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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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Sad to see @SMP_Racing leave the @FIAWEC LMP1 championship… Thanks for the great memories! @ARTGP pic.twitter.com/phXuTtJq6t
— Stoffel Vandoorne (@svandoorne) July 8, 2019
For God's sake F1, stopping showing the "lunatic on British GP", and do what FIFA has agreed with TV's to stop the pitch invasion. It means if it happened, doesn't show.
— bin.exe (@555_exe) July 8, 2019
…and the other after Axel Gnos was flipped onto his roll hoop. pic.twitter.com/QCatEHOTH8
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) July 8, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
SMP Racing reached the targets in FIA WEC (SMP Racing)
"After the final race at Le Mans we decided that SMP Racing will leave the FIA WEC. Our team will not race in 2019-2020 season."
Motorsport UK (formerly Motor Sport Association) chairman David Richards: "The fundamentals, the financial side, have been agreed. It is just the final details that need to be signed off, and I am confident they will be."
Honda targets boosted quali mode after first win (Autosport)
"Of course it's including (looking) towards next year, but when it's ready - when we think it's got enough reliability and performance - we want to use it."
Bernie Ecclestone: "'He’s never done anything that isn’t doing good things for people.' What about the invasion of Crimea? 'He wanted to bring Russia back together again.' What about the assassination attempt of the Skripals? 'He didn’t do that. He would be too busy to be worrying about that sort of thing. Storytellers make these things up.'"
Daytona 400 highlights (NASCAR via YouTube)
Highlights Italian F4 Hungaroring race one (WSK via Facebook)
Hungaroring – Gara 1
Posted by Italian F.4 Championship Powered By Abarth on Saturday, 6 July 2019
Highlights Italian F4 Hungaroring race two (WSK via Facebook)
Back LIVE from Hungaroring 🎥🔴 for another emotional race of Italian F.4 Championship Powered By Abarth
Posted by Italian F.4 Championship Powered By Abarth on Sunday, 7 July 2019
Highlights Italian F4 Hungaroring race three (WSK via Facebook)
Fasten your seat belts. We're LIVE from Hungaroring 🎥🔴 for Race 3 of Italian F.4 Championship Powered By Abarth weekend.
Posted by Italian F.4 Championship Powered By Abarth on Sunday, 7 July 2019
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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)
From the forum
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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
Exediron (@exediron)
9th July 2019, 3:13
If a hypothetical person wanted to shoot Vladimir Putin, I’m pretty sure that person would be happy to shoot Bernie Ecclestone as well.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
9th July 2019, 6:26
That made me chuckle @exediron
MCBosch (@mcbosch)
9th July 2019, 7:02
same :)
Alex De (@alexde)
9th July 2019, 19:49
Hah, +1
(By the way, Bernie also spoke highly of Hitler who ‘got things done.’ Later he was forced to apologize.)
Chaitanya
9th July 2019, 4:36
And Ricciardo said no to Mclaren for Renault.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
9th July 2019, 6:40
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.
F1oSaurus (@)
9th July 2019, 18:33
@dbradock More like that Renault waits for the top budgets to come down with the budget cap.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th July 2019, 0:54
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.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th July 2019, 6:37
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.
Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
9th July 2019, 9:07
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.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th July 2019, 12:35
I don’t really agree with bin.exe. I don’t see anything wrong with showing the footage of that specific track invasion.
Joao (@johnmilk)
9th July 2019, 16:25
Wow, that’s quite the benchmark you got there Dany Ric