Lando Norris, McLaren, Red Bull Ring, 2019

Ricciardo: McLaren now Renault’s performance “benchmark”

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In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo says McLaren are now the “benchmark” for Renault

What they say

Looking at the McLarens, they certainly look the benchmark now and they’ve really come on and they’re the ones with the kind of package we’re looking for. They’re able to run more downforce and more efficiently so they can run high downforce yet lose less in the straights. It seems like our package when we do run more we don’t seem to be able to use it well. So that’s something.

But whether that goes back to correlation in the wind tunnel, all these things, I guess all that’s going to be addresses and try to figure it out. Something isn’t adding up and I know the team has invested a lot and I guess the value for money is not coming yet. Where that lies I don’t know but we’ll see.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Which of F1’s five under-threat races should keep their races based on our Rate the Race scores?

Looking at the site’s very own circuit race ratings by readers, it seems that Silverstone should, without a shadow of a doubt, remain on the calendar. It is rated the second best circuit on the calendar, second only to COTA and the dropped Nurburgring circuit. COTA and Silverstone are the only to tracks out of those with at least seven races without any races rated under 5.4 (Monaco had races below that in 2017 and 2018, which aren’t shown on the page for some reason.). Horribly rated races at Baku, Canada and China will only serve to exacerbate Silverstone’s high position in ratings. Once Keith updates the standings, it will show Interlagos as third best on the calendar – it’s a shame that that track’s probably getting dropped soon too.

Looking at the other two tracks to keep, it’s closer, but Italy and Germany should stay. They are ranked 15th and 18th, while Mexico is 22nd and Spain 24th on my updated version. Mexico has only had four races to prove itself, though, and if this year’s race is good, it could go as high as 13th. If we’re going by the fewer races leniency, some should be held to Hockenheim, which has only had six – and if it weren’t for the scandalous 2010 race, ranked second-worst in Rate the Race history, it would be in fifth. Spain has had a few good races (2012, 2016, 2017), but has many poorly rated race: Three races (2010, 2018, 2019) are ranked below five, more than any track other than the legendary Sochi, which also has three races below five. Only five of the circuit’s 12 races were ranked above a six.
Thomas (@Talcumpowder)

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On this day in F1

  • 30 years ago today Alain Prost won the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard while Jean Alesi finished fourth on his debut

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Ricciardo: McLaren now Renault’s performance “benchmark””

  1. If a hypothetical person wanted to shoot Vladimir Putin, I’m pretty sure that person would be happy to shoot Bernie Ecclestone as well.

    1. That made me chuckle @exediron

      1. same :)

    2. Hah, +1
      (By the way, Bernie also spoke highly of Hitler who ‘got things done.’ Later he was forced to apologize.)

  2. And Ricciardo said no to Mclaren for Renault.

    1. It’s still a fair decision.
      At the time Mclaren were well and truly floundering and Renault is still a “manufacturer” team that has the resources and the budget (should they decide to use it) to truly compete with the top 3.
      Mclaren have certainly improved, but there’s still a long way to go before either team is competitive enough to be challenging for wins.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        9th July 2019, 18:33

        @dbradock More like that Renault waits for the top budgets to come down with the budget cap.

        1. Yeah that too although the size and exclusions in the proposed cap has backfired a bit in terms of that plan.

          Couple that with the fact that the biggest spenders will get a lot done in 2020 towards 2021 and it’ll take them years to achieve parity that way.

  3. After 7 years of struggling McLaren is finally somewhere resembling competitive. Keep calm and carry on. Just massive effort from a company that looked destined, to fall off like Williams currently.

    They are chipping away at it slowly improving and improving. I admire very much how much they turned their ship around.

    1. Agreed and they’ve learned some humility and aren’t announcing they’re back or that they’re a big deal again, just going about their business trying to keep the arrow pointing upwards which I think is the best approach for them at this point.

  4. I don’t really agree with bin.exe. I don’t see anything wrong with showing the footage of that specific track invasion.

  5. Wow, that’s quite the benchmark you got there Dany Ric

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