In the round-up: Despite winning three of the last four races, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is not yet convinced they will be in the fight for victory everywhere.
In brief
Mercedes not competitive everywhere – Wolff
Wolff expects Mercedes to continue gaining on their rivals in the constructors’ championship after the progress they made in recent races.
“We know we have ground to make up,” he said. “We are not yet able to compete for victories at every grand prix.”
“We have made good steps in improving the W15’s weaknesses though and will continue to work hard to take more. If we can do so, then we will close the gap to those ahead in both championships.”
Shwartzman gets practice outing
Robert Shwartzman will drive for Sauber in the first practice session for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix. The WEC driver has previously driven for Ferrari in four Formula 1 practice sessions.Sauber will fulfil one of their two obligations to run an inexperienced driver by putting Shwartzman in their car.
New engineer for Perez
Sergio Perez will have a new race engineer this weekend. Hugh Bird, his usual race engineer, is on paternity leave, so Perez’s performance engineer Richard Wood will take over.
Ricciardo enjoyed Zandvoort before crash
Daniel Ricciardo says he was enjoying his first experience of the Zandvoort circuit last year until the crash during practice which forced him out for five races with a broken wrist.
“Obviously last year it’s where my year turned upside down,” said Ricciardo, “but until the accident with Oscar [Piastri] I was really enjoying the circuit, the car was great around there. I’m confident we can continue where we left off before the break, our momentum was strong and we’re definitely in the fight for some points.”
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Links
Andretti hits pause on IndyCar technical partnerships (Racer)
'Despite the paddock rumour that we’re about to change to a new manufacturer, we’re not about to change to a new manufacturer. And so candidly, that limits the pool of potential technical partners.'
Getting to know the real Hulkenberg (F1)
'What’s your proudest moment in F1 so far? 'Umm... I like to think and go back often to the ‘Hulken-back’ days and that was in 2020, the Nurburgring one, which was pretty crazy… From the couch at home to doing qualifying three hours later, then finishing P8 from last on the Sunday, without any preparation, that was pretty special.''
Legendary Jack Brabham F1 car up for sale (Speedcafe)
'The 1955 Cooper-Bristol T40 was the first F1 car Brabham raced and was the first rear-engine car to compete in the world championship.'
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Nine laps to go, sitting P13.@nolan_siegel fights his way to a P7 finish. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/AZ656eF2eS
— Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (@ArrowMcLaren) August 20, 2024
|@LandoNorris fans will enjoy tonight's Only Connect (spoiler, obviously…)#F1 pic.twitter.com/XSOEOr4skQ
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) August 19, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Laz isn’t convinced Williams’ season would have been significantly better if they’d been able to reduce the weight of their FW46 sooner:
The only thing that can be said is if Albon hadn’t crashed in Australia, been taken out in Japan or Logan in Miami, then yes they would have been able to reduce the weight sooner rather than spending on rebuilding totalled cars. But it still would not have yielded many more points regardless.
They’re still behind RB and Aston Martin in pace both who had failed upgrades in that time while Williams reduced the weight, then Haas also introduced a good upgrade and looked comfortably faster than Williams in both Austria and Britain. So it really doesn’t look like they would have pulled ahead and scored more points no matter how you cut it.
Laz
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Carolynn Clarke, Socalf1Fan, Adamtys, Scuderiavincero and Mightyspyder!
Jere (@jerejj)
21st August 2024, 6:33
Yes, the team is fully Audi-owned, but as Pourchaire is involved with Sauber & Shwartzman isn’t associated with either Audi or Sauber, I’m surprised they’re using the first of their two minimum requirements for the latter instead unless they’re going to use the second occasion, i.e., Zhou’s garage side for the former.
Simon
21st August 2024, 17:41
So not as you might have predicted, then. But includes your usual “might be” “might not be” antics, to cover all bases, just in case
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st August 2024, 22:33
I would be curious to hear your predictions for next events too, and see who gets them right more often!
Nick T.
22nd August 2024, 3:00
It’s amusing when users develop an inexplicable grudge toward another user. I’ve got a couple “fans” of my own.
MichaelN
21st August 2024, 13:25
Putting Shwartzman in an FP1 session seems to be intentionally side-stepping the point of this scheme. The guy hasn’t seriously driven in single seaters since 2021. He isn’t even in Ferrari’s factory WEC line-up, but was put in the AF Corse client car.
F1’s constant snubbing of current F2 drivers is quite tiresome, and makes the latter’s claims to be the ‘road to F1’ increasingly meaningless.
Edvaldo
21st August 2024, 14:04
Mercedes shouldn’t even get podiums in Austria and Hungary. Red Bull and McLaren were far stronger at these tracks.
So even if i expect them to challenge and maybe even win some more races, the only team that can take the fight to Red Bull at every circuit is Mclaren.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st August 2024, 22:36
Well, in austria russell was on the podium fair and square before the crash, he had the measure of piastri, so it’s not just about the car but also about the driver, if the cars aren’t too different in performance there are options for the others to get in, hungary there’s no doubt, verstappen could’ve taken 3rd place without that mistake, but mclaren was far stronger there.
Edvaldo
22nd August 2024, 1:50
Piastri lost his fastest time (with which he would start 3rd) in Austria due to a very debatable track limit violation that left him to start in 7th place.
So he had some extra ground to make in the race and still finished less than 2 secs behind Russell.
Mayrton
21st August 2024, 17:02
So they can win everywhere now.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd August 2024, 5:32
No. McLaren need to pull their heads out of their bums and optimize around Lando or suffer garbage race pace for the rest of the year.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
22nd August 2024, 10:18
@pcxmac Pretty sure sorting out their decisiveness and strategic nous would be a better route to success, otherwise no amount of favouritism will lead to success.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
22nd August 2024, 10:17
Congratulations to Hugh Bird!