In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel praises Haas junior driver Mick Schumacher’s work ethic.
In brief
Schumacher the ‘first in and last out’ of the paddock – Vettel
Vettel says he was impressed with Schumacher’s commitment to his Haas team during his rookie season in Formula 1.Schumacher endured a difficult rookie year in a car which was the slowest on the grid in large part due to no development being undertaken on the team’s 2021 car. Vettel says despite going scoreless, Schumacher’s work ethic impressed him.
“I think the offset from the start of the season for that team was poor because they had no development and they were far behind,” Vettel said.
“But I think we should look throughout the year. Mick’s been very happy, enthusiastic and happy to put work in, and he’s been one of the first ones, if not the first ones, every single day to come to the paddock and one of the latest ones to leave, and showing huge interest in trying to push the team along.
“Apart from the job on track that he did, apart from some maybe small mistakes that happened in your first year, I think he’s done a great job. So I really wish that he gets a much better car next year to show what he’s able to do.”
Fiery crash at resurfaced Albert Park leaves three in hospital
Three people were taken to hospital after a stolen car crashed into a tree at Melbourne’s Albert Park.
According to Australia’s 7News, the stolen car was being driven through Lakeside Drive before losing control on a patch of road recently resurfaced ahead of the upcoming Australian Grand Prix. The car caught fire before the three occupants were rescued and taken to hospital.
Lakeside Drive runs along the lake that the Albert Park circuit encompasses and forms the end of the second sector before the high-speed chicane. The roads that make up the circuit have been heavily modified in recent months in order to make the track faster and encourage racing on F1’s scheduled return on April 10.
The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled for the last two years in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 race was called off on the first scheduled day of practice after members of the McLaren team were found to have tested positive for the virus.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
One of our favorite moments of 2021 💚💙
Here's the behind the scenes from when Mick drove his dad's first F1 car – the Jordan 191 💚💙#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/6XNmg9CZoB
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) January 2, 2022
To become a Pro driver it will cost around $10 million.. someone will have to pay – family, sponsors or manufacturers driver’s program.
99.99% don’t make any money in motorsport if you count initial investment.
But if you do .. it is a fun job. https://t.co/crkDMAOXaY
— Lucas di Grassi (@LucasdiGrassi) January 2, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
AGPC: Albert Park home to F1 for the long haul (Speedcafe)
Andrew Westacott: "When you’re doing the track modifications that we’ve done, which is about $20 million dollars worth, you don’t do those just for the three or four years we’ve got of the current contract – and I say three because it actually goes out to 2025, so it’s actually this year plus another three."
Guanyu Zhou is the trailblazer that will put China on the Formula 1 map (Daily Mail)
"Audience figures in China soared by 40 per cent from the 2019 season to 2020 and that will only escalate further due to both Zhou's presence but also the fact that state-owned broadcast China Central Television (CCT) makes races free-to-air."
Max Verstappen already better than Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull chief claims (Independent)
Helmut Marko: "What makes him stand out the most? He doesn’t need a warm-up (lap). If it rains somewhere, the others do five or eight laps. Then Max goes out and sets the fastest time on the first lap."
FIA statement on Dakar Rally (FIA)
"The FIA gives full support to the French driver Philippe Boutron, injured in the explosion of a vehicle assistance before the start of the Dakar Rally in Jeddah, and wishes him a speedy recovery."
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Comment of the day
Will we see one team dominate this year thanks to the radical new technical rules? Many readers seem to think it is likely, but @Ciaran isn’t so sure…
One or two teams will likely nail the regulations best, as is always the case. However the scope for “dominance” just isn’t there in these new regulations. I would prefer that this comes from budget caps rather than restrictive technical rules, but it’s still a positive.
What’s even more likely that people will jump to absurd conclusions at the end of race one, only to completely chuck them out the window only a few races afterward! I’ve seen this happen far too much and am expecting the worst in 2022 :)
@ciaran
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Ajokay, Coefficient, Luke and Mattypf1!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd January 2022, 2:42
Not absurd when you get everything right.
stefano (@alfa145)
3rd January 2022, 3:12
10 april? Australia is not the season opener? damn
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd January 2022, 7:34
@alfa145 Hasn’t been the season-opener at any point. Bahrain since the get-go for next season’s schedule.
Qeki (@qeki)
3rd January 2022, 5:33
Wasn’t that the case with Sebastian? Marko?
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd January 2022, 7:43
No sooner than race day will we know how Albert Park track changes will impact racing quality/overtaking.
Dominance scope is more marginal than before caused by more restrictive technical rules, but also budget cap & wind tunnel time.
amian
3rd January 2022, 10:17
Albert has been one of the ever shrinking small group of tracks whose layout had not been modified for a long time and thus offered a quite accurate comparison of F1 car speed change over the years. In this case it was 24 years (1996-2019) with only getting resurfaced once or twice if my memory serves my right.
Tracks like that are very important for keeping current F1 connected to its history.
RatSack
3rd January 2022, 10:51
Re COTD, for better or worse the profile of F1 with shows like drive to survive has increased. I’m confident that there will be competition between 3, 4 or more teams at the top just because companies and investors are much more willing to put money in now. I’m hoping that we are past the days of one or two manufacturers continually doing victory laps.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
3rd January 2022, 20:01
What on earth have they resurfaced Albert Park with??
And staying late at work – being seen to be doing something – is just pathetic.