In the round-up: Christian Horner says Alexander Albon has impressed Red Bull since joining the team six races ago, in which time he’s unexpectedly out-scored team mate Max Verstappen.
What they say
Horner was asked whether Albon might have finished on the podium if he’d been given a one-stop strategy instead of two:I think [his drive] was pretty decent. I’m not sure he would have held third. He’d got Lewis behind him, Lewis looked a bit quicker. I think it probably would have been difficult to keep Leclerc behind as well.
But I think he’s getting closer and closer to the pace, he’s generally doing a pretty decent job and you know, he’s stepping up and stepping up. Considering he lost pretty much all of P2 I think his recovery has been very strong.
He’s impressed the whole team with his performance to date and each weekend he’s progressing, he’s getting stronger.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
I’m the Worlds Fastest Gamer in 2019, I cannot believe it. pic.twitter.com/F4e4HGCMVW
— James Baldwin (@Veloce_Jaaames) October 29, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
His son was a Formula One lobbyist. Mayor is now pushing unpopular racing. It’s wrong (Miami Herald)
"Until March of this year, Gimenez’s lobbyist son, CJ, was getting a paycheck from Formula One, the international group vying to bring that form of auto racing to Miami-Dade."
A bump in the (public) road in Miami (Motorsport Week)
"The Formula 1 Grand Prix of Miami suffered a setback on Tuesday when the board of county commissioners of Miami Dade County in Florida voted to introduce a few more hurdles to the process required to run the event in May 2021."
Formula 1 rule changes: The Secret Aerodynamicist (BBC)
"I hear from friends at other teams that everyone is approaching the unknown quantity of the 2021 rules differently."
FIA rules to prevent 2020 W Series champion from defending title (Formula Scout)
"One of the criteria attached to (superlicence eligibility) is that the winning driver of the W Series championship may not compete in consecutive W Series championships – and that restriction will apply going forward."
Super Formula round 7: Suzuka (Super Formula via YouTube)
Australian Supercars round 26: Gold Coast (Australian Supercars via YouTube)
Australian Supercars round 27: Gold Coast (Australian Supercars via YouTube)
NASCAR round 33: Martinsville (NASCAR via YouTube)
ELMS round 6: Algarve (ELMS via YouTube)
Formula Renault Eurocup round 19: Yas Marina (Formula Renault Eurocup via YouTube)
Formula Renault Eurocup round 20: Yas Marina (Formula Renault Eurocup via YouTube)
WTCR round 22: Japan (WTCR via YouTube)
WTCR round 23: Japan (WTCR via YouTube)
WTCR round 24: Japan (WTCR via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Are F1’s new graphics just an excuse to put more logos on the screen?
I get where there coming from but still not really a fan of the AWS graphics. They and the general size of everything else makes the screen look far too cluttered at times.
It’s a complaint I’ve always felt about the US style broadcasts to be honest, Think IndyCar or NASCAR where the graphics are always designed to be way bigger than is necessary in part in order to be able to stick sponsor logo’s on them and it feels like FOM have done similar with what they introduced last year.
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Chaitanya
31st October 2019, 2:37
Albon certainly is doing a good job and has gotten on top of his RBR. He needs to reduce making mistakes during FP and Quali sessions.
MacLeod (@macleod)
31st October 2019, 7:50
Also during the race he is very fast but also very slow more constant racepace is what he need to work on.
Chaitanya
31st October 2019, 12:48
Overall he is a consistent driver during race he doesnt make too much mistakes or fluctuate from mean. He just needs to learn to extract that extra bit of performance which his teammate does quite often.
RatSack
31st October 2019, 5:58
Not sure why F1 keeps pushing for a Miami Race. They don’t want F1 and F1 doesn’t need them. It also seems like any track that results out of this will be terrible after the number of compromises made and I can’t imagineit will be financially viable either
Andy
31st October 2019, 9:01
Increased US exposure of the sport for Liberty (a US company).
allstargp
31st October 2019, 9:19
The US is a massive untapped market – huge potential there so I wouldn’t say that the US and F1 don’t need or want each other.
F1’s corporate strategy team has been a mess for years now. Once they figure out how to enter the US, I think there will be a lot to gain from a US/F1 relationship for all parties involved.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st October 2019, 7:39
I agree with Horner that he overall has impressed and is getting better. He’s also been more consistent both pace and results-wise than his predecessor in the RB15, so switching them back for the beginning of next season or demoting him back to STR in favor of Kvyat would be unfair to him.
The planned Miami-race saga, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if it never came to come true after all. There are already existing permanent circuits in the US, and at least one of them is a grade-1 venue, and that is Indianapolis, the previous home of the US GP.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st October 2019, 18:10
BTW, also on this day in F1: The 1999 Japanese GP in which Mika Hakkinen clinched his 2nd drivers’ title took place.
