In the round-up: Brendon Hartley predicts Formula One’s new hyper-soft tyres will improve the show.
Links
Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
Hartley says F1's new hyper-soft tyres are putting smiles on drivers' faces (RaceFans via Facebook)
"I think it will make qualifying quite exciting, having a tyre that can produce huge lap time for one lap and then if you have to race with it can be interesting."
Verstappen: Renault and McLaren not a threat (Autosport)
"You pay attention to everybody, but I don't think they will be our main rivals."
F1 exhaust blowing: not just hot air (Motorsport magazine)
"Fast-moving heat hazes rising up towards the rear wing undersides have been a common sight in the hybrid era. It intrigued Adrian Newey so much that he attempted to get access to FOM footage so he could study in detail who was doing what. He was reportedly denied."
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:
Erm, Seb… the exit is the other way! Cc: @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/xM3YwA1XrW
— Sahara Force India (@ForceIndiaF1) March 8, 2018
More from @LewisHamilton this evening:
"I was playing tennis with my dad this morning, trying to be @rogerfederer. I sucked…"#F1
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 8, 2018
Our @TheWFGamer winner, @RvBuren, has joined the team at pre-season testing. Find out what he got up to during his first day in Barcelona. ⬇️💭🎥 pic.twitter.com/7T44CvvTN0
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 8, 2018
Shunt in the paddock as a fan outside Ferrari isn’t looking where they’re going and walks straight into a running Pierre Gasly. Shoulder meets face. Ouch.
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) March 8, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
John isn’t convinced there’s nothing to be gleaned from testing times:
Every year I hear the same thing about testing, and every year I simply don’t agree. If a team shows promising times in testing then generally they seem to do pretty well during the season. Were Brawn bottom of the timesheets in 2009 during testing? Were McLaren’s woeful times just sandbagging last season?
In reality, and as usual in life, one should not read too much into testing and neither should one read absolutely nothing. It’s somewhere in-between. The run today by Ferrari should not be just dismissed.
@John-h
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alpinestar, Venturi Effect, Cdmracing and Guillaume Blanchet!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
- David Coulthard won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix for McLaren on this day in 2003
DaveAngel100
9th March 2018, 1:29
If you have enough data you can definitely have a good idea about the competitive order from testing; if you read the Skysports post testing prediction after testing in 2017 it is very close to what actually transpired during the season.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
9th March 2018, 2:34
Adrian Newey now must be very excited for F1 TV Premium to be launched… and cursed FOM because it isn’t available in UK.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th March 2018, 3:14
Seb reversing in the pitlane, LOL. Chris Medland’s tweet, though, as well.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
9th March 2018, 6:13
I seem to remember them being 4th (which wasn’t exactly foreshadowing of what was to come, assuming my memory does serve me)
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
9th March 2018, 6:17
@John-h That aside yeah, testing isn’t that useless an indicator as a Stig-style 1 lap trial by Yuji Ide around the Sentul circuit would probably be.
Robert McKay
9th March 2018, 6:19
It wasn’t really about 1 lap times, it was fuel-corrected long-run times. But I definitely remember James Allen’s blog dissecting the whole winter testing and confidently predicting Brawn would go to Melbourne and be clear early-season front-runners, which is exactrly what happened.
Ever since then I have strongly believed we need LESS coverage of winter testing, not more – that is, if everyone wants any sort of surprise from the season to come.
Retired (@jeff1s)
9th March 2018, 8:17
The Brawn GP car was a monster from the get-go.
I was at Barcelona that year and from the third day of testing, Button cleared the field by a second and every watcher could see the car had one of the best platform to work with.
AliceD (@aliced)
9th March 2018, 6:56
I agree with the quote of the day. I was equally impressed with the rabbit (Haas). Their time was not to far off the Ferrari with a much harder compound. You can only come to the conclusion that the Ferrari engine is pretty good this year. Anyway we live in hope as always.
McF1 (@mccosmic)
9th March 2018, 8:08
I know his article wasn’t posted in the round up, but if have to read Andre Benson from the BBC writing “testing times are notoriously unreliable” one more time, I think I’ll go round his house and ask him if his wheels on his car are still round. Can’t he just write a standard guide “Things you need to know about F1 testing” and save himself and others a whole load of time?
frood19 (@frood19)
9th March 2018, 9:43
andrew benson’s pieces for the bbc are just dreadful. he used to be a really good journalist but his stuff for the beeb is invariably either dumbed down rubbish, or speculative gossip. it’s rarely edifying.
McF1 (@mccosmic)
9th March 2018, 12:41
I couldn’t agree more @frood19. It’s only through habit that I am torturing myself by clicking on the BBC Formula 1 page. Time to make a change me thinks.
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
9th March 2018, 8:42
Re blown wings, question for you knowing lot – why exactly blown diffs got banned?
Joao (@johnmilk)
9th March 2018, 11:40
@minilemm do not quote me on this, but I think it was related to costs, they were using the engine to create blown gases into the wing (which meant the engine was burning fuel even when drivers weren’t using the throttle), which consumed more fuel and decreased reliability of the cars (increased stress on the engine), the FIA decided that it was contradictory to the direction they wanted to go – more fuel efficiency and better reliability
I’m not entirely sure but teams were using blown diffs of two kinds, and only the one that I described above was banned. The other (which only uses the gases produced when throttle is applied) was never forbidden, but it was difficult to use due to the rules mandating the position of the exhaust pipes. I guess Renault have found a way to exploit their design with the 5 degree tilt on their exhaust pipes.
Feel free to correct me on this guys
Robbie (@robbie)
9th March 2018, 12:08
https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/06/blown-diffusers-so-what-exactly-is-being-banned/
@johnmilk You pretty much nailed it.
Some also tied the ban into F1 wanting to stop the RBR domination run as Newey had mastered the blown diffuser work above and beyond the others.
Joao (@johnmilk)
9th March 2018, 12:36
that is much better English on that link and probably a better explanation too
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
10th March 2018, 11:42
Well, in light of the recent “wings vs floor downforce vs overtaking” debate I wonder if F1 is going the right direction with continuing to limit the potential exhaust positioning advantage.
Seems to me they could have went with leaving the “cold blow” legal and cutting down on front wings somewhat in order to leave the cars at around the same performance, but maybe better overtaking.
Regarding the “expensive” part – yeah, cos the wings are cheap, right? :)
Balue (@balue)
9th March 2018, 12:30
Interesting point about the hypersoft qualifying tyre which will then only last a handful of laps in the race.
Of course the top teams can probably run a harder compound for Q2, especially now that the gaps between the compounds are less this year, but this will definitely be one to watch for the midfield.
Maybe this huge range of tyres will prove to be useful after all.