In the round-up: Max Verstappen expects Ferrari to be more competitive in the Canadian Grand Prix.
What they say
Verstappen was quickest in all three practice sessions in Montreal last year but expects a harder weekend for Red Bull:
I expect Ferrari to be a bit faster because they have great top speed. For us I think it will be, in general, a bit more difficult round there.
But again, we’ll try to maximise the result.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Super impressed with the brand new paddock at the #CanadianGP 👌🇨🇦
Completely rebuilt from scratch in less than 12 months! pic.twitter.com/0GLUT4bZcP
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) June 5, 2019
We did tell #RK88 to wait until after the photo… 😂
Thanks for hosting us @CoucheTardQc 🍦 pic.twitter.com/Go2D49wzWi
— ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) June 5, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Toyota’s 2018 Le Mans stint length advantage upheld (Sportscar365)
"The FIA’s declaration of fuel capacities for the non-hybrid LMP1 cars confirms the reinstatement of Toyota’s one-lap advantage over a stint after it was done away ahead of the Six Hours of Fuji in October."
Lotterer: 'Naive' to expect Le Mans LMP1 equality (Autosport)
"It's difficult to balance performance over multiple hours between us and Toyota because the hybrids have four-wheel drive and they have an enormous advantage in traffic."
Encouraging progress (Renault)
Nico Hulkenberg: "We left Monaco feeling disappointed as there was potential for a strong team result given our solid race pace in clean air. We need to get back scoring regular points. After Monaco, I felt very encouraged by improvements made to the car but our competitiveness level was not illustrated by the results."
Making the right call (McLaren)
"Starting three months before each race, because that’s when we have to nominate which tyre compounds we’ll be using, we will run literally billions of simulations of individual races featuring different permutations. Will the tyres degrade more or less than we expect? What will the life of each tyre be? What’s our pace going to be and what is the field spread going to be?"
Interview with Max (Verstappen)
"The relationship with Honda is working really well. The communication is good, and that’s always crucial in getting more performance from both parties. At the moment I’m just very happy with how everything is going. We are winners and at Honda they are the same, so we are both pushing hard to become even more successful together."
I Am Not Here for Your Santino Ferrucci Redemption Arc (Jalopnik)
"I am, frankly, tired of giving people a free pass just because they haven’t done anything egregiously stupid in a while."
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Comment of the day
Changing F1’s engine rules is unlikely to attract a greater number of manufacturers, argues Lee:
Look at WEC.
They literally tore up the rulebook they were about to create because manufactures wanted a “Hypercar” concept. So they worked with them to create a set of rules to attract them and manufactures STILL didn’t actually want to commit.
I’m afraid, there’s lots of mythology about getting manufactures into the sport. One of them being “If only the engines were simpler”. Simpler how? Removing components? That just means you’ll either end up with less horsepower, or have to push the elements that are there even harder to recover the difference. Neither will be cheap. Getting over 1,000 bhp for a race engine is never cheap, no matter what way you get there.
The current engines have had their R&D, the costs are sunk. Changing will cost more than sticking and evolving the concept and changing may well end up losing, rather than gaining manufacture support.
Lee H (@Stopitrawr)
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 1:07
That’s a very interesting article on Santino Ferrucci – wow, has it been nearly a year already since his antics?
Also, I laughed at the first comment beneath the article:
RP (@slotopen)
6th June 2019, 3:06
@phylyp
We America F1 fans would love to see the an American driver. F1 would love an American driver, the advertisers would go nuts…
And this is the best we can do? A kid who crashes hard into his teammate on purpose and texts while racing?
Glad Haas dropped him. Having no American driver is better than having this kid represent us.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
6th June 2019, 7:13
Colton Herta has really impressed me this season. Not just his pace (and that Indy quali lap) but also his mature steely attitude. I’m surprised there aren’t F1 teams sniffing to be honest. Although I’m more excited to see what he can do in Indycar.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 9:46
@slotopen – I think with the increased attention from F1 that Liberty is showering the US with, we will likely see a stronger US presence on the grid. Roth Man, GeeMac and Joao have all listed other potential drivers, so let’s keep our fingers crossed :)
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
6th June 2019, 8:30
@slotopen there was that guy, Scott Speed: unfortunately 0 points for him and he was replaced by Vettel later on. Most American name in a while tho.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 8:35
@m-bagattini – LOL :)
Aapje (@aapje)
6th June 2019, 20:49
I like Will Power even more.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
7th June 2019, 8:25
He’s Australian though
GeeMac (@geemac)
6th June 2019, 8:56
And this is the best we can do?
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th June 2019, 9:35
Always wanted to see more of Alexander Rossi in F1.
In Indy he is always up there, it is a shame some races are purely decided on the FCY lottery
nase
6th June 2019, 12:56
Completely agree on Alexander Rossi. His results may not entirely reflect this (the “lottery” aspect has a say in this), but my impression is that he clearly stands out from the pack, not solely in terms of pace, but mostly in terms of mental lucidity. With him, you can always expect something unexpected, and it’s usually nothing to do with randomness or chaos. I feel F1 owes him a second chance before it’s too late.
