In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr is encouraged by Renault’s progress after the team logged 190 laps on Wednesday.
Links
Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
'Does it get boring?' Sainz was asked today (RaceFans via Facebook)
"(I want to) go through the softest ranges of compounds, make sure the new bits that are coming the next couple of days are working fine and we understand why they work better and all that. Apart from that today was already a very big step forward for me so I'm not too worried any more about what happens the next couple of days."
Red Bull closing in on Mercedes - Ricciardo (Racer)
"I guess their qualy mode, when they decided to use it, will probably be a bit more than ours as well. I think that they still have a bit more on the rest, but it is not too bad."
Todt not worried by Ferrari Formula One quit threat (ESPN)
"I'm not worried about Ferrari leaving. Everybody has their own choice. I'm just worried about making good decisions, and making good choices for the future of Formula One."
McLaren's shareholders no longer considering market flotation - Flewitt (Reuters)
"They’re not looking now for an exit so I certainly don’t see an IPO in three to five years."
"This project is a huge challenge, although essential to raise awareness about motorsport among young girls and detect the female champions of tomorrow. With The Girls On Track programme, we have a great opportunity to open up the world of motorsport to a new generation."
Aitken’s fierce ambition makes Renault prodigy an F1 name to watch (The Guardian)
"I celebrated when I got the call but I am not going to be happy for a long time, even if I get to F1 and start winning. That’s the mindset you have to have."
Got a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up? Send it in here:
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
FIA president Jean Todt on F1 dropping grid girls for 2018: “It's a stupid problem and I have more important matters in my life to discuss than grid girls. I'm sorry that there's been so much talk about this kind of bullshit.''
— Phil Duncan (@PhilDuncanF1) March 7, 2018
Big day. Good day. I'm tired.
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) March 7, 2018
Ricciardo told he's currently 10/1 to win the title this year. Laughs and says: "I’m not personally a betting man but a lot of my mates are so, if they are listening, throw a cheeky $75k on it…"
— Nate Saunders (@natesaundersF1) March 7, 2018
We are incredibly lucky as part of this touring circus to have such amazing medical facilities everywhere we go. They’re there for the big stars in their hours of need, and look out for us too. Big thanks to the docs @circuitcat for fixing me up today. #selfinflictedinjury
— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) March 7, 2018
Without a doubt you should be in Indycar full time, Sage. Talented American. Let’s hope we can get back in
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) March 7, 2018
Not on my daughter’s role model list. We are all brought up different and unique. @CarmenJorda
— Sarah Fisher (@SarahFisher) March 7, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Formula One’s over-the-top streaming service F1 TV may be a bit, well, over the top for some:
I just want to watch the race. Being able to flick between cameras is great and some will find that to be a superb feature. But I just want to have a race, well commentated and with the professional commentators pointing out the info in the replays from the main feed.
Don’t get me wrong, I think opening up options to view from different perspectives is excellent, but for me personally – I like to sit on the sofa with my wife and cheer/shout/swear at the screen without having to press any more buttons. The death of free-to-air has been a real disappointment to me. I’ve found alternatives ways to watch but those are dwindling.
I’d be happy to pay directly to F1, but I just want a well covered and commentated race. I feel that both Channel 4 and Sky do that really well – but I can’t justify £500 a year for Sky just to watch F1.
@Geekzilla9000
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Icthyes, Les, Preekel, Rebecca, Stig Semper Fi and Mark Adams!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
8th March 2018, 0:59
So guys, week two, Honda still better then McLaren. Just like I told you was gonna happen. ”But no your sources are crap because you don’t name them’ @robbie ”this guy is all gut” @Esploratore, Honda hasn’t got actual reliability @todfod( this sport didn’t even watch the second half of ’17), @jerejj called it completely delusional, @socksolid took the bet of deleting accounts, @addvariety this guy still hasn’t send me a status update to ask for the source , and ~24 others. (I’m left them out not too annoy the censors too much)
When is everybody gonna apologize or least say ‘ah well, he was right…”?
PS: the ”anonymous white spooky accounts don’t have to bother, I not commenting on you guys. Love. J”
PS2: Censors, for the sake of helping new users, leave it up.
