rosberg to win Formula One world championship (Sky)
"Ricciardo, who shared the podium with the Mercedes pair in Singapore, also joked that the silences between the title rivals can be somewhat awkward after the race."
Interview: Fernley on 'lean, mean' Force India (GP Update)
"If you look at our budget, and you look at the budgets of the three teams in front of us, we're a minimum of 200 million a year difference."
Stroll begins F1 runs with Williams (Motorsport)
"Stroll has also now moved into some work experiencing an older spec F1 car, a Williams FW36 in between his F3 racing."
Steiner plays down Grosjean criticism (F1i)
"I think that was just referring to the set-up, that does not refer to the car in general because the car two weeks ago was pretty good. A car doesn't fall apart in two weeks."
Sepang has fixed track issues - FIA (Autosport)
"Extra drainage slots have been cut so I don't think we're going to be in trouble."
Eric Boullier: Stoffel Vandoorne will grow up beating the best in Formula One (ESPN)
"I think in Bahrain when he stepped in he showed everybody he was ready to race in Formula One."
Ocon: No rivalry with Wehrlein (Crash)
"He's (Wehrlein) a great driver, he has been really quick all season. I got a lot to learn from him."
"Our policy is that we don’t want to associate ourselves with active drivers or players."
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Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
I spied a little at @WilliamsRacing. Always have to keep an eye on the opposition!! 😂 #tbt #f1spy pic.twitter.com/GYMdKgX9F2
— Nico Rosberg (@NicoRosberg) September 22, 2016
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Comment of the day
Alex believes a takeover of Silverstone by Jonathan Palmer’s MSV could be good for the circuit:
I like going to Silverstone because it’s Silverstone. I like standing on the inside of Copse and thinking of Clark, Rindt, Lauda, everyone. But Silverstone is very arrogant.
Obviously it’s not the same as a Snetterton or Oulton Park, covering so much land and with so many secondary businesses. Even operationally, the number of marshal’s posts, recovery crews, photographers, having two paddocks and pits in use makes things hard to run.
Drivers, riders and even the MSA used to complain about the run off at Barn corner at Cadwell. The previous owners said there was nothing to be done because that part of the track is actually Crown land. After MSV bought the circuit that barrier was pushed back as far as it would go.
Dr Palmer might look at the hospitality at Woodcote and say these are a disgrace and demolish them. He might find somewhere for marshals to sign on that has reliable electricity.
Alex Brown (@Splittimes)
Happy birthday!
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On this day in F1
The only four-wheel-drive F1 victory occured on this day 55 years ago, albeit it in a non-championship race. Stirling Moss won the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup driving a Ferguson P99:
far
23rd September 2016, 0:25
@nico_rosberg will be the F1 champion this year
Maureen Rourke
23rd September 2016, 8:10
I shall stop watching if he does. Come on Hamilton you can beat him.
German team German driver, must be hard.
Or is it fixed?
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd September 2016, 9:17
The spirit of a hardcore fan.
DavidTyrrellF1 (@davidtyrrell)
23rd September 2016, 9:21
This is the best, I think, we’ve seen of Rosberg this year and Hamilton has had his fair share of bad luck but also he’s had bad starts and Rosberg has capitalised on them. I don’t think Mercedes would jeopardise one of their cars for the benefit of the other driver. Every constructor wants the maximum points and messing with Hamilton’s car won’t achieve that. If Rosberg does win this year it shows Mercedes have two world champion drivers and the best car and that’s one hell of an achievement.
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
23rd September 2016, 12:33
I agree. I it is fixed all right. The guys in the fastest cars win. The fastest cars are the ones with the biggest budget.
Is that what you meant by fixed?
Hamilton won 2 championships with that kind of fixing!
Palle (@palle)
24th September 2016, 12:18
DRS has made it easier for the guys in the fastest cars to win, but You are wrong if You think that the ones with the biggest budget wins. We have seen over and over again, that this isn’t true. Those with the best overall team, including sub suppliers (engines etc. ) and the most brilliant designers, aerodynamicists and most ingenious engineers win. Brawn won with some of the lowest budget and despite having the largest budget Toyota never won anything. So if Your excuse for failing against big companies with big budgets is money, then think again: if You are innovative, work hard and smart, then You can win.
John H (@john-h)
25th September 2016, 19:26
This. DRS turns F1 into a time trial. I’ve said it for years.
grat
26th September 2016, 15:24
Brawn also had a chassis that Honda poured a truly ridiculous amount of money into, and took advantage of a diffuser-sized hole in the regulations. To be fair, though, at least he warned the FIA he was going to take advantage of that hole.
And while Brawn was cleaning house early in the season, once the other teams started catching up, Brawn stopped winning races, because he couldn’t afford to keep developing the car.
Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
23rd September 2016, 15:53
It looks like it’s gonna be hard for Lewis; they each had 7 poles so far but Lewis more than often did not stayed in front at the start so i see Rosberg wining more races in the rest of the season.
