In the round-up: McLaren team principal Eric Boullier says his team has almost recovered the two-week delay in its preparations for the 2018 F1 season it incurred with its late switch of engine supplier.
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Boullier on McLaren’s bright new beginning (F1)
"Maybe we made the decision to change the engine manufacturer two weeks too late for our schedule – but these two weeks have almost been recovered."
Concerned F1 drivers all join GPDA union (BBC)
"Wurz said the drivers saw the biggest risk as being 'mainly diminishing the key values of F1: a sport, a motor race where the best driver wins and battles it out in the fastest race cars on the coolest tracks in close-fought competition'."
Female racers 'disheartened' by Jorda FIA appointment (Motorsport)
"It was a bit of a surprise for everybody, especially because most of the females that are racing in big series at the moment disagree with her point of view."
Arrivabene: We must emulate Merc's mindset (ESPN)
"I think one of the strengths of Mercedes, apart from the brand they're representing, how the team is organised, it's also their habit to win."
Ocon brushes off F1 team mate Perez's extra pressure claim (Crash)
"You can’t let any details hang there. Any small issues, you can’t leave it. They will come back bigger, so any details you can fix, you have to fix."
Ericsson defends record against Wehrlein (GP Update)
"If you look at the statistics this year, if you take the average between team-mates, I think we're the closest (pairing) on the grid if you look at the qualifying sessions and the races."
Brawn: 'Formula 1's partnership with Ferrari has its limits' (F1i)
"It's a matter of what Ferrari can accept, and what we can accept. We want to find solutions that keep everyone in formula one, and above all we don't want to lose any iconic teams."
Force India understands car better than ever (Autosport)
"It really motivated everybody back at the factory to see that the parts they are working on can get to the track so quickly."
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Comment of the day
Carlos Sainz Jnr had several great drives in 2017, but has too little attention been paid to his blunders?
It has to be said that it is a negative to have been responsible for three of your own retirements. The only other driver who has been responsible for three of their own retirements is Ericsson I think who is often regarded as the worst driver on the grid (although I don’t think that). And on top of this, Sainz has knocked out two other drivers as well. Resulting in him causing five retirements over the season. This is unfortunately more than any other driver on the grid. Even Kvyat has actually only been responsible for his own retirement once. He has knocked three other drivers out, but that still doesn’t add up to the amount of times his team mate was responsible for a car crashing out.
The other area I would question about Sainz is his qualifying pace. Many say he’s on the level of Verstappen and Ricciardo. I personally don’t think he’s very close at all, although it could change. Kvyat has looked very even against Sainz in this area. And when Kvyat was with Ricciardo at Red Bull, Ricciardo simply dominated him in qualifying. I am quite sure Sainz will be closer than Kvyat was then, but nothing like as close as many seem to be suggesting.
On the positive side, there are plenty of great performances by Sainz. And that is demonstrated by the amount of points he has even with the odd few poor weekends. This indicates he’s got lots of these big points in fewer races so he does seem to partly make up for this.
Ben Rowe (@Thegianthogweed)
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Markus (@aesto)
14th December 2017, 0:21
Glad to see Brawn isn’t willing to outright cave to Ferrari’s theatrics (like Todt seems to).
C
14th December 2017, 3:29
Surprising considering both were employed by that team and they should know all the antiques that possibly can be thrown by them.
Baron (@baron)
14th December 2017, 8:54
What, like Marchionne? 😂 Sorry, couldn’t resist. Darned spell checkers!
Markp
14th December 2017, 22:01
Brawn is just talking. When hard decisions are made Ferrari will still have a deal their haters cannot pallet.
Boywonder (@deltas4)
14th December 2017, 5:01
After reading the headline, my first thought was McLaren had already caught up 3 years…
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
14th December 2017, 16:12
Yeah me too,
Lets just hope that for their sake to prevent further embarrassments, the talk translates to results.
Man United_Vettel (@siegfreyco)
14th December 2017, 5:08
Ericsson’s right. Him and Wehrlein are the closest teammate on the grid because they usually are next to each other in qualifying and race……….Last and second last. ::)
Jere (@jerejj)
14th December 2017, 7:30
COTD: +1.
praxis (@praxis)
14th December 2017, 7:33
I’ve been scratching my head for a few days now but can’t come up with a reasonable theory about how someone like Carmen Jorda ended up in FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
14th December 2017, 7:38
@praxis – A marketable figurehead, or her views align with what FIA/Liberty want to push through.
