Esteban Ocon, Renault, Istanbul Park, 2020

Ocon: Hotter venues will suit Renault better in final races

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In the round-up: Esteban Ocon predicts Renault will fare better in the final three races of the season having slipped 18 points behind Racing Point in the fight for third place in the constructors’ championship.

What they say

After the cool conditions seen at Istanbul and Algarve, Ocon predicts warmer temperatures in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi will suit Renault:

I think we are usually pretty good in tracks where the heat is very strong. Usually we look well after the tyres on all those tough tracks we are pretty strong. So I look forward. […]

The car’s been performing well in those tracks, those conditions. So I have no doubt that we’ll be there.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

@Barkun points out that longer Safety Car periods means a greater chance of races ending under caution:

I would not mind having longer Safety Car periods, we’ll get used to that like we got used to the introduction of the halo (nobody mentions it anymore by the way). However, what concerns me is if a Safety Car happens in the closing stages; I wouldn’t want a race to end under the safety car. So maybe there must be a rule that a race will be red-flagged if there is an accident in the last 10 laps for example.

As for cars un-lapping themselves maybe during the last lap or two of the safety car period, the leading cars can pass from the pit lane so that lapped cars can un-lap themselves passing from the track at higher speeds.
@Barkun

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Ocon: Hotter venues will suit Renault better in final races”

  1. Didn’t FIFA used to be a football/soccer video game?

    1. @jaymenon10 Yes, many years ago. Now it’s a lootbox gambling (or “sUrpRiSe mEchANicS!”) slot machine that happens to include a football game on the side.

    2. I was wondering about that one too @jaymenon10.

  2. Wasn’t it not so long ago they were boasting the Renault would be strong at all remaining tracks. They seem to have picked up some qualifying pace but lost their race pace dramatically. Will be surprised to see them in anything but 5th at the end of the year as I think RP and Mclaren have dropped them now. Credit where its due though that they’ve at least taken some opportunities this year with Ricciardo.

    1. I still expect some solid races from Ricciardo @slowmo, but yeah, I doesn’t really look like they know what they can expect of their cars.

      Seem like the car is better understood than in the firs 4 races. Also, what is considered hot? Is Bahrain hot in the coming weeks actually (looks like might be in the coming weekend, but about 20s for the week after that according to current weather reports) to suit that Renault ?

  3. I guess the summary on the main page should read Hamilton appears in FIFA* 21

    1. Exactly! When I saw the summary I thought “Why is this news worthy? :|”, only when I saw the actual news did i realize it was FIFA 2021, not F1 2021

  4. What’s that thing called when football players pull their shirts up over their heads?

    Hopefully you can do that with the Dua Lipa character.

    1. Seriously?

      @keithcollantine I’m not really sure if this comment is in-line with the site’s policies, or the inclusive community we strive for.

      1. Triggered by a harmless joke

        1. So because it’s harmless to you and doesn’t offend you means that automatically is objectively not harmless or offensive? Is it up to the victimised parties only to make such determinations, always.

          Also it is one of the most awful common hallmarks of the conservative to use ‘triggered’ lightly as if its some joke. It wasn’t chosen as some political word by every liberal to stand for ‘omg I don’t like this very much.’ It is a term used to refer to when an event or happening triggers a trauma response by people who suffer mental illness and/o have been through major trauma. It isn’t just some silly word. The misuse of the word is itself often quite triggering to such people.

          Grow up.

          Everyone doesn’t have to agree on political issues or opinions on every little thing, but in human society everyone IS obliged to 1. Treat all people equally and with respect and not attempt to shamelessly hurt people and 2. Mind their own business and allow those who actually have skin in the game to determine whether content related to them is acceptable or not.

          In 5 small words you’ve shown yourself to fall short of the mark on both those things, what a profound achievement.

      2. Well Rhys, my first attempt at a joke was going to be about using the Zinedine Zidane character to headbutt other celebrities that you may not like. But I wouldn’t want to encourage violence…

  5. But Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are not hot this time of the year. Also, aren’t all 3 remaining races night / twilight races.

    1. @sumedh Maybe not hot, but warm all-year-round, given the hot desert climate zone, so still warm. The forecast for all three weekends shows figures in the mid-20s at present. These places also stay warm past the sunset, not only in the daytime.

      1. Actually the current preditctions look like the second race weekend will be about 19-21 degrees only @jerejj. Sure, no 5-8 like we got at the Nurburgring, but hot?

          1. current prediction I saw when making that comment @jerejj

            Another one that shows comparable weather: https://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Bahrain/Sakhir-Circuit/14-Day-Forecast.aspx

            Yas Marina clearly does look like 26-29 degrees, so that would be fine for Renault if they are right.

