Vergne “happy to be disappointed with second”

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In the round-up: Jean-Eric Vergne says being frustrated with second is good, only four points off the championship lead.

In brief

Vergne “happy to be disappointed with second”

Two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne, who won both his titles in New York, said that given the up-and-down nature of this year’s championship, he was pleased to be frustrated not to win.

Vergne is now third in the championship, four points behind leader Edoardo Mortara and second-placed Robin Frijns, who have an equal score of 72 but Mortara has the edge on countback.

Speaking immediately after the first New York race this weekend, Vergne said “It has been a strong day for us and I’m happy to be disappointed with second. It shows that it’s not been a bad day when you’re in this position.

“We always knew that the guy that was 12th [in the title] today before the race could could have been leading the championship. So it’s so tight, so close to everyone.”

Haas “not far away” from confirming 2022 line up

Haas announced relatively late in the 2020 season that they would not be retaining Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, then waited later in the year to confirm Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin for 2021.

However, team boss Guenther Steiner said that they would not repeat the delay, to confirm their 2022 drivers.

“I think we [haven’t] even started to work on it,” he dismissed. “It’s just started silly season.

“We have to review everything, for sure. But I don’t think we are far away to confirming everything.”

Formula E publishes €62,000 loss for 2019-2020 season

In accounts published today, Formula E Operations, the company that runs the series (although is a subsidiary to parent Formula E Group) reported that despite the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic, it made a small loss from August 2019 to September 2020. Having announced it had turned its first profits in September 2019, the organisation reported a lost of €62,660 over the subsequent year.

It recorded a total income of €142,843,846 over the period, of which €84,041,993 was from race promotion and licensing. A further €56,796,494 was from other race services. Compared to previous accounts, the shortfall was less than €20 million, despite Formula E completing less than half its season prior to the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic collapsing the majority of the calendar.

Formula E’s staff costs increased by more than 1.5 million Euro over the period, from €12,304,138 to €14,108,834.

Latifi: “Biggest change” in Williams is job security

Since Dorilton Capital purchased the Williams team partway through the 2020 season, Nicholas Latifi said that the most noticeable change was a sense of stability for team staff.

“The biggest change, I would say probably just a kind of uplift in general, in the morale and atmosphere in the team at the factory and at the track as well,” he explained.

“Specifically in the race team, I mean those few months in Covid was a very unsettling time for everyone in the team not knowing the future. Uncertainty for job security and just livelihood of a lot of the employees.

“So I think once the new owners came in and kind of stabilised the future of the team, and not only that but now bit by bit starting from the end of last year and beginning of this year, now putting big investment into the team.”

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Comment of the day

Sprint races are being sold on the premise of spicing up the order – as they sometimes seem to in junior series. But Dr Mouse points out that in F1 (when the chance of being caught out by timing in Q1 affects all teams) there’s a chance it will let faster cars “correct” a potentially poor single-lap performance.

As it stands, the most likely changes are to allow people who qualified badly to get back to the position they “should” have qualified in.

If they wanted it to be interesting, the cars would have to line up in a way where they didn’t line up in order from fastest to slowest. That’s what makes the racing end up processional.
@drmouse

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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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19 comments on “Vergne “happy to be disappointed with second””

  1. Weren’t both drivers announced on multi-year deals?

    1. @hunocsi although it’s a bit of a formality I believe they do still have to confirm those deals will remain in place every year. Some other contracts are different, of course.

  2. Saw F1 Youtube promo for Sprint race, and greatly relieved to hear them state it is a way to test ideas to make F1 better, mentioned was “no tyre change”, I hope it works and I hope it is more accessible outside the paywall.

    1. When was the last one? ’93. I guess part of the problem is that most current fans weren’t even alive to see a race without a stupid pitstop. Now they actually make a point to highlight them in the coverage. Maybe someday soon HoHum. Just need a tire maker that can make a tire to go a full race.

  3. 4 cylinder ferrari, is it the 500 or the 625?

    1. I think it’s the Indy 375 but happy to be corrected.

      1. @hazelsouth There was one 375 indy but it is white and has a red pegasus, it has no bump on the side of the nose and has a single exhaust.

        1. @hazelsouthwell this is not the 1952 375 indy on the entry list but obviously this car might not be in the entry list.

          1. @hazelsouthwell I’m dumb, it has a number, 410 on the entry list – Ferrari 500/625A

  4. @Hazel, where is the full race available to watch? I only see highlights on youtube. I’m trying to like it, but…..

  5. 4 cylinders? It looks like the engine block has a V configuration, so maybe a V8 engine.

    1. @drycrust I think it might very well be this one

  6. Re COTD: How many time have Hamilton or Verstappen been eliminated in Q1 or Q2? Very few I’d say. They start almost every race from a top-4 grid position. And so far this season none of them got involved in an incident that made them fall back the order (maybe Hamilton in Imola but he was saved by the SC), so they started in top-4 and they stayed there for the race. The same more or less happens to Bottas, Perez, Norris… the other drivers that drive a good car this season.

    So I think FIA’s whole idea behind the sprint races is to create a potential race start chaos (like Mugello’s) that will affect the leaders before the actual race, so they maybe get damage and they fall back and start the actual GP at the back, rather than hoping that they would actually qualify in a bad grid position. The top drivers would basically play it safe, without wanting to risk a lot, but with the stakes lower than the actual GP, midfield drivers can try riskier moves that may cause an accident in pursuit of an out-of-the-ordinary grid position.

    Even if we get great racing, the whole thing is unecessary in my opinion. We just create another step between Quali and the Race that we didn’t need to. By the same logic, FIA could decide next year that Quali would set the grid for Sprint race #1, and that race would decide the grid for Sprint race #2… and that race would decide the grid for Sprint race #n, and that race would decide the grid for the actual Race. It’s just pointless.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      11th July 2021, 23:36

      @black

      I can think of a few where Hamilton has failed to get through to Q3 due to mistakes or underperforming while Bottas has been his team mate.
      Monaco 2017, Brazil 2017 and Germany 2018.

      Regarding Verstappen,
      China 2017, Bahrain 2018, Monaco 2018 and Canada 2019.

      One difference between these two and Bottas though is that Bottas has got though to Q3 every weekend he’s been with Mercedes. And I’ve gone back to 2017 with all 3 drivers.

      1. Interesting statistic thanks. So Bottas has been more consistent but Lewis consistently gets more out of the car.

  7. Re Haas: Same line-up next year, that’s all.
    Re Virgin Racing tweet: Is that mud?

    1. It is! There was heavy rain in Brooklyn in the days before the Eprix and some of the first photos looked more like a rally.

  8. In terms of sprint qualifying I do hold the view that it will detract from the GP but not for the reasons that are usually brought up.

    It will detract from the GP not simply because it’s another race over the weekend but because under normal circumstances it’s likely going to take action away from the GP because you are determining the grid for the GP based off race pace so anyone that is a little out of position after qualifying will make up spots in the sprint rather than the GP. And when I say ‘out of position’ I don’t just mean from a mis-hap in qualifying that seems them well down the order, I mean things like Hamilton been 2nd in terms of race pace but qualifying 4th due to not having good 1 lap pace.

    And yes you have the argument that the sprint could mix things up & lead to a better GP but that isn’t going to be the norm just as drivers qualifying way out of position isn’t.

    My biggest issue with it is that if you do end up with the sprint qualifying race been action packed & exciting in the way I think it’s supporters want it to be, It’s always going to result in the GP been less so & that is what will devalue the GP.

  9. Both drivers are already under contract, so nothing to announce separately.

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