In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo believes Renault should be contenders for Q3 at Silverstone.
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What they say
Ricciardo summarised a mixed first day at Silverstone for Renault:
The times sheets don’t show too much optimism. But I think we are better than that.
For sure we’ve still got some work to do but I think there’s some lap time on the table which we can get quite quickly. But to put us into that P7, P8 area we do need to find a little bit more. I think we are currently good enough to get inside the top 10, but [only] just. I think we obviously want to get a bit deeper in there.
There’s still a few things to discover on the car. I had a bit of an issue this afternoon for the long run but other than that not a bad day. We won’t be up ’til midnight but we’ll do a bit more work tonight to get a bit more out of it.
We split the set-ups for a little bit, then we got a bit closer in the afternoon, myself and Nico [Hulkenberg]. We’re still a little bit different in some areas so we’ll just try and work out which direction to follow.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Our pitcrew is one of the best in @F1, but how would our engineers fare… 🤔
It's pitstop practice with a difference! 🔧🔩#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/9d79lHRzhb
— ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) July 12, 2019
The actual situation.. @HaasF1Team @bigphilcampion @F1 @harrismonkey @GoodwoodRRC @KynochBoxing @JCM_boxing @lucasBrowne #f1 #RichEnergy #williamstorey #nobull pic.twitter.com/pDYuDJ58En
— Rich Energy (@rich_energy) July 12, 2019
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Guenther Steiner: " I think we’re looking a little better than the last two races in the long runs - at least with one car. We still need to find some speed for Romain (Grosjean)."
Max Verstappen: "From my side today was not so good and I didn’t find a good balance with the car in FP1 or FP2. I was sliding around a lot in the wind and struggling for rear grip, so we have a bit of work to do. Even though I’m not fully comfortable yet we’re not that far away and the times are pretty close which is a positive."
Valtteri and Lewis lead the way in Friday practice (Mercedes)
James Allison: "A small change in temperature and the tyres won’t behave in this fashion and the asphalt is also brand new, so it will change too as the weekend goes on."
Bright and breezy start in Silverstone (Racing Point)
Sergio Perez: "There’s lots of work to do tonight, but it’s a promising start and probably one of our most competitive Fridays yet – looking good in both sessions."
Jonathan Eddolls: "We came to Silverstone on the back of two difficult events for the team in France and Austria, so we put an awful lot of effort in the last 10 days in both Faenza and Bicester to find the main reasons for the lack of performance. We believe we have identified the reasons and have a much better understanding of what our limitations were in the past two races."
McLaren arrive at Silverstone with talented team driving resurgence (The Guardian)
"At the moment we are keeping that momentum going, keeping focused and keeping moving forward. There is real optimism here. The drivers carry that with them as well."
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Comment of the day
Does F1 need to do more to avoid clashes with other sporting events?
The clash is a real problem for fans of multiple sports. if you factor in the Tour de France as well, there is a lot of sport competing for our attention (personally I am interested in all four events – what to do?)
I’m a bit surprised they didn’t have a double-header with Austria – then it would have been clashing with the Tour de France only. there were no Cricket World Cup games last Sunday and Wimbledon traditionally has a rest day on the middle Sunday (which it did this year because there were few rain delays in the first week).
In an era of very dull races and a waning television audience, all efforts should have gone into avoiding this clash. These other events are in the calendar many months in advance, so F1 could schedule accordingly.
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@HoHum (@hohum)
13th July 2019, 1:20
Regarding the COTD,Some years ago F1 realised such midsummer clashes were inevitable and quickly moved to make the cars quieter so fans at the track could listen to their other sports while watching the GP. Stop complaining.
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;-
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
13th July 2019, 2:59
@hoho
Robert
13th July 2019, 5:35
Why is this not COTD??? …year?
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
13th July 2019, 7:22
Haha.
But really, when have they ever cared about clashes with other sports? They rarely care about clashes with other motorsport! All those years clashing with Le Mans.
Also I know they’re not on at the same time, but somehow I’ve got to find time to watch F1, FE (2 races) and IndyCar this weekend. Ideally I’d like to watch the F2 and F3 as well, but it might be a challenge!
frood19 (@frood19)
13th July 2019, 8:44
I think the clashes are more pertinent to UK audience because this is our only free-to-air race. @jerejj made some good points about how it’s not incumbent on F1 alone to avoid clashes, but the sport does have that air of insularity about it that suggests it has never cared about clashing with anything, even le mans as you say. It all feels very ecclestone-esque.
