In the round-up: Pirelli will bring different tyre compounds for F1s two races at the Red Bull Ring this year.
In brief
Pirelli splits tyre choices for Austrian races
Following F1’s decision to add a second race at the Red Bull Ring this year, Pirelli has decided to bring different tyre compounds to the two races in the hope of producing more varied events.The sport’s official tyre supplier originally nominated the C2, C3 and C4 tyres for the Austrian Grand Prix. A spokesperson advised RaceFans these will instead be brought for the Styrian Grand Prix, which is being held one week earlier at the same track.
For the Austrian Grand Prix, Pirelli will now provide the softest tyre compounds in its range. This is the C3, C4 and C5, which are also being used at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Last year the C2, C3 and C4 tyres were brought to both races at the Austrian circuit, as Pirelli was not able to bring different allocations. They did bring different selections for the two races at Silverstone.
Kanaan quickest, Ferrucci crashes at Indy
The session was interrupted when Santino Ferrucci lost control of his car at turn two and crashed, badly damaged the rear of his RLL-run machine. He was cleared of any serious injuries but taken for precautionary scans.
Andretti’s Colton Herta was involved in a bizarre incident which nearly led to a high-speed collision between him and Scott McLaughlin. The Penske driver backed off as he arrived on turn four as Ferrucci and RLL team mates Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal had slowed at the start/finish line for a staged photograph. Herta glanced the wall as he squeezed between it and McLaughlin’s car at speed.
Ferrari “too strong for us” – Alonso
“We got surprises on Saturday, sometimes positive surprises, sometimes not so positive,” he said. “So let’s see on Saturday if we can improve those those positions.
“Ferrari seems a little bit stronger here, too strong for us, but I guess the midfield is going to be very tight.”
His Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon seemed optimistic that they would implement good setup changes before final practice. “I think we have a few directions to take for [Saturday],” he said. “There’s a few things that are quite clear to us that are not working so far.
“So it’s good that we put the finger on those points quite early and see if it works on Saturday.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Defeated by the weather.
Track running draws to a close today thanks to super strong winds and heavy downpours. 🌧️#WSeries pic.twitter.com/z4pkoEU89w
— W Series (@WSeriesRacing) May 20, 2021
Drivers who have failed to qualify for #GP2/#F2 races since 2006:
• Alessio Deledda – Monaco 2020
• Franck Perera – Belgium 2009
• Ricardo Teixeira – Monaco 2009
• Christian Bakkerud – Turkey 2007
• Marcos Martinez – Hungary 2007#MonacoGP— Laura Leslie (@LauraLeslieF1) May 20, 2021
What is the point to keep the 107% when then you allow the driver to do the race ? @fia 🤔
— Raffaele Marciello (@Team_RMarciello) May 20, 2021
A hair-raising onboard view from @ColtonHerta: pic.twitter.com/WlfoUJ5KtZ #IndyCar #Indy500
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) May 20, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Formula 1 has become a club of billionaires' sons (AS - Spanish)
Lewis Hamilton: "If you have a friend who belongs to a minority, you may be able to ask him what kind of difficulties he has had to face because he is different. In my case, I have uncomfortable conversations with my boss, with Mercedes, with sponsors, we must have them and we should not be ashamed, but see what we can do together to achieve a more diverse F1, like any other business."
Alex Albon: ‘The Monaco GP is where you have to flirt with the limit of the car’ (GQ)
"Mercedes were on the back foot in Bahrain, but they have shown before how they can bounce back and they have already developed the car at a fast rate – you don’t win seven consecutive world championships by accident. It looks like the pace advantage that we had in Bahrain has been matched and just edged by Mercedes in Barcelona, but it is still so early in the season and the boys and girls back at our factory have a reputation for rapid in-season development."
2021 Round 2: Post-qualifying press conference (Formula 2)
Theo Pourchaire: "I don't know if Group A was better than the second group, but for sure I just disconnected my brain during three laps today. I wasn't super confident during free practice this morning and I wanted to start on the front of the grid, so I pushed the limit of the car and it worked."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Comment of the day
Roger says Christian Horner’s attempted counter of Red Bull’s flexi-rear wing by saying Mercedes’ front wing is just as flexible discounts the fact rear wings are much more clearly prescribed than the front:
I believe that the regulations have always allowed for more movement in the front wing, Especially since they made them wider a few years ago which was always going to create a bit more deflection.
I also think that deflection of the rear wing is worth a lot more lap time. Not simply in terms of the reduction in drag giving a speed gain on the straights but as it also gives teams the option to run higher downforce levels which is a benefit in the corners.
The introduction of DRS for instance is why we don’t see those super, super skinny and almost flat rear wings at Spa and Monza anymore.