In other news; COTD is right, if you watch western Europe, and you don’t want commercials (RTL), ”Ferrari, Ferrari.. Ferrari…!” (Sky Sports IT), or just don’t know their stuff (75% of the rest), and I’m not gonna even talk about the Dutch guys: An active dentist who was hired because he was cheap back in 90s and even did the Dakar-rally with no experience for the next guy, a) guy with bad eyesight, bad hearing, who is too much egomaniac to take a co-commentator, but you can’t criticism the guy because he won’t admit that he lost it after his wife died of cancer, even though he tells 150 lies a year, just to get people hooked on Max Verstappen.
You’re kind of hooked on not-so-perfect Sky Sports UK/Channel4)
Chris (@tophercheese21)
8th March 2018, 1:46
I have no idea what I just read, but good luck to you, sir.
Adam
8th March 2018, 7:15
Same. Sometimes this site can be deemed as ‘therapy’.
Get it off ya chest son!
Shimks (@shimks)
8th March 2018, 10:47
Hahahaha!!! :O)
Toto
8th March 2018, 21:07
Good one 👌🏻
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
8th March 2018, 9:29
Probably the funniest thing I’ve read on this site, ever.
RB14
8th March 2018, 16:20
COTD @tophercheese21
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th March 2018, 2:07
Great commitment @xiasitlo . I’m not as determined as you are to bring forward everyone that’s bullied and ganged up on me on the comment section. It’s not like what you said was that inflammatory
COTD Agree. It’s the directors job to select cameras for me and it’s the commentators for following what’s not on screen and to in all honesty make a little bit of noise and actually comment stuff every once in a while. C4 is fine, the only caveat is that when you re watch a race on sky you realise that C4 hasn’t got the same resource or effort in getting information on air. Sky is all Lewis this and Ferrari is evil, and “we’re not bias, and you should be ashamed of thinking that.”
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
8th March 2018, 17:59
Almost forgot: cheers @peartree. At this point I’m 90% sure certain people that are allowing the white-accounts/accounts that continue to go off-topic, and gang up in organized fashion with all kinds of personal attacks – that is problem here – are doing it for ”some kind of revenue”. It won’t work, no matter what.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th March 2018, 3:18
@xiasitlo What exactly did I call ‘completely delusional,’ LOL? I don’t recall stating anything like that about either Honda or Mclaren.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
8th March 2018, 7:21
@jerejj
7th February 2018, 15:51 (in the round-up)
After I predicted this would exactly happen as every leak from inside McLaren shows the atmosphere to be poisoned after Dennis left;
”It’s better to be sensible and measured than unreasonable and or delusional about things, though, LOL.”
@esploratore
This wasn’t a ”sudden fix”, second part of ’17. Go watch it. They were beating Renault with reliability.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th March 2018, 20:12
@xiasitlo I remember those comments, lol. Keep it up Mr Sakura.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
8th March 2018, 6:31
Apologize? What has honda shown so far, reliability? On what basis, after a terrible 2015 in reliability and performance, an improved 2016, and a 2017 back to 2015 levels could we predict honda to suddenly become reliable?
Mclaren is having a lot of issues and honda isn’t currently, in this testing, but we haven’t seen how they perform on track, we haven’t seen their speed and even if you turn out to be right, not everyone has a crystal ball, after 3 disastrous years suddenly everything fixed, don’t know how you could predict that.
Yoseph
8th March 2018, 7:18
Are you related to Donald Trump by any chance?
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
8th March 2018, 7:59
Comment Round-up on RaceFans Round-up.
Roundupception.
Sviat
8th March 2018, 9:48
Honda hasn’t got actual reliability – in the second half of 2017? That’s quite true.
Art (@artanonim)
8th March 2018, 9:49
There’s more to a fan discussion than just being right about things and desperately trying to prove it to everyone, you know. Keeping a list of people who dared to disagree, publicly pointing fingers at them, and picking a condescending tone towards the mod team won’t help with that either.
The predictions championship starts soon though, the crystal ball will surely be handy.
