Komatsu targets top six in championship for Haas

In brief

Komatsu targets top six for Haas

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes his team should aim to chase down RB for sixth place in the constructors’ championship over the rest of the season.

“Looking at where we are now, we are seven points behind P6 – RB – so we have to go for trying to get P6 in the championship,” he said. “That’s our target for the rest of the season.

“Straight after shutdown, in Zandvoort, see if we can perform and get back to scoring points again. Budapest was tough and Spa was tough – we are looking into why we couldn’t perform in those two races. It’s too late to influence the development, because development for the rest of the season is done now. But just in terms of how we set the car up at the track, how we go about managing tyres, etc, any learning we can take from Budapest and Spa would be beneficial. So it’s really a continuous process, but our sporting target would be trying to fight for P6 in the championship.”

Finding pace from upgrades more difficult – McCullough

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough says that all teams are struggling to find initial pace from upgrades to their cars this season compared to previous years.

“It is happening a lot to people,” McCullough said in response to a question from RaceFans. “We have brought updates which haven’t given as much of a performance increase as we would have wanted. We’ve said that already.

“I think with the regulations now, we’re sort of into that realm of compromises again, as we found ourselves a bit in last year, which other teams have done. You can improve performance. What we all want to do is just improve performance, put more downforce efficiently on the car, without introducing any negative characteristics. But with these regulations that’s not proving easy, as you can see up and down the pit lane. So it is a challenge for everybody, I think.”

Links

Lewis Hamilton explains why McLaren can beat Red Bull to F1 title (Forbes)

''It is not impossible, but it is a huge, challenging task, but absolutely not impossible. They’ve got two very strong drivers that are able to compete against, ultimately currently in the championship, one car that’s really up there doing a lot of the points scoring on the other side. So they’ve got something they can work with there, for sure.''

Chandhok on his whirlwind F1 experience, flying the flag for India and becoming a TV star (F1)

''I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t have any family. I landed, then we went straight into a seat-fit for an F3 team that I’d signed up with. We rocked up in Brackley and they said, ‘Well, where do you live?’, and I said, ‘At the moment, we’re staying at Heathrow Terminal 4, in one of the hotels’. I’d come from a city of 11 million people and was moving to a city of 11 thousand people. But I spoke with Mark Webber about this a little while ago… I do think for drivers from in his case Australia, in my case India, the Brazilians, the Japanese… When you’re coming from so far away, you give up and sacrifice so much. When you’re chasing this dream, your motivation is so high because you just cannot go back having failed.''

Leo Robinson and Deagen Fairclough share Sunday spoils in Scotland (British F4)

'Leo Robinson (JHR Developments) and Deagen Fairclough (Hitech Pulse-Eight) scored a win apiece on what proved to be a scintillating Sunday at Knockhill as the British F4 Championship certified by FIA concluded its weekend in Scotland. Basking in bright sunshine and taking centre stage in front of a bumper trackside crowd, Robinson emerged as the driver to beat in the reverse grid contest as he overhauled Ella Lloyd (JHR Developments) to claim a second win of the season. Fairclough would make more headlines in the weekend’s final race as he produced a superlative display to clinch a ninth win of the year and with it, further extended his advantage at the top of the drivers’ championship.'

The science behind onboard cameras (F1 via YouTube)

'In this edition of F1 TV’s Tech Talk, Craig Scarborough details how F1's iconic onboard camera shots work, and how they've evolved with cars and racing regulations over the years.'

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First part of the season done.
First GP victory.
First broken bone.
Rib’s enjoying the break 💪 pic.twitter.com/xee5myxNTP

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Comment of the day

Oscar Piastri’s revelation that he has been racing with a fractured rib for several weeks draws this from Crawliin-from-the-wreckage…

Stress (rib) fractures seem to be the most common rather than impact fractures in high performance athletes. Apparently due to high performance repetition work, rowers and basketballers etc, are susceptible.

These seem to build up over time. However, a sudden change to a different high-level training programme can bring one on more quickly. Not good still, but better (hopefully) than a punctured lung, or diminished breathing due to pain that could bring on pneumonia.

Out of no really good choices, I hope it’s stress rather than displacement (or risk of) and relatively pain free, but I can’t see the harness not ‘ouch’ing. A good time for a break, as it were. I’m sure he’s in the best hands.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage

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On this day in motorsport

• On this day in 1979 Alan Jones commandingly won the Austrian Grand Prix from Gilles Villeneuve, who he passed early on.