Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, Red Bull Ring, 2021

French GP result was “solid” and “definitely needed” – Ricciardo

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In the round-up: after struggling in Monaco and Baku, Daniel Ricciardo said his more “traditional” weekend at Paul Ricard was what he needed.

In brief

Ricciardo: French Grand Prix form “definitely needed”

Ricciardo said his improved confidence in the McLaren car in last week’s French Grand Prix meant he could have fun racing again.

“It was nice. I think the from the start of the weekend, it was just a little bit more of a traditional weekend.

“We just got onto the front foot and we stayed there. It wasn’t like an immaculate weekend, but it was solid. And I think it’s certainly what I was probably looking for after Monaco and Baku. So it was definitely needed and better.

“And I think the race was just fun. At least from our position, to be able to force our way a bit further into the top 10 and have some battles. So that was cool. And I think ultimately there’s still some things to work on, but it was it was definitely progress. And right now I’m going to take that.”

Asian F3 adds reverse-grid races but stays in UAE

The 2022 Asian F3 championship will once again be Middle East-focussed, with all races happening at Abu Dhabi’s reconfigured Yas Marina circuit or Dubai Autodrome. The championship will run five rounds of three races, over consecutive weekends from mid-January 2022.

Reverse-grid races will be introduced, where the top ten finishers of race one will be reversed to decide the starting order for race two. Previously, the starting order of the subsequent race had been decided by the fastest laps set in race one.

Norris: “confident” but not raising expectations

Lando Norris says his season hasn’t been without room for improvement, despite being the only driver to have scored points in every 2021 race so far and leading Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in the drivers championship.

“All of the race races we’ve done this season, we’ve extracted everything out of,” said Norris. “Being honest, we’ve made some – not many, but we made some – mistakes which have cost us a few things here and there through the races and Paul Ricard on Saturday. We’ve made a few mistakes, the team as well.

“So we’ve got a bit of tidying up to do if we want to be confident in saying we can continue with 100 percent. But I feel good. I feel confident, especially coming here. It’s been a good track for us as long as I as I remember, you know. So I’m excited, but I don’t get my expectations too high.”

New F1 2021 screengrabs

F1 2021 screengrab
F1 2021 screengrab

Codemasters have revealed a new batch of images from the upcoming official Formula 1 game F1 2021 showing the cars in action at the Red Bull Ring.

RaceFans Predictions Championship rules update

The rules for the Predictions Championship have been updated to take into account the addition of Sprint races to three rounds of the Formula 1 season.

There is no change in how players submit their predictions for rounds which do not include Sprint races.

The deadline for entries will remain the start of qualifying. Therefore at rounds where Sprint races are held this will fall on a Friday instead of a Saturday. Players will be invited to predict who will take pole position for the first race of the weekend based on the results of qualifying, their lap time, and the top five finishers in the grand prix.

The revised rules are as follows:

a. Correctly naming the pole winner for the Sprint race if one is held, or the grand prix if no Sprint race is held: 2 points
b. Correctly naming one/two/three/four/five driver/s who finish in the top five of the grand prix: 1/2/3/5/8 points
c. Correctly predicting where one/two/three/four/five driver/s finish in the grand prix: 2/6/14/24/40 points

4. The results will be take from the appropriate final classification documents for each round as issued by the FIA.

6. In the event of a tie on points the winner will be determined by who is closest to predicting the pole position lap time set in qualifying correctly. If that fails to produce a winner the editor will choose a means of deciding who has won.

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Comment of the day

Report: FIA to force F1 teams to slow down their pit stops
Ciaran says that the FIA putting in sensors to measure mechanics’ reaction time neatly avoids minimal pit stop being eliminated.

Makes sense that there’d be a safety concern, and the impact on pit stop times is less than I expected.

The two-second pit stop, when broken into its individual steps, really doesn’t account for human reaction time enough.

Thankfully they’ve taken this route instead of minimum pit stop times!
@Ciaran

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On this day in F1

Today in 2006, Alonso won his fourth race in a row, pulling 25 points clear of Michael Schumacher

Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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9 comments on “French GP result was “solid” and “definitely needed” – Ricciardo”

  1. I’d rather have minimal time, I rather see racing on track rather than in the pits, the whole case against refuelling was about under and over cutting, over 10 years on and it is all the same, the irony, and extra irony on top since the tyres were not the limiting factor on refuelling era pit stops.
    The new directive is biased, it targets to the letter the actions of one team, I guess it didn’t take that long for merc to realise what went wrong on the pit stops, they commented it out loud on the radio and now this.
    Screengrabs look horrendous.

    1. Pitstops are an important part of a GP IMO.
      F1 is a team sport, but unfortunately too much focus is on the driver. Pit stops and strategy calls share a bit of that focus with the centurion of other participants in each team.

      1. I’d prefer there be less focus on pit stops as I want to see cars on track & not sitting stationary in the pits. And be it bore-fueling or tire stops it’s taking action & overtaking off the race track & shifting it to over/under cuts & robbing fans of thrilling on track fights & overtakes.

        I grew up in the days where the only time you saw cars in the pits during a race was if they had a problem or if a change of weather of required a change of tires.
        There was no pit strategy, There was no artificial mandatory stops forcing them to use 2 compounds & not only was the racing better due to a higher emphasis on the on track product & having to push hard for overtakes on the track rather than simply relying on over/under cuts to boringly pass in the pits. And it was still just as much of a team sport as it’s still a team effort to design, build, develop, maintain, prepare & setup the cars.

        I want to see racing & real overtaking on the track & not in the pits due to strategy decided by computer models looking at how good an undercut may be.

  2. COTD: I don’t know how to think about this. There was a report that Mercedes believed and reported that Red Bull’s pit stop equipments are within breach of regulations. Now, I have no idea on the pit stop equipment regulations, but I do wonder if Mercedes spotted something that is out of the rules. However, it does not feel good to make pit stops slower since this is a sport where the limits are being pushed. On the other hand of this, if this is for safety and if the FIA deems that Red Bull’s pit stop equipment is illegal, then I am fine. But slowing down pit stops which are a huge part of the sport, is not great on paper.

  3. RandomMallard (@)
    25th June 2021, 7:02

    I know pretty much everyone uses Sprint Races and Sprint Qualifying interchangeably, but I’m quite surprised that FOM haven’t filed for a trademark for something like “Formula 1 Sprint Qualifying” so they can force media outlets to use SQ, considering how desperate they are to insist it isn’t a race…

    1. Wasn’t there some news a few days/weeks ago that the official title will be just “Sprint”, i.e. dropping the qualifying/race title completely.

      1. RandomMallard (@)
        25th June 2021, 15:05

        @kaiie Yeah potentially, although I’m not sure that was official, I think it was an ‘educated rumour’ from Ross Brawn. F1’s website for Silverstone still refers to it as Sprint Qualifying for now though so I’m gonna stick with that.

  4. Re Ricciardo and Norris: Unless mechanical failures and clear ramming happens…
    Re Asian F3: We’ve seen how it worked out for W Series. I wonder how this will work out in Asian F3.

  5. Loved that video from Grosjean, I’m just so thrilled at how he’s taken to Indy and that race was such a demonstration of his fighting spirit and his quality as a driver. We all know about his weaknesses but right now he’s only showing his strengths and it couldn’t be at a better time for him – he really has a new lease of life as a driver following from his “new life” post-fire. I know MAG’s presence in the race was a story in itself, which GRO knitted into, but Romain for me was the standout driver in his own right. Forza Romain!

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