In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas doesn’t think the extra mileage he has done in the new Mercedes so far will put him at an advantage compared to team mate Lewis Hamilton.
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Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
"I think the miles in these conditions are less useful than proper miles in proper conditions. But I'll take it, I always love to drive as much as possible."
Red Bull’s Horner backs F1 testing in Bahrain after day lost to snow (The Guardian)
"If there is an opportunity to go to a warmer climate next year then we would take it. It’s a trade-off in terms of the lack of running we have had this week and therefore the ability to fix problems that might bite you in the arse come race one, two and three."
Renault will make 'biggest step' in 2018 - Wolff (Autosport)
"Renault will make the biggest step forward for me. It will use all its resources, and has ambitious drivers with Hulkenberg and Sainz."
McLaren takes suspension to next level (Motorsport)
"Considering the team had to revise its suspension so late in the car design process – because of the switch to the Renault engine – the change shows how clear it was for McLaren's designers that there are good aerodynamic benefits to be had."
Ricciardo: Red Bull talks in April (Sky)
"I think realistically around April things will start to be spoken. After a few races, hopefully I win the first few and I can have a powerful say in what I do."
Kubica: ‘Cannot compare’ lap times with Sirotkin (Racer)
"I know everyone is looking at lap times and there were a lot of comments that I was lacking one-and-a-half seconds in Abu Dhabi which is strange."
Further information about ‘F1 TV’ revealed by FOM (The F1 Broadcasting Blog)
"Of the top 20 markets for Formula 1 in 2017, as identified by Formula 1 themselves, nine of them will have access to the service at launch (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and USA), which is a very good starting point."
Football chief spells out his view on why F1 fans are 'switching off' (James Allen on F1)
"Take F1 for example. The big teams got all the power, demanded more and more money. And now there’s a spectacle where there’s one or two teams with a chance of winning a race, and people are switching off."
Max Mosley questioned over racist leaflet (Channel 4 via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Some juicy flat spots from yesterday. Tearing right through the tyre carcass #oops #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/XSvYs4xscX
— Racecar Engineering (@RacecarEngineer) February 28, 2018
Circuit Ige #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/vjVPLYxTPk
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) February 28, 2018
Well I’m having a lovely day mate. Nobody’s broken anything yet
— Rob Dob (@robdob20) February 28, 2018
It’s frightening the amount of times I hear the phrase… “the team said it, so it must be true…” that attitude could now spread to the sport’s very owners. Without proper press, you lose accountability. https://t.co/zHrOhXstlS
— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt) February 28, 2018
Formula One cars are increasingly resembling tanks, and the driver has almost disappeared from sight, buried inside the aforementioned tank. 30 years ago cars were slick, beautiful, and the driver openly showed his skills behind a steering wheel
Here is Ayrton Senna in Spa 1988 pic.twitter.com/5T7EGbIirH— Paul-Henri Cahier (@F1Photo) February 28, 2018
Did quite a few laps today 😎 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/0PkUXruEst
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) February 28, 2018
A day to remember!!! ❄️
Say hello to Circuit marshalls! #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/YiEXv1Bg6n— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) February 28, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Should F1 have a combined launch event for all the teams as @DieterRencken proposed yesterday? @GeeMac is in favour:
A single, all team launch event would be a fantastic thing for fans and would no doubt draw crowds (and TV/streaming eyeballs) from all over the world.
It would be great if it became something in which the teams had to participate in future.
@GeeMac
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jose Arellano, Becca Blue, Robert and Penny!
If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.
Markp
1st March 2018, 0:06
What is the football comparison? Only a few teams can win big titles at football. F1 had its Leicester City moment 7 years before when Brawn won the lot.
anon
1st March 2018, 7:08
As you say, the Premier League has really been dominated by a small number of clubs over the years, and many of the same criticisms mentioned in F1 were, and still are, complained about in the Premier League.
The same four teams used to dominate the series from the mid 1990’s until the early 2010’s (the same four teams took the title 17 years in a row), with complaints that the series was becoming too predictable and dominated by too small a group of teams, not to mention that there was a large financial gulf between a handful of larger teams and the rest of the championship. It’s widened slightly now into the “Big Six”, but there’s still a fairly small number of teams that are the dominant powers in that series, both on the pitch and in terms of having a disproportionate political influence as well.
