Alpine did “fantastic job” to score points with seventh-fastest car – Alonso

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso said Alpine outperformed their expectations at Monza.

In brief

Alonso praises Alpine’s “fantastic job”

Having started Saturday’s sprint qualifying race from the seventh row with his team mate, Alonso was pleased the team came away with points for eighth and 10th in the race.

“We knew that Monza could be a race that we were not super-competitive and unfortunately we confirmed it,” said Alonso. “P13, P14 means that we were the seventh [fastest] car this weekend and we scored points with both cars. So this fantastic job by the team.”

Ticktum sees no chance to enter “political and unjust” F1

Formula 2 racer Dan Ticktum believes his chances of getting into Formula 1 are over. The former Red Bull Junior Team member was released from Williams’ young driver programme earlier this year.

“Obviously, it’s very disappointing,” he said. “My chances of getting to Formula 1 are pretty much gone, that’s the reality, unfortunately.”

While Ticktum’s departure from Williams is known not to be connected to recent comments he made criticising their driver Nicholas Latifi, he believes his tendency to shoot from the hip has cost him.

Ticktum lost his place on Williams’ young driver programme
“Our sport is very political and quite unjust, and the best drivers or the most talented sometimes don’t get to the top, whether that’s my fault or not,” he said. “I’ve opened my mouth far, far too many times and said things I shouldn’t have said.

“I am who I am, but I sort of don’t quite fit the modern Formula 1 driver mould, which as you can tell in my tone of voice, is pretty depressing. But it’s life. I’m pretty sad to have parted ways with Williams.

“Never say never. I’m a very fast driver, maybe there’ll be a way back in to Formula 1 one day, but it ain’t looking promising.”

Ticktum has been no stranger to controversy. He was given a one-year ban from racing after overtaking 10 cars during a Safety Car period and deliberately colliding with rival Ricky Collard during an MSA Formula 4 race at Silverstone in 2015.

He would not be drawn on the reason for his departure from Williams, but doubts its cost him a chance join the team following George Russell’s departure.

“I can’t give details on why we parted ways. A number of reasons, if I’m honest, not my place to discuss. However, there wouldn’t have been a drive for me next year anyway with Latifi extending his contract.”

Sprint qualifying “probably not as entertaining” as hoped

Formula 1 race director Michael Masi admitted the second running of F1’s sprint qualifying format did not produce much action on Saturday, but suggests it may have enhanced the grand prix.

“Between the FIA and F1 we’ll collect all of the data and have a look at all of the information and so forth in the coming days,” said Masi. “But that partly is that having something on Friday, a la qualifying, having something meaningful on Friday, has certainly been positively received across the board.

“With the sprint, let’s have a look. I think one of the parts is that I’ve seen the various comments and obviously there wasn’t as much overtaking and so forth as predicted. However, it did have an influence on the grid and had a little bit of a mix-up in the grid for the race.

“So looking at it as a complete event, it probably worked, in isolation probably not as entertaining, let’s call it, as expected originally, just for Monza.”

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Comment of the day

Would Liberty Media really be disappointed if the championship fight was ‘decided in the barriers’?

My bet is that they’ll be loving the carnage and will want to see more of it for the rest of the season.

The battle between Lewis and Max will be doing far more for viewership than any amount of silly gimmicks.

I’m actually quite sure Brawn would be quite happy for the title to be decided in the barriers of there’s a huge increase in ‘fan engagement’. After all isn’t that what they want.
DB-C90 (@Dbradock)

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  • 25 years ago today Kenny Brack took the Formula 3000 points lead from Jorg Muller as the pair finished behind round seven winner Marc Goossens at Magny-Cours

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57 comments on “Alpine did “fantastic job” to score points with seventh-fastest car – Alonso”

  1. Alonso might even be slightly playing up Alpine’s relative performance at Monza, which took a dip from its form in Zandvoort. They probably had the fifth or sixth fastest car in the Dutch GP, but going to the Italian GP McLaren was (leagues ahead) faster, Aston Martin as well, and maybe even Alfa Romeo. And whilst Williams was still slower, they were not far behind. Alpine has been a rollercoaster through the tight midfield.

  2. Lol free content, Portimão is part of the season.
    Alpine looked slow, the rear wing was shaking violently, the onboards showed a car low on grip. They certainly did well.

