In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he is confident that Mercedes know their biggest weakness compared to their rivals.
In brief
Hamilton sure Mercedes know ‘where we’re lacking’
Lewis Hamilton has a clear idea of where Mercedes need to make gains with their car as they close the gap to the three teams ahead of them.
“The biggest improvement I think, coming into this year has been ride quality and being able to get the car lower, which is what others have been able to do,” he said.
“Then stability on entry of corners. The car’s far more predictable than it ever was, particularly the last couple of years, and particularly this year, it’s a lot more stable so we can be more committed into the corners. But then through-corner balance is where we’ve been lacking, where some of the others have really taken a big step. So that’s what we’re trying to work on.”
Ferrari fined for Leclerc tyre error
Ferrari have been fined €5,000 (£4,248) for sending Charles Leclerc onto the track during second practice with intermediate tyres on his car before the race director declared the conditions were wet.Lopez replaces injured Conway for Le Mans
Toyota hypercar driver Mike Conway will miss next weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours after suffering broken ribs and collar bone in a cycling accident.
The driver, who shares the number seven car with team mates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, will be replaced by former team mate Jose Maria Lopez, who was due to race the Akkodis Lexus GT3 car in the car.
Lopez won the race in 2021 along with Kobayashi and Conway in the first edition of Le Mans run to modern hypercar regulations.
F1 24 receives handling patch
Codemasters have released the first patch for the new F1 24 game on all platforms, introducing significant changes to the controversial new handling model.
The developers have tweaked the tyre model to address the complaints about rapidly turn-in grip, tyre temperatures and attempted to generate more retirements from AI cars in career mode.
Car performance has also been changed, with teams such as McLaren and RB receiving a boost in performance, while Williams and Sauber have had their levels reduced.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Renault CEO: ''We will not sell'' Alpine F1 team despite struggles (Autocar)
''I want to make this very clear. There is no way we are going to give up. It’s not my style. We will not sell even a part of this thing. We don’t need the money. I’ve had people making offers left and right, then talking in the press about it. But we’re not interested. It would be stupid and I won’t do it.''
Canadian F1 Grand Prix opens in Montreal (CTV News)
Canadian Grand Prix president and CEO Francois Dumontier: ''It's a new surface. We repaved it back in the fall so we'll have to see about that, but maybe a little bit of rain, not heavy rain, but just a little bit of rain could make the race a bit more exciting.''
James' pre-Canada Team Talk (Williams)
James Vowles says he was disappointed with Williams' result in Monaco despite scoring points after running an 'experimental' set-up.
This year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will include a smaller bridge (Las Vegas Review Journal)
Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm: ''Consistent with our pledge to cause less disruption in the lead up to our 2024 race, we are happy to reduce the size of the Flamingo bridge thereby significantly mitigating the impact of the bridge on neighbouring businesses. This new design allows us to continue to construct an incredibly complex circuit in one of the busiest destinations in the world while ensuring adequate access within the track for those who need it, especially for emergency response entities.''
Hypercar drivers downplay tyre warmer ban risk (Sportscar 365)
Michael Christensen''I think when you get past the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight, I think you will be okay. But from the pit exit until that point, I think you can expect some things because you get quite some heat in the tyres down the straights as well and you start to get a feel for the grip.''
'Headlining with refinements to handling that will enhance the driving experience for all players, here are the changes coming with the first post-launch patch for F1 24.'
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Yep, I did it again! 😂 Another tattoo, this time for our win in Miami, and Lando’s first in F1. I have to say, it was just as painful as the first time. Thankfully, Lando was there to give me all the encouragement I needed… not! pic.twitter.com/N2jcrI8xly
— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) June 7, 2024
Well then…😅 pic.twitter.com/zi9Liv0KLK
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) June 7, 2024
The runoff area at the final corner has now become a deep lake. That would put a stop to track limits violations, right? #CanadianGP 🇨🇦
— Sean Kelly (@virtualstatman) June 7, 2024
I’ve called a lot of @IndyNXT practice sessions over the years but that was definitely the first where a driver parked his car on pitlane early and hopped out because he suddenly landed an @Indycar ride for the weekend.
Nolan Siegel in…Agustin Canapino out of the JHR #78
WILD
— Nick Yeoman (@NYeoman) June 7, 2024
Nolan Siegel is competing in both the #IndyCar and #IndyNxt rounds at Road America this weekend after his 11th hour call-up to replace Agustin Canapino at Juncos Hollinger.
He lapped the track in 1'53.2402 in Indy Nxt practice – then went 8.1s quicker in the IndyCar session… pic.twitter.com/OlMqhvJxk6
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 7, 2024
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Comment of the day
News that Agustin Canapino will miss this weekend’s IndyCar race at Road America prompts a frustrated response from Fer no.65…
Facepalm.
This is so disappointing. But he’s not a blameless victim. Those declarations by him ended up haunting him, as expected. I don’t know what he was trying to do there.
