Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Monza, 2021

“Very big gap” to Mercedes-powered cars on straights – Gasly

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In the round-up: Pierre Gasly says AlphaTauri face a significant straight-line speed deficit to the Mercedes-powered cars.

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In brief

Mercedes runners “really strong” – Gasly

Gasly was satisfied with sixth on the grid behind four of the Mercedes-powered cars at Monza.

“I’m really happy,” he said. “I think I gave everything out there and it was a very good lap to put us in P6.

“I think the McLaren, the Mercedes engines were really strong, all qualifying. Looking at the GPS in between the sessions we saw a very big gap with them in the straights. And that’s why I think we really maximised our potential qualifying ahead of the two Ferraris again.”

Ilott’s IndyCar deal extended

Callum Ilott, Juncos Hollinger, IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 2021
Report: Ilott open to F1 or IndyCar in 2022 after Indianapolis test debut
Callum Ilott’s deal to drive for the returning Juncos-Hollinger team has been extended ahead of his first drive for the team in Portland this weekend. Team chief Ricardo Juncos originally wanted to trial three different drivers across the upcoming three rounds, but has instead chosen to keep Ilott in the car for the following races at Laguna Seca and Long Beach.

“We are looking forward to a great debut as a team tomorrow on-track and to build on each session throughout the next few weeks,” said Juncos. “Callum brings a great deal of talent, and we have all been working hard together over the past few weeks to build our program, so it feels great to carry this relationship as a team for the rest of the season.”

Piastri extends points lead with Monza pole

Formula 2 championship leader Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for Sunday’s feature race at Monza in a typically hectic qualifying session, pipping Jehan Daruvala by four-hundredths of a second. Guanyu Zhou, who lies second in the points, will line up third ahead of Liam Lawson.

David Beckmann will therefore start tomorrow’s first, partially-reversed grid sprint race from pole position, having been tenth fastest today. Juri Vips takes second on the grid.

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Comment of the day

Formula 1 needs a format change to avoid dangerous collisions in qualifying sessions, says @SjaakFoo:

Twenty cars, on a short lap, on a relatively narrow track, all needing a certain amount of spacing from the car in front of them due to dirty air. It’s really not that hard to see why ‘everyone can be that lost’ and it’s not like we haven’t seen it for years. Maybe this is resolved next year with the new cars being able to be closer to the cars in front of them, but I’d imagine not.

Honestly, all F1 have had to do (for years now) is introduce a one-lap-qualifying in reverse championship standing order like we had before in the early noughties, specifically for this track, Monaco, Baku, maybe Zandvoort. So everyone gets a fair shot without shenanigans.
@SjaakFoo

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on ““Very big gap” to Mercedes-powered cars on straights – Gasly”

  1. With the season now entering the frenzy phase the sprint should be mega.

  2. To go with Keith’s tweet about the helmet camera with the image of it installed in the helmet. Here is an image of the actual unit itself which sits behind the extra padding.
    https://i.imgur.com/KJx8oT0.jpg

    And some more info I posted when it was used at Spa.
    https://www.racefans.net/2021/08/27/verstappen-quickest-then-crashes-in-second-practice/#comment-4693262

    1. The angle of George’s camera seemed a little off. Hopefully they point it up a bit for the next session. Also, hopefully they have them on all the drivers sooner rather than later. It gives a way better impression than the T-cams and shows how difficult driving these cars on the limit is.

      1. The reason it is not pointed slightly upward is because you will then see the halo. The few time George shakes and the camera moves up, you can immediately see the halo.

        I am surprised that they don’t use a camera on the halo. may be that doesn’t give a sense of the vibrations.

      2. I’m not an optometrist, but woudn’t be wiser to put another camera on the other side of the helmet to have a binocular vision using some visual software? Right now is like if Russell is driving while winking.

    2. Does it have it’s own battery?

  3. There’s a reason why they got rid of one lap qualifying after only 3 years, which is because it’s really tedious. Even though us passionate superfans get more out of watching the behaviour and energy of a single car, it’s completely commercially unviable to sell a concept of one car at a time over like, 45 minutes.

    1. 45 minutes? If they run it like Supercars where the next car to go is on their warm up lap as the first car is halfway round their fast lap, the whole exercise is over in (on Monza 1 minute 20 sec laptimes) less then 20 minutes.

