In the round-up: Fernando Alonso admits success in the Indianapolis 500, which he will race again next year, can be “random”.
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What they say
McLaren is entering a team for Alonso in next year’s race:
It’s going to be tough. I think that race by itself is already very tough and very random, let’s say, because you need a lot of things into your way: the strategy, the luck, the yellow flags at the end, the Safety Car. All these things need to play into your way.
But with a new team, I’m trying to learn from zero not only myself also the team behind is going to be a little bit challenging. But we should be OK. McLaren has enough experience and enough talented people to run competitively there and we will go for it.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
First day in the new office ✅. Over a 100 laps completed and lots of things learned. The car is so much fun to drive! Big thanks @SPMIndyCar for a great day! Can we start 2019 already!? pic.twitter.com/rIP2RydwOP
— Marcus Ericsson (@Ericsson_Marcus) December 5, 2018
The barriers are not there to keep us out. There are are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Barriers are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.
📸 @FIA_F2 pic.twitter.com/QQs8TMhYU7— Tatiana Calderon (@TataCalde) December 5, 2018
Just finished @HillF1 's book Watching the Wheels. Really open and interesting. Great work Damon
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) December 5, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Ferrari would have won with Hamilton – Montezemolo (Formula Passion)
"He has had moments of weakness and crisis, but this year with Ferrari he would have won. I say that not to belittle Vettel, who has every opportunity to rebuild with a competitive car."
The Red Bull Junior Team and the Honda Formula Dream Project (Red Bull)
"Getting a jump start on next season, Dan Ticktum is now in Suzuka testing for the 2019 Super Formula Japan series where he will race against Red Bull Junior Team newcomer Lucas Auer. They are both part of the exciting initiative of Red Bull together with the Honda Formula Dream Project."
Ricciardo underestimated stress of Renault move decision (ESPN)
"For sure there were nights where I didn't sleep as I should have because I had a lot on my mind. Then that builds up and I was probably not as sharp as I once was."
F1 team bosses' top 10 drivers vote revealed (Autosport)
"It is no surprise given his 2018 form to see Hamilton emerge as the clear winner, with eight of the nine team bosses who took part voting him as the top pick."
The cash, the rules, the tyres - the key issues facing F1 in 2019 (BBC)
"The result is 'the races aren't fun,' as Haas driver and Grand Prix Drivers' Association director Romain Grosjean puts it. Not only that, he says, but if drivers aren't on the limit, they aren't going to make a mistake - and errors liven up races. Try to question Brawn on this, and he simply refuses to engage."
'The idea was to change Pirelli': photographer Albert Watson's 2019 calendar (The Guardian)
"Pirelli, whose annual calendar has been the epitome of 'sex sells' since it launched in 1964, are now seeking to re-position themselves as a celebration of photography itself."
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Comment of the day
Did last season show Vandoorne just isn’t an F1-grade talent?
We can all sit here and say “yeah but he had a bad car” or “He was up against one of the best of all time”, but the fact of the matter is that he was regularly mixing with Williams of Stroll and Toro Rosso of Hartley – two bad cars with two mediocre drivers – while Alonso was often on the tails of the Force Indias and Renaults.
Alonso, even by his own recently lofty evaluations, has always said he was never a qualifying supremo, so to not get it hooked up one single weekend is just inexcusable for Vandoorne.
Ultimately, I think Vandoorne’s biggest issue is that he just isn’t hungry enough for it… A bit like Bottas, he just doesn’t have that extra 5% in his DNA that makes him special like Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen etc…
Luke S (@Joeypropane)
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Martin
6th December 2018, 0:05
Impressive from Hamilton who has now won the Team Principle’s Best Driver of the Season vote for the 5th year running!
BlackJackFan
6th December 2018, 2:07
But why only nine votes… ;-)
ColdFly (@)
6th December 2018, 7:44
Arivabene didn’t participate!
Impressive that Vettel stilll come third.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th December 2018, 7:50
More than that, I’m curious to know who the stick in the mud was who voted against Hamilton, and which driver they picked. Maybe Zak was instructed by Alonso to vote for Alonso? ;-)
KGN11
6th December 2018, 7:54
Cyril. There was video where he said Verstappen was his driver of the season.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th December 2018, 8:04
Thank you, KGN11. Decent of Cyril to give an honest appraisal, after all the verbal bashing that Renault received from RBR and Max.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
6th December 2018, 0:15
I read that the Super Licence points allocations are due to change again for 2019 (expected to some degree with the changes to F3), but the significant change will be to only allow a driver to count points from a single series per year.
I wonder if this is a knee jerk reaction to suggestions that Dan Ticktum might race some F4 this winter to try bag a few extra points?
