In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen says Alfa Romeo heave begun to make progress with their car’s aerodynamics following a difficult start to 2020.
What they say
Raikkonen said the team have to work around the weakness of their Ferrari power unit:Obviously it’s all the areas. We all know that the engine is not where we or of Ferrari want it to be. But that’s a thing that is out of our hands right now, out of anybody’s hands right at this moment.
We need to concentrate on the things that we can change. Obviously then it comes to the chassis and the aero. The aero is always one of the most important parts of the F1 car. But like I said, we’ve been improving it but there’s still scope to improve.
But then if you go and ask the guys who are winning, they found issues with their cars. There’s always complaints, it’s a never-ending story to improve the car. So it’s nothing new, it’s no different whichever car you take from the grid, there’s always things to improve and make it faster. So it’s just and endless thing that you always have areas to improve and make it faster.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
He didn't just decide to drive faster.
He was stuck behind Vettel and Ocon, then got ahead of them, which meant he was no longer stuck at their pace.
Data: https://t.co/cB4gpF1I8G pic.twitter.com/9t58fIDqHH
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) October 1, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Imola to allow more than 13,000 fans to attend each day (BBC)
"Tickets have been on sale for just over a week and some areas are sold out."
"It’s not out of the realm of possibility for IndyCar to have 26 cars on the grid next year with regularity."
A statement from Motorsport UK (Motorsport UK)
"Motorsport UK is deeply saddened to announce that a fatal accident occurred this afternoon at Elvington Airfield during a British Land Speed Record attempt."
A day in the life of Elizabeth Apthorp (renault)
"My role as a composite design engineer is to essentially design parts that go onto the racing car. I specifically focus on a carbon fibre components such as the wing mirrors and driver seats."
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Comment of the day
Dave is unimpressed by complaints about Mercedes’ dominance:
It always makes me chuckle when people are watching history in the making and records tumbling and bemoaning the dominance. Yeah, watching Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters was so boring!
Wasn’t F1 so boring in the nineties and 2000s and 2010s when all those great drivers, great cars and great teams were performing at their best, yawn! Why do Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey etc need to be so good!
Now if only we had more equal cars and a different driver winning every race, wouldn’t that be exciting? Yes, it’s called F2. Go watch it. This is F1 and that’s how it has always been. Just enjoy history being made.
Dave (@Davewillisporter)
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On this day in F1
- 55 years ago today Graham Hill put his BRM on pole position for the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen
vince
2nd October 2020, 0:16
-To those who keep insisting Lewis Hamilton deserved his 10 second penalty at the Russian grand prix please check out these wise words from this formula 1 expert on YouTube. Either click on the bellow link or copy and paste the link to the top of your browser and then press enter. Click
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl04ygbbrqE
Kringle
2nd October 2020, 1:07
Literally no one asked you. This comment doesn’t apply to this page.
You receive a 10 second penalty.
ColdFly (@)
2nd October 2020, 7:19
His comment should’ve been made straight after the event and on the right hand side so all current comments can pass.
But I guess his partner told him it’s okay to do it here and now.
Ancient1
2nd October 2020, 10:30
If all other variables were constant, would totally agree.
However, the stewards not penalising LeClerc for the same thing[albeit only once] @ Belgian GP, where Sky F1’s Johnny Herbert was the invitational steward, changes ‘the goalpost’.
Jack (@jackisthestig)
2nd October 2020, 2:29
Dennis Priestley is an expert mechanic and a good commentator on 5 live but his opinion on a stewarding decision is just that, an opinion as is everyone else’s. It’s not a case of Elvis has spoken so that’s an end of it.
Jack (@jackisthestig)
2nd October 2020, 2:30
Sorry Marc Priestley. I don’t know where that came from, I don’t even watch darts!
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
2nd October 2020, 8:09
Thanks for the Priestley YT link, Vince.
While others want to give you multiple penalties, I want to give you the power to hire and fire the stewards. Of course you’ll need to present your Ferrari employee badge during the swearing in ceremony.
That Charles performed a practice start outside of the designated area at Spa and was not penalized speaks of bias, or incompetence. That he was investigated for a slow lap, and Ferrari used his out-of-area practice start as a defense makes the case for biased or incompetent FIA stewarding compelling.