Oconomo
8th March 2018, 9:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuTPGMDAvQs
Joao (@johnmilk)
8th March 2018, 13:51
@xiasitlo *than
socksolid (@socksolid)
8th March 2018, 16:28
I took a bet? Oh no…
Maciek (@maciek)
8th March 2018, 17:02
Very reminiscent of a commenter we used to see a lot on the site years ago…
Toto
8th March 2018, 21:10
This is the worst pit stop I have seen in my life. Not surprised by Mclaren. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/motorsport/687486/F1-news-McLaren-Formula-1-testing-pit-stop-worst-video/amp
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
8th March 2018, 1:09
I agree with COTD to a degree. As part of the Sky coverage we have a few extra video options on the red button & I switch to the OnBoards a lot during practice but for the race I tend to just want to stick to the world-feed.
During practice sessions I think having access to every OnBoard will be a cool feature, However come the race I’d rather just stick to the World-Feed on my TV with the Onboard-Mix (Which I hope there still producing this year) on a 2nd screen so I can 100% focus on the racing action.
Other categories like Formula E, DTM, WEC & IMSA give you access to a dozen Onboards but I find I rarely use them because I don’t want to have to switch around manually, Taking my attention away from the race & potentially getting things out of sync. Initially I did play around with them but after a race or 2 I soon stopped bothering.
By all means give access to every camera for those who want them, But I really hope they continue produce an Onboard-Mix like they have been for many years now. It’s something you can just put up on a 2nd screen which is directed by FOM so you don’t have to worry about trying to find the best action & stuff yourself. Giving you access to 20 OnBoard cameras & ditching the mix would be like giving everyone access to every trackside camera & doing away with the world-feed.
bull mello (@bullmello)
8th March 2018, 6:44
Agree quite a bit with your take @stefmeister
There really is something to be said about a director who knows how to provide an excellent feed that presents most of the best action possible. Having a few options is desirable, but most of the time I want to watch the race as it happens, not chase 20 different options. The options make sense for those times when the action may be rather static, but you might want to see what a particular driver is doing. It will be interesting to see what exactly is offered and how it works best for different individual tastes.
Bram (@br444m)
8th March 2018, 12:08
I agree as well that a well directed stream is most important, but there’s some nice value in having the 20 other streams, like for replaying events from different perspectives.
Eventually, as a fan, I would love to be able to configure my personal preferences (preferred team / driver) and have a (still directed) stream that will show me more from that perspective. That could be a big selling point, IMO, and technologically, it should be possible, I think.
Miane
8th March 2018, 1:48
Onboard cameras will be very enterteining if we have open radio of the respective car. I remember watching an reality show of a driver in Brazilian Stock Car champioship and it was a whole new watching experiencie for me, much more exciting to see the engineer talking with the driver to solve issues and making suggestions.
rob91
8th March 2018, 2:41
I agree with @Geekzilla9000, I personally find it baffling why people seem to be happy and prepared to pay to effectively become their own TV director of their favourite sport. This isn’t progress when it comes to viewing Grand Prix racing in my mind.
Exediron (@exediron)
8th March 2018, 4:28
Agree with you and the others who have said the same completely. I don’t care about fancy features, I just want to watch a well-directed race without commercials. That’s what I’m willing to pay for.
(and for classic races, but that’s a different line of discussion)
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
8th March 2018, 7:56
I know we can’t read much into testing but the same 5 teams (Ferrari, Mercedes, RBR, McLaren and Renault) are regularly topping the time sheet. I just hope they are closely match once the season begin. As the season progress, it will probably get difficult for the other teams to score a lot (once the 5 have solved whatever issue they might have)
Great initiative for the girls on track, that’s should trigger more interest among girls creating a bigger pool of female driver and then statistics should do the rest to bring some capable female driver in F1. And as Sauber is showing, teams will probably be keen to sign this particular driver (sponsorship interest and some fans support).
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
8th March 2018, 8:13
Hmmm. Jean Todt make some sense?
I’d like lighter non MGU-H cars after 2020 but I just hope there was another WCC before that.