    1. Leonard ‘Big Lenny’ Persin (@)
      14th September 2021, 9:00

      Codemasters F1 is a joke. Takes half an hour to get into a ranked lobby, and then falls apart after each race.

    2. @peartree

      Lol free content, Portimão is part of the season.

      It wasn’t when the game began development though. Same as others that are missing & been added for free, They are all circuits that were not originally part of the calender when the game development began & some were added after the season itself had already started.

      It takes time to model a circuit for a game, It’s not something you can simply throw it quickly. I think with iRacing for instance it takes something like 6 months just to get a basic model ready with an a few months more to get all of the additional modelling for track-side objects/scenery & a bit longer still for polishing.

      1. @gt-racer not the first time f1 races at portimão, besides what has the development and calendar to do with the circuit omissions when the game named after the current season is released barely mid-season.

  3. I for one support the Sprint race format, if for no other reason than the free tyre-choice for top ten starters. However it seems to me there are many reasons to like the Sprints, not least the extra value for 3-day ticket holders, an applying Newtons law (loosely) the extra income for the promoter from expected extra Saturday ticket sales. I would have thought Sundays race result would, on it’s own, have been justification enough.

    1. Erratum : and applying….

    2. What extra value? Saturday now has only 30 minutes of processional racing rather than the 60 minutes qualifying with 3 distinct peaks of excitement.

      1. @x1znet, The extra value, as stated, is for the 3 day ticket holder, they get qualifying on Friday, a short race Saturday and the main race Sunday. I’m sorry if you are one of those very few people who can only go on the Saturday.

        1. On the contrary, I have attended 3-days more than a dozen times in Montreal, and I truly hope they never bring the Sprint here.

          1. @x1znet, Each to his own.

          2. Ive no idea where this extra value comes from. Like most who go for the 3 days, I went to watch 3 hours of F1 action on the Friday, now reduced to 2, and next year at some circuits reduced to 1 with the inclusion of rookie time.
            On Saturday at sprint meetings instead of 90 mins of last minute set ups etc in the morning, that has been reduced to 1 hour, and on sprint weekends that means a pointless hour as the cars are in parc ferme conditions.
            I suppose the argument could be made that the extra value is in not paying to arrive Thursday night or Friday, and just turning up on the Sat midday to watch qualifying. Or if its a sprint weekend get the ‘super saver’ by missing the sprint procession and just turn up Sunday.
            The primary purpose of these latest changes is to give the networks; particularly Sky, 3 separate ‘shows’.

    3. someone or something
      14th September 2021, 1:27

      However it seems to me there are many reasons to like the Sprints, not least the extra value for 3-day ticket holders, an applying Newtons law (loosely) the extra income for the promoter from expected extra Saturday ticket sales.

      Newton’s law? Which one?
      1 – A spectator at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by a force? (Insert joke about spectators being unmoved)
      2 – The spectators’ change of momentum is proportional to the force applied? (They had to be forced to come to the track?)
      3 – For each force between two objects there exists an equivalent force in the opposite direction? (No matter how much the promoters push for that change, the spectators push back just as vehemently?)

      I need help with that metaphor, I don’t get it.

      1. good one.

        Also still struggling with the metaphor.

      2. Okay, but I did say loosely, I was thinking along the lines of equal and opposite reaction (which you parodied so well ), more value out = more income in. A redundancy, I know.
        @someoneorsomething
        PS; sign up, and please use a shorter @xxxx.

        1. @hohum if the argument is that it is meant to have created extra interest and helped sell more tickets, Dieter’s reports of large numbers of unsold tickets for Friday and Saturday and unexpectedly small crowds suggests it wasn’t effective at Monza.

          1. Well, it is off course hard to trump a 30% price hike from the promotors, isn’t it anon, @hohum!

            I must say that I fail to see the added value for us watching on TV, but I agree that the idea to have a competitive session on all 3 of those days would be of advantage to me if I were planning to visit a race compared to having the friday “just” to roam about and look at the cars on track in training – it would be under huge pressure to ax the friday, arrive only at night or even saturday morning (or rather, this would make the week holiday planned ahead of the race even more sensible)

    4. I for one support the Sprint race format, if for no other reason than the free tyre-choice for top ten starters.

      @HoHum I think the Q2 tyre is being scrapped for next year anyway, which I agree is good news.

