In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr feels hopeful about Ferrari’s upgrades for this weekend in Hungary.
In brief
Sainz hopes floor upgrade will “revert” slump
Sainz hopes that Ferrari can begin to turn their slump in form around with a revised floor at the Hungaroring this weekend. He revealed the team have made “a very small modification in the floor that we’re hoping that could help with the issues that we’ve been battling with recently.”
The team has experienced an increase in bouncing in high-speed corners since introducing its new floor design at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
“Whether it will work or not, we need a bit of time to see,” Sainz continued. “We need this weekend, probably, to make the analysis.
“The team is pushing flat-out to revert the situation, because clearly we’ve been out-developed by our competitors and now we are trying to fight back and get ourselves back in the mix.”
Albon has “low expectations” for Williams
Despite scoring his team’s second top ten finish of the season at their home grand prix at Silverstone, Alexander Albon doubts Williams will be able to compete for points again in Hungary.“I don’t think it’s a circuit that should suit us,” Albon admitted in Thursday’s press conference.
“It’s kind of a little bit like Barcelona: Hot, a bit more about pure downforce. I think it’s a good test for us. We’ve come up with some new options and new ideas coming from Barcelona and thinking about how we want to address some of our issues. We’ll just go out there in FP1, try a few things and see if it works.”
IndyCar at Iowa “like Moto GP on dirt” – Palou
After describing IndyCar’s two races at Iowa last weekend as “boring”, Alex Palou says that the repaving job on the circuit heavily impacted the ability for drivers to race on the oval.
“Even when leading, being in the middle of the pack – the IndyCars we had, the package of IndyCar tyres, aero, engine, whatever we had on track this weekend – it was impossible to make it run,” Palou said.
“It was never an issue before. It was a repave for our cars. But having that said, we’ve seen other series here run well. It’s like putting a Moto GP on dirt. It’s a cool track, but you cannot put it on the same and expect a very nice race.”
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Links
Leclerc on 'incredible' Hamilton, mindset and Ferrari dip (BBC)
''I need to be convinced that I am the fastest driver when I put the helmet on, but I am really looking forward to it, and it will be super-interesting for me. I have always said you learn from every single team-mate you have over your career. When I look at the way he drives - because we always look at each other and data - you don't really see any weaknesses. And that's where Lewis is incredible. He's only got strengths. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how he works with his engineers, the feedback, and all of these kinds of things, to learn and become better.''
Hamilton hails Ralf Schumacher but insists F1 has work to do on diversity (Guardian)
''Clearly he has not felt comfortable to say it in the past and it’s definitely not a new thing. It just shows we are in a time that finally you can take that step and don’t have to fear. So far he has had only positive feedback from people and that’s because of the time we are living in.''
ERS activation issues roil IndyCar teams (Racer)
Gavin Ward: ''The disabling or enabling it has caused some issues at recent events, and my opinion is there’s not really any reason why they need to switch it off. And if you don’t want to let people start their cars with it in pit lane, then people will just use (external) starters like we already have been. I think they’re worried that drivers are going to be trying to use it on pit lane, looking at the dash, or be distracted by something while they’re driving down pit lane.''
Season 2: Create history (EA Sports)
Details about the second season of F1 24 content.
1971: A grand prix in Birmingham (BBC Archive)
Archive footage from 1971 when plans for the Birmingham Superprix were first being explored. Featuring input from two-times F1 world champion Graham Hill.
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
40 years ago today @MinardiOfficial revealed its first Formula 1 car, the M185, which it raced the following year.
The team was bought by Red Bull in 2005 and now competes as RB.#F1 #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/E3ztKh6H4w
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Comment of the day
With Haas confirming that Kevin Magnussen will leave the team at the end of the season, Frank argues this is the right decision…
After dominating Mick Schumacher, I did not expect Magnussen to be so badly bloodied by Nico Hulkenberg.
I would say that Hulkenberg now and Magnussen then were proof that a driver can make a substantial difference – especially among those backmarkers and lower midfielders.
It might be sad for Magnussen, but if you want to show any ambition as a team – which everybody is urging Haas to do – you simply cannot start the season with a driver that is definitely slower than your current ace.
They have to bet that other experienced drivers on the market are as fast as Hulkenberg.
Frank
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cube, Phil G, Tom Haxley, Robk23 and Toiago!
frood19 (@frood19)
19th July 2024, 9:36
I find magnussen an interesting driver but he’s never set the world on fire with his pace so in some ways he’s lucky to have lasted as long as he has in the sport. As hulkenburg is moving on too, we won’t get a good yardstick for the new drivers but my impression is that ocon will be significant step up in pace, if not race craft.
notagrumpyfan
19th July 2024, 9:53
Will Mercedes running CrowdStrike decals (and software I assume) run today?
Coventry Climax
19th July 2024, 11:24
On CotD:
Firstly, it shows the lack of quality of Mick Schumacher, who some people, despite the overwhelming evidence against him, still think deserves a spot in F1. Well, he might, but not behind the wheel.
Secondly, go tell Red Bull that. Ever since Ricciardo left there, they’ve started every season with a second driver well of the pace. Sadly, Ricciardo has lost it since. I expect him to spend quite a bit of time in the Red Bull simulator, probably in old ‘cars’, to get his style and speed back, but it would seem his mojo is still missing, otherwise Red Bull would have decided to put him in car #2 some time ago already.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
19th July 2024, 11:45
Yeah, historically Red Bull have not been shy about replacing drivers they perceive to be underperforming, even if the replacement is not exactly an upgrade (e.g. swapping Gasly and Albon around in mid-2019). So there must be something preventing them from pulling the trigger on Perez now – maybe what they’re seeing in the data suggests that Danny Ric would struggle, perhaps even more than Checo is at the moment.
Coventry Climax
19th July 2024, 11:27
Has some archive been unlocked, that we see Graham Hill appear in old footage all of a sudden?
Or, if it has it been there all along, why the sudden attention for GH?
I’m not complaining though, I like these things a lot!