Leroy (@g-funk)
13th July 2019, 4:13
That Rich Energy tweet is the very definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Storey proudly showing that Haas fail to see how the other investors can wrestle control from him, but oh by the way, he is in control of a company about to be insolvent. Well done.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 4:26
I have not been this entertained in ages, I can tell you that.
erikje
13th July 2019, 10:38
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 12:19
Any more popcorn and I’ll fall ill :)
graham228221 (@graham228221)
13th July 2019, 10:25
the Rich Energy saga is already the highlight of the season
@HoHum (@hohum)
13th July 2019, 4:25
When you consider the vast amounts of money and effort the teams put into a widget here, a slot there, a serrated edge elsewhere, all in the cause of cleaning up the airflow I can’t help feeling that the cockpit camera (see photo at top) must be hugely counterproductive, especially as it would seem to directly interrupt the flow onto the rear wing, surely a more streamlined/smaller camera could do the job.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 4:32
@hohum – two things that probably mitigate (but not eliminate) the impact are:
a) the rear wings are lower now, so roiled air coming off the camera housing to impact the wing had a smaller effect
b) IIRC, the camera housing has a teardrop profile when seen from the side, which is very aero-friendly – the tail of the teardrop prevents a vacuum forming (which would otherwise cause drag).
@HoHum (@hohum)
13th July 2019, 4:51
@phylyp, Hmm’ suppose so, it just looks very clunky in the photo and obliterates some of the text on the wing, would that teardrop follow the dimensions that professor Kamm believed necessary to significantly reduce drag.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 5:00
@hohum – now you’re talking. Get teams to say the camera obscures the sponsorship message, and the F1 world will unify in a way never seen before to fix the problem ;)
@HoHum (@hohum)
13th July 2019, 4:42
And another thing, Williams clearly demonstrate that the Tyre-change crew are entirely separate from the engineering crew, so I say again that the mandatory pit stops are an expense that could be done away with, flights and accommodation for a team that size* must be expensive.
* Ok, a few may be needed for other duties (getting the boss a cuppa etc.) and some for wet races but the FIA could mandate 1 person per wheel for that, making the choice to change even more crucial and exciting.
anon
13th July 2019, 8:59
@hohum, you are mixing up two entirely different sets of personnel and are therefore coming to an erroneous assumption.
There is no separate “tyre change crew” – the mechanics that change the tyres are the same mechanics that prepare the cars, as changing the tyres during the pit stops is a secondary function that they have. They’re still going to be there, irrespective of whether there is or isn’t a pit stop, so you are not going to be saving anything.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
13th July 2019, 12:08
@hohum @anon
Was just going to point that out. However, reducing the amount of mechanics in general, and thus the number of people available to do the pitstops, could significantly reduce cost.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
13th July 2019, 6:48
Counterpoint: Do other sports need to do more to avoid clashing with F1?
I’ll get my coat.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 7:20
@ahxshades – that’s a fair question.
Under normal circumstances, I’d say it would be in the interest of all organizers (FOM, ICC, the tennis dudes) to rationalize their schedules so as to maximize TV viewers.
However, Liberty seem to be focused on growing their casual viewer base, by bringing in new fans. In that circumstance, it might help them to take the lead to ensure they don’t lose their intended new viewers.
Liberty also seem to be focused on growing their US and Asia viewer base, so they might be more concerned about competing events for viewers in those geographies (such as Indycar, Nascar, baseball and ̶f̶o̶o̶t̶ handball in the US, cricket and football in Asia).
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
13th July 2019, 12:11
Apart from clashing with other major sports events, moving away from free-to-air seems terribly counterproductive with regard to this core focus. Quite baffling really.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
13th July 2019, 12:20
@jeffreyj – yeah, very good point. You need a lot of enthusiasm amongst fans before you can convince a new fan to pay up for F1 TV Pro, or to subscribe to a premium TV package that covers F1.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th July 2019, 7:36
@ahxshades You took the words from me; I was about the post something similar. People always seem to blame F1 for more or less any given weekend clash as if these were solely F1’s fault. Should everyone want to avoid clashes to the greatest extent possible, then all parties should be required and willing to make sacrifices to contribute to that, not only F1. If F1 were to circle every other sports event there is, race events of different Motorsport categories, etc., then there’d be zero weekends left for the F1 races.
erikje
13th July 2019, 10:12
A factory team with a large budget and it “should”?
Renault should be fighting for 4th place in the constructors chanpionship at least if not more.
It’s a disgrace with two of the best drivers still competing with the lower midfield.
jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
13th July 2019, 10:16
@keithcollantine
Shouldn’t this be Renault?
Guybrush Threepwood (@guybrushthreepwood)
13th July 2019, 11:32
When you have a sport that runs for almost half of the weekends in a year, yes it will clash with other things on during the year.
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
13th July 2019, 12:25
Really looking forward to this weekends action. Not because it looks like it will be close, but because it’s the one weekend of the year I don’t have to listen to Crofty having a conniption on lap 1.
Leigh McKenzie is having a busy weekend, Wimbledon for the BBC yesterday and F1 for C4 today.