In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he still believes new wings introduced this year have made no difference to how closely drivers can race each other.
What they say
Hamilton was asked whether the new aero package made it easier to get close to other drivers:
Following was no different. It’s made zero difference. It’s still terrible.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Snapshot
Formula 2 driver Mahaveer Raghunathan has been given a 10-place grid penalty for the next race at Baku after failing to stop at the end of Sunday’s sprint race at the Bahrain International Circuit. After passing the chequered flag he continued to drive at racing speeds for a full lap before passing it a second time and then proceedings to the pits.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
We caught ourselves a salmon. A points finishing P6 Salmon 🐟#prizesalmon #salmonnorris #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/KnZOpzPge9
— Marc Cox (@MarcCox) April 1, 2019
Unfortunately not credited on timing and scoring because @danielricciardo didn't cross the line while leading. Officially, the last race led by a @RenaultF1Team was @F1NightRace 2009. https://t.co/U6DUWMCq5B
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) April 1, 2019
It being April 1, it's probably not a good day to put out press releases. Particularly ones about strategic organisational change…
— Alan Baldwin (@alanbaldwinf1) April 1, 2019
For avoidance of doubt, none of the stories on @racefansdotnet are #aprilfools. Yes, even this one, though some have asked!:https://t.co/E3WqK3i1Ne #F1 #BahrainGP
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) April 1, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Norris says McLaren are 'on the way up' after superb Bahrain GP (Sky)
"The steps we've taken from last year, to be two out of two times in Q3, to have opportunities to get into the points and a P6 - we do have a better trend than we did last year."
EWarly 2019 results have Team Penske drivers smiling again (IndyCar)
Will Power: "If we just eliminate that stuff we will be in great shape. We're quick every weekend. I just want to have a normal run in a season without this sort of crap."
Hamilton’s Bahrain victory peaks with 3.8 million viewers (Motorsport Broadcasting)
"The lack of live free-to-air presence, amongst other factors, meant that the combined audience of 2.39 million viewers is down by 504,000 viewers on twelve months ago."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
After Bahrain, Kyle hopes Ferrari start treating their drivers equally:
Leclerc’s successful move, coupled with his rapid pace and Vettel’s error (yet again) should hopefully start to swing the Ferrari pendulum away from Vettel and more towards equal treatment of the two.
If Ferrari have sense, they’ll keep their options open earlier in the season instead of rowing in behind Vettel from the outset… he may not he be the right horse to back if they want to bring titles back to Maranello.
Kyle
Happy birthday!
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Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
2nd April 2019, 0:23
I guess one question to ask is has following always been a problem in F1, or did it start at some particular point in time? If following wasn’t a problem and then suddenly it was, then maybe that’ll give us a clue as to how to fix this problem.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
2nd April 2019, 0:48
It is better than last year according to quite a few other drivers who spend more time in a pack, and the times where everyone was swapping and changing places while in close company suggests it is indeed much better.
JammyB
2nd April 2019, 2:20
I think that’s due to the larger and more powerful DRS wings this year than anything else..The speed difference is noticeably larger so far when cars are deploying DRS they seem to be able to get alongside from much further back than previous years, which also seems to be having the effect of allowing some more evenly matched cars to have another go at getting the position they’ve just lost back which didn’t happen so much before with DRS
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
2nd April 2019, 8:31
Thanks JammyB, I think those are good points.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
3rd April 2019, 0:32
The swapping and changing was also happening on the first 2 laps, before DRS was enabled. Might have been cold tyres or gusty conditions, but it was still happening.
@HoHum (@hohum)
2nd April 2019, 2:26
@drycrust, you need to keep in mind that when the tyres were bulletproof it was less of a problem, good drivers could cope to some degree with the loss of downforce and balance without it creating a loss of grip for the rest of the race or stint.
Ryan
2nd April 2019, 1:13
A Renault led the race, this really should not be disputed. They official never led a lap, but that is a separate issue. It is incorrect to measure who led a race eat time at only at one (start/finish line) point of the circuit and then say that someone who led elsewhere on circuit never led at all.
Ryan
2nd April 2019, 1:14
Autocorrect error … *each* time
faulty (@faulty)
2nd April 2019, 5:12
By that logic a footballer would have scored a goal even if he was officially deemed to be offside.
Who cares what the records say, as long as fans are happy with the narrative, right?
Bobby (@f1bobby)
2nd April 2019, 20:40
Err no it’s not the same is it. By any human standard Renault did lead that race. Only one who’s had their brain replaced by the FIA official database of very official facts and stats would argue otherwise.
