In the round-up: Alexander Albon says he won’t be distracted the possibility Red Bull could decide his F1 future this weekend.
What they say
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko has indicated a decision on the team’s driver line-up for the 2020 F1 season will be taken around this weekend’s race. Albon said he won’t dwell on the possibility he could get a full season in the seat he was promoted to last month:I don’t think it will change too much. I don’t think my approach would change because I have a deadline in that sense I think.
The way I’ve been going about things this year has been the same since winter testing and it’s just been about focussing on each race as it comes. I think if I do a good enough job or not, time will tell at Mexico but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be… I don’t think it’s possible to be putting more effort before Mexico and then not put the effort after it gets decided.
I’ll keep the same mentality going through the year and into next year as well. And then if it’s good enough it’s good enough.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Nissan reveals a new look for its Formula E car: "The red, black and white design is inspired by the Japanese kimono garment, a traditional symbol of longevity and good fortune," it says.#FE pic.twitter.com/2Nn0Thh8bV
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) October 22, 2019
A very special day for 2018 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner @TomGamble23, who is at @SilverstoneUK testing a special edition of the MP4-28. 🧡 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/8dDzLU8rSl
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 22, 2019
🇬🇧🚅🇫🇷… Day at the @fia offices for the Driver’s Commission meeting #GiveBackToTheSport pic.twitter.com/EPwPVCFYwj
— Karun Chandhok (@karunchandhok) October 22, 2019
Nico Hulkenberg on compressing the #F1 race weekend into two days:
"After 10 years and having that very same rhythm I would appreciate a change of format very much."
I suspect he's going to get it…
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) October 22, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Brown energised by McLaren IndyCar progress (Racer)
"Brown also said there has been occasions where the IndyCar team has taken lessons from how the F1 side of McLaren operates to try and incorporate in future."
We expect Mexico to be difficult - Toto (Mercedes)
"We know that the four remaining races are not going to be easy and we expect Mexico to be the most difficult one for us."
"We’ve just had the notice that the race contract has been extended for another three years, which is great news for the sport and for Mexico. Everybody tells me how much they love the race – my colleagues, the media and the fans. It’s our chance to show everybody the Mexican way of life and how much we love sports."
Guenther Steiner: "There are talks to condense a Friday of a Grand Prix weekend. The talk is to just do running on a Friday afternoon, with all the other PR activities taking place in the morning. I think that would be a good way forward, especially with an extended calendar."
Mexican Grand Prixview (Toro Rosso)
Pierre Gasly: "It can be strange, we ran pretty much maximum rear wing, but the feeling you get is very different to what you would normally expect with that level of downforce. It’s always very good to go very fast in a straight line as that’s always exciting."
Fast father: Bourdais letting children choose their paths (IndyCar)
"My dad is a no-compromise guy. He’s 100 percent happy or 100 percent sad. It was very difficult as a kid to deal with that. Plenty of times, I would feel like I was fulfilling everything he wanted me to and that he was very proud of me. But when things would go sideways, I was a little (turd). I could tell you stories. You had to have pretty good armour."
Is Hamilton A Hypocrite For Promoting Veganism While Competing In F1? (Plant Based News)
"Hamilton sold his private jet earlier this year to move towards living a greener lifestyle. While this is a step in the right direction, he continues to conduct long-haul flights around the world to get to and from races."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
Should F1 change its penalty system – or do we need to be more patient with the stewards?
While I quite like the long lap idea, I think the current situation (five/10 second penalties for “minor” infringements, stop/go and drive-through penalties for more serious ones) works pretty well. The issue in Japan was the stewards indecision in whether or not to investigate Leclerc.
The stewards are under enormous pressure, there is no doubt about that. F1 is a fast paced sport and they probably feel the need to investigate incidents as quickly as possible because they know us keyboard warriors will have their heads if they dilly dally. I say give them the space and time to review the evidence and make a decision… if we all cut them some slack they will make good decisions. To be fair, they made the right decisions in the end in the F1 examples highlighted in the article (Leclerc in Suzuka and Vettel in Canada).
@Geemac
From the forum
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Happy birthday to Manatcna!
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On this day in F1
- 15 years ago today Rubens Barrichello took pole position for his home race at Interlagos
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
23rd October 2019, 6:15
How can Nissan possibly be that blind. We JUST got away from every major team in the WEC using that exact combination, Toyota still has that, F1 had a bunch of those the last decade.
Audi HAS THE SAME COMBINATION IN THE SAME SERIES !
(insert rage meme here, like you would in any real comment section tools)
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
23rd October 2019, 10:04
Actually Audi has some green; it’s Porsche that has the exact same colours, and there’ll be confusion with Mahendra as well, which has a similar livery with dark blue instead of black. But overall, the Formula E liveries will be less alike than last season at least, when for example the HWA’s and Jaguar’s were undistinguishable.
Nissan deserves some credit because this year Mercedes has simple imitated last year’s Nissan livery, so thanks Nissan for changing it.
ColdFly (@)
23rd October 2019, 11:10
Actually one of the plusses of this comment section is that you cannot insert memes and other page fillers, @uneedafinn2win. It encourages people to use words (and in many cases reasoning) to make their points.
An up/down-vote, or at least ‘report abuse’ button, would be welcome though IMO.
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd October 2019, 7:52
Regarding the COTD: I agree, in principle, for everything except for the ‘Leclerc in Suzuka’ part. He shouldn’t have received a penalty for the lap one-incident anymore than Sainz for his incident with Albon at Lesmo 2 in Monza. They’re effectively carbon-copies of each other. Sainz similarly understeered into Albon, and as a result, forced him off the track, yet Leclerc received a penalty for a not-massively-indifferent incident at the exit of Suzuka T1-T2. The Stewards should stick to their decisions, not go back on them.
Mclaren-tweet: Why don’t they use the MP4-25, or MP4-26, or perhaps even the MP4-20 for these types of occasions instead? The MP4-28 was horrible AF in its active season, LOL.
GeeMac (@geemac)
23rd October 2019, 9:32
I think that’s because it is the most recent car they can run themselves, given they no longer have a relationship with Mercedes (to run the hybrid 2014 car) or any of the Honda hybrids. The aim of the test is to give the prize winner a run in a representative F1 car.
OOliver
23rd October 2019, 7:57
The question should really be if F1 should have a penalty system. A system that lumps all kinds of misdemeanors, be it on track and off track, serious and benign and them assigns illogical weights to those infractions.
The penalty system is a big mess and needs to be scrapped or overhauled completely.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
23rd October 2019, 8:44
That’s an interesting concept: ask the driver to pull into the pits so an FIA official can fit some “penalty weight” to the car, then allow the car to rejoin the race. Of course, being the FIA, they might not fit the weight in “less than 10 seconds”.
RocketTankski
24th October 2019, 8:51
RedBull will probably now promote Daniil, drop Albon, and bring Jenson Button into Toro Rosso, just to keep the drivers on their toes.