In the round-up: Fernando Alonso was in desperate need of cooling during the Qatar Grand Prix.
In brief
Alonso burned by seat
Alonso said he was burned by his seat during the Qatar Grand Prix and was disappointed to discover his team was not allowed to throw water on him to cool the area during the race.
“I think for Lance [Stroll] and myself, both of us, we were struggling a little bit with temperature in the seat on the right-hand side,” said Alonso. “I got like burned in the first 15 laps so I even asked on the radio if they could throw me some water or something at the pit stop, which apparently is not allowed.”
Teams may not add liquids to their cars as it would increase their weight, which could be used as a way of getting around the minimum mass limit.
Hulkenebrg realised error too late
Nico Hulkenberg admitted he realised he’d lined up in the wrong grid slot too late to correct his mistake. The Haas driver pulled into the space which was left vacant after Carlos Sainz Jnr was unable to take the start.“I realised and at the same time too late, obviously,” said Hulkenberg. “Just spectacularly blew it up there. Not much to say, obviously that kind of killed our race before it started.”
The hot race took its toll on the Haas driver. “Right now it was a such a tough race I just want to go and sit in an ice bath now for three days and get real again,” he said.
Sharp takes British F4 title
Rodin Carlin’s Louis Sharp clinched the British Formula 4 championship with a second place finish in the second race of the weekend at Brands Hatch. The pole-winner was beaten to turn one by Deagen Fairclough and followed his rival home to secure the title ahead of Will Macintyre.
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Kutskov wins world karting championship after red flag
Kirill Kutskov won an incident-packed World Karting Championship OK class at Franciacorta, which was red-flagged halfway through following a series of incidents including a collision between two drivers contesting the lead:
Steiner’s parting shot
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner was unimpressed by Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez’s driving in the sprint race as the pair were involved in a collision with Hulkenberg.
“Nico had a very good day until he ended up in a sandwich between two desperate guys, said Steiner. “None of it was his fault, between the two of them, what can you do? Everyone was fighting and Nico ended up in the middle.”
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, ream representative: 'Tonight we were able to deliver the race we had been aiming for, for a very long time. We knew we had the potential to score points but we had to execute the perfect race to bring home this result. The strategy was spot on, the pit-stops faultless and the drivers delivered two solid performances, pushing from the first to the last lap with no mistakes.'
Guenther Steiner: 'The end of this spec car ended worse than it started, so we’re thankful to see the end of it, but today was also not a good day. Nico starting in the wrong grid spot at the beginning didn’t help at all because once you get 10 seconds behind at the start of the race where we are, you have no chance.'
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance: 'Since Singapore, we have been on a positive trend with our car performance, both in qualifying and the race, but here in Doha, we didn’t manage to achieve the same. We need to analyse the balance evolution and tyre status because we couldn’t match our direct competitors today.'
A physical fight in Losail (Williams)
Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance: 'Given the build-up to the race and our performance in the Sprint Race yesterday, we were probably expecting a little bit more today, but we were never quite able to find Alex the free air he needed to make really good progress. '
How we prep' an F1 helmet for a night race (Mercedes via YouTube)
How the secret tycoons buying up sport are about to face the limelight (The Telegraph)
'In recent years, his reputation has been burnished by CVC’s ownership of Formula One. One City figure calls it 'the deal of the century'.'
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 to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
|@Max33Verstappen is wearing an updated helmet.#F1 #QatarGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/KOHVNHkT65
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) October 8, 2023
Piastri after finishing second from sixth on the grid: "Nice assistance from whoever bowled everyone over at turn one, thank you. Hardest race I've ever done."#F1 #QatarGP
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) October 8, 2023
The lesson of the Qatar Grand Prix was not that Formula 1 needs the artifice of multiple mandatory pit stops, but that it should get rid of the artifice of tyres that degrade quickly, and allow drivers to push flat-out all race every weekend.#F1 #QatarGP #RaceFans
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) October 8, 2023
Did like all the drivers being knackered at the end of the race! Reminds me of Senna and Mansell collapsing in Brazil. Think @F1 should look tough and these drivers nowadays are incredibly fit athletes so it must have been really tough!!