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
2nd April 2019, 2:19
McLaren seem to have delivered a good car this year. The very fact that Sainz was able to challenge Verstappen in the opening laps is very encouraging. I hope they’ll be able to keep up in the mid-season development race, and that Renault’s reliability woes don’t catch up any time soon.
@HoHum (@hohum)
2nd April 2019, 2:50
A plea to @f1,@fom, @rossbrawn, @libertymedia, I have just finished watching the “highlights” program (Australia) and on top of my past complaints, lack of continuity in the commentary, ad hoc cutting etc. I would like to add that this viewing was even more incomprehensible than last year due to the local TV station plastering it’s logo over the lap count, out of a 1 hour program remove 20 minutes for commercials, watch the start 4 times, DRS passes twice each, the slowdown lap and podium drivers exiting their cars and celebrating with their team, and then the full prizegiving ceremony, there wasn’t much exciting racing coverage to kindle the interest of potential new young fans (if they had been watching at 10.30pm). Surely it would be a good investment to spend more than 5 minutes editing this program and then have a voice-over commentary to make sense of what is actually being seen on screen.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
2nd April 2019, 2:59
If it’s Brundle/Croft you are referring to then I can tell you that they don’t even make sense in the live commentary. They are too busy giving each other reach arounds to watch whats going on on the track.
@HoHum (@hohum)
2nd April 2019, 8:00
@darryn, I agree, Sky commentary is abysmal to start with but they generally manage to insert a few relevant facts during the course of the race but with 3/4 of the race cut there is little information to be gleaned from the random 25% we get to watch, yes they tell us what we can see “Lewis is going round the outside” ‘Vettel has lost his wing” etc. but no indication of who has or has not stopped for tyres, for instance the 1st time I saw DR was immediately after a commercial break and he was in 2nd. next time I saw him he was stepping out of the car.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
2nd April 2019, 14:26
Sky commentary is abysmal?!! Count your blessings mate.
Dutch commentary is horrible because the commentator thinks he knows all, is mostly wrong and then misses everything because he’s looking the wrong way. His ‘Ted Kravitz’ thinks he’s the funniest man in the world, while he doesn’t even know what a question is. Seriously, he preludes his ‘questions’ with his own opinion and after finishing a statement he just sticks the microphone under a drivers nose, thinking he just asked a question (I’m dead serious). Max is brown-nosed blatantly and all others are belittled at every opportunity. Blegh.
I tried German but my German isn’t great and the commentary isn’t either. Now I have a subscription to Ziggo Sport (the Dutch rightsholder) but in all honesty, when watching live I rather watch a stream with Sky commentary if I can find a good one.
Bram (@br444m)
2nd April 2019, 19:47
@jeffreyj And you didn’t even mention the program’s host Rob ‘uhhhhh ehhhhh’ Kamphuis yet. He has no grasp about what is going on at any time and on too of that tries to put in some of his own analysis (as many Dutch talkshow hosts seem to do). Makes the others look reasonably smart even.
The worst thing to me about the Ziggo coverage is how all of them put Max on a huge pedestal and most other drivers are ripped apart or made fun of. The lack of respect to the drivers is a shock to me every time I watch Ziggo.
And don’t even think about having a respectful discussion about females in the sport with these guys, these guys are coming from the stone ages. The only thing Coronel (regular guest) would say when discussing Calderon in F2 was that they should have picked someone less ugly.
Sky is a blessing to have access to through F1TV this year.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
2nd April 2019, 20:32
@br444m Agreed on all points there dude.
How is F1TV doing this year? I read horrible reports about it last year. In theory it should be great, but as long as there are startup problems I’m not going to be spending money on it.
Bram (@br444m)
3rd April 2019, 0:03
@jeffreyj It’s been ok, apart from the first free practice of the season, I’ve experienced only small hiccups.
To me there’s little added value compared to a regular tv broadcast. No possibilities to configure overlays or even pause/rewind during a live broadcast. Also, there’s zero build up – the broadcasts start right when a session start and stops pretty much at the checkered flag.
What is a nice addition is that they also broadcast all F2 races live. Overall I’m happy that there’s an alternative.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
2nd April 2019, 3:11
Why is that F2 car spitting flames out the exhaust?
Nitzo (@webtel)
2nd April 2019, 7:06
@phylyp
I had the same doubt.
