In the round-up: Two-times Monaco Grand Prix pole-winner Daniel Ricciardo found it hard to understand where he was losing so much time to team mate Lando Norris following the first day of practice.
In brief
Ricciardo surprised by lack of pace
Ricciardo, who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2018, says he is beginning to feel confident at the wheel of his McLaren but the lap time wasn’t there on Thursday.“I felt like I had confidence,” he said. “It was just not translating into lap time. From behind the wheel it was quite frustrating because I cross the line, I’ll be like ‘it’s probably a decent lap’ and it was like P12 or P15 or even at one stage P17. So it’s frustrating because it’s a long way off actually. There’s a lot of time to find.”
He said he has most to gain in the middle sector of the lap, which runs from Mirabeau to the Swimming Poor. “The second sector was my weakest one and that’s kind of turn five, six all the low-speed, really,” he said. “So it’s a bit surprising why I’m kind of losing so much there.”
Honda flex their muscles on ‘Fast Friday’
Honda served noticed of their potential as all bar one of the drivers in the top 10 were powered by the Japanese engines. McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward, who set the sixth-quickest individual lap, was the only Chevrolet user in the top 10.
There isn’t room on the 33-car grid for all of the 35 entries. The two slowest drivers on Friday were Foyt’s Charlie Kimball and Top Gun’s RC Enerson. The nine slowest drivers all had Chevrolet power.
Gasly sets top-eight target
Having expected AlphaTauri to struggle around Monaco’s many slow corners, Pierre Gasly believes they have a realistic chance of qualifying inside the top 10 today.
“If we make it to Q3, it will be great,” he said. “I hope we can make it to Q3 and qualify near the top five but I would say if we can be top eight, that would be very good for us.”
Drivers attend Monaco fashion show
Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula E drivers took part in the Amber Lounge Fashion Show in Monaco yesterday.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
|@RocketLeague players can now add the official Formula 1 Fan Pack featuring the liveries of all 10 teams. It's available until May 26th, priced at 2,000 credits. pic.twitter.com/fuEDNj9Aax
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) May 21, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Red Bull Is Making a Race of Formula 1 (The New York Times)
Christian Horner: "Toto has had it far too easy for the last seven years. It’s about time he had something to do."
F1 open to Monaco changes (Racer)
"We could look at the format. I mean, some of the teams have suggested we only use soft tires for the whole weekend — now, I can recall a race in Singapore where the tyres were very soft and the guy in front just queued everyone up until it was the opportune time for him then to change his tires."
"As a result of Thursday’s announcement lifting the restrictions on outdoor seating capacity in the State of Michigan on June 1st, the Detroit Grand Prix will welcome full seating in its grandstands for race weekend on Belle Isle, June 11th-13th."
Armstrong says sensational last lap overtake of Daruvala ‘changes our weekend’ (Formula 2)
"There was some risk involved and it could have ended badly, but it didn’t and that’s it. I was lining that up for the entire race, exactly 29 laps, and then the opportunity presented itself on the final lap."
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
Yesterday’s F2 race seemed more like a qualifying session at times:
Weird, weird race. Most of the drivers seemed content to sit back and go for fastest lap rather than try overtaking.
The point for fastest lap needs to be removed for Monaco. Ticktum at one point did a 1’22.1 followed by a 1’27.6 and a 1’22.3 after that. Crazy stuff.
@Wsrgo
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Travis and Cristian!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
Travis (@)
22nd May 2021, 0:57
Happy Birthday Cristian ;)
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd May 2021, 2:03
For the most part 2021 feels just like 2020.5 but there is something amiss, something puzzling, could it be the new tyre? Ricciardo looked on like the old Ricciardo, the car had a strong front end a slidy rear but controlla
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd May 2021, 2:06
ble rear, looked just like Riccardo in previous monaco gps but the laptime was horrendous. I reckon the new tyre is behind the little changes we can see from last season.
Ancient1 (@ancient1)
22nd May 2021, 2:36
Methinks Dan is still not 100% comfortable with the brakes, which is more important to him [late braking].
Total empathy for Dan, as I changed pads & s/steel brake lines on our family wagon – 1000% improvement in stopping and smooth progression.
RP (@slotopen)
22nd May 2021, 2:44
I saw F1 fashion show scanned for Hamilton.
I’m so disappointed. That group needs a pink or camo entry.