@roger-ayles
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Gv27, Kanyima, Thersqaured and Olivia Stephanie Ault!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st May 2021, 6:59
Yeah, that was a hairy moment at the brickyard. And all just for a photo. During a live session.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
21st May 2021, 9:48
@bascb I think it’s completely crazy, no way should that be allowed.
S
21st May 2021, 9:52
This exact same scenario plays out at almost every F1 event – certainly on the shorter circuits.
Drivers trundle around at walking pace trying to make a gap and cool their tyres at the end of their warm-up laps prior to a hot lap.
petebaldwin (@)
21st May 2021, 10:39
Sure but there’s a significant difference between a driver going slowly to make a gap and drivers going 3 wide and crawling down the start/finish straight in order to take a nice photo in the middle of a session.
S
21st May 2021, 12:09
But the result is the same if/when it goes wrong.
You’ll notice that it wasn’t the cars being photographed that were the direct problem, it was the others who had to slow down as a result.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
21st May 2021, 12:58
That’s not “the exact same scenario” at all. That is routine practice which happens at every race.
S
21st May 2021, 13:15
Would it be OK of it happened every practice session at Indy?
BasCB (@bascb)
21st May 2021, 17:04
Indeed @keithcollantine, it is quite astonishing that IndyCar allows them to do this kind of stuff.
Surely it’s not too hard to just arrange for a photo op moment when there is no live session.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
21st May 2021, 11:28
@bascb It was pretty stupid to be honest and surely 30 minutes of one of the many practice sessions could be set aside for promotional filming etc with 100mph speed limit to avoid this kind of thing. However I do want to know exactly what Herta’s spotter was doing at that point in time as literally their job to warn their driver of this kind of thing.
minnis (@minnis)
21st May 2021, 13:25
@chimaera2003 whilst not in any way defending the spotter, with a lap like indy it’s easy to see that if your driver has half a lap to themselves it’s likely you’re not going to be needed any time soon. Coupled with the fact that you can’t just do an emergency stop in these things (Herta was in fact decelerating for a good second or so before the impact) because you may lose control. Look at Herta’s onboard – McLaughlin is easily a few seconds up the road. It can be quite easy for a lapse in concentration from the spotter (especially in practise when you wouldn’t expect as many incidents or close racing), maybe giving Herta a second less notice but that’s all that it takes.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st May 2021, 7:45
Good move, some variation in strategies.
A scary moment that could’ve ended badly.
I also prefer actual corner names wherever they have names, especially as FIA’s numbering is questionable and inconsistent.
The last phrase in COTD isn’t quite spot-on as rear wings are still very skinny in Monza. 2009-2016 had less flexibility in how skinny they could be because they were smaller, and of course, the first two seasons from these were pre-DRS.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
21st May 2021, 9:05
@jerejj Just on the corner name/number point, you can argue they are questionable (Hockenheim turns 2/3/4 come to mind) but I am not sure they are inconsistent. I have seen marker boards around some circuits (don’t ask me which ones) that have the corner number by the corner so I reckon that the numbers are fixed. I much prefer the names myself (fortunately Martin Brundle uses them in commentary) but I reckon the numbers are needed for consistent location identification for safety reasons.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
21st May 2021, 9:52
@chimaera2003 Here at RaceFans our house style is to prefer corner names where proper ones exist (generally not sponsors) but refer to turn numbers where needed for clarity.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st May 2021, 12:30
@chimaera2003 They’re inconsistent because FIA unnecessarily marks even the slightest of curves or kinks as corners, but not, for example, Monaco’s S/F straight, which curves sharper than Red Bull Ring’s left-hand kink before the Remus hairpin or Imola’s S/F straight, to name a couple. Also redundant because slight curves and kinks aren’t actual/proper corners anyway. The same between Sainte Devote and Massenet or Tunnel section.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
21st May 2021, 18:27
@jerejj I think we agree with each other. What I understood when you said inconsistent is that different people use different numbers for the same corner which I don’t think happens.
I agree that some slight curves or kinks do not need numbers, I just think they do it to just make the numbers bigger.
Ole Brummer (@andrewwj)
21st May 2021, 11:09
A bit of jeopardy is always welcome, so good!
gDog
21st May 2021, 13:04
COTD – there’s also the fact that front wings are effectively mounted as a cantilever and stick out a long way from the mounting point so are naturally likely to flex more. Rear wings are mounted at both ends so the natural tendency for flexing is significantly reduced. You’d have to work much harder to make something that is fixed at both ends flex than something that is only fixed at one end.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd May 2021, 1:50
cotd is a load of bias. Is Pirelli bringing different compounds to the 2 austrian races or are they going to bring what was already allocated.