  4. F1 is better off without Dan Ticktum, who is a toxic narcissist who wasn’t smart enough to prioritize his future over his feelings. He was fast, no doubt- but how that guy got as far as getting a position as a Williams junior driver after being banned for 2 years by the UK motorsports governing body after a disturbing and potentially fatal ramming of Ricky Collard is beyond me. If he had been in F1, he would have been the most hated and consistently maligned driver since Maldonado- and he wouldn’t have gotten far.

    1. Maybe we need someone to “hate”. For example, I like Russel and I’m looking forward to see him fighting at the top, but one time in his F1 career he dared to speak his mind (even if he was wrong that time, no doubt) and we saw what happened next. Right or wrong, drivers can’t speak what they think or feel. I imagine them memorizing the stories they get from PR before going to bed each night. When they wake up on a race weekend, they suddenly think that the track they’re at is the most fun, the fans are the best and craziest in the world and the teamwork in their team is fantastic. As for the race ahead, it’ll be hard, but they’ll give their best and hopefully they’ll do well (unlike those who hope to do bad…). You know, I appreciate those drivers we like to hate more and more. We dislike them because we get to know them. I’ll compare Ticktum to current F1 drivers the day they say something honest and uncensored (a few “beep” words here and there don’t count). Senna, Prost, Lauda, any legend from the “old era” would be a hated person in 2021. Every single one of them.

      1. Dramatis Personae must include protagonist(s) and antagonist(s).
        The competetive narrative of the sport ( who’s fastest) demands it.

      2. I 100 percent agree that F1 drivers need to be themselves more, but I don’t entirely agree about drivers from previous eras would be hated now. Those 3 drivers specifically often spoke sense, and I dont recall a time when Lauda was hated- maybe among the British fan base when he was battling with Hunt in ‘76; Prost was definitely hated among the Brazilian fan base after Suzuka ‘89 and Senna received similar flack after he had admitted he had rammed Prost off the track at Suzuka ‘90. The most hated (and/or laughed at) driver from that era would probably be Andrea de Cesaris rest his soul- for how many crashes he had or how many times he tripped up leaders when he was being lapped.

      3. Being yourself doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have the absolute worst takes in history. Being yourself can also mean being a good guy.

    2. It’s a bit too far we hate Maldonado I even didn’t dislike him. He was just too sloppy with his racecraft and had too much collisions.

      That Tickum guy i don’t like but that isn’t what he said but his actions on track.. under safetycar overtake 10 cars to ram someone he thought who hit him. And driving into his teammate on purpose if i remember correct.

    3. He should have quit a long time ago.

  5. “Our sport is very political and quite unjust, and the best drivers or the most talented sometimes don’t get to the top, whether that’s my fault or not,…”

    If Dan Ticktum could bottle a tiny bit of that self confidence he’s got he would make millions selling it to people like me. Honestly, he seems to think he’s got a right to be in F1. He’s won Macau twice, as far as I can see that’s all he’s done in his career to date. He’s ok but crash prone in F2, but I certainly don’t think anyone would disagree with me when I say that there are better prospects out there. And that’s before we even talk about the various “incidents” he’s been involved in to date.

    He has been dumped by 2 F1 teams now, that speaks volumes. They clearly don’t see anything special in him. He needs to have a long hard look in the mirror, because sometimes when things go wrong in your life it’s not everyone else who is to blame, it’s you.

    1. @geemac
      Couldn’t agree more. His ego has become far bigger than his results in the last couple of years. Doesn’t he realize that this is the exact reason why he will never land a F1 drive?!
      Making statements like the ones about Latifi or Mick Schumacher (in Euro F3) has nothing to do with personality but with unprofessionalism. Being tight-lipped about certain things is part of his job.
      Hell, I lost count of how many times I wanted to tell people that ‘it must hurt not being able to use their brain’ on my job and I had to deal with extremely stupid people. I didn’t do it, because it would’ve hurt business.

      But what do I know?! I’m sure Ticktum is right and the reason why he isn’t in F1 is that ‘his last name isn’t Schumacher’ ;)

    2. If Dan’s thinking “I’m better than Nikita, therefore I should be in F1 (instead of him)…” …I can see his point. From a technical perspective, Dan may well be a better driver than Nikita. If he had access to the same amount of financial support as Nikita, I dare say he would indeed be on the F1 grid right now. It’s not so much “I’m not in F1 because my last name isn’t Schumacher” (although he may think so because he somehow managed to fall out with Mick earlier in his career) as “I’m not in F1 because my last name isn’t Mazepin”.

