In the round-up: Jack Doohan admits he was disappointed with the result from his first ever F1 qualifying session.
In brief
Doohan “disappointed” with 17th
After being knocked out slowest in Q1 and lining up 17th on the grid for his grand prix debut, Jack Doohan admitted he was not happy with his first qualifying session.
“It proved tricky,” he said. “I’m a little bit disappointed with the end result, no doubt.
“But what’s important was I was comfy. The end of the session proved very difficult. Definitely not the out lap and prep that I wanted for the final run. But good to learn and face those issues now so that myself and the team can improve on it for next year.”
Floor damage cost “three tenths” – Colapinto
Franco Colapinto says that after he suffered floor damage on his Williams running over a kerb in practice on Friday, his speed was affected through Saturday’s qualifying session.“I think the car felt good, as yesterday,” he said. “But I think the damage yesterday was very costly.
“We had to repair [it]. You would change the floor in any other situation, but unfortunately with all the damage in the past, we don’t have [any]. I had to do my best today, but we lost a lot of points downforce – more than ten, more than three tenths – and when it’s tight like today, it’s a lot.”
Evans wins FE opener from 22nd on grid
Jaguar driver Mitch Evans won a wild Sao Paulo Eprix from the back to the grid to kick off the 2025 season of Formula E after two separate red flag stoppages.
Despite starting last on the grid after a brake problem in qualifying, Evans used the revised Attack Mode to charge through the field and take the first race win with the new Gen3 Evo car.
The race was stopped twice, first when Jake Dennis stopped with his car in electrical condition ‘red’, which requires specialist equipment to discharge. A frightening crash for Pascal Wehrlein following contact with Nick Cassidy saw the reigning champion flipped head-first into the wall, but he was not badly hurt.
Antonio Felix da Costa finished second, with McLaren’s Taylor Barnard scoring his first podium in third.
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Links
Leclerc: Ferrari will revive Lewis Hamilton, but I can end title drought (Telegraph)
'The younger Mercedes man has a 23-6 advantage in their qualifying head-to-head this year, and one F1 driver, who shall remain anonymous, told Telegraph Sport earlier this year that Leclerc would ''wipe the floor'' with Hamilton on Saturdays.'
Richards 'concerned' about proposed FIA changes (BBC)
'David Richards, the chairman of MotorsportUK, has urged Formula 1's governing body to rethink changes that would limit the ways its leadership could be held to account. BBC Sport revealed this week that the FIA is planning a set of revisions to the statutes that would restrict the powers of the audit and ethics committees. Richards, whose role at MotorsportUK gives him a voting power at the FIA, told BBC Sport he was ''concerned that major organisations around the world would refuse to work with the FIA if it did not reflect the highest standards of corporate governance, as befits our sport''.'
Lewis and Bono: One last lap (F1 via YouTube)
'Watch as Lewis Hamilton and Bono take on one last lap together around the iconic Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.'
New feature - Debris refresh (iRacing via YouTube)
'Introducing Debris Refresh, a complete overhaul of the dynamic track debris system! The update adds new types of debris, improves their physics properties, upgrades their appearance, and vastly improves how debris is generated and moves around the track over time.'
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During final practice Lewis Hamilton asked Mercedes to remove a sticker they placed on the inside of his cockpit, behind his steering wheel.
It read: "Every dream needs a team."
George Russell has the same sticker on his car.
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Comment of the day
Jack Doohan may have been disappointed with his qualifying performance, but was it better than it looked? Yes, thinks Jordi Casademunt…
Doohan’s second lap is interesting because he barely lost half a tenth to Pierre Gasly in the second half of the track. He lost one tenth in the pit straight even before braking for turn one (so maybe he screwed up the last corner in his out lap), another tenth through turn one, 0.15s at turn five (with some extra time lost in the straight because of a bad exit), another 0.15s through turns six and seven. Then he nails the rest of the lap.
Not a terrible job considering it’s his first race and Gasly has been quite fast the last few GPs.
Jordi Casademunt
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Gfasulo, James_Mc, Joey-Poey, Koper, Rick Denatale and Webbercanwin94!
Michael Fenelli
8th December 2024, 3:03
Don’t forget that Doohan was running Ocon’s outdated car.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
8th December 2024, 10:51
But it might not be outdated any more.
“Oh look, the new parts have just turned up from the factory – what a surprise!”
Jere (@jerejj)
8th December 2024, 4:54
Russell’s wait finally ended & I wouldn’t mind having a copy of that old autobiography from the late-2000s.
thegamer23
8th December 2024, 11:11
Why so little coverage of Formula E?
It was an amazing race.
lynn-m
8th December 2024, 12:56
because virtually nobody watches or pays any attention to that series which is why it’s constantly having to find a new broadcaster every year when it fails to draw an audience.
it’s just a very difficult series to follow because results often feel random due to the nature of energy use/management. cars are just constantly yo-yo-ing up & down the order based on what energy mode they are in. one lap a driver is 10th miles behind the lead group and then suddenly he’s leading and you’ve no idea how or why.
it’s just not a very satisfying series to run in that regard because there’s no flow to races and results often don’t make any sense and again feel very random. not to mention the silly amount of contact that takes place and equally as absurd amount of penalties that means that the result you see at the end of a race is virtually never the actual finishing order.
the fans have spoken over the past decade and formula e just hasn’t been found to be very good for most.
thegamer23
8th December 2024, 18:28
That’s your opinion.
It was a very spectacular opening race, the cars are getting 3 seconds/lap faster and the technology and the field of drivers is getting more and more impressive.
But people only seem to care about F1 nowdays, wich is very sad.
There’s a world of motorsport out there that gets very little coverage.
Raqua (@raqua)
12th December 2024, 18:54
I have watched every FE race since the beginning of the series. I like it. There are dull races and there are fun races just like all the other series. I like that it is different. But there definitely were times, when I though FE was more fun that F1. I don’t get the hate it gets on this page.