This may help–>
there are a few comments that make sense.Rest is just gobbledygook.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
2nd April 2019, 7:39
@webtel – thanks a ton, that was helpful. So, from what I gather, that is part of the turbo’s anti-lag system, where they inject fuel in a sort of “afterburner” mode.
PS: How do you find Sky commentary after years of C4? :)
Nitzo (@webtel)
3rd April 2019, 9:03
@phylyp
about Sky comms..
It was all fine until Croft misread Hamilton’s radio message–something about Valtteri being cocky !!
That’s where i asked myself “how am i going to put up with this henceforth?”
With Paul at Race control and Karun in the paddock (thankfully no Ted Kravitz) and Brundle in the comms–not much to complain about. I couldn’t help but wonder why Croft was pulling in or at least trying to pull in
Lewis and the WDC into every issue being discussed.
How did you feel ?
Phylyp (@phylyp)
3rd April 2019, 9:10
@webtel – pretty much similar to you. I’m happy we have Karun instead of Ted (the one carryover from C4). Crofty… I can’t complain about what he says, because with his continuous yelling I just tune that out (and reduce the volume!). Those few times I listened, I found him misidentifying cars (correct team, but wrong driver). Brundle is interesting – at the start of the decade, I used to enjoy his insights, but more recently he seems to be going the Crofty way. I definitely miss C4’s commentary team.
Nitzo (@webtel)
3rd April 2019, 13:45
@phylyp
Verbal diarrhea is contagious !!
And yes, C4 on any day better and more respectable than Sky.
Sky (mainly Croft and Ted) treat this as entertainment. C4 comms treated F1 as a sport.
Abe (@okeptl)
2nd April 2019, 6:52
If changing the front wing makes no difference in racing, then it’s still a good enough reason for a change. The main worries with last year’s front wing concept, was that following cars would get much more difficult than it was then.
No gain is still better than doing nothing
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
2nd April 2019, 9:31
Agree with Cotd.
When they announced LeClerc was taking Kimis seat I kind of hoped they were looking to the future rather than just relying on Seb to get back on form.
frood19 (@frood19)
2nd April 2019, 10:20
isn’t this pretty much one of the worst ‘crimes’ you can commit in motorsports (short of driving the wrong way round the track)? this is incredibly dangerous. I would have thought it was indelibly inked into every driver’s brain that you go to the pits after the chequered flag. in that light it seems like a very lenient punishment.
MattyPF1 (@mattypf1)
2nd April 2019, 13:27
Agreed. Very, very lenient punishment when you also consider that the performance standards of this driver are extremely low to begin with anyway and he’ll no doubt qualify last unless someone else has a problem so a 10 place grid penalty which do next to nothing in terms of a punishment. An apology letter is more of a punishment
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
2nd April 2019, 12:17
New wings seemed to be working just fine for LeClerc.
As far as COTD goes, it is somewhat true. It would be a big problem if they back the wrong driver from offset.
Certainly Vettel based on history is the correct driver, but… was Webber the correct driver to back in 2009?
Also it should be noted, Vettel now has a year and a half of crucial mistakes, Nico Rosberg observed, that its always the same. Every 2-3 wheel to wheel battles he drops it, either colliding with a rival or simply spinning on his own. He needs a sports psychologist ASAP.
GPfan
2nd April 2019, 17:14
What do you mean? Because Leclerc made a few passes? LH did as well . The issue isn’t that it’s impossible to pass the issue is that when a driver follows closely they lose DF to the point where the tires are sliding, wearing them out prematurely. Did Leclerc say that he thinks the new design makes it easier to stay on a drivers gearbox for multiple laps with no negative repercussions?
The Limit
2nd April 2019, 15:56
I get the impression that Nico Rosberg does not like Vettel very much, he never misses an
opportunity to critcise him no matter what happens. I personally believe that Vettel knows that he is not good enough to beat Hamilton in equal machinery. With Leclerc on the scene, driving as good as he is, I think we will see more mistakes from Sebastien and not less.
I hope I am wrong but I have my doubts. I think last year really damaged Sebastien’s confidence greatly, he almost seems resigned to being beaten.
robinsonf1 (@)
2nd April 2019, 16:28
I love Nico’s comments, they’re so brutal! Being the ’16 WDC he gets a free pass imo.
robinsonf1 (@)
2nd April 2019, 16:27
Regarding the viewing figures… What’s the point in stating figures if you don’t include streaming services or on demand? Based on how people of today watch TV, these figures are just about as useful as a condom machine in the Vatican!
BlackJackFan
3rd April 2019, 5:42
“CotD” – Really… That was the best you could find…? lmao.