      However, I cannot think of a single team with which his approach is compatible. Even Red Bull has expectations regarding conduct with which Dan would probably struggle, and I think he’d soon get into trouble on track.

      1. I think he is close to Mazepin but Mazepin may just edge him. However neither compare well to Piastri, de Vries, maybe Zhou + O Ward, Palou and Herta in Indycar

  6. I totally agree with COTD. The fact that there was a question on that global fan survey that said ‘does F1 have spectacular crashes?’ speaks volumes.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      14th September 2021, 15:50

      @f1frog is that for real?

      Someone made a good comment that the Halo had saved 3 drivers’ lives since its introduction. I think the sport is getting too dangerous. I’m not even going to mention a driver here who has earned a nickname for crashing and is a loose gun.

  7. Only wrong with the sprint race was its length. Suggest 3 laps instead.

    And maybe have a pre-sprint race as well, 3 laps.

    How about a pre-pre-sprint race, 3 laps.

    Etectera.

    1. I believe they are trying for that, using the red flag to save time.

    2. What about a post-sprint race and a post-post-sprint race, then of course you would need a consolation race for anybody who hadn’t already scored any points in all the pre and post sprints.

    3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      14th September 2021, 19:42

      @juliangoddard It’d be too much pressure to force overtakes on 3 laps. DRS is also enabled after 2 laps.

      They can’t get them to overtake with 18 laps… All the sprint cup does is allow someone who had a bad qualifying attempt to correct it by potentially ruining someone else’s race.

  8. I’d forgotten how much Fernando loves the sound of his own voice! People think Max and Lewis are narcissists? Nando wrote the rulebook on being a narcissist!
    Good to have him back though. We need these characters in F1, even if they do infuriate us.

    1. DeanR

      I’d forgotten how much Fernando loves the sound of his own voice!

      Source?
      (P.S. I don’t doubt any of those guys are narcissists at all!)

  9. Just had a thought. What if all penalties were time penalties that were to be served in green flag racing conditions only. We constantly have debates around how a 5 place penalty for Bottas and Stroll was less as next circuit was Spa vs receiving a grid penalty at other circuits. Plus, stewards have an option of only 3, 5, 10 place grid penalties and nothing in between which also causes inconsistencies in whether punishment fits the crime.

    So, what if all penalties were 5 second penalties and drivers could be given multiples of 5 second penalties depending upon the severity of the infringement and / or consequences of the infringement. For e.g. Bottas / Stroll to be given 10 or 20 second penalties that they should serve in the next race under green flag conditions. Verstappen can also be given a 5 second penalty for Sochi which he and the strategists can work around knowing that his 1st pit stop will be slower. And we can also do the same for new engine parts / gearboxes. New PU could be 40 seconds, New ICE engine could be 20 seconds and so on.
    Stewards will also have flexibility of giving 15 / 25 second penalties if they think that is most appropriate.

    1. sumedh

      Verstappen can also be given a 5 second penalty for Sochi which he and the strategists can work around knowing that his 1st pit stop will be slower. And we can also do the same for new engine parts / gearboxes. New PU could be 40 seconds, New ICE engine could be 20 seconds and so on.

      It’s possibly a better penalty system than what we have in Formula 1 today.

  10. I wonder when will Yas Marina Circuit and Albert Park changes come? The altered YMC track configuration should appear in time for the Abu Dhabi GP weekend. Otherwise, not much point in driving the circuit beforehand if it’s out-of-date.

  11. Seventh-fastest aka fourth-slowest.

  12. Re Alonso: 5th is as far as they can get in the Constructors’ Championship.
    Re Ticktum: Call it quits.
    Re Sprint Qualifying: Probably not? More totally not.
    Re F1 2021: So no Albert Park and Yas Marina updates. Stick to Assetto Corsa, everyone.

  13. Shouldn’t they decide in advance what ‘stats’ should be measured and how they are compared/analysed to judge the level of success of Sprint Qualifying.

    They seem to be just ‘cherry’ picking facts as successful and ignoring any drawbacks.

