In the round-up: Charles Leclerc admits he took time to become comfortable with the sheer size of Ferrari’s team when he joined them from Sauber at the beginning of the year.
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What they say
Ferrari employs almost 1,000 staff at its Maranello base, which Leclerc says was difficult to get used to:
It’s been difficult. At the beginning to see so many people working for Ferrari is very intimidating. [It was] difficult for me in only my second year in Formula 1 to be as confident as I would like when you are arriving in a team like this.
But it’s been going good. They welcomed me extremely well and then we’ve been working very well during this season.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Unfortunately I have to share you the news that the marriage between Emilia and myself has come to an end: pic.twitter.com/EyaRI6Fp73
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) November 28, 2019
This is @F1's first December grand prix since 1963. @GeorgeRussell63 is already getting in the festive spirit… #F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/7Jw5zj678g
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) November 28, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Prema will compete in the 200 F2 championship with Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman (Prema)
Team principal Rene Roisin: "Shwartzman will move up to the series after being the class of the Formula 3 field this year. We are sure that his swift approach will enable him to gain great chemistry and results right away. On the other hand, Schumacher mastered a challenging rookie campaign and already scored his maiden win."
Marcus Armstrong joins ART Grand Prix for 2020 F2 campaign (ART)
Sébastien Philippe: "Marcus’s profile fits perfectly with the philosophy of our company and race team and we are happy he is joining us in Formula 2 because I think that between his race approach and his adaptation skills, he will be able to fight for the front positions."
Andy Roche: "He is a very talented driver and showed the paddock this year just how naturally gifted he is."
Mercedes not re-evaluating aims after strong start (e-racing365)
"We knew where we still had some challenges coming into this. So I think at the end of the day we shouldn’t overestimate where we stand in performance."
"Celebrations are being planned for the return of the six Scarborough UTC students who took part in the world finals of the F1 in Schools challenge in Abu Dhabi and have scooped two honours."
Ferrari at 90: nine decades of mystique... and muddle (Motorsport magazine)
"(Vettel) has tried doing two people’s jobs – calling strategy from the cockpit – but that method is a close associate of failure, as his team boss Mattia Binotto is proving also. Both very capable, they are being let down by the Scuderia’s structures."
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Comment of the day
Will 2020 finally be the year Red Bull are title contenders again?
I’d absolutely love the 2020 title fight to be between Hamilton, trying to equal and surpass Michael Schumacher’s records, and Max Verstappen trying to win his first championship.
Mercedes quite clearly stopped developing their car earlier than their competitors so it suggests they might start next season strong, but if Red Bull are within touching distance you can guarantee Verstappen will be there or thereabouts.
XMG (@Sparkyamg)
From the forum
- The 2020 F1 grid is set – but who will go where in 2021?
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Mashiat (@mashiat)
29th November 2019, 0:12
I’d be interested to see Shwartzman in F2. I feel as if the elite potential talents have dried up somewhat in the junior categories (feel free to correct me, I’m not an expert), especially after a generation of genuinely promising elite talents such as Leclerc, Verstappen, Ocon, Russell, Norris, etc. I don’t currently see anyone in particular in F2 who look like they could be the next big thing, but Shwartzman was quite impressive in F3, so hopefully he can have a good season and make that Alfa Romeo seat his own.
joac21 (@joac21)
29th November 2019, 5:55
Juri Vips was quite impressive in Macau. Also the guy who won the race as a rookie!
Jockey Ewing
29th November 2019, 12:00
Vips looks like having sponsorship problems 19y old, 4th @ 2019 F3, and 4th @ F3 European championship, 2nd at Macau this year. He easily looks better as an F2 driver than Alesi, Calderón, Raghunathan, Gelael, Boschung.
Marcus Armstrong has similar age and esults at F3 level too.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
29th November 2019, 21:31
I don´t necessarily want to bring nationalism into this, but a boy´s Estonian and that hardly secures him enough support to continue with top-notch racing. He would either have to be really lucky or have great managers. Many talented guys didn´t get to the peak of the motorsport only because of political reasons and the lack of “right nationality” – not so attractive for the sponsors and therefore the teams, promoters etc. Dirty business.
In short, I really cheer for him as a genuine talent. He´s something we need to see in the sea of pathetic pay drivers who only get higher because of exotic sponsorships.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th November 2019, 7:43
I’m surprised Walter Koster still has a paddock-pass, i.e., has managed to keep his paddock-pass after all the unnecessarily long and complicated questions he’s asked over these six years mainly in Abu Dhabi. Joking aside, I wish he attended more races if not all of them than just the Abu Dhabi GP, or Hockenheim last season, or Spa in ’17 and ’18.
Regarding the RaceFans-tweet: Yes, that might be, albeit only just into December, but still a bit early for Christmas-themes just yet.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
29th November 2019, 9:57
I’m very sorry for Bottas but I have to admit my first thought was that if there’s a single chance for him to battle against Lewis for WDC, this episode can work for him.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
29th November 2019, 12:58
Re: COTD. Perhaps another passing-of-the-torch style season coming up? Along the lines of (what could have been) 1994 with Senna and Schumacher, and 2005/06 with Shumacher and Alonso/Räikkönen, and now maybe with Hamilton going for one of his last seasons in the sport versus Verstappen.
Regarding the divorce news, it is a surprise that F1 people can form any long relationship at all. And when one takes into account that Emilia was another top-level athlete, one can only imagine how difficult it might have been at times to be there for one another.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
29th November 2019, 21:43
I expect it to be rather complicated. Sure, now it seems that Red Bull is really up there, but I doubt they can be really competitive throughout the whole season season with Honda. Remember where they were after the summer break until the Mexican GP? Nowhere. The Honda engine isn´t sorted out yet in my opinion and I´m not trying to say something negative about the Honda guys, it´s only that Mercedes have brought the reliability to perfection and Honda was only occasionally turning the engine up, sacrificing the perfomance on other occasions. This is the reason why I don´t believe they would take a legitimate fight to Mercedes just yet, I don´t think reliability and speed are in the right balance for that.
GeeMac (@geemac)
29th November 2019, 13:14
Sad news re Bottas’ marriage, the F1 lifestyle claims another victim.