In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel praised the removal of sausage kerbs from Paul Ricard, saying they present an “unnecessary risk”.
In brief
Sausage kerbs should never return – Vettel
Vettel was among drivers who petitioned to have sausage kerbs removed at Paul Ricard, saying they had no place at race tracks.“At least they were taken away,” acknowledged Vettel. “It’s just unnecessary risk. We’ve seen so many incidences in the past with those sausage kerbs. So I think they shouldn’t ever come back.”
Formula 1 has tested 39 blends of potential carbon-neutral fuel
F1’s plan to have 100% sustainable fuel run in every car by the 2026 season has progressed to the laboratory stage, with 39 surrogate fuel blends being tested in a single-cylinder engine to replicate as closely as possible a potential F1 power unit.
F1’s managing director of motorsports, Ross Brawn, confirmed that the fuel will be synthetic, made from bonding hydrogen and carbon molecules to create an inorganic petrol. Carbon capture from the air can mean that, effectively, no carbon is added when it is burned.
“We’re working on an E-fuel where the carbon circle is completely neutral so the carbon utilised to produce that fuel is the same quantity as the carbon emitted from the internal combustion engine,” said Brawn. “It means that the engines do not add anything to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Oliver Goethe replaces injured Hunter Yeany for Hungarian Formula 3 round
German-Danish racer Oliver Goethe will drive for Campos at the Hungarian round of Formula 3 this weekend, replacing Hunter Yeany.
Yeany sustained a broken wrist during the first race of the Austrian round and was able to drive to the chequered flag but withdrew from the remainder of the weekend.
Goethe will be making his F3 debut, having previously driven in Euroformula Open and Formula Regional championships.
Sergio Perez launches team in electric powerboat racing series
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has launched Sergio Perez Team Mexico, to compete in the E1 Series powerboat racing championship. The newly-founded series was created by Formula E pioneer Alejandro Agag, which Perez said was a persuasive factor in him signing up.
“Given my relationship with Alejandro, I’ve kept a close eye on what he’s been doing and his various championships, and I think what he’s achieved with promoting more sustainable forms of motorsport is commendable,” said Perez.
“Seeing a racing team flying the flag for Mexico on a global stage will be amazing and I cannot wait to watch the RaceBird in action for the first time. I’ve heard lots of positive stories about the boat and the exciting sporting product E1 is trying to create for fans with city events.”
“For sure this will be a great challenge in my career and a learning experience,” Perez added. “I’m looking forward to getting started and helping to grow the fan base in Mexico and around the world.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'There's been less b******* off the track this year' (Eurosport)
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner: 'There’s a respect between the two teams that is extremely competitive. We’re going head-to-head at each race and there is a genuine respect between the drivers and teams which is good to see.'
McLaren CEO wants 'at least two F1 races' in China in next 5 years (The Star)
'I think the dream scenario would be to have at least two races in China and another in Asia in the next five years,' Brown told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.
Second half of W Series 2022 kicks off in Hungary heat (W Series)
That fifth win from five races gives Jamie a perfect 125 points so far this season and a 70-point lead over nearest challenger Abbi Pulling in the championship standings. At the halfway stage, the battle for second place is intensifying, as just 15 points separate Abbi and Emma Kimiläinen in seventh.
Esteban Masson joins ART for the remainder of the FRECA season (ART Grand Prix)
Junior French karting champion in 2019, Esteban became Formula 4 France champion in his first year of motorsport. He was discovered by the French Motor Sport Federation and made his debut in FRECA this year, a championship where he has steadily progressed from the start of the season to reach the top 10 in the last round at the Hungaroring.
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— Jaguar TCS Racing (@JaguarRacing) July 26, 2022
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Comment of the day
Sumedh argues that Ferrari’s strategy to pit Carlos Sainz Jnr now looks more and more like a necessary call.
The more I think of it, it feels Ferrari decision was right. Sainz was no more than 0.5s quicker than George / Checo on any of these laps. His average pace was probably only 0.2-0.3s better. He couldn’t have negated the five-second gap to either of them. Plus, it is not inconceivable that Ferrari were thinking that degrading medium tyres may have played a part in Leclerc error and hence, they wouldn’t want Sainz to also face the same issue.
Taking 11 points with 100% guarantee is a better choice than having a toss-up between 1) very low probability of 12 points, 2) even lower probability of 15 points, 3) High probability of 10 points or 4) very low probability of 0 points.
What would have been fun is if they had continue to argue for another three to four laps and then pitted under VSC and then come charging back at George and Checo in the last two laps on a car almost two to three seconds per lap faster.
sumedh
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Spud and Mikef1!
Red Pill (@redpill)
27th July 2022, 0:46
Vettel is right. After watching all the racing at Richard. Due to that track layout and space, there doesn’t seem any need to have sausages. Track limits are super easy to monitor on that track.
PS: How is a Russian allowed to compete in a USA competition?
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
27th July 2022, 7:07
@redpill I think Danil is welcome to compete under a neutral flag in any competition, sanctions don’t stop sportspeople competing – Nikita said he was happy to adhered to all FIA requirements but it was Haas who didn’t want to, I think Shwartzman races under an Israeli flag, there are others I’m sure. Any Russian backing might be complicated under sanctions though. Perhaps he is a part of Nikita and his dad’s ‘We compete as one’ thing.