Now, as Parish notes in that interview, the pay per view market in the UK has seen the payments for TV rights start to fall for the first time in a long time. What he neglects to mention, and which is perhaps a more telling statistic, is that viewing figures for pay TV have also been starting to fall quite sharply over the past few years as an increasing number of people are no longer prepared to pay the fees that the pay TV companies are charging and are happier to watch cheaper highlights packages.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
1st March 2018, 8:11
That’s not just true of the Premier League, but of any major league sport. But for the sake of continuity, I’m going to stick with football. The reason the same teams continue to dominate is the huge payouts they get from inter-league championships like the CL. Even qualifying for the CL nets a team 12.7 million Euros, which is nearly as much sponsorship as a small team can muster for a year. Thus, the big teams manage to attract better talent, who win them more games, netting them more prize money from various championships. And thus the vicious cycle (virtuous cycle for the big teams) continues, relegating small teams to the role of mere proving grounds for players, who all aspire to be a part of a big team.
Big Joe
1st March 2018, 10:30
We cant compare F1 to any other sport let alone Football. There is no way on earth ‘a Leicester City’ could win in F1.
Give Football teams the technology to develop shoes/boots that make the players run 100 meters 1 second faster, then have the rules made difficult for others to catch up.Have different surfaces/pitches where some teams become out of their depth, or different balls again where some teams cant make it work, then Football starts looking like F1.
Same with Tennis. What kind of following would Roger Federer have if he used a racquet and shoes that were 1-2 times faster and more powerful than other players
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2018, 3:16
I agree with Horner, but I wish they’d rather use the Yas Marina Circuit as the pre-season testing venue for a change since it’s yet to be used for this particular purpose while The Bahrain International Circuit has already been used for this purpose more than once before.
altitude2k
1st March 2018, 7:29
Bahrain is more representative of a season, though. Yes Marina has no fast, tyre-shredding corners
altitude2k
1st March 2018, 7:30
Yes Marina?
*Yas Marina
mfreire
7th March 2018, 21:13
More like please no more Marina
Todfod (@todfod)
1st March 2018, 4:40
I think it’s cute how Toto praises every team just before the season starts. He seems all praises for Renault, the Red Bull drivers and even Sauber. He genuinely believes a lot of them will surprise when the season gets going. Then Toto shows up at Australia and absolutely destroys the entire field.
Would have to agree with him on Renault though, they seem to have improved a heck of a lot in the last quarter of last season, and their pre season testing form seems solid. I’m expecting a good battle between Renault, McLaren and Force India this season. I had McLaren pegged as the favourites for that battle, but I think it could be Renault now.
FlatSix (@)
1st March 2018, 7:24
@todfod The key will lie in consistency. I’m guessing they’ll just always be out of reach of the big points so scoring every weekend will be vital for fourth place. I believe the battle in the constructors for that spot, and seventh in the drivers is going to be a better fight than the Mercedes ‘We’re not so dominant, yet easily faster’ fight for P1.
The three engine rule is what I feel will decide both those fights unfortunately. One of the main reasons I’m once again looking forward to hopefully good racing but expecting a rather predictable championship.
frood19 (@frood19)
1st March 2018, 9:32
all these early predictions are such wild speculation that it might as well be complete gibberish. we’ve had 2 totally non-representative days in which every team said they could not get the tyres to work. the only thing testing tells us is who has and hasn’t got a reliable car.
i know it’s fun to talk it up but it really amuses me sometimes when people make such earnest predictions based on essentially no evidence whatsoever.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
1st March 2018, 9:38
@todfod I’d be disappointed if McLaren couldn’t come on top of that battle honestly. I got some hope about McLaren bodywork overhaul for Melbourne.
YellowSubmarine
1st March 2018, 7:20
Boy, that Max Mosley interview…maybe he should not agree to any more interviews. His views and the leaflet were repulsive. Good to see that he says he has since changed his opinions on non-white people, but perhaps he should just avoid public life and let us all forget about him.
Egonovi
1st March 2018, 10:14
9:12min to dig a hole this deep ;)
Big Joe
1st March 2018, 10:35
yeah, once we have views and are influenced by events in our time, we’re not allowed to change them in the future, we should just remove ourselves from public life.
Maybe anyone ever involved with grid girls should just go away too. Of course racing at circuits with questionable Human rights and Femal genetic mutilation are ok.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd March 2018, 19:03
There is no issue with changing your views over time “Big Joe”. The thing is, that when you publish a leaflet, and now he goes from saying he did back this, to saying the leaflet is not racist, to then saying it IS actually racist. Then returns to saying it is “offensive” but not racist. Then tries to argue that his views changed, then back to still feeling he never was a racist (even though endorsing the ideas in the leaflet and now just saying that he probably wouldn’t SAY/write this).
If Mosley had come out saying that he had all but forgot about the leaflet, admitted that it was both offensive and racist and apologized for views he held back then, which he doesn’t support anymore, it would be quite ok IMO. But he didn’t.