I’m sad because he had all in favour to make this IndyCar experiment sort of a fairy tale – coming from nowhere, with no experience, not even the language, and making it sort of work. He had flashes of speed and both Indy 500s were very good.
But you have to be intelligent inside and outside the cockpit.
Fer no.65
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Spasman78!
Justin
8th June 2024, 2:59
What is the purpose of the rule to prevent using inters when the course hasn’t been declared wet? It seems silly. What advantage were they gaining?
W-K (@w-k)
8th June 2024, 3:24
FIA could look silly (again) if it’s raining and the teams that follow the FIA’s orders and go out on slicks, only to go off into the wall. With all that could entail.
And those teams that follow common sense and fitted inters had all their cars run round the track without problem.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th June 2024, 7:38
The only logic I can think of is to stop teams doing stupid things, like in 1992 when Andrea Moda forced Perry McCarthy to run at Silverstone in the dry on wet tyres.
But surely folk are professional enough these days not to need mollycoddling with rules like this.
If its started raining, you shouldn’t have to wait for someone to declare if its wet enough or not. In Qualifying, that kind of quick and decisive decision from Ferrari could be the difference between pole and not!
Stupid decision in my opinion.
AlexS
8th June 2024, 10:41
Precisely, one more instance that FIA looks obsolete.
I also should note that this FIA rule has potential to be very dangerous. Because when Ferrari put the inters was raining and track was mostly wet.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th June 2024, 19:03
I agree. From what I was seeing on the screen, inter was performing better than dry, because it is more appropriate.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
8th June 2024, 11:38
There is no tyre allocation for inters. You get a new set when returning the used one, so I guess it could lead to some loopholes?
MichaelN
8th June 2024, 11:50
Yeah, that’s probably it.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th June 2024, 19:12
There is a tyre allocation for inters in Article 30.2 a) i) of the Sporting Regulations. Each driver gets 4 sets of intermediate tyres for the weekend and 2 sets of wet-weather tyres per weekend.
However, intermediate tyres can be handed back instead of dry tyres at designated hand-back points. If wet tyres were used in genuinely dry conditions, cars breaking the regulation would have more dry tyres for qualifying or the race than if they had been sensible, safe and speedy by giving drivers the correct tyres. However, this only works if the FIA does its duty by declaring wet tracks wet in a timely fashion. Who’s going to fine the FIA?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th June 2024, 19:13
Edit: I misread the regulations, it does have to be dry tyres handed back. Which makes the whole thing inexplicable to me. Using wet tyres in dry conditions is self-penalising unless it’s the race and a team is trying to avoid having to make a pit stop.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
8th June 2024, 4:19
that or Merc is a relatively new platform (whose weight shifting from front to rear and vice versa is not so smooth –sus_pension & center of mass) on mediocre tires. The way the narratives are playing these days, we are going to have to wait for Silverstone for Mercedes to finally find their pace and have a ‘shootout’ between the Merc drivers and RBR still can’t find their pace for some weird and obnoxious reason (but don’t worry, they will still have a chance to win the drivers championship harr harr harr).
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2024, 6:44
I didn’t know such a rule even existed that intermediate tyre usage is disallowed on a dry(-ish) track.
I still don’t get why IndyCar adds an extra number following the thousands figure, even though thousands of a second is the smallest that exists in reality.
On this day in motorsport: Back when Ricciardo used to perform well & consistently.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th June 2024, 7:39
I think I live in a different reality to you then. In my line of work, nano seconds are important.
W-K (@w-k)
8th June 2024, 11:52
Me too.
MichaelN
8th June 2024, 11:53
I might be off here, but I think they only measure it to the thousands of a second and then when equal use a visual comparison (‘photo finish’) to differentiate between two equal times. It works like that in a lot of sports, anyway.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th June 2024, 19:18
@eurobrun “Real” in the sense that Indycars doesn’t actually try to measure the ten-thousandths. I believe it was a marketing technique used to look more accurate than F1 (when the latter moved to measuring by the thousandth). F1 doesn’t use photo finishes, by the way – it uses first-come-first-served in practise, qualifying and fastest laps and declares dead heats in races. As for championships, if neither points nor countback of results can determine a winner, the FIA is permitted to break the tie in any legally valid way it pleases (if it wants to do it based on, for example, how many minutes each driver/team boss spent in the stewards’ office over the season, that’s permitted).
S
8th June 2024, 10:01
I’m gonna guess that’s not what you meant to say, @jerejj.
Several racing series do or have measured times in 10,000’s of a second, and some that don’t officially still do unofficially for the purposes of finding a winner in an apparent draw. Rounding down to hundredths or even tenths is mostly just for visual simplicity.
In other fields, such as high speed photography, videography or digital audio editing, time is often measured in frames with a duration of microseconds or even nanoseconds.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
8th June 2024, 7:57
lmao at the LVGP pretending the bridge reduction is for the neighborhood as if they’re not doing it to stop people standing on the bridge and seeing the track.