Also glad I’m old enough to not care about trendy tight pants. Awful. I’m a person, not a heron.
Patrick (@paeschli)
22nd May 2021, 7:34
All the fits in that fashion show photo are horrible
bosyber (@bosyber)
22nd May 2021, 8:27
@paeschli, @slotopen I’d say GIO did it best (possibly by having dark blue), he looks casual, the others, well. First I saw of this was good, on twitter though:
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd May 2021, 13:38
The guy in the dark blue is Latifi though, isn’t it @bosyber. I think Nato looks quite fine there too. And Giovanazzi in the light blue looks like he fits right in as well.
bosyber (@bosyber)
22nd May 2021, 13:41
Dark blue pants @bascb, isn’t Gio the one with the lightblue jacket? Anyway :)
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd May 2021, 16:57
Ah, the pants, right.
Ancient1 (@ancient1)
22nd May 2021, 2:46
Watching the McLaren on TV, that pale blue looks sickly – to-o-o light a colour.
Compare that to the F2 in Gulf Oil livery [next article].
A shame – definitely not in ‘Ron‘ class. 😉
jet
22nd May 2021, 4:42
Kinda off topic, but hey at least it’s the roundup. I have never seen anybody take such bate as Verstappen did with Hamilton. Verstappen has now said he has nothing to prove. Rides over. He has accomplished his mission. Not an anti-Verstappen fan, but he’s won… a few. No pressure. Nothing more to do.
Omg lolll It’s gonna be fun watching this season unfold. I like Verstappen. And he’s done nothing personal to me. But he just lumped a heap of pressure on himself. Season is shaping up.
frood19 (@frood19)
22nd May 2021, 6:58
I realise there’s not anything on the bendy wings story here, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me how they are proposing to change the flex test? Are they just going to demand stiffer wings at rest or something more sophisticated (e.g. using super slomo footage of the cars at speed)?
Patrick (@paeschli)
22nd May 2021, 7:34
My understanding was they would increase the static loads
Patrick (@paeschli)
22nd May 2021, 7:39
20 bucks for 1 car, soft tyres only (that can’t be equipped on any other battle-car) and ten decals is a ripoff.
Rocket League cars used to be 2 bucks a piece.
I’ve seen several players rocking it already, so I guess it working… But I can’t say I’m happy with the pricing
Patrick (@paeschli)
22nd May 2021, 8:04
Also the hitbox doesn’t match at all ( https://youtu.be/nFoG85mZdak ) and the engine sound doesn’t match an actual F1 engine sound at all (it’s pretty much a copy and paste off the already existing Animus GP car).
Really low effort.
Would have been so much better with all five tyre options (and letting players use these tyre options on different battle-car’s as well), different engine sounds for different engine manufacturers and a hitbox that would include the nose instead of starting at the front wheels!
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd May 2021, 10:03
Russell, Latifi, and Giovinazzi are all 185 cm tall, but somehow Gio looks a bit shorter in the image.
Not much flexibility with the track layout, given the limited surrounding space, but maybe a different format, tyre rules, or something else.
I disagree with the COTD on axing FLAP bonus points for Monaco.
MichaelN
22nd May 2021, 10:32
In response to the Racer article: “I can recall a race in Singapore where the tyres were very soft and the guy in front just queued everyone up until it was the opportune time for him then to change his tires.”
Yes, and that guy lost the race. I’d say it’d worked out just fine.
Monaco always brings up dozens of articles on how to fix it, but it can’t be. That’s not the point. It’s just a circus, a celebration of all the outlandish aspects of F1, from the insane cars to the people who finance the spectacle. People who, let’s not forget, all have a residence in Monaco because they love the weather there.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
22nd May 2021, 12:26
The ‘fashion show’ annoys me so much. What fashion? They’re all pretty much wearing the same thing. Men’s fashion is so unbearably boring. Tan suit, black suit, brown suit, light-ish blue suit. Maybe mix it up with a t-shirt! Or trainers! Oh how daring, how interesting. Women can wear a variety of colour, shape, form and style but men? Suit.
It’s so dull! I swear if I ever became famous enough to go to one of these ‘fashion shows’ I’m wearing the most noticable, colourful and dynamic outfit I can and will only wear a suit when I’m dead.
I realise ranting about fashion makes no sense on an F1 forum, but here we are.
Aapje (@aapje)
22nd May 2021, 14:31
Quite apropos for Monaco.