        1. @bascb I’ve also used the other two sites for this purpose, but Accuweather is the one I use most frequently. Others if this site doesn’t have the specific area for a given track or close enough to be comparably accurate. TimeAndDate.com doesn’t have Sakhir, for example. The figures in the link to that site are for the capital Manama, which isn’t in the same part of the country as the track, so not relevantly comparable, even though Bahrain is a small country, but still. The closer to the relevant area, the better. I don’t attempt to claim one site to be better than another, etc., concerning the forecast on myweather2.com, the evenings of the second weekend might be around 20 degrees – while, the mid-20s could hit at, for example, midday/early afternoon before dropping down as the day goes by towards the sunset. Alongside Accuweather, I’m also very familiar with TimeAndDate.com as I’ve used it regularly since 2015, but mainly for timing stuff rather than weather, and I mean, sunrise and sunset times, time zones, day and night map, etc. Time-related things in general.

          1. For the weather I like to use a norse webpage that generally seems to be very accurate. For the coming 3 days …

            It seems that there is still quite a relatively high chance of rainy weather in the coming few weeks. But off course weather more than a few days away is always hard to predict, so it could go either way, I guess @jerejj

  6. Re: COTD I also wouldn’t want a race to end under the safety car, but I hope F1 learns from NASCARs horrible Green-White-Checker farce. It’s supposed to be a sprint to the finish with two laps in race conditions to end the race no matter how many laps the race was intended to be. But more often than not it turns out to be a crash fest at the end of the race that breeds more cautions and more and more attempts at a green-white-checker finish until your final position becomes more about luck than race craft. With no refueling F1 couldn’t copy the green-white-checker scheme wholesale because cars would run out of fuel, but I would be more in favor of a red flag if there is a safety car (virtual or full) with less than 10 laps like @Barkun suggested

    1. With no refueling F1 couldn’t copy the green-white-checker scheme wholesale because cars would run out of fuel

      Not necessarily, as the safety cars / VSC help in saving some fuel. If the rule is made that post-safety car, the race should run in full green flag conditions for 2-3 laps, I think that is doable. More laps won’t be possible after 2-3 though.

      but I would be more in favor of a red flag if there is a safety car (virtual or full) with less than 10 laps like @Barkun suggested

      A red flag which allows re-fuelling would allow 10 additional laps (Even more) post the safety car. But that would make the race feel more artificial.

      But in-principle, I agree that we should add a lap or two after the SC ends even if it is above the 305 km limit and get a green flag finish. While it is undoubtedly artificial, it will help generate more interest and viewership. Races like 2012 Brazil would have been even more incredible as Alonso would have got a genuine chance to overtake Button and win the championship!! On the other hand, races like 2019 Bahrain would have been even more heartbreaking as Leclerc would have fallen from 3rd to 20th in those 2 laps of full speed racing

    2. I would prefer to see a race end under yellow, reflecting race position at the time, rather than extend the race artificially which would cause issues with the life of the tyres and fuel usage.

    3. I think such red flags should have normal restarts, then, and not a return to the grid. Late red flags have the potential to mimic nascar’s lottery dynamic, especially as liberty seems desperate as of late to find ways to spice up races

    4. @g-funk @sumedh @sham @realnigelmansell
      Races in F1 (except for the Monaco GP) are supposed to be a minimum of 305 full km long, so unnecessarily extending the distance by a lap or two because of a late SC-period would be questionable and pointless. Not the end of the world if a race or two in x number of years ends under SC conditions like, for example, 2014 Canadian, 2015 Chinese, or the last Bahrain GP. Races ending under these circumstances aren’t a norm anyway, so no point in changing anything.
      ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
      Also, a definite no to red-flagging unnecessarily for something small.

  7. Make the cars lap slower under safety car and marshalls need to be far more efficient in removing cars from the circuit. Cars should go to a crawl if marshalls are inside the fence recovering a vehicle.

    For a sport with billions invested every year in the equipment the procedures for recovering cars are quite amateurish.

    1. @Darren Moore Zero chance of hitting marshals if they’re inside a fence, i.e., not on the trackside of it, though.

      1. I mean inside the circuit itself.

  8. Also, Imola, although Algarve and Imola were decent with either low-20s or a bit below 20. Istanbul Park’s weekend was cooler, around 15 degrees on Friday and 11-13 for the other two days of running, but at least warmer than Nurburgring, LOL. The remaining three will definitely be warmer, so maybe, yes, better for Renault, but clawing back a gap of 18 points to 3rd is still going to be hard under normal circumstances on pure pace.
    As for the COTD: No point in red-flagging for the sake of it unless the incident absolutely requires this. Red-flagging for something small would only introduce artificial randomness, something that doesn’t belong to the highest level of circuit-racing.

  9. Binotto wont come to the race, I declare Leclerc P3 on sunday.

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