      1. someone or something
        11th September 2021, 9:19

        Erm, your calculation needs looking at. 20 minutes divided by 1:20 is 15 (i.e. 15 cars that would have to start their hot laps immediately after the previous car finishes). Not only would this require weird overlaps on the track, it would also not be enough for everyone.
        The rule in F1 was a window of 30 seconds that opened when the previous car started its flying lap (or entered the pit lane if the attempt was aborted), during which the next car had to leave the pit lane and begin its warmup lap.
        If we assume a warm up lap of 1:40 with a delay of 20 seconds, the entire session, for 20 cars, takes about … 45 minutes.
        It starts with the first warmup lap (1:40), after which a new car starts its flying lap every 2 minutes (1:40 + 0:20), finishes it (1:20), and returns to the pits (1:40). 1:40+(2:00*19)+1:20+1:40 = 42:20.

        With the Supercars rule, they would take even longer, btw.

        1. Top 10 shoot out. Not the whole field.

          1. someone or something
            11th September 2021, 17:29

            Okay. Was that mentioned anywhere?

      2. Yeah so variable depending on where they are (think Singapore), that doesn’t sound like an idea the media would love

  4. I’m genuinely surprised as I thought Honda had all but wiped out the power deficit. Is it just that their energy deployment is smarter? Anyway, Silverstone showed that W12 needed to shed more downforce than they normally would at the circuit just to eke out what was a slim edge in straight line speed over RB16B. The floor area reductions mandated by the regs change from 2020 to 2021 are an area in which Newey has stolen a march on Merc and it will be interesting to see what happens to tyre deg when the cars are in race trim.

    1. You fell for the Mercedes fuelled media story the RBs were quick. Mercedes have easily been the quickest since 2014. Mercedes and FIA decided to shake up things by launching a narrative that they are not the quickest. Text book nonsense. Perez vs Bottas anyone? #alltokeeptheviewersin

    2. @andrewwj Both Ferrari and Red Bull think Mercedes is cheating to get more power from the engine, and it fits as when they updated the car in Silverstone, it was set to be just a minor upgrade, yet they got it to work from lap 1 which is suspicious. Especially as they went from having to use excessive wing and always behind in the speed traps, to now having to use less. It’s exactly like it was in the days of the power advantage like you say.

  5. And hammy stood there with a straight face Thursday decrying RB were the new power circuit powerhouse :’)

    1. Anything to legitimise his wins

      1. Anyone that finishes P1 on a Sunday is “Legitimately” the winner of the GP.
        Anyone finishing P1 in the WDC is “Legitimately” the F1 World Champion. There are no asterisks in the record books dear boy. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

        1. Exactly. That makes you wonder why he needs to add drama all the time. Maybe to add some substance to the victories? Since they are basically a given since 2014? You know that’s why he does it!

        2. @deanr You mean of course except Rosberg, Vettel etc etc

          1. CORRECT!! You DO understand then! Good man 🤦‍♂️

          2. Got a bit of Egg on my face there… got a bit trigger happy… of COURSE Rosberg and Vettel are legitimate WDCs and GP winners. Every single driver to win anything, and keep said win, does so Legitimately. It’s very clear you have an issue with Lewis but does that have ANY effect on his 99 Wins, 101 PPs and 7 WDCs? Of course not. No amount of bitching or whining will change the fact he has those Records. LEGITIMATE World Champion x 7

        3. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

          Didn’t know you are Michael Schumacher’s fan, you sound awfully too young for that

          1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  6. COTD: The 2003-2005 single-lap format had more cons than pros, so not anymore.
    Overall, the current format works. BTW, Monza’s lap itself is long, but avg speed makes it seem short.

    1. I wouldn’t change qualifying either. They could just introduce local rules, for example closing the pitlane exit 3’30 before the end of each session on that racetrack specifically.

  7. I don’t like footage from Russel helmet. Too shaky. I don’t know, maybe Alonso had better neck muscle.

    I hope some other drivers had the chance to wear camera helmet too. Kimi, Valtteri, or Max’s neck looks more robust.

  8. Re Kubica: They knew him! Haha!
    Re COTD: Yeah, bring back one-shot qualifying just for Monza to avoid stupid traffic jam incidents.

Comments are closed.