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th December 2018, 9:45
If that’s the case, now that STR closed its lineup, it a bit pointless for him to do those extra races.
Or he needs the points to be 3rd driver? He doesn’t does he?
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th December 2018, 0:41
Imagine the scenes if the former F1 driver to win the next indy 500 is Marcus Ericsson
Toxic
6th December 2018, 4:59
I’d like to see Alonso’s face that time.
Kelvin (@kelvin38)
6th December 2018, 7:42
“I TOLD YOU IT WAS RANDOM”
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th December 2018, 7:51
@kelvin38 – “The standards of randomness have dropped since the old days.”
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th December 2018, 10:55
I would imagine it would look a lot like this
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
6th December 2018, 8:14
That would be funny. I really want Alonso to achieve what he is going after but I would get a great laugh out of this happening first :)
svianna
6th December 2018, 3:03
There is no other way to understand the comment. Everybody knows Vettel’s mental strength is his weak spot. Mind games started early for 2019….
Aldoid
6th December 2018, 3:41
I can’t say I disagree with Luca… I’ve said the same thing here more than once. Not sure how Vettel will feel about it, but if statements like that don’t light a new fire underneath him for next season, nothing will. & I definitely agree that mental strength is where Vettel seems lacking. We’ve seen quite a few instances of him losing it under pressure throughout his F1 career. At this point though (and with his type of personality: prone to angry outbursts, slow to admit culpability… glacially slow…) I’m not sure that he can fix that part: it’s pretty well known that well established personality traits are generally the hardest for adults to change.
Balue (@balue)
6th December 2018, 12:04
Such a crazy comment to make from a Ferrari man, but I guess this is the blame culture that Lauda and Prost talked about.
The irony is that working to get rid of this, Arrivabene and the team are almost going the other way and not dealing with their poor strategists.
anon
6th December 2018, 18:40
@balue, why exactly are you saying this comes “from a Ferrari man” when Luca di Montezemolo has had nothing to do with Ferrari for four years now? He’s an ex-Ferrari man, and has been for several years, but the way that you are phrasing your post makes it sound as if you think that he is part of the current structure of the team.
Shimks (@shimks)
6th December 2018, 14:14
Yes, astounding comments from di Montezemolo. Double-speak. He must feel very strongly that Vettel is not right for Ferrari anymore. In this article he belittles Vettel, says he needs propping up by the team, warns of the menace of Leclerc, and closes off by saying that although Schumi made some errors “in the first days”, it was “always important to speak clearly in the locker room and support the team in public”. Well, Vettel has now completed 4 seasons with Ferrari, so it definitely isn’t “first days” anymore, and di Montezemolo is very clearly doing the opposite of supporting him in public.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th December 2018, 15:21
This reminds of the people who say “No offences but..” . It’s generally an offensive statement with a slight warning given the other user before it’s made.
Kind of like how Luca says that Hamilton would have done the job Vettel wasn’t capable of doing.. without belittling him of course.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th December 2018, 15:22
*given to the listener
* no offense
Ugh.. sorry .. should drink and get on racefans
Sean (@seanloh)
6th December 2018, 3:20
Alonso isn’t wrong. It is often said that the Indy 500 chooses its winner. Rossi’s win in his first visit there being a golden example. Multiple refueling issues sending him all the way to dead last. A gamble on an insane fuel strategy. Car crossed the line with the engine dead. In first.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th December 2018, 7:30
I didn’t know Grosjean reads a similar type of books that I do.
– I agree with Montezemolo in principle.
– I thoroughly agree with the COTD. That indeed seems to be the case. Alonso managed to get more out of the machinery than Vandoorne did. FA managed to finish as the ‘best-of-the-rest’ in a few races while SV for most of the time was fighting for the positions in the region of P13-P18.
– Very interesting reading the BBC-article. Lots of interesting aspects brought up.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th December 2018, 7:34
I forgot to include regarding the BBC-article:
”This is why race lap times are so much further off qualifying pace than can be accounted for by fuel load or engine modes – by a number of seconds – and why drivers spend most races trying to make a one-stop strategy work.”
– I’d argue it’s still primarily down to the fuel loads, though. Ever since 2010 (the first season after the ban on in-race refuelling), the lap times in the races have been significantly slower than in the qualifying session of the same GP weekend since the fuel loads are substantially higher in the races than in the QLFs.
ColdFly (@)
6th December 2018, 8:10
Regarding the BBC article, @jerejj, it reads like one of those arm chair journalists as discussed by Dieter yesterda.
Benson seems to collect data from other sources without adding any new insights and without any clear conclusions.