GeeMac (@geemac)
8th March 2018, 9:20
I agree with the COTD. The only time I would want access to all the angles and onboards would be after the race so I could rewatch critical sections. But as far as watching the race live goes, I just want to sit there and watch a well produced race feed with the guidance of experienced, insightful commentators with a timing screen next to me.
Joao (@johnmilk)
8th March 2018, 9:46
An all female F1 championship is a bad idea, but an all girls kart challenge isn’t? Why don’t they make them race against the boys? Surely they can create interest regardless, at that age they just want to have fun, gender doesn’t matter. It feels counter-productive to me, but what do I know
Big Joe
8th March 2018, 11:14
@johnmilk
It is counter-productive from the feminist point of view of shoe-horning women into roles alongside men, in areas established by men, to make themselves feel better.
The end game though for the businesses who are pandering to this nonsense, is to get more women involved to make more money. Ultimately it’s about the money. F1 is a potential Goldmine with increases in female viewership.
In this apparant world of inequality, women massively out-gun men in household purchasing decisions and this includes spending the money earnt by men.
All girls Karting is the only way to go. However it will be funded, ran and maintained by men like most other women’s sports.
Art (@artanonim)
8th March 2018, 9:55
Not particularly related to any of the links, but I’m really curious as to what’s going through Vasseur’s head when he sees STR rather steadily and reliably increasing their lapcount with Honda this testing. There was probably more politics and behind-closed-doors stuff than what we know of, but I wonder if he has second thoughts about the hasty cancellation of their deal.
Hugh (@hugh11)
8th March 2018, 10:15
Was probably to do with the Alfa Romeo partnership. That probably benefited Sauber more than the risk of going with Honda. And the promise of up to date Ferrari engines.
Big Joe
8th March 2018, 10:15
I’m hoping a good atmosphere is to be had on the Friday and Saturday by putting the tiniest of effort into pressing a button on a controller, but doesnt look like there’s going to be enough channels.
F1 really isnt very inclusive when you attend and there’s too much hype from the pundits on the TV that leads to dissapointment.
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
8th March 2018, 11:39
To disagree with COTD (and to agree with the second part of that strange first comment), I will happily pay what it takes if I can stop listening to team LH44… Sorry, I meant Kravitz, Croft and Herbert. Brundle tends to be more moderated but all the others are so biased it would be better if I could just press a button and listen to the race without any comments.
That and having the chance to see a legal, flowing and good resolution streaming, instead of having to try to find a decent one without infecting my PC with viruses.
Nifer
8th March 2018, 14:53
If Renault fights regularly for podiums at least bothering RedBull in the process, I’ll be satisfied about the WCC.
Would really like to see Hulkenberg win a race. Or to see some action between Carlos and Max.
Andy (@andybantam)
8th March 2018, 19:37
Re COTD
Absolutely agree.
Although, I am less keen on Sky coverage. Some of the people involved just seem to be into F1 because it was necessary to take a step on the career ladder when the job offer came in.
Crofty just annoys me. His commitment to F1 isn’t in any doubt but he talks some utter rubbish at times.
Sky F1 is undeniable proof that being an ex driver doesn’t necessarily make you an authority on the subject of F1.
I’m also convinced that the decision to go with Sky (and other subscription services in other territories) has had a direct impact on the value for money that the sponsors used to enjoy, thus making them more weary of handing over money.
Some of the Sky F1 team are very good! Rachel Brooks, MB, TK deserve special mention, but splitting coverage has diluted the talent pool.
The best thing FOM can do, in my opinion, is to cancel these coverage deals or let them run their course without renewal so they can handle coverage themselves. These deals were a product of Bernie’s desire to make even more money (although I am aware that Sky got involved because the BBC subbed the coverage to them).
Make it free to watch, complimented by online subscription and watch the sponsorship come running back.
Neil (@neilosjames)
8th March 2018, 23:16
I’ve had Sky since F1 moved onto there and I could count the number of times I’ve used the extra views/different angles/in-car stuff thing on the fingers of one hand. Precisely one finger, and that was when I pressed the wrong button by mistake.
Levente (@leventebandi)
9th March 2018, 8:32
Re CoTD:
I don’t see your problem with the F1TV concept. The world feed will be selectable with commentary, available in multiple languages.