— Tiff Needell 🏁 (@tiff_tv) October 8, 2023
I’m genuinely interested in seeing some cockpit temp data compared between the F1 race today and a hot/humid IndyCar event. Would be interesting from a data stand point and further industry knowledge. Good to see everyone was cleared after the race today.
— Josef Newgarden (@josefnewgarden) October 8, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Formula 1 should not have to change its rules in the middle of a grand prix weekend because the equipment is not up to scratch, says Grat:
Pirelli has too much control over the racing, and not nearly enough over their tires.
They keep raising the psi – I expect sooner or later, we’ll be running at 60psi, with mandatory stops every 10 laps.
So just to make sure I understand. Friday, Pirelli determined that there was a problem with the harmonics of the kerbs at turns 12 and 13, so they had the FIA narrow the track for those two turns. Now, they’re mandating maximum number of laps – to solve the same problem.
What next? Raise the psi by 10? Mandate a maximum speed?
These guys are giving a really good impression of being completely lost as to what the problem is, and having no idea how to fix it.
Grat
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Toby and Jean!
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
9th October 2023, 0:43
So by that logic, neither could they refill the driver’s drinks bottle, which in conditions like that, is essentially mandated negligence.
S
9th October 2023, 1:59
They can’t refill the drink bottle during the race. They could install larger one prior to the race, though.
However, this does raise the question – what happens when it rains..?
Ciaran (@ciaran)
9th October 2023, 9:59
I was under the impression that there were holes around the driver’s seat and the floor to allow rainwater to drain out?
Luke S (@joeypropane)
9th October 2023, 13:23
We all know what happens when it rains in F1.
The race gets red flagged….
S
9th October 2023, 14:33
Indeed. And they first put an umbrella over the car, and then a gazebo.
No water gets in at all.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 19:00
No, there’s a size limit on how large the drinks container is allowed to be. The permitted option is a mid-race refill – under fairly restrictive conditions.
Last year, Article 40.2 t) of the Sporting Regulations specified “Drinking fluid for the driver may be added at any time, however, the capacity of the container for any such fluid must not exceed 1.5 litres.” The rule is the same this year, except that it is at Article 40.2 f) v) (there were a lot of clarifications in the parc fermé regulations this year).
It turns out that the actual reason water could not be sprayed on Alonso is not because it’s adding water and therefore weight; it’s because it wouldn’t have been in the container the regulations require at the point where it reached Alonso’s car. Other regulations restrict where that container can be to areas that would be awkward to simply fill from the side (the permitted choices being “high on the car and awkward” or “low on the car and awkward” – teams pick the latter every time), so one would have two permissible options:
1) get a scrutineer to check your procedure (since the race is technically during parc fermé), unscrew the container from the car, fill it, screw it back into the car and send it off.
2) disconnect the drinks pipe from Alonso’s mouth and pour the drink in. This limits the refill to the same speed at which the driver could have drunk it in the first place, and the FIA could still potentially object if a scrutineer was not present, in case something else was done in the process.
(Having a new container ready pre-filled would not be an option, since only one drinks container can be scrutineered at a time for each chassis).
Both valid options are slow enough that in most cases it’s an effective DNF anyway. It’s a big enough loophole that the FIA could theoretically argue that the option to rehydrate always exists. I am not sure how a judge would approach the issue.
Nick T.
9th October 2023, 19:27
Let’s be honest, they wouldn’t have been penalized for throwing water on him, especially since it would evaporate by the end of the race.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
9th October 2023, 3:43
It seems a strange reason for the rule. I’d have thought that they’d be more concerned about potential shock from the PU given how careful they are in handling a stricken car, but clearly I’m incorrect.
