In the round-up: George Russell says Williams has the slowest car at the moment but he’s encouraged by the progress they are making with it.
What they say
I’d be lying if I said we weren’t the slowest at the moment. I think that’s the reality.
We’ve definitely got some work to do. But what was very positive was we made a big step from when I came to the car on Tuesday, Robert was in the car yesterday, hopefully when he jumps in the car tomorrow we’ll find another step. We understand the issues, we recognise them and we’re doing everything we can to rectify it.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Podczas testów w Montmelo, naszym gościem specjalnym była Julia, która na własnej skórze mogła poczuć emocje i atmosferę w teamie @WilliamsRacing! 💪🏻🏆 pic.twitter.com/1Nwwa4RxNm
— ORLEN (@PKN_ORLEN) February 28, 2019
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Lewis and Valtteri clock up the laps at winter testing (Mercedes)
"Today was a very productive day, either side of a trouble-free race distance we did a lot of good investigative work and in the race simulation itself, unlike yesterday where we failed to make the tyres live, we had good tyre behaviour across all three stints."
Second test day three (Red Bull)
"The crash was simply a case of Pierre going slightly wide into turn nine and losing control. You’re pretty much flat out there, so if it goes wrong, you’re going to feel it. Thankfully Pierre is OK."
Test two - day three (Toro Rosso)
"As this is the final day of winter testing for Alex, the programme was focused towards qualifying and race simulations whilst also making best use of the remaining time for further background and aero test items."
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Comment of the day
Did Daniel Ricciardo do the right thing by leaving Red Bull?
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I formulated the opinion late last year that Red Bull were only going to go backwards (or rather, the midfield catches up). It was based on what I considered to be some pretty sound rationale, including the looming partnership with Honda, and the likely resurgence of Renault (a manufacturer team with world championship-winning pedigree) and McLaren.
Yes, Daniel leaving Red Bull is a risk, but I would’ve done the same thing – irrespective of what my team mate was at the time, given how the last five seasons had panned out. I buy his explanation.
@newfangled
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Kribana (@krichelle)
1st March 2019, 0:12
Mercedes mind games? Lewis has been calm in his words, while Valterri has been more worrying. By what I sense, is the feeling that Valterri believes he can’t challenge for the title this year?
mog
1st March 2019, 1:37
Wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case. Whether that is mental fortitude or team hierarchy, well, that’s another question.
Davey
1st March 2019, 0:22
Of all the people on the grid, I’d only put Kubica forwards to push that team forwards. The hams and vets would be lost…
Lums (@lums)
1st March 2019, 1:53
Yet they have 9 championships between them and you cant keep their names out of your mouth.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
1st March 2019, 8:39
Hamilton is credited for part of the huge performance increase of the 2009 McLaren MP4-24 that went from horrendous to race winning, coupled with 5 podiums and 4 pole positions – all in within half a season.
Asanator (@asanator)
1st March 2019, 14:20
@tonyyeb Nonsense! Hamilton had nothing to do with McLaren redesigning the front wing end plates to start giving them the outwash effect which they didn’t have at the start of the season. As soon as McLaren started developing the endplates (which most other teams had discovered in the off season) they were competitive.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
1st March 2019, 14:25
@asanator Martin Whitmarsh was very clear at the time that Hamilton’s input was invaluable. I can only go by what was said at the end of the season by the team boss when asked about the team’s turnaround.
Shimks (@shimks)
1st March 2019, 23:56
Fantastically ridiculous comments from some of you over the last days. I’m loving it – they are keeping me in a brilliant mood. Keep ’em comin’!
Tristan (@skipgamer)
1st March 2019, 1:57
Mercedes, again proving that they are in a league of their own. Consistently since the hybrid turbo era they have been essentially unmatched in testing. They clock up the laps and rake in the data better than anyone. We’ve seen teams clamor to catch up over the years but still we’re seeing again that they just have that organisational edge. Their ability to maximise car time on track is absolutely impressive.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
1st March 2019, 8:41
@skipgamer Absolutely this. People have short memories. Only last year in the 2018 winter test did Mercedes have the 7th fastest time on the board. I think they were only ahead of Sauber, Force India and Williams.
Sumedh
1st March 2019, 2:33
Regarding COTD Daniel did absolutely the right thing by leaving Red Bull. But I disagree about the reasons.
Midfield catching up and Red Bull slipping back is a distant reality. Ricciardo must have had the Honda and Renault data to compare that.
However, going away from Verstappen was a critical need of Ricciardo. Imagine if Vettel hadn’t fled ship after 2014, he would have most likely been defeated by Ricciardo in the following years and Vettel would have never got a top drive again. By going against Kimi, Vettel kept his reputation intact for a few more years. Of course, it is a matter of time before you are found out. The 2nd half of 2018 and (IMO, the likely) beating by Leclerc in 2019 is going to do for Vettel what would have otherwise happened in 2015.
