In the round-up: Lando Norris does not anticipate he will be able to come close to matching Lewis Hamilton’s record of 100 career pole positions after starting his career, like Hamilton, at McLaren.
In brief
Norris not expecting to match Hamilton’s hundred
Lando Norris says it’s unlikely he’ll equal Lewis Hamilton’s feat of scoring 100 pole positions. Both drivers began their F1 careers at McLaren, but as Norris pointed out, the team were in more competitive shape when Hamilton debuted for them 14 years ago.
“It’s incredibly impressive to see he’s achieved,” said Norris. “I kind of look to maybe one day achieving such a thing. I guess we’re in a slightly different position to when he started his career in Formula 1 so I’m not fussed if I never do.
“But I think looking up to something like that and seeing what’s possible in Formula 1 and just what an incredible driver he is. It’s pretty cool to go racing with him every now and then and get to race him on track. So congrats to him and I’m sure there’s many more this year that he’s going to be able to get soon.”
Aston Martin upgrades good enough to reach Q3 – Vettel
After narrowly missing out on reaching Q3, Sebastian Vettel believes that Aston Martin have the performance to reach the final stage in qualifying after receiving the upgrades that team mate Lance Stroll enjoyed last weekend.
“Well, it’s a bit better,” says Vettel, “but as you saw, it wasn’t much missing today. We just found ourselves on the wrong side. Unfortunately, the last set of tyres, I need to understand why, but I struggled to get them up to temperature to start the lap and lost a bit there. So obviously it’s close, where we are. The small things, the small gaps, make a big difference.”
Vettel will line up 13th on the grid for today’s race, with team mate Lance Stroll 11th.
Schumacher confident Haas can fight for Q2 in 2021
Despite Haas having already turned their attention to 2022 with no upgrades to this year’s car planned, Mick Schumacher believes the team still have the potential to earn appearances in Q2 in 2021.
“It is a totally realistic goal,” says Schumacher. “Obviously, I’d be unhappy if that wasn’t the case this year. We’re still pushing hard for it. Obviously, there will be tracks that maybe come more our way. We were quite close to Kimi [Raikkonen] looking in hindsight. So I think we can be very happy and hopeful for hopefully a Q2 in well the next whatever eighteen races.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
100 pole positions for @LewisHamilton is a powerful figure which rams home his mastery of the single flying lap.
There's a simple purity to statistics like these which will be lost once Qualifying Sprint races arrive.#F1 #SpanishGP
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) May 8, 2021
100 POLES! I can’t even begin to describe how this feels. I can’t thank the team and everyone back at the factory enough for everything they’ve done to help us secure this incredible milestone. I feel so humbled and very grateful. This feels like my first win all over again 🙌🏾💯 pic.twitter.com/KkCgShdhq2
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) May 8, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Hauger and Leclerc receive post-race time penalties (Formula 3)
"Prema Racing duo Dennis Hauger and Arthur Leclerc have both received 10s-time penalties following incidents in race two on Saturday at Barcelona."
Gilles remembered by his crew (Ferrari)
"To remember Gilles, Ferrari invited three of his crew from back then, Anselmo Menabue, Luciano Prandini and Umberto Benassi, to talk about their memories of Villeneuve in the special setting of the Sala delle Vittorie in the Ferrari Museum at Maranello."
Formula E round 7: Monaco EPrix (Formula E via YouTube)
Formula Regional Europe round 3: Circuit de Catalunya (Formula Regional Europe via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Following yet another controversy involving Nikita Mazepin, which saw the Haas rookie handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lando Norris in qualifying, @stefmeister points the finger not at Mazepin or the other drivers involved, but something else entirely…
Not really sure that justified a penalty to be honest.
Seemed like there were three to four cars holding each other up at that point and Mazepin just happened to be at the back of that queue about to start a lap when Norris turned up and I’m not really sure where he could have gone to get out of the way other than use the old circuit which would have resulted in the following hot lap being deleted anyway.
I also in general think they need to do something with the tyres as the main reason we see so much of this in sector three at various circuits now is because of how much preparation and nursing the tyres require now on the out lap. It just feels like the past few years it’s gotten significantly worse and we are seeing this queuing up in sector three way more often than we used to.
@Stefmeister
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On this day in F1
- Born on this day in 1951: Formula 1 designer Gary Anderson, whose cars included the Jordan 191 Michael Schumacher made his debut in
Jere (@jerejj)
9th May 2021, 6:23
Maybe if some QLF is wet – otherwise next to impossible for Haas.
I don’t think bunching up in S3 happens more often than before. Pretty much the same for a little while.
RandomMallard (@)
9th May 2021, 7:34
I don’t necessarily agree with @keithcollantine about normal Qualifying statistics necessarily being simple. Things like qualifying on race fuel or 1 lap qualifying meant it wasnt always about who was fastest, but who had the least fuel/best track conditions. And even with our current system it isn’t perfect, for example the times Q2 has been used for the grid due to weather, or even last race where Hamilton set the fastest time of the whole weekend in Q2 but wasn’t on pole.
Overall, I think there have been enough statistical anomalies in Qualifying’s history that I’m willing to risk 3 trial Sprint Qualifyings. I’ll reserve my judgement until afterwards.
Jon Thereyougo (@jon-thereyougo)
9th May 2021, 8:53
Formula E really looking good, dynamic and fast on the full Monaco layout.
Dave
9th May 2021, 10:17
Re Norris: Breaking records doesn’t matter anymore when Hamilton retires.
Re Mick Schumacher: Nah, only next year if Haas regrets their biggest mistake or if you move to Alfa Romeo.
Re Formula E: Bring back narrower cars.
Dave
9th May 2021, 10:18
(I was talking about that F1 should bring back narrower and shorter cars, by the way.)
Balue (@balue)
9th May 2021, 10:19
Someone actually asked Norris if he thinks he will do 100 poles? Come on..
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was ‘tactically’ asked of Verstappen, but Lando?
RandomMallard (@)
9th May 2021, 11:20
Well, Lando is still younger than Lewis was when he joined F1 and if he can keep up the form he’s showed for most of this season, then I think he’ll have the potential to do very well, albeit not quite reach 100 poles, but very well nonetheless.
Mikey
9th May 2021, 18:24
In response to COTD: I agree that something needs to be done, however it may not be the tyres themselves that are causing the issue. Hear me out. I believe there may be a much more scientific reason behind the way the tyres are treated and conditioned before the flying lap, and that reason? Data. I believe that with the technology and understanding of how the rubber works, through sensors, diagnostic equipment, accumulated knowledge and computational power now available to simulate and analyse, teams no actually understand in much greater detail than in the past how to extract the absolute maximum performance from the rubber at hand. I believe that it is a Pandora’s box that has been opened, and there is no putting it back inside now without restricting the computational power available to teams, aka, dumbing the team’s down. In my opinion, this will never happen. I believe this will now be the norm regardless of who makes the tyres.
Mikey
9th May 2021, 18:25
Know* excuse my non proof reading
Mikey
9th May 2021, 18:26
Mikey, oh my days, *now* even. Excuse my poor proof reading 😂