In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr says Renault are increasingly under pressure in the championship because their rivals have made greater gains.
What they say
Sainz also revealed a setback for Renault in practice yesterday:
It will depend on the next couple of races. I think at the moment we are definitely on the back foot compared to them.
They have definitely done bigger steps than we have done. So we are having to work a bit harder on Fridays, come up with alternative strategies for Sunday like in Sochi
We’re working hard around it but at the moment we first need to analyse what happened in FP2 to lose so much performance. We changed the floor, we changed quite a lot of things on the car so we just need to see where all that performance went.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Kimi is just so good to watch.
Strides quickly across the paddock, signs one autograph, desperate to avoid another he ignores everyone around him and marches straight into… the women’s toilets #F1 #JapaneseGP
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) October 5, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Japanese GP - free practice (Toro Rosso)
"The latest version of our PU, which we first used on Friday in Sochi, has produced encouraging data today. It's a big improvement and validates the tuning work we carried out on this new power unit since Russia."
Ferrari tests new floor as upgrade push continues (Autosport)
"Ferrari tested the new floor design in opening free practice, but reverted to the older version for the second session."
Ferrari's engine mystery (Motorsport magazine)
"A story published post-Sochi suggested that a second sensor had been fitted to the Ferrari since Singapore, at the FIA’s insistence, and that this had clipped Ferrari’s wings. The FIA’s Charlie Whiting has refuted that absolutely here in Suzuka. There have been no additional sensors fitted to the Ferrari."
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Comment of the day
Lewis Hamilton thinks softer tyres will fix F1. Will it?
We’ve had these Pirelli tyres for seven years now and during that time we’ve had several cycles of “this is boring, let’s make the tyres softer… OK this is kinda ridiculous we need to make the tyres harder again”. Pirelli introduces softer compounds for 2019, we see a four-stop race at Barcelona, one team comes out worst and complains that this is ridiculous and we’re back where we started. F1 never learns.
The most straight-forward way to increase the number of overtakes is to increase the number of cars from 20 to 26 and make sure that there’s not a two-second gap between the top teams and the rest of the field – all of which can be achieved with a strict budget cap. But that would be too logical of course, let’s keep discussing tyre degradation and three-car teams, for crying out loud.
@Andae23
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Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
6th October 2018, 0:19
Ok…I’m confused. Not unusual. And I like a little confusion tossed with a side of intrigue in a simmering disinformation sauce.
Here at racefans, it’s quoted from the prancing horse’s mouth:
But over at Motorsport, it says:
No additional sensors? So… no more additional sensors after the second one was added?
Fun to see the off track action and machinations getting the attention we were accustomed to under the Bernie regime.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
6th October 2018, 2:16
As a thought, maybe one sensor was installed, and it had the ability to monitor more than one point in the electrical system, e.g. two points, but only one point was being monitored. Then the FIA decided they wanted to monitor a second point using the another monitoring port on the small Arduino like computer. So, running with this scenario, when Arrivabene says, “we added a second sensor” that would be true because someone had to install some extra wiring and re-write the software and the load it into the Arduino (or whatever) that does the monitoring, so the second monitoring point would work. Meanwhile, Charlie would also correct when he said there wasn’t any additional sensors because no new hardware was installed (apart from the wires from the monitoring point to the sensor).
BlackJackFan
6th October 2018, 4:41
Good theory… but doesn’t it make a dishonest nonsense of Charlie’s comments…?
BasCB (@bascb)
6th October 2018, 8:25
my take on this is that it is all about the presice formulation of what they are saying here @jimmi-cynic.
So the FIA did not install sensors at Ferrari (they were installed by Ferrari, as their own desicion after a strong nudge from the FIA?), or maybe the timing was slightly different (the sensors were there all the time for spec 3 engine).
I think that the german magazine who reported on this first has very good sources both at Red Bull and at Mercedes where they get some of the info from.
anon
6th October 2018, 10:08
@jimmi-cynic, what Mark Hughes over at Motorsport Magazine has claimed is that the comments by Arrivabene were in relation to modifications that were made earlier in the season at Monaco and Montreal.
He has suggested that the second sensor was added back then, which is when Ferrari’s power unit first came under investigation. It is possible that both comments are correct – Arrivabene’s comments about a second sensor relate to that earlier investigation, whilst Whiting would also be correct about no additional sensors being added later on if, in fact, that second sensor has been there all along.
Steve
6th October 2018, 1:25
Its obviously the engine. Everyone has upgraded engines, Renault has not chosen to use the C Spec engine for reliability purposes, but if they did use it might be best if the rest in my opinion.
Aldoid
6th October 2018, 1:34
Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but wasn’t the biggest complaint about the softer tires Pirelli first introduced the proverbial “cliff” of sudden loss of grip once they were done? It certainly was my biggest complaint. That & the entire concept of tires that are designed to degrade when they get hot… do they have to stick with compounds designed to thermally degrade? I’m sure they don’t… whatever happened to making a tire that just plain wears out? As soon as you ask these tires to do anything but cruise around, they overheat & start blistering.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
6th October 2018, 3:26
Renault really need to up their mid-season development game if they want a shot at the title from 2021 onward. They’ve certainly got the driver pairing for it, and it’ll be a huge disappointment for the team and the drivers if they aren’t in podium contention from at least 2020.
Nitzo (@webtel)
6th October 2018, 5:04
@sundark
I was looking forward to Daniel joining them, but i have so many apprehensions now.
As a fan, i cant wait for the next season to start and find out where Renault stand.a
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
6th October 2018, 5:58
They decided to start the 2019 car early…earlier than normal. They’ve made promises – best not disappoint Honey Badger.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th October 2018, 5:48
They aren’t even in the title fight, though.
– Chris Medland’s tweet, LOL.
– Regarding the COTD: Wrong, that wouldn’t be the most straightforward way to increase the number of overtakes, but simply how followable/race-able the cars are through the corners in dirty air.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th October 2018, 8:26
great point made in the CotD @andae23