BoRa (@bnwllc3)
31st October 2019, 7:59
Sorry for Albon, if Horner says that they are impressed by his performance, then it means his time in Red Bull is close to the end.
allstargp
31st October 2019, 9:14
Yeah, it’s only a matter of time before MaxBull kick him out. Shame, because Albon has a lot of potential (and has shown it) and doesn’t seem like a bad guy.
nickthegreek (@nickthegreek)
31st October 2019, 9:59
MaxBull. hahahaha nice one
Patrick (@anunaki)
31st October 2019, 8:32
Albon is doing a decent job imho. He could be a good Nr 2 driver for redbull. He lacks speed and doesn’t have extreme highs that suggest WDC material but he’s a clean decent driver that can get decent results with a good car
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
31st October 2019, 8:54
Is the adjective “decent” positive in English? The translation in Italian doesn’t sound that good. Decent sounds just sufficient and I think Albon deserves something more than a 6, in a scale from 1 to 10. He’s racking up more points than Verstappen and we all know what Max usually does to his team mates. For reference, he’s average race result is 5.16, compared to Gasly’s 7.72.
Patrick (@anunaki)
31st October 2019, 9:50
Gasly was <5/10 so comparing him to Albon does nothing for Albon imho
He only outscores Max because Max had incidents that cost him races. But it is good for him and well deserved. Not getting involved in incidents is a quality as well. But he truly needs to up his pace.
Warheart (@warheart)
31st October 2019, 9:59
@anunaki it’s often said that it’s easier to make an error-prone fast driver crash less than it is to make an error-free, slower driver go fast.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
31st October 2019, 12:02
@anunaki he’s driving the same car as Max and, before him, Pierre and he’s obtaining better results compared to both. These are facts.
He’s the second driver of the third car in pecking order. His target is 6th, the same we expected from Gasly. He’s now better than 6th in average. He’s using practice sessions to… practice, and taking the car to the finish line in races. He’s in his first season in F1, he may not be WC material in terms of raw talent, maybe he’s just a kid with the head well planted in his shoulders with a good view on today’s F1. More a Prost than a Senna.
Now, Red Bull can choose to keep him because of these facts, or change him because they’re using some AWS algorithm that is internally tossing coins to guess who’s a better driver for them.
Patrick (@anunaki)
31st October 2019, 15:31
Well put. I agree with you.
Ram
31st October 2019, 17:37
Bravo
frood19 (@frood19)
31st October 2019, 11:41
@m-bagattini I guess it depends on the context. sometimes ‘decent’ means quite good, other times it just means ok, soddisfacente, perhaps.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
31st October 2019, 11:52
@frood19 thank you! It’s an interesting adjective: Merriam-Webster defines it as “fairly good : adequate, satisfactory: decent wages” while on dictionary.com you have “adequate; fair; passable: a decent wage.”
They use the same example, referring to wage, but to me it sounds like that “satisfactory” gives full satisfaction in said wage while “passable” doesn’t. Ok, sorry for the OT :D
JimG (@jimg)
31st October 2019, 12:38
@m-bagattini: As @frood19 said it depends on the context. Coming from a (presumably ;-) native English speaker like Horner “doing a pretty decent job” is a positive statement, if not effusive.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
31st October 2019, 12:02
@m-bagattini One could use a scale like that? :P
1 – legendary
2 – appalling
3 – painful to watch
4 – bad
5 – barely ok
6 – average
7 – decent
8 – good
9 – exceptional
10 – legendary
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
31st October 2019, 12:04
@spoutnik where’s Maldonado legendary and where’s Senna legendary?
allstargp
31st October 2019, 9:12
I’m sad Albon’s at RedBull. If you’re name isn’t Max, then you’ll always take a back seat and any incident will always be your fault.
Even at somewhere like Mercedes behind a firmly established and deserving no. 1, you can’t help but feel his talent would be appreciated and cultivated better than at RedBull.
Robbie (@robbie)
31st October 2019, 11:02
Simply untrue.
allstargp
31st October 2019, 12:44
True.
Not sure if you’ve been following red bull or their drivers over the years but I’d beg to differ…
RB13
31st October 2019, 10:53
Worst thing about the graphics is the obsession with sticking a driver headshot on the radio graphic. It reallllly annoys me.
frood19 (@frood19)
31st October 2019, 11:45
I was intrigued by the secret aerodynamicist column on the bbc website yesterday – the context heavily implies that it is not someone from one of the big 3 teams (though that could be a ruse). these types of columns tend to end up telling you very little, if you’re a keen fan anyway (if you’re into cycling you may have seen the secret pro column – it’s a great novelty idea, but in reality the same gossip you hear from reading the usual named journalists. cyclists are quite open anyway, so there’s not much insight to be had).
however, one thing not covered in the article occurred to me as important. what will haas do in 2021? it’s not like they can “copy” the previous year’s ferrari. will this create significant extra costs for them and would that hinder their future in the sport? the mutterings this year have not been especially positive (and they have been really bad lately!).
Adam (@rocketpanda)
31st October 2019, 13:39
I’m hugely impressed by Albon. Going from barely being considered for an F1 drive and going to FE, to jumping into the Toro Rosso with little to no preparation, then being shoved into a race-winning Red Bull he has no experience driving halfway through the year, and driving a lot of tracks he’s never raced on before I’d say he’s exceeded all expectations.
So far he’s more consistent than Gasly was and with every race looks like he’s getting closer to Verstappen’s pace – while Gasly looked like he was getting further away. He’s still got a lot of work to do though and it’s still super early days but so far I’d say he’s certainly worth hanging onto for Red Bull.
Aapje (@aapje)
31st October 2019, 19:02
So female drivers can now earn superlicense points in single-gender competition for mixed-gender F1. How sexist!