MacLeod (@macleod)
9th October 2023, 7:56
I think dryice should be allowed for the driver this is a must chance rule as there were a lot of drivers at their end of their wits.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th October 2023, 22:56
It would make the pit stops look more dramatic (or like something from Top of the Pops). Or ice cubes – they’re not liquid but solid (not for long though) – whichever works best within 1.8 seconds.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th October 2023, 7:07
Wehrlein did reverse on the grid before the 2016 Austrian GP start after an identical error, though.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 19:02
@jerejj True. This has been attempted multiple times in the past, to varying degrees of success. (If you ever want to know how not to do this, go look up Giancarlo Fisichella’s attempt to reverse one grid position – admittedly trying to get to the other side of the grid – in Malaysia 2003).
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
9th October 2023, 8:00
Re COTD, obviously Pirelli has been making a lot of awful moves during the years, but come on, this one is entirely Lusail circuit’s fault. All these measures have been made in order to tackle a problem with the kerbs.
Re Keith tweet, well, we need several things, not only tyres for flat-out racing, or at least it’s not as simple as that. The main problem for me is the inability to drive close to the driver in front because of the temperatures. We need much-less-temperature-sensitive tyres. I’m not sure whether long-lasting tyres could lead to flat-out-but-only-one-pit-stop races, and maybe they aren’t spectacular aswell.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
9th October 2023, 8:39
Apart from the refuelling era, we have barely ever seen flat-out start-to-finish races in F1. In the 1980s and early 1990s the drivers were always managing something throughout the course of a race, even if it wasn’t as obvious to the outside world due to the lack of things like pit-to-car radios. It was actually the differences in these periods of pushing and management that made those races interesting, because different cars would be quick at different stages of the race.
The problem with “artificially” introducing these factors into the racing as F1 does now is that everyone tends to converge onto the same strategy, so you don’t end up with those pace differences in the same way.
SteveP
9th October 2023, 8:41
The kerbs are a FIA design, installed as per specification.
The problem in Qatar was just another facet of the continuing changes of rules to compensate for the terminally bad tyres produced by Pirelli
S
9th October 2023, 9:05
You’re looking at it completely backwards.
What other rules have been changed that you think can be attributed to the tyres, anyway?
Besides, even if that were true (which it isn’t) – why wouldn’t Liberty endeavour to find someone else to make tyres for them? Perhaps even pay for it themselves to make absolutely sure they get exactly what they want?
Because as things stand, Pirelli are giving them what they want and nobody else will. F1 is no longer an easy or attractive series to make tyres for.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th October 2023, 19:04
Given that the tyre rules themselves were mandated by the FIA, by this point possibly every regulation has had their continued existence at least partially influenced by the long time that blancmange tyres have been mandated.
The FIA, one way or the other, had significant influence on every single element of the issue.
S
10th October 2023, 3:20
At the request of the Commercial Rights Holder.
The FIA’s role is not about the choice of tyre, but about it’s suitability to be used safely and to be enforced by regulation.
What benefit do the FIA get from complicating F1 so much ‘for the sake of entertainment’ (as many would put it)?
They have absolutely no reason to take this path themselves.
Aquila_GD
9th October 2023, 8:32
Anybody else check the weekly roundup to see if your comment made it to the comment of the day :).
Ciaran (@ciaran)
9th October 2023, 10:01
Alonso’s request reminded me of an old race – 1960 Argentina I think – where drivers could slow down on-track, not even to a complete stop, get buckets of water thrown at them, and they carry on! We should bring that back :D
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
9th October 2023, 17:13
@ciaran That would be
this :)
Ciaran (@ciaran)
9th October 2023, 19:27
Aha that’s exactly the one, good spot!
Ma Ma
9th October 2023, 10:58
To everyone blaming Pirelli- they’re mandated to produce high degradation tires because years prior they noticed this produced closer racing and more out stops especially after refueling was banned.
I doubt Pirelli likes to see it’s banned dragged through mud every race weekend. And I doubt they can’t produce a tire that lasts the whole race. They’re producing according to their mandate. Unfair to assume they don’t know how to make tires.
Electroball76
9th October 2023, 13:15
‘Verstappen is wearing an updated helmet.’
It seems that all of his championships have a star underneath them