In the round-up: Fernando Alonso expects McLaren to match Red Bull’s level of performance in 2018 when they have the same Renault engines.
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'Red Bull win pressurises McLaren' (Sky)
"We need to make sure we do our job on the chassis side because the engine can deliver wins as Red Bull prove. We need to match that performance with the chassis and that is a challenge for sure."
"I think our car will be in a much better position (in Japan), but Ferrari brought quite a big upgrade to the last race so it will be interesting to see that properly unleashed"
No big Marchionne changes at Ferrari - Vettel (Autosport)
"Knowing what is going on internally, there is no panic, no big plans as a reaction."
Hamilton promises to ‘prepare for war’ at Japanese Grand Prix (The Guardian)
"I don’t want to rely on fortune from the others’ misfortune,” Hamilton said. “Ultimately if it’s on personal performance from Sebastian, I’m not bothered about that."
Hamilton on the hunt despite F1 title lead (Reuters)
"Me and the car I think have lots of things in common - it’s got great potential but doesn’t always want to do what you tell it to do."
Hamilton position 'not comfortable at all' (BBC)
"I don't know if any of you guys can predict but I definitely can't predict what races are going to work and what are not. We thought we'd be stronger in the last race but we were way off but we still got pole and finished second."
'Starting from zero each year' detrimental to Honda - Alonso (F1i)
"Every single season we had to change the philosophy of the engine, we had to change the turbine position, we changed different things that slowed us a little bit too much in terms of development."
Alonso on Malaysia race 'Stoffel just did better' (Crash)
"Stoffel was better and maximised the car in qualifying, it was one-tenth-and-a-half but there were quite a few position in that and that had quite an impact on the first corner, meant I remained in groups behind the train of the leaders."
Renault working on 'magic' engine mode for 2018 (Motorsport)
"It is certainly very competitive on a Sunday, but there is clearly a bit missing on Saturday in qualifying. We don't have that sort of 'magic' qualifying mode, but we are working hard on it."
"There’s a school of thought of late that the fight is over, with Hamilton those 34 points in front. In truth, if Red Bull can keep up their pace here and in succeeding races, the real fight might just be starting."
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Spotted this at Suzuka today, the current Honda F1 engine! #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/Y9xJSpcgHN
— James Roberts (@JRobertsF1) October 5, 2017
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— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) October 5, 2017
Yes, you were driver coaching me. I wrote all the things you told me that week-end. Thanks for the help this week-end mate 😅
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) October 5, 2017
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Comment of the day
The emergence of a video showing Lance Stroll’s view of his collision with Sebastian Vettel in Malaysia hopefully drew a line under the debate. Here’s Jordi’s take:
Watching the video in slow motion, Stroll does drift away from the apex slightly. He’s turning in, but a bit less than what would be needed to make the corner around while keeping a constant radius.
On the other hand, Vettel seems to be getting closer to the inside at a bigger rate than Stroll goes to the outside. And as far as I can tell, Stroll’s right wheels were significantly to the left of the middle of the track, so Vettel had plenty of room to go around Stroll and pick some marbles.
Vettel had plenty of room to his right, and absolutely no reason to get so close to Stroll while passing him. Stroll might have been able to take a tighter line, but that doesn’t take away the fact Vettel had a whole highway for himself and chose to crowd Stroll for whatever reason.
Jordi Casademunt (@Casjo)
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Strontium (@strontium)
6th October 2017, 0:38
Hamilton preparing for a war in Japan… perhaps North Korea could be an unforeseen threat to his race win.*
I’ve had an idea. It’s a long shot, but what would happen if they made rules that disallowed different engine settings? If the engine settings enter parc ferme just like every other part of the car, and cannot be adjusted inside the car (or remotely), just like every other part. Would we see teams fine tuning an engine for full race distances, allowing drivers to be pushing the car to the limit effectively all the time, even if that limit is lower? It’s something to consider.
*Disclaimer: I’m joking
Levente (@leventebandi)
6th October 2017, 11:42
Let’s look at it from an another viewpoint. If someone can extract more of it from their engine for 1 or 2 lap but their car is slower in races, it makes a better race, with closer racing (anyone remembers the mighty Trulli trains ? ).
Also one of the reasons are for someone able to push their engine more for a shorter period is, that they have more reserves, they don’t need to run their engines at its peak performance in races to achieve wins, so they will have better reliability turned down to say 95% of engine perf. Renault does not have any reserves to push their engine over their long run performance, as they already run it on 100% in races. (and their reliability suffers because of it). Qualy engine modes are a thing since qualy engines got banned (we are talking about more than 10 years timeframe now)
To ban qualy engine modes would be as artifical solution as the DRS. Renault and Honda needs to up their game and do their homework, pegging back Mercedes would be an unsporting and artifical answer to a problem in Renault’s household.
Levente (@leventebandi)
6th October 2017, 11:47
Also, anything F1 needs in regulations is not even more technical restrictions…
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
6th October 2017, 0:42
Well good on Fernando for coming out and saying that the Stoff was just better and quicker in the last race. He didnt make any excuses, he’s just come out and said it.
I think Fernando is enjoying his position as the wise old master in the Mclaren garage with Stoff being his young apprentice. He should know how quick Stoff is by now, and will know he’s only going to get better.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th October 2017, 5:29
Yeah, probably getting used to the idea he might not win anything at all anymore. I mean, not even a race.
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th October 2017, 10:16
If we can arrive at a conclusion regarding Alonso these past 3 years it is in fact that he is enjoying his time, no doubt about it
David BR (@david-br)
6th October 2017, 3:03
Hamilton:
So. Not at all confident then!
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
6th October 2017, 8:12
I actually believe the Red Bull’s rapid improvement will help Lewis and take points off Seb. I think Suzuka will suit the Lewis and the RBs. If only the season started like this!
Baron (@baron)
6th October 2017, 9:14
That’s a big ask right there Fernando! You’re taking on the best chassis designer in the business and no-one has got close to him in real terms (considering the disparity of PU’s). I would like to see that, but it’s a steep mountain.
frood19 (@frood19)
6th October 2017, 10:32
great COTD, really draws a nice cogent line under the whole thing for me.
Robbie (@robbie)
6th October 2017, 13:22
And I disagree with it but there’s other headings on the topic with lots of commentary. Ah what the heck…it was made cotd on this round-up, so here we go again.
SV not only leaves tons of room for LS on the outside of him, that is not even the room that was needed. Had LS bothered to look in both mirrors before he drifts away from the apex, he would have seen SV in the outside and certainly still had plenty of room to keep steering toward the apex, which no doubt he would have done had he only looked right instead of only ever looking left, as is blatantly obvious from LS’s onboard.