That being said reliability is so incredible at Mercedes, not one technical DNF this year, that if one car will have an issue, the other will take a decisive advantage, in the short mini season ahead.
Or maybe Lewis’s prayers are gonna be heard by the rain goods.
Anyway, i hope it goes to the last race and neither driver has more DNFs then the other in these last 6 races.
altitude2k
23rd September 2016, 9:46
Hamilton was 48 points down on Rosberg earlier this season, knowing that further engine penalties were to come. He’s now 8 points adrift with all (hopefully) engine penalties taken, but all of a sudden it’s Rosberg’s title?
TheBullWhipper (@thebullwhipper)
23rd September 2016, 14:22
Well said Sir.
Billys (@bilarxos)
23rd September 2016, 18:42
Good point! I am sure Hamilton will bounce back very strong!
Miss Universe
23rd September 2016, 22:23
The engine penalties cost him 10 points.
JCost (@jcost)
23rd September 2016, 11:46
I wish Nico the best but I don’t think overreactions about his supposed fantastic form and Lewis’ alleged spectacular slump are going the help his cause.
After summer break we had three races. Lewis Hamilton finished 3rd (Belgium), 2nd (Italy) and 3rd (Singapore). In Belgium Lewis started from the back. In Italy Lewis dominated qualy and had a very bad start but recovered to 2nd and Singapore was a bad weekend for him and Nico was just better driver but Lewis still managed a 3rd place finish. I really can’t see any signs of a slump that prevents him from recovering a 8 points deficit… we are talking about the same driver who was 48 points adrift at some point.
Robbie (@robbie)
23rd September 2016, 14:24
I think it is very much either driver’s WDC to win or lose. Next weekend could see either driver on pole and either driver nailing his start. There’s every reason to think this could come down to the last race of the season. And certainly Nico is sitting right now fully expecting LH to be every bit as hard to beat as on any other race weekend. He will not be assuming he himself is on some momentum rise, nor that LH is in some sort of locked-in slump.
mystic one (@mysticus)
26th September 2016, 2:03
Or it could be two race in a row Ros have failure /DNF, and his spirit is done…
JeffreyJ
24th September 2016, 10:32
He’d be the worst driver to be champion I have seen in my 25 years as a F1 fan, with the possible exception of Jacques Villeneuve.
By default Merc has a .5 sec advantage over the competition and the Merc with the least problems wins. I mean, Rosberg is incredibly quick over 1 lap and has no trouble to finish off the job by driving fault-free if he isn’t challenged. As soon as he’s challenged by Lewis on track though, he is either beeing overtaken or makes a mistake. I can’t remember a straight fight on track where Nico came out on top. (It doens’t help that there are remarkebly little on-track battles between the to in general given Merc’s advantage, there’s always something preventing it). Rosberg also hasn’t shown a champions drive form the back of the grid to the front or a heroic fight at all for that matter imho.
Villeneuve won because he had a dominant Williams and was better than Frentzen. After that he didn’t stand out of the pack ever again. Rosberg has been beaten by Hamilton on many occasion and won when HAM (or his car) screwed up. He didn’t particularly stood out ever before. If he wins the championship is a Button-caliber champion rather than an Alonso-caliber champion imho.
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd September 2016, 5:54
Great COTD, @splittimes, looking at it from your perspective is surely refreshing. I do think that the Silverstone management has had the handicap of a large group of drivers-ownermembers discussing every move they make. But really, for fans I doubt it would make a big difference anyway.
Provided that is, that the GP will still be run here!
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd September 2016, 6:01
By now, i guess there is little doubt that we will see Stroll in a Williams next year. He will have done probably the most testing miles of any rookie in a long time by then too!
Will be interesting to see how he does up against Bottas, and without having the advantage of simulator time over the other drivers (because everyone does Simulator in F1 although maybe Sauber and Manor have less hours of it for lack of their own simulator)
Robbie (@robbie)
23rd September 2016, 13:39
And let’s not forget how different the cars will be next year, but perhaps the simulators are that good that there will be no surprises come February testing.
sethje (@seth-space)
23rd September 2016, 15:47
Daddy Stroll already bought simulatortime and even a 2014 Williams for his boy to practice.
By the time Stroll buys his way into F1 he is very experienced ;)
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
23rd September 2016, 10:17
Interesting to see Steiners comments about Grosjean. I doubt Grosjean is actually doing himself any favours with his comments though and I’m beginning to doubt his ability to provide great feedback for his engineers. Too many “I have no idea what’s wrong” comments for mine and not enough “I have way too much understeer or similar”
Also, props to Ocon who has done a pretty good job since starting at Manor. Very different style to Wherlein who was trying to wring the neck of the car at every opportunity last week – Ocon came thru the same section much smoother which was paying dividends as his times were fractionally better for much of the sessions. The fact that both brought their cars home I thought was pretty good and I think they’ve both got a future in F1.