Matt
1st March 2018, 12:28
Actually he said that he didn´t write that leaflet and had never seen it other than in the press. He also highlighted that 50 years ago, that is half a century, a very long time, it was not politically incorrect to say ¨coloured¨.
It is pathetic to pursue somebody over his political views 50 years ago when that person is at the end of their life and will fade away soon enough.
I don’t particularly like him but I like virtue signalling by news papers such as the daily mail even less. Cathy Newman is already a discredited hack so I don´t care what she thinks either.
Rich
1st March 2018, 22:57
You may want to watch the video again, he also indicates that “he may have printed it” and he couldn’t remember. But he was willing to take responsibility for supporting Hesketh, a good man. He was also unwilling to apologize even if he was guilty. Thats fine, he is a private citizen and entitled to his opinion, which means that he doesn’t need to do interviews, and shouldn’t waste his time trying to convince people of how despicable he really isn’t.
VoiseyS (@voisey)
1st March 2018, 8:34
That story on the broadcasting blog about the new TV streaming states that the English commentary will be provided by Crofty and Brundle…so are we to assume that not only has Sky secured an exclusive in the UK for the next x years but they have also sold that very same content to FOM/F1 Commercial to use in their own offering?
That same content which can be had by non-UK views at a fraction of the price?! Seriously?!? It’s depressing that the UK is seen as such a willing cash-cow for F1 – I am very disappointed that Liberty has AGAIN succumbed to Murdoch and Co’s media pressure. Don’t get me wrong, I understand (and am actually behind) the monetisation of sports, but I do draw the line at one nation/viewer being taken advantage of over the other. This to me smacks of extortion.
Big Joe
1st March 2018, 10:41
F1 fans in the UK revealed their cards in what theyre prepare to pay. So that’s what it’s now worth.
Other smaller countries wernt prepared to pay until the price was right. The jury is still out though as some of the countries mentioned have F1 free to air with ads. Travel around Europe and you can watch F1 on Belgian, French, German and Swiss TV for free. The Belgian channel doesnt dub over any English interviews or comments either.
Matt
1st March 2018, 12:31
Yes this is true, if UK fans had not given in to Sky´s extortion then they may not find themselves in this position now.
You must vote with your wallet, it is the only tool that you have that makes a difference.
Ju88sy (@)
1st March 2018, 13:46
I have ‘voted with my wallet’ and Sky’s overall TV package is excellent! Happy with the value.
MattB (@mattb)
1st March 2018, 11:29
I’d imagine that each race weekend will be around £10. That’s what you pay in this country if you watch through NowTV.
Philip (@philipgb)
1st March 2018, 8:42
That Max Mosley interview was uncomfortable to watch. I don’t really know a lot about the guy or the politics involved, but from the interview it would seem you have a fairly elderly man, being grilled in quite a stressful manner for misguided views from 50 years ago that he seemed to clearly reject now.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd March 2018, 19:07
I must have missed the moment where he “seemed to clearly reject” those misguided views @philipgb. He really only mentioned that he “is not racist”. And that he wouldn’t express them nowadays. But he also tried to argue that those views aren’t really racist and might not even be clearly offensive or even misguided.
Just that they are views he seems to have endorsed (since he printed that leaflet) and that views in society about the wording of them has changed.
Levente (@leventebandi)
1st March 2018, 8:42
Why everybody so fixated on Bahrain, which is clearly too far for the little teams.
For example there is Algarve as a good alternative
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2018, 11:09
@leventebandi Primarily because of the climate, of course.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st March 2018, 11:27
@jerejj Algarve this time of the year is about 10° warmer than Barcelona, being Algarve and Europe, makes it a lot easier and cheaper than Bahrain.
Not a championship venue but as with Europe this year, one of the few places without snow but it might be raining.
Horner can’t contain himself, they need to be ready to capitalise right away, Horner thinks RB is in good shape.
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2018, 13:19
@peartree ”Algarve this time of the year is about 10° warmer than Barcelona” – Incorrect. The daytime temperatures on both venues commonly vary in the range of 13-18 degrees Celcius at this time of year, i.e., the historical averages are approximately the same.
sethje (@seth-space)
1st March 2018, 15:41
Not 10 degrees but warmer non the less.
Compare for yourself:
Barvelona: http://www.holiday-weather.com/barcelona/averages/
Algarve: http://www.holiday-weather.com/algarve/averages/
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st March 2018, 20:20
I’m in Algarve, what are you talking about @jerejj I don’t need no wikipedia. It was snowing in Barcelona, it was actually more than 10 degrees warmer here.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2018, 12:29
@peartree You didn’t get my point, did you? Furthermore, you indeed need Wikipedia after all, LOL.
