In the round-up: After coming close to winning his second start for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc says he expects to be in better shape at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
What they say
Leclerc identified areas where he can improve compared to team mate Sebastian Vettel:
Of course there’s a lot to improve. At the end I’m only in my second year in Formula 1, there’s a long road ahead and I definitely have a lot of things I need to learn. I think experience is something that you cannot really learn but that will come, races after races.
I already feel quite a lot more comfortable in the car compared to where I was in Australia. I’m pretty sure in China it will be better than now. There is a lot to learn. I think on the feedback also out of the car Seb is a pretty good benchmark on that and I still have a lot of work to do.
But overall I am happy how I improved from the first to the second weekend but there is definitely still a lot to improve.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Snapshot
Would you like to see F1 drivers competing in a single-make support race during grand prix weekends? It happened in the eighties in a series was known as Procar.
Now the BMW M1s previously raced by the likes of Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Alan Jones and Gerhard Berger will return to action supporting this year’s DTM round at the Norisring. Ex-F1 racers Marc Surer, Christian Danner and Jan Lammers will be among those on the grid.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
The car is fast 😬. @McLarenIndy #Mclaren #texas #testing #360kph pic.twitter.com/lEv8d5EDCG
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) April 10, 2019
Words cannot express my pride in seeing @alo_oficial and @mclarenindy at today’s test. Bruce would be overjoyed with the way things are looking. BTW – to the graphic design team in Woking – outstanding job on the liveries both here and back with the F1 team. @McLarenF1
— Dan Gold MPRCA (@dangoldmedia) April 10, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Soldi dal Governo? A Monza servono (La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italian))
Italian automobile club president Angelo Sticchi Damiani says Monza needs €60 million for urgent upgrades.
TOCA invites tenders for BTCC hybrid introduction (BTCC)
"TOCA is now inviting expressions of interest from companies to supply the hybrid system for the British Touring Car Championship – originally planned for a 2022 introduction, but with the previously stated goal of being brought forward to 2021 if key parameters are met."
Rosberg: Ferrari could have problems if Leclerc continues to out-perform Vettel (The Telegraph)
"If Leclerc really shows this kind of speed then he’s going to challenge Sebastian all the time and it’s going to be much more difficult."
Bourdais' Barber gamble yields podium finish and title relevance (IndyCar)
"Had the sun stayed away as it was supposed to, I think we would’ve been in pretty good shape. But, man, oh man, every single lap that the sun was out, you’d lose time. It was really tough to hang on.”"
Miller's Mailbag for April 10 (Racer)
"I hear that Kyle Busch’s new contract would permit him to run Indy, so I’d love to see both Kyles."
Mid-season Round-up: The good, the bad and the ugly (Formula E)
"While Edoardo Mortara claimed his and the team's maiden podium in Hong Kong (albeit inheriting the win), it's not been so celebratory on teammate Felipe Massa's side of the garage. Coming in new to the series at the beginning of the season, Massa has just 15 points to his name - good enough to place him 15th in the standings."
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Comment of the day
Does F1’s proposed aerodynamic changes for the 2021 season offer too little rooms for the designers to get creative?
The proposed solution for 2021 is worrisome as it will make the cars look even more alike.
My suggestion is simple to a point of being overly simplistic: Outside of the ground effects (diffuser, floor vanes, etc…) allow each manufacturer a set amount of square footage for all the aero add-ons, such as wings, barge boards, tail fins, etc… The amount of square footage to be set small. E.g, 2.5 square meters. Then each team decides how much of this area to use in front wings, rear wings, barge boards, etc…
The aero-dependence for performance has to be curtailed. It is hurting the racing big time.
@Svianna
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@HoHum (@hohum)
11th April 2019, 1:06
2.5 square metres sounds like way too much to effect the changes the COTD aspires to. Perhaps the (unnamed) poster would care to respond in greater detail !?