Baron (@baron)
14th December 2017, 8:56
@praxis What’s her bust measurements? That might offer a clue if she was elected by males..
Leo B
14th December 2017, 9:48
@praxis
-She’s one of the more successful female competitors in single seater racing;
-She holds an opinion that seems more grounded in reality than in political correctness or romantic notions;
-She seems to have the ambition to help the next generation of female drivers to do even better than she did herself;
-She is a relatively well known figure with the ability to engage the media. There are 30 or so committee members, but except for Williams, Kaltenborn (both no drivers), Wolff and maybe Mouton, nobody heard (or cares) about any of them.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
14th December 2017, 11:52
*sarcasm*
Pete (@repete86)
14th December 2017, 18:30
+1
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
14th December 2017, 12:10
I have a theory on this. Hear me out:
I think F1/Liberty are desperate to get a female driver in a Formula One car, for branding/publicity purposes. Closest they got was Susie Wolff a few years ago. Ultimately, there doesn’t seem to be a female driver quite close enough on merit for a team to take them on as a race driver. Back in the old days, you’d maybe have one of the teams struggling at the back giving a female driver a punt based on the publicity they’d receive, and subsequently finding a way to monetise it, but with only 10 teams, half of which are manufacturers, it’s not an option.
So, what’s a band aid solution (in true F1 fashion)..?
An all female F1 series, of course.
Liberty even went as far as to send out a questionnaire asking fans if they’d support it. And who better to be the face of this female F1 brand than Carmen Jorda – a model-like, young female who has openly supported the notion of an all-female F1 series.
That’s my theory.
xcm
14th December 2017, 18:20
Danica Patrick must have been busy…
Egonovi
14th December 2017, 9:21
The halo in that McLaren picture doesn’t look half bad.
I’m sure we’ll get used to it very quickly, like roll hoops, shoulder high cockpits, and seat belts in the past.
Tony Mansell
14th December 2017, 9:55
Humans get used to anything, pretty much. That is our great attribute. What that isn’t, is a measure of whether it needs to be there. I’ve not seen any incidents in f1 since wheel tethers that justify it.
anon
14th December 2017, 18:49
Tony Mansell, the wheel tethers do stop some incidents, but not all incidents – because the anchor point is directly attached to the chassis, they have been designed so that the tendon will yield before the anchor point does, since that would then potentially break the chassis apart in a crash.
That did therefore mean that there was that incident in the 2014 British GP where Chilton was extremely lucky not to be injured when one of the wheels that had been thrown from Kimi’s car came extremely close to hitting him in the head.
ECWDanSelby (@ecwdanselby)
14th December 2017, 12:11
It doesn’t look so bad top down, and even sideways. Head-on, though……
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
14th December 2017, 21:19
Indeed – head on, all I can think of is this ‘invention’:
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
14th December 2017, 21:21
Version 2 – Now Improved!
Indeed – head on all I can think of is this ‘invention’:
Steve Vision
Mick
14th December 2017, 10:12
Just because you get used to it doesn’t change the fact that it’s ugly. We don’t know the beauty we are missing out on.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
14th December 2017, 10:14
Halo is just fine by me. The problem are parts that do not improve racing or safety set still adversly affect car visual apperance. (coat hangers, appendage noses, overcomplex front wings…
Front wings should be mandated to 3 elements. Rear wings are 2 element I understand… And 2 element barge boards.. Bann all else, That would be a nice start for more turbulence resistant aero.
And make a rule car following itself at 20m must not loose more than 30% of downforce on either axle.
Velocityboy (@velocityboy)
14th December 2017, 13:48
The list of concerns the drivers listed seems to mirror many of the comments posted here over the years. I wonder if we’re being trolled?
Jere (@jerejj)
14th December 2017, 16:00
@velocityboy +1.
Deej92 (@deej92)
14th December 2017, 14:38
Re Giovinazzi, I thought 24 was a typo at first because I always assumed he was about 19 or 20, around Leclerc’s age. Had to look it up!
Not good news for the 24-year-old with 20-year-old Leclerc ahead of him in the pecking order and four years younger!