Esteban Ocon, Force India, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Gasly “massively surprised” by Force India and Williams

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

In the round-up: Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly says he is impressed by Force India and Williams’ sudden resurgence in Baku.

What they say

The Force India drivers headed the midfield while Williams were close to reaching Q3 – a development Gasly didn’t entirely anticipate:

I’m massively surprised with Force India and Williams. Of course we know it’s a power unit track so we expected them to be much better than on other tracks. But they made a massive step. They boost things in a way which works really well for this kind of track that we didn’t really understand.

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Comment of the day

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mercedes is very keen Liberty does not ban virtual garages:

Well, they would oppose it, wouldn’t they?

Should the fact that Mercedes has invested a lot in this mission control operation be a good reason not to ban it? No. That’s the same answer they give to any talk of change, but everyone knows they have the most money and spend it very freely to gain any advantage they can.

It sounds like a good cost-cutting and field-leveling move to me. The other objection I hear to change is that it will put people out of work at Ferrari and Mercedes, and to me that is very much a secondary consideration for the people responsible for managing F1.
Bridge Wilson (@Gwbridge)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Alvino!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

17 comments on “Gasly “massively surprised” by Force India and Williams”

  1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    29th April 2018, 0:42

    No way there’s just one story to link today? The round up after qualifying and before the big day.

    1. Bernie is keeping his mouth shut.

    2. Considering racefans has moved more into a source itself and become less of an aggregator, it makes sense. There is plenty of content on the site proper.

      1. But the ’round-up’ should be exactly that; an aggregation of other articles.

        Now I will have to go around (or trust my AI assistant) to find other interesting articles.
        It’s no longer my “daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web”. @keithcollantine

        1. @rdotquestionmark @HoHum @skipgamer @coldfly Thanks for the feedback guys. As others pointed out there was loads of news on the site yesterday which does tend to make race weekend round-ups thinner in terms of links. Also a lot more comes through social media now.

          1. It’s much more convenient for me to go on the website and check out the round-up than to go on SM. And stuff doesnt get lost in my friends’ smoothies cos of stupid algorithms and whatnot.
            Thats kinda why I support the website :)
            So I’d appreciate if the round-ups stayed as cool as they always are :)
            Cheers Keith, keep up the good work

          2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
            29th April 2018, 15:28

            Keep up the good work and growing the site @keithcollantine
            Best F1 resource on net.

  2. Nice touch from Ericsson.

  3. Re: COTD
    Mercedes is the new Ferrari. By that I refer to Ferrari’s attitude throughout the last 25 years or so, which happened to earn them right to veto and bonus cash no one else gets.

  4. Why the midfield is so unpredictable this year

    1. They’re pretty close to one another, so individual things, like having a Merc PU gives each of them an advantage in every race. I like it, keeps it fresh and exciting.

    2. Are gear ratios fixed for the entire season now? Likely different teams have ratios that suit some circuits and not others

      1. @philipgb – yep the 8 gear ratios are fixed for the entire season. And this is something I had speculated earlier as well.

  5. I have mixed feelings about the COTD. Yes, I do see the point of it, but, on the other hand, I can also understand why the teams (some of them at least) would like to keep these type of things how they are.

  6. Btw what happened to Hulk yesterday?

    1. Something about a transmission. Or was it a gearbox? Haven’t seen much discussion about it, Joao… :-) @johnmilk

      1. So it was a 5 place grid drop was it?

Comments are closed.