    1. Martin Elliott Yes, I too get the impression it’s being forced through even if it’s harmful.

  14. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    14th September 2021, 15:07

    Actually his comment aside, Alonso is the only driver out of the top 12 in the championship not to stand on the podium so far this season.

    6 drivers have won a Gran Prix this season (~33% of the grid).
    10 of those drivers have scored P2 or better.
    Sainz is the only driver to make a P3 only.

    Alonso has none. I’m in absolute shock as I’ve no doubt he is.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      14th September 2021, 15:08

      Maybe I’m wrong, please check and correct my stats if so.

    2. @freelittlebirds yes, you are wrong, 5 drivers won races, 1/4. Out of the top 12 Gasly had only 3rd position.
      George has a 2nd and he never raced a lap for it so I’m not shocked by anything.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        14th September 2021, 20:44

        @peartree – you’re right – I also totally missed Russell :-)

        13 drivers have won a podium (that’s nearly 2/3s of the grid). What’s the highest number in a season to win a podium?
        5 drivers have won a GP (25%)
        Gasly is the only driver to make P3 (not Sainz)

        I can’t believe that Alonso hasn’t been on a podium. Who else do you think might podium this season?

        Giovinazzi has shown some nice pace but I’m not sure about the car’s pace. It’d be great to see Raikonnen there again.

        I’m surprised Stroll hasn’t gotten there somehow.

        1. @freelittlebirds

          I can’t believe that Alonso hasn’t been on a podium. Who else do you think might podium this season?

          Maybe in the Turkish GP, if the race really goes ahead there. Alpine was tipped to surprise everyone on tyre deg at Istanbul Park after their good display in Portimao. If the A521 enables performance somewhat better than it did at Zandvoort in some of the remaining races of the season, Alonso would be clearly the best bet for the next driver to reach his first podium of the season on merit, with little to no help of luck. But “on merit” hasn’t been the most frequent route for best results recently, has it? With the big amount of crazy races we have been gifted…

          Giovinazzi has shown some nice pace but I’m not sure about the car’s pace. It’d be great to see Raikonnen there again.

          Alfa Romeo improved a lot recently, and Giovinazzi has been having great Saturdays (and Friday) but lousy Sundays recently. Glad that Raikkonen will be back soon for him to properly say good-bye to Formula 1 (saying Bwoah), but I also enjoyed Kubica’s stand-in apperances for the time being.

          I’m surprised Stroll hasn’t gotten there somehow.

          Considering that Vettel did, it was more by poorer luck than anything else.

  15. Full agree with Masi’s comments. The sprint race itself my have been boring, but it spiced up the whole event. And there always seems to be controversy between Max and Lewis after a sprint race. In both cases, sprint races have stressed Hamilton and Mercedes, tightly winding them up while Red Bull and Verstappen seem to take them in their stride.

  16. Monza really favours teams with strong engines… Renault saddly are struggling.

    But hey, good racing drivers can get you points.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      14th September 2021, 21:03

      @jureo Alpine is definitely going backwards – last year Alpine scored almost 90% of the points of McLaren and Racing Point finishing 21 and 14 behind each. Really impressive results even though they were just P5.

      This year, they have less than half the points of both McLaren and Ferrari who are P3 and P4. It was not what Alonso was expecting and he certainly didn’t expect 13 other drivers to podium and he wouldn’t be one of them.

      1. @freelittlebirds

        This year, they have less than half the points of both McLaren and Ferrari who are P3 and P4. It was not what Alonso was expecting and he certainly didn’t expect 13 other drivers to podium and he wouldn’t be one of them.

        Yeah, he’s yet to receive a strike gold of luck this season. One time he came really close to the podium (P4 – Hungarian GP) and in another two this season he reached the coat-tails of it, P6 in Baku and Holland, all of those more on his own merit than luck’s benefit.

        1. To a lesse extent, P6 in Baku, I have to clarify. Despite his climb being obviously helped by the safety car and restart, he was still relatively unlucky for the Alpine car to have one of its worst racing pace performances exactly during one of the craziest races of the season, with lots of retirements, blunders and bad performances from some of the top teams’ drivers, compacted field at the end, etc. offering plenty of opportunities for the midfield drivers to score big points.

  17. Alonso is good at promotion, let’s put it this way..

    1. @balue
      He should fill in an application form to become Formula One’s marketing spokesperson, I guess.

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