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th June 2019, 13:45
nase, always looked at the guy like a logical choice for Haas, especially when Grosjean under-performed last year. If it remains the same at the end of 2019 I would give Rossi a chance
Bet he would also do well in the Racing Point, but we all know how it works over there
Ed (@emfar)
6th June 2019, 17:36
I like Rossi too but it would be a shame if he left Indy, even for F1. His aggressive passing is something to look forward to race after race and doubtful that he’d be able to do the same in F1. Also, he has a very entertaining weekly podcast with James Hinchcliffe – can’t imagine that happening in F1.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
6th June 2019, 13:19
Like Australian commentators have so stupidly failed with David Warner in cricket, Americans shouldn’t be so quick to get behind someone with such egregious transgressions as Ferrucci just because they haven’t done something as bad for a short time. It’s in their natures.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 1:48
Also, this just happened:
Fiat Chrysler says French politics ended Renault merger
The French government wanted job and investment assurances, a seat on the merged entity’s board, and for the operational headquarters of the merged company to be in France.
Renault’s powerful CGT union is against a Fiat Chrysler merger, fearing the loss of jobs and arguing the proposal undervalues Renault and bails out Fiat.
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th June 2019, 9:38
Renault is a part-public company, those demands were to be expected. Do they make sense and would they have the intended effect? Probably not.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 9:52
@johnmilk – yeah, good points.
BaKano (@bakano)
6th June 2019, 15:26
@phylyp I subscribe to Renault press releases and this morning I saw one saying they had been asked by the French government to discuss the merger at a later council meeting and then this afternoon, so only hours after the previous, saying they were disappointed to not be able to pursue with the merger proposal, so clearly indicating it was not the board decision but a veto from the French government. And after the “gilet jaunes” protests I kind of understand the government’s position (they would be in for another war with the working class)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 15:39
@bakano – that’s an interesting turn of events, thank you!
Matthijs (@matthijs)
6th June 2019, 7:29
Regarding the McLaren article. There seems to be a positive vibe around McLaren about how they managed to turn things around after an abysmal end of 2018. They seem to be heading in the right direction but the truth is, at the same time last year McLaren had 40 points, now they have 30. Why will the second half of the season go better than last year’s?
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 8:09
@matthijs – weren’t their points in 2018 rather front-loaded? A good showing in Australia and the first quarter of the season, and they then tapered off. In comparison, Renault was already racking up more points from the get-go in 2018, and Haas woke up midway.
This year, unless Haas make a significant breakthrough in their tyres, I don’t see them overhauling McLaren. Renault are still a wild card, if they come good, they might start doing really well. Racing Point are fighting a battle with one hand tied behind.
So just as McLaren’s point scoring pace isn’t great in 2019 vs. 2018, but their competitors seem to be on shakier ground. Of course, come December and I could be proven embarrassingly wrong :)
Matthijs (@matthijs)
6th June 2019, 9:45
@phylyp So you’re saying the progression McLaren seems to make is because of other competitors doing worse rather than McLaren doing better :)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 9:51
@matthijs – bit of both, tbh. McLaren are doing far better than I expected without Alonso. Also, as you rightly pointed out, they seem to be saying the right things and doing the right things this year, even if the points tally doesn’t quite reflect that.
Another thing I realized is this – in 2018, the big 3 had 7 retirements in the first 5 races (including Bottas at Baku, though he was classified as a finisher), in 2019 it has been just 2. That has also meant that higher point-scoring positions were available to the midfield last year, for these initial races, which probably led McLaren – and others – to start the 2018 season off better.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
6th June 2019, 10:49
@phylyp I just hope that McLaren indeed found the way up, even though their ‘ressurrection’ does not show in the points tally.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
6th June 2019, 13:04
@matthijs – indeed.
Lee H (@stopitrawr)
6th June 2019, 7:42
Well, I wasn’t expecting to see my comment here this morning!
As someone who grew up watching the rise of the V10 era (1994 onwards, basically), it’s hard not to miss the drama of these engines. Seriously, there’s nothing like them. But as other racing series adopt Hybrid tech, going backwards is never going to be an option.
As I said in another comment, we need to open the sport back to the people and go FTA again. If anything is going to get the manufactures back, it’s eyes on their product. Paid access gives money to the sport, but means less people for sponsors and manufactures to be exposed to. FTA reverses this, but surely a way can be found to harness the power of the mass audience for the good of the sport also.
Thanks @keithcollantine
Jere (@jerejj)
6th June 2019, 12:55
The new pit building looks excellent although the previous infrastructure had nostalgia in it, ultimately it had seen its time, though.
I thoroughly agree with the COTD.
I found the Mclaren-article a fascinating reading with all the stuff about potential race scenarios and so on.