And Salo still has some explaining to do…
bob (@riptide)
2nd October 2020, 9:06
By most of the comments I assume Masi and the Stewards have signed up to Racefans.
https://media.giphy.com/media/joV1k1sNOT5xC/giphy.gif
Robbie (@robbie)
2nd October 2020, 14:48
@jimmi-cynic I don’t at all see it that they were using his illegal practice start as a defence for his slow lap. The way I see it, and Marc finally gets around to it, is that they simply missed CL’s practice start. There were no camera eyes on him and nobody brought it to the stewards attention. So all they had to go by in terms of an investigation is that they observed his lap was two seconds slow for a recon lap. So they then embarked on the formal letter they have to compose when there’s an investigation, and so mid-race this letter was ready to be issued to Ferrari asking them to see them after the race. It was only then that Ferrari admitted the reason for CL’s slow lap was his improperly place practice start. By that time, with CL having finished 14th and 75 seconds back of the winner, what punishment should they have administered akin to the 5 seconds LH got for each of his starts that were caught live?
Robbie (@robbie)
2nd October 2020, 14:58
In general I thought Marc made some great points, but I do have a few issues with what he has said. One of them is that he is comparing showing fairness and a lack of bias as being crucial in raising his young kids (I fully agree) to doing the same for F1 teams, however, they are not small kids. The teams have been accustomed to bias for decades wrt things like Ferrari’s veto power and their extra heritage money. I’m sure we all can come up with many many examples of bias throughout F1’s history, and as adults we ‘understand’ that or acknowledge it or debate it or are disgusted by or it what have you, but as I say it is amongst adults, not impressionable kids.
He also then asks for more transparency and that at a minimum if the stewards miss something or do something inconsistent they at least should tell us. Ok ya maybe, but is that reasonable to expect of them? Is it their job to keep explaining and convincing folks after they have made a formal ruling on paper and addressed that ruling to the appropriate parties? Perhaps it could or should be, but I’ll not hold my breath for that. Hire permanent ‘professional’ stewards? Perhaps.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
2nd October 2020, 1:42
Oh dear! This is awful. Most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the driver. RIP.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
2nd October 2020, 8:10
Indeed. I notice that a name hasn’t been announced yet. I’m anticipating further shock. RIP
melanos
2nd October 2020, 23:56
Zef Eisenberg
Toxic
2nd October 2020, 2:25
Laughed hard at the twitter response… some nerd didn’t get a joke ;)
René (@)
2nd October 2020, 6:26
No.. not this boring, easy and long.
HS (@hsvdt15)
2nd October 2020, 8:42
This. Vettel dominance only lasted four years, two of which went to the final race with other teams. Schumacher’s lasted 5, two of which had McLaren breathing down their necks. 2014 onwards, however, we’ve had two half seasons of Ferrari challenging, and nothing aside from that. 8 years after 2021.
nickthegreek (@nickthegreek)
2nd October 2020, 9:52
I only started watching in 2005, but I’m sure people thought it was boring during the Schumacher dominance. i’d love to have watched it though, just as I love watching Hamilton destroy everyone on the grid except 2016…
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd October 2020, 7:28
So Imola will admit less general public than Sochi Autodrom, Nurburgring, Portimao, and Istanbul Park, but more than Mugello. Bahrain is the only unclear one of the remaining places over whether their events would be open or closed to the general public.
The COTD is spot on – I share the same sentiment.
stefano (@alfa145)
2nd October 2020, 10:52
man, finally cotd said it as it is
Adam (@rocketpanda)
2nd October 2020, 12:26
RE: COTD. Personally I don’t enjoy watching one team and just two drivers battling for the title. Sure it’s historic and technologically fascinating but it’s also unbearably boring to watch. The titles won so easily, in a machine with such a huge advantage over its competitors feels hollow. Schumacher dominated, and that got boring and that was 5 years. Vettel dominated and that got boring, and that was 4 years. This period of extensive domination has been much longer.
Also it’s worth pointing out that during Schumacher’s reliability was an issue, and Vettel’s Red Bull never enjoyed the crushing superiority Hamilton’s Mercedes has had. There’s articles on this website pointing that out. So no, being excited over 3rd downwards isn’t that exciting anymore.
melanos
3rd October 2020, 0:05
Why not? F1 has been excruciatingly boring for most of this last seven years (bar 2016) but F1.5 has been a lot of fun to watch, that’s where all the action was.
This year, with the Scuderia and Albon solidly in the midfield, the F1.5 concept is a bit off. But N2M2F1 (no Mercs, no Max F1) comes to the rescue, with Norris on top at the moment, but always hotly contested.