Levente (@leventebandi)
1st March 2018, 11:30
It’s located way more south than Barcelona.
Instead of the freezing cold of Barcelona, there is a comfy 16C° at the moment there, with a few clouds. The possibility of snow there is so small it falls only once a decade.
And Bahrain can be tricky as well. This weekend, a TCR Middle East had to cancel a race because of the torrential rain they were hit with
Jere (@jerejj)
1st March 2018, 13:15
@leventebandi What are the odds that torrential rain would hit Bahrain when/if F1 were to go there testing again? Rain in the Middle East is extremely rare to occur so that I wouldn’t worry about it.
Asanator (@asanator)
1st March 2018, 14:44
They can sort of make Bahrain ‘on the way’ to Australia for the season opener, so they can offset some of the cost against freight going direct to Australia.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2018, 12:32
@asanator Precisely. They could achieve that by using the two weeks preceding the Australian GP as the pre-season testing weeks if they were to go to the Middle East.
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 9:24
Remember the nokia 3310 theory and how it flopped?
Worry no more, as I have a new one.
I was born in 88, a year dominated by McLaren. My baby daughter was born in 2018 (just a week ago), so guess what. 30 years later McLareb will dominate the championship once again.
Place your bets ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
Btw, very happy for the RaceFans team, it is great to see in the round-up (two days in a row at least) articles where the source is actually RaceFans. Congratulations
Dewald Nel (@ho3n3r)
1st March 2018, 9:51
What is this theory about the 3310 you’re on about?
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 10:36
@ho3n3r patience grasshopper I will teach you my wise ways
The nokia 3310 theory is based on the launch of the phone, the first time it came out Ferrari dominated F1. Last year the phone was released again, hence the theory suggested 2017 would be dominated by Ferrari. Of course my Future prediction skills aren’t that good
Egonovi
1st March 2018, 10:26
Congratulations.
And the upside is that you will be awake for Melbourne FP1.
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 15:22
it is strange because people tell you that your life will be turned upside down. But this time last year I was already awake for Melbourne FP1
sethje (@seth-space)
1st March 2018, 15:42
But you will be very tired by then ;)
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 16:11
that is my secret, I’m always tired
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
1st March 2018, 10:30
Congratulations João!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st March 2018, 11:32
Congratulations dad! Laughing at Egonovi’s comment 😁
Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 15:20
thank you very much fellow racefans
joe pineapples
1st March 2018, 11:08
Quite surprised they didn’t give a full days testing to Hamilton today after Bottas was given it the other day to maximise Merc’s time on track. Would have seemed fair.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st March 2018, 11:13
Yep. Feels pretty unfair that Bottas has to do all of the donkey work.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st March 2018, 11:11
Fans have shown time and time again they don’t care about dominance, they actually want it, had Lewis not been winning f1 would be struggling. Fans need availability and need to have someone to root for. Say Hamilton leaves f1 or Mercedes suddenly becomes uncompetitive, UK ratings are bound to drop sharply and the UK fans are the biggest chunk, and essentially the ones that make someone some decent money.
If the majority of audience figures wanted good racing then there’s better options to f1. If the audiences wanted parity they wouldn’t have subscribed to Horner’s lottery lobbying back in 2012 and early 2013. Most fans think they know what they want just to get swayed around.
Matt
1st March 2018, 11:46
Ah Cathy Newman ¨so you´re saying that you´re a racist then¨.
Mosely should have watched the Jordan Peterson ¨interview¨ with her before he did this.
To attempt hold somebody accountable by todays ultra PC standards compared with the standards of 50 years ago is absurd.
socksolid (@socksolid)
1st March 2018, 12:57
That 1988 mlaren. Weight with driver about 610kg. Power 900hp. Length: 4.39 metres. Looks pretty, is fast as a race car, no electronics, driver is 100% in control.
2018 mercedes: weight with driver 734kg. Power peak 1000hp, most of the time about 600hp. Length 5.05 metres. Longer than london bus with the only attraction of the car being its fuel efficiency.
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
1st March 2018, 22:11
The 1988 McLaren was probably something close to 20 seconds slower than today’s cars though. Things change and evolve and that’s never gonna change, people learn to adapt and move with the times.
BOBF1
1st March 2018, 13:25
His father was a fascist, so was he and he was caught in a nazi themed sex dungeon. Since then he has been after the press and attacked freedom of press. A vile man who destroyed his own life and any respect he had left.
What is important is that he has committed perjury as he denied the leaflet existed. He’ll now be dealt by the courts.