BasCB (@bascb)
11th April 2019, 7:57
since normally it is the EDGES that do a lot of the work, imagine how a creative engineering team could stretch those 2,5m2 to create a downforce monster!
since the whole body has SOME aero affect, in reality it is pretty much impossible to get to such a rule anyway IMO @hohum @svianna
frood19 (@frood19)
11th April 2019, 10:24
COTD is rather naive. surely if teams were allowed that much freedom it would result in highly aero sensitive cars, which would probably produce a lot of turbulent air. one suggestion that made a lot of sense to me, which I read on motorsport magazine, was to mandate a maximum level of downforce (measured in wind tunnel) which the teams could achieve in a fairly unregulated way. the limit would be low enough that all teams could reach it (without spending insane amounts of money) but high enough that the performance remained F1-standard. the result would be that a team’s design resources would go into producing the most aero efficient car, i.e. the one with the least drag that still achieved the maximum allowed downforce. this in turn would be cleaner wakes and better racing.
it sounds like a sensible solution, though there are probably some technical details to sort in terms of measuring the downforce and policing it.
Corey (@dragon86)
11th April 2019, 1:57
Kyle Busch doing the Indy 500. That would certainly pique my interest in watching. I always find it enjoyable when I see drivers from different disciplines competing in other forms of motorsports. It’s a shame that you can’t see these guys go into F1 for 1-offs.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
11th April 2019, 2:37
Wow! Those old Procars M1s were the Daytonas/Superbirds of the 80s. Great looking beasts.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th April 2019, 8:57
He’s blaming the Sun, LOL. It isn’t like he could alter the Earth’s rotation.
I thoroughly agree with the COTD.
The casino square looks so different in that image from the 1980s(?)
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th April 2019, 9:00
Mercedes had more undistracted time than other teams to develop its car and if they believed they could win Formula E championship in their maiden year, Mercedes didn’t really need F1.
RB13
11th April 2019, 10:12
Winning in FE is like winning Formula 3. It doesn’t come close to the prestige of winning in F1.
The paddocks are tents f f s.
JT
11th April 2019, 9:33
Gerhard Berger didn’t do Procar. He wasn’t around in 1979/1980. It was Hans-Georg Burger. Note the spelling on the windscreen in the photo.
RB13
11th April 2019, 10:03
I would absolutely love to see the F1 drivers race in a single model support race, it’s been my wish list for YEARS.
I expect we’d see Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen, DR and George Russel mainly duking it out for wins.
RB13
11th April 2019, 11:06
And Norris. I would love to see he and Russel in the same machinery after the Williams driver spanked him last year in F2
KaIIe (@kaiie)
11th April 2019, 15:43
An unrealistic rule proposal I’ve sometimes thought about is somewhat similar to the COTD: why not have a rule that a car can create only X amount of dirty air while travelling at a certain speed (not sure how to measure this, maybe for each car to FIA-mandated a wind tunnel test).
Much like the fuel flow limit, it could be that the air behind the car must be disturbed only to a certain amount while it travels at 250 kph, or it would be illegal. This would allow designers to do whatever they want, and could potentially lead to different looking cars. Of course, there would be tons of loopholes: how to measure things while the cars are racing each other on track, what happens if there are multiple cars following each other, what if the dirty air measurement is taken at 250 kph then what happens after that speed (compare to the wing stalling debacle of the past, the wings were legal according to the FIA but everyone could see how much they flexed at high speeds), and so on.
hobo (@hobo)
11th April 2019, 16:51
@kaiie – I’ve had similar thoughts. Not on your specific idea, but on the general principle—that being to make rules for output, outcomes, results, not necessarily just hardware. I’m sure this thought isn’t new or unique, but I’ll explain what I mean anwyay.
Some rules would have to remain, minimum weight, certain dimensions, etc. But after that, open up some areas, but close off the output. I’ll give some examples. I am not saying that I think these rules should be applied, but that something like them could be used.
–Engine configuration (V6, V8, I6, I4, V12…) is unregulated, but total output (in bhp, or kw, or whatever) is capped. If exceeded, DSQ from race.
–Could require or not require hybrid components.
–Aero, like you and others mentioned, could be measured by total downforce and speed(s), or wake (i.e. loss of downforce at specific distance behind car at speed(s). But how you get to that is up to you.
On the one hand, I think this would be exciting and would lead to different designs and looks. Of course, it would also allow rich teams to chase multiple avenues and pick the best while poorer teams could be left out. A Brawn can always happen, but those are rare and flashes in the pan at best.
hobo (@hobo)
11th April 2019, 16:53
**total downforce AT speed(s)**