I don’t know much about Nascar, but he might not get the best welcome from fans. Best of luck to him, sort of been wondering where he has been.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
27th July 2022, 9:29
Nikita was personally placed on the sanctions list, so he wouldn’t be able to compete or work for Haas. (As was his father, as you said because of that, he wouldn’t be able to pay for his son’s seat.) So yeah, different kind of ballgame there.
Carbonized
27th July 2022, 12:49
Oh he will be welcome. Lots of Pro Russia supporters in the NASCAR crowd.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
27th July 2022, 13:21
To be fair, none of this is Danils’ fault. Is he the first Russian in NASCAR? If so….. heck of a time to do it.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th July 2022, 7:46
@redpill No, he was just overreactive to a predominantly non-existent issue.
The less need for monitoring, the better, so somewhat invalid argument.
Steveetienne
27th July 2022, 14:21
Kerbs aren’t the only thing that shouldn’t come back Seb.
Pingal
27th July 2022, 3:23
Well, if another race in Asia is needed, F1 can always come back to India
SaMa (@f1g33k)
27th July 2022, 6:41
India rightly taxed F1 as entertainment rather than sport making it magnitudes more expensive and the Buddh International circuit has been sealed ever since the owners went bankrupt. So, don’t expect a F1 race in India anytime soon.
I am more inquisitive about the synthetic fuel. Is it carbon neutral after considering the energy spent in carbon capture and bonding? I really doubt so. Even if they are using renewable energy for the capture and binding, this seems like something that will not scale up commercially.
Carbonized
27th July 2022, 13:23
Synthetic fuel gets a double whammy. Not only carbon capture and binding is an high energy demand exercise, but so is Hydrogen production. The return in energy at the wheel versus the energy investment in production is abysmal. , I could be wrong, in the order of 16%. Just one of many: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKuKeKeUFTQ&list=UUq1Oqk1I7zeYlDiJTFWLoFA&index=23. Formula 1 might be able to bring this numbers up a bit but not enough to ever be able to honestly call it “green”
jff
27th July 2022, 6:47
There are already six* races in Asia with three to be (re)added shortly. Not sure there is room to add a lot more.
This seems more one of those interviews where the interviewee merely says what he thinks the interviewer wants to hear.
* including Baku, but I left out Melbourne which Brown seems to include as an Asian race.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th July 2022, 7:24
That CotD is actually BS though @sumedh. You write
when in reality even if he had not had enough pace to build up that 5 second gap, the gap back to Alonso was already so big at that time, and Alonso was going slower, that at worst Sainz would have dropped to 5th. That exact same place he ended up in. And Gasly on the exact same mediums was fighting for places too and managed to get to the finish without any issues.
With Russel and Perez fighting for the spot, they weren’t going to go any faster in the laps following Sainz passing Perez anyway, rather the opposite, so that would have increased the likelyhood of Sainz being able to build some gap and take it easy (and nowhere did Alonso look like he was gaining on any of these 3)
When they stopped him, they gave up track position, they gave up the potential of finishing on the podium. Sure they eliminated the risk of the tyres, and they gained the option to go for fastest lap. But to get back up to that 5th place Sainz had to pass 4 cars, including Alonso, who is not known to be that easy to pass at all. How is that a “guaranteed 12 points”? Even that fastest lap was not “guaranteed” since it was obvious Max was driving far slower than he could and Ferrari had no way of knowing whether he had the pace, or will to snatch that FLAP point for himself.
jff
27th July 2022, 7:50
The only good part in Ferrari’s 2nd pitstop strategy was that they were robbing a point off of Verstappen.
But that wake-up moment is coming way too late after having raced too many races without clearly supporting their most likely WDC contender.
PS on CotD itself, since when is deliberately losing 28s and five or so positions on track a 100% guarantee of 11 points. Every pitstop and overtake has its risks, and overtaking Alonso in itself is a challenge. And imagine a Red Flag event.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th July 2022, 7:44
Firstly, they aren’t sausage but baguette curbs or small bumps (when will people get the difference?).
Nothing had gone wrong with those on Circuit Paul Ricard at any point.
Therefore, their removal was unjustifiable & unnecessarily overreactive to mostly non-existent risk.
Besides, why only T5 (& or last corner) exit & not every single one for that matter? If you’re going to do something, you should do that wholly rather than only partly for consistency’s sake & the same with COTA.
People should be happy with everything that gets done to tackle track limit issues.
These things, i.e., physical deterrents, only get placed at or around slower-speed corners where the risk is either non-existent or only marginal/considerably lower than on high-speed stuff.
People should only react to things if justified based on whether something has happened on the specific circuit, i.e., Circuit Paul Ricard in this case & nothing has at any point since the 2018 return.
The regular-fixture Chinese GP needs to reoccur first before consideration about a possible 2nd race, but the timeframe Zak mentioned is achievable for both this & or another Asian round.
He incorrectly said they haven’t been to Asia since COVID, though, as they technically have, given the Middle East is geographically in Asia.
COTD is good & valid, although had they waited until the VSC, he wouldn’t have had enough distance left for re-passing either.
Qeki (@qeki)
27th July 2022, 9:53
@jerejj I heard they call them Il diavolo giallo = Yellow devil
Qeki (@qeki)
27th July 2022, 9:54
…call them in italy…
Jere (@jerejj)
27th July 2022, 13:10
@qeki Funny nickname.