In the round-up: Lando Norris says McLaren have to hope for a big overnight discovery to become competitive around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
In brief
“Not a great day” for McLaren after lack of pace
Norris said Friday at the Mexican Grand Prix had been “not been a great day” for McLaren after ending practice in 12th place.“We struggled a lot in FP1 and were quite a long way off the pace,” he said. “It’s definitely turning out to be a bit more difficult than we were expecting coming here. Last [time] we weren’t necessarily great, but we still had a good qualifying. But our low fuel pace and even high fuel pace was quite a long way off today.
“So there’s definitely some work to do overnight to try and make some progress. I’m confident we can do it and I think we have some good directions to go in from the tests we did today.”
Qualifying especially important in Mexico – Perez
Sergio Perez says the difficulty of overtaking this weekend will make qualifying well especially important.
The Red Bull driver arrives at his home race having finished on the podium at the last two races. “I really want to carry on my form and I’m feeling more more at home now with the team, with the car,” he said. “I really hope I can put a great Saturday here.
“Overtaking is generally very hard here, we put a lot of demand on the brakes, on the engine. It’s always a very tricky race if you’re not at the front so I look forward to a good qualifying.”
Verstappen: request for Perez to cover Hamilton “logical”
Max Verstappen explained his role in the timing of his team mate’s first pit stop during the United States Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver urged his team to pit Sergio Perez in order to force Mercedes to respond by bringing Lewis Hamilton in.
“You should force Hamilton not to go long with Checo,” Verstappen told his team.
Verstappen declined to confirm whether the scenario had been discussed before the race when asked by RaceFans. “For me it was just a logical thing to think about.
“You just don’t want them to have a massive tyre advantage, and we have two cars up there, so you should use that advantage.”
Saucy to make F3 debut with ART
Gregoire Saucy will make his FIA Formula 3 debut with ART next year having won the Formula Regional Europe championship with them this season. He tested for the team at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit earlier this week.
“ART Grand Prix was very keen to take another step forward with Greg,” said team principal Sebastien Philippe. “He showed the full extent of his talent and maturity in 2021 and in addition to this, we have come to know and appreciate each other both personally and sportingly.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
🚨 Gregoire Saucy steps up to F3! 🙌
The 2021 FRECA champ and @ARTGP will bring their title-winning partnership to our grid for the 2022 season! 🤩#F3 #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/uPge7MJBhZ
— Formula 3 (@FIAFormula3) November 5, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Herta on F1 chance: ‘It was going to be my decision if I wanted to go’ (Racer)
"Herta: 'It needed to be the right situation, have the right funding to either be competitive, or get to that point to be competitive. But it takes a lot to drag me away from IndyCar, too, because it’s what I grew up (with)'."
Avalanche Andretti's Jake Dennis no longer just a rookie: 'I'm ready to win this' (Formula E)
"Dennis: 'I can’t say that I had so much confidence in myself that I thought I could just come in and almost win the championship in my first year. However, I definitely came in with an attitude that I can perform well in single-seaters – I knew I could do well in these cars.'"
Simulating the Williams FW43B(AR), Part 1: All Simulations Are Wrong (David Penner)
"These big caveats are why I'm referring to this geometry as the 'FW43B(AR)', as I don't want it to make the hard claim that it is the FW43B. Given the above, the geometry isn't perfect, but it's certainly the best F1 model the public has ever gotten a hold of."
"With the Italian F4 season completed and the Spanish and ADAC F4 campaigns due to finish within the next fortnight, Tatuus F4-T014 cars are quickly becoming available for purchase by teams intending to compete in GB4 in 2022. MSV has now acquired 15 cars plus spares from Europe for resale from December onwards to prospective GB4 contenders, while dozens of other chassis are available from individual teams."
Formula E grand prix in Bournemouth will 'open door' for Dorset (Bournemouth Echo)
"We are selling it as a British Monaco. The only way you can protect jobs is to have a vibrant local economy which is where the eGrand Prix focuses itself, it will be a centre for sustainability."
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.
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Comment of the day
Antonio Giovinazzi’s position at Alfa Romeo is the final block to fall in place for the 2022 grid – Andrew T considers what the last blocks to confirming or denying him an extension would be.
I believe that the delaying of the announcement is an indication that Alfa Romeo tries to have someone in their car, that is problematic to negotiate with (or with his management) due to ties to other teams and interests.
Giovinazzi or Hülkenberg would be an easy case and could have been announced months ago if Alfa Romeo wanted to go down this way. Zhou and de Vries and their Renault and Mercedes background respectively generate the issues.
Giovinazzi has shown everything a team has to know about him to decide if he deserves another year or not. Beating Räikkönen in qualifying on a regular basis sounds good, but staring at the Finn’s rear wing right after the start or at the end of the first lap pretty sums how much outqualifying Räikkönen worth.
Gio is a nice guy, I’d certainly miss him, but considering the sheer number of young talents knocking on the door of F1, I just don’t see him retained for another season. I also don’t think that’s fair from the team’s side that they keep him waiting and hoping, not that there are any more seats left that he could have targeted.
@andrewt
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to A.S. Mahesh, Claudio Sampaio, Flowerdew and Hawksfan!
jff
6th November 2021, 7:34
That’s a very impressive application ‘letter’ by David Penner.
moshwan (@moshwan)
6th November 2021, 9:40
Difficult to see Hamilton closing the points gap to Verstappen given the remaining races. Surely some twists and turns to come but all in all it’s been a very enjoyable season and we’ve been thoroughly spoiled. Verstappen has been imperious and has turned me from a skeptic to a fan. Sprint races notwithstanding, and whatever the result, this season has reminded me why I love the sport.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th November 2021, 9:45
I’m reading David Penner’s publication. It’s incredible what a community can do when given the chance… a big company makes a move and releases a usable 3D model without even knowing and people get inside it, retrieve the model and use it for something like this.
Really impressive.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2021, 10:06
Not in his hands, though, given his super license situation, but all this is irrelevant now since he won’t race in F1 next season anyway.
Zhou, not really as Budkowski said in Russia, Alpine wouldn’t block their drivers if an opportunity arose in another team.
I still reckon Zhou will eventually become Bottas’ teammate, followed by Shwartzman if the former doesn’t.
stefano (@alfa145)
6th November 2021, 12:47
I’d argue that Giovinazzi deserves at least another season
Unicron (@unicron2002)
6th November 2021, 13:54
Bournemouth is bidding for an e-prix, well that’s unexpected! I read in that article that it is up against Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool though so I think it’s chances are slim.
Out of those, Liverpool gets my vote. Set a course around the Echo Arena and Albert Dock, that would make for a great backdrop.
Harrisf1 (@harrisf1)
6th November 2021, 15:58
Bournemouth E Prix; as a local I would certainly appreciate this but 2 things;
1) that article has a lot of comments and most are negative so I doubt it would go down well,
2) the route, uses a major road in the town and as one commenter said:
‘ Not sure how the track layout would work for Formula E, at 3.5miles ish it is quite long, for comparison the extended circuit used for Monaco in 2021 was 2 miles, most tracks are only 1.5 miles’
I check the distance and they are right, loads longer than current tracks!