Ricciardo has prolonged his paddock reputation by few years by removing the direct comparison with Verstappen. Who knows what will happen next? But anything is better than the most likely scenario that would have happened at Red Bull (Verstappen beating Ricciardo because he is very close in talent to him and he also has the emotional support of Red Bull).
@HoHum (@hohum)
1st March 2019, 2:46
Or how about if RBR won 12 GPs, 6 to Dan and 6 to Max, but Ham wins 7 and is always on the podium taking the title again ?
ColdFly (@)
1st March 2019, 8:21
Let’s then at least hope that Bottas and Leclerc each have one of the remaining wins ;)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2019, 2:34
For heaven’s sake, Kimi, put on a pair of protective goggles!
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2019, 3:38
@phylyp He indeed did. Look again.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2019, 3:44
@jerejj – I missed that, I’ll take your word for it – the player doesn’t provide a seek bar to jump to the relevant time :)
ColdFly (@)
1st March 2019, 8:30
Weird indeed that you cannot replay an embedded Instagram video.
FB seems to go to extremes forcing people to use their apps. E.g. I find it extremely annoying that one cannot copy part of a WhatsApp message and paste it somewhere else.
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2019, 10:22
I can copy whatsapp messages.
What is annoying is how they keep rubbing in your face that you need a facebook account for this, or that, I guess people just create accounts to end the nonsense.
Also if you create an account specifically for a company it doesn’t let you as it does not recognise logos as faces and it blocks the account. You need a personal account and then create a company page. Zuck is as annoying as Toto these days
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2019, 15:38
@johnmilk – I think @coldfly meant that you can’t copy a part/subset of a WhatsApp message, only the entire message. So you then need to paste it in its entirety elsewhere and then cut it down to what you actually require.
ColdFly (@)
1st March 2019, 15:56
Correct @phylyp, especially annoying when people send you a phone number or location.
Stopping FB was easy, but I struggle to leave WhatsApp because so many people don’t want to send an email/SMS or simply ring you via a normal phone.
I wholeheartedly second your ‘Zuck is as annoying as Toto’ statement @johnmilk.
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2019, 16:02
yes missed that @coldfly and @phylyp, never noticed it before either to be honest, but can imagine how annoying that can be if you use it regularly. I use it in a professional context and therefore write on it mostly using the webapp, in there you have more freedom
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2019, 16:08
@coldfly – ah, my brother in arms! I’m not against messaging apps, and I tried getting at least my closest circle of family and friends onto Telegram or Signal, but met with utter failure. So I’m now on WhatsApp unless I want to miss every family update or plan by friends (ditching FB itself cut me off a bit, but that was a worthwhile tradeoff).
@johnmilk @coldfly – I’d respectfully disagree. Toto is just annoying (at times, and with what he says), Zuck is malicious in terms of the decisions he and his company make to systematically harvest data, invade privacy, and allow falsehoods to spread. It’s thanks to him that I’m aggressively using ad blockers and privacy extensions on my browsers.
Joao (@johnmilk)
4th March 2019, 12:10
@phylyp guess the notifications aren’t working properly yet. I’m reading your comment just now.
Well that is true.
I completely deleted my FB account but I lost contact with some people. And together with a friend we use google forms to organise a karting amateur league. So in a way FB doesn’t have my data, I gave it to Google instead I guess.
Have you talked about something and had a ad for that thing pop up somewhere? Those are the best.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
4th March 2019, 19:17
@johnmilk – I’ve never experienced that, but have read of it on the internet :)
Joao (@johnmilk)
4th March 2019, 19:25
@phylyp those happen a lot on Instagram. The other day my wife and I were taken about sundaes soon enough she had a McDonald’s ad on her Instagram. It also happened to me with network providers and shoes.
I also have a bug on my phone and sometimes a message popups saying that it did not recognize my voice even though I didn’t use any trigger word (all of them are in English and I speak Portuguese on a daily basis) indicating that it is always listening. Again it’s on a Zuckas app that weird things happen
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
1st March 2019, 8:22
@phylyp GLOVES! GLOVES AND GOGGLES! Give it to me.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2019, 8:58
@m-bagattini – :)
@coldfly – indeed. Even trying to replay the video sent me to an Instagram sign-up page!
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2019, 10:19
Mask! He needs a mask!
petebaldwin (@)
1st March 2019, 3:04
Dunno George. I think Toto might have something to say about that…
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2019, 3:43
I thoroughly agree with the COTD except for the ‘Red Bull getting caught up by the midfield’ part.
Regarding the ‘On this day in F1’ section: How did Martin Brundle manage to test without anyone being aware of it at the time and how long it took before it became known by the public?
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2019, 10:24
It was 25 years ago, pretty easy