Kalun (@briankalun)
23rd September 2016, 11:59
It has been 20 years since the last Father-Son World Champion with the Hill family. Can Nico Rosberg becomes the second Father-Son World Champion?
It would be great if that happens because we won’t be witnessing this again. We might have to wait another 20 more years. By then, Bernie and Friends will be long gone.
Robbie (@robbie)
23rd September 2016, 13:44
I’m kind of hoping one of Jacques boys will end up in F1, not that I have any knowledge of whether they are even interested. And I know Gilles never won a WDC but it is still a legendary father/son story for Jacques to have completed what his dad couldn’t.
Evil Homer (@)
23rd September 2016, 15:31
@briankalun
I have been going for Nico for the WDC for the last 3 years (100% Dan Ric fan but know he has not the car) and this is nothing against Lewis but more so as an old school F1 love to see the father & son stories where both drive F1 (lets face it, had some great ones and some really crap ones hey!).
Would love to see Nico get 2nd father & son double World Drivers Championship ever, and to think the Hill’s could never share that as Graham passed long before Damon won in 1996 this could be the first time even a father has seen his son also win an F1 title, and I think that’s special
Stubborn Swiss (@stubbornswiss)
23rd September 2016, 14:20
I can actually already hear Toto Wolff saying how great it is to have a German driver winning in a German car for a German team.
Nothing wrong with that, I guess.
Evil Homer (@)
23rd September 2016, 15:51
Of course it would be for them, may put more bums on seats and help the German GP stay on for a long time!
I am in Oz so closer F1 for me is better of course but I love the old European Tracks they are what F1 needs.
JeffreyJ
24th September 2016, 10:36
Not many German fans like Nico though. On the camping at Spa we were surrounded by several Germans and they either supported Merc/Lewis or Vettel and Verstappen even. Quite a few supported Hulkenberg too but they didn’t seem to think much of ROS.
pcxmac (@xsavior)
24th September 2016, 20:21
yeah, except hes really not German, and he used to race under the Finnish flag before he sold out completely.
rsp123 (@rsp123)
23rd September 2016, 15:38
After watching the marshall at Singapore running off the track as cars approached, I have been wondering why GP marshalls are still volunteers? The “sport” is a business worth billions, and some participants make tens of millions a year, and yet it relies entirely on the goodwill of volunteers to make races happen. Marshalls must be trained and experienced; they must be available for several days; they must know what they’re doing; they risk injury and death; and the races simply could not happen without them. In the distant past, when safety and business concerns were somewhat different than today, asking for volunteers was understandable. But those days are surely gone. Why does this anachronism persist? Should F1 have a team (or perhaps several teams) of professional marshalls?
sethje (@seth-space)
23rd September 2016, 15:50
Most Marshalls i know love the atmosphere and the free entry to the track and of course the camping .
I do not think they are in need of any cash.
Btw, the running Marshall was a situation that should not happen. Not the marshalls fault!
Manas
23rd September 2016, 18:26
Lewis Hamilton will be world champion before last race.To defend 8 points lead on 6 race to spare against Lewis Hamilton in a best car is not an easy task even if it is Fernando Alonso in that second merc. Unless any Dnf Hamilton will walk away easily with 4th world title.may be Ricardo has his say and full respect to him as a driver probably the best after Hamilton and Alonso. It’s good to see Rosberg doing everything thing he can but in the end it may not enough to outclass Lewis’s talent the cream always come on top.
kpcart
24th September 2016, 7:42
Hamilton has has many late season form slumps, ie 2007,2008, 2010, 2015. He lost 2 championships that way, in 07 and 10, and nearly lost in 08.
peter
23rd September 2016, 19:18
Love Ricciardo, but he’s not the brightest.
Prab
24th September 2016, 9:42
Second that!
Balue (@balue)
24th September 2016, 12:30
Don’t know if you’re serious or just another disgruntled Hamilton fan, but he wouldn’t be this fast and consistent without good brains. With his OT persona one might at first impression think he might not be a deep thinker, but listen to his answers and he always get the gist and things are well thought through and interesting. I remember particularly one press conference where drivers were asked about new style tracks and while half the drivers didn’t really get what was asked and the rest regurgitated the usual platitudes, Ricciardo gave his balanced view and even had suggestions how to improve them by looking at other series and tracks, especially rallycross with cambered corners allowing for different lines etc which I thought was brilliant.
pcxmac (@xsavior)
24th September 2016, 20:26
I love how people credit ROSberg’s brains when hes winning but credit the car when HAM’s winning. Not saying you of course, but its definitely a thing.
HAM in the clown car this year I fear, he can still be gifted the championship this year, but given how little care Merc assign to HAM’s chronic bad starts and reliability, he won’t actually be able to take poles and win as he sees fit, which is a real shame. But maybe not as big a shame as … I will just sit back and watch the masses be lead around by misleading commentary, Mercedes continue to keep things close and ignorance be lovingly embraced.