In the round-up: Kevin Magnussen says Haas are simply unable to make their tyres perform at Spa.
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What they say
Magnussen said the marks from the tyre moulds are still visible after several laps of running:A difficult day for us. We’re not making the tyres work at all. It’s basically like plastic tyres. They’re just not being used, after seven, eight laps, they’re still completely new and you can see the line from the mould when they were made. Just not using it at all.
It’s very tough to go anywhere from there when the tyres are just simply not working, not suiting our car for whatever reason. It’s tough. Downforce-wise we’ve been up and down a little bit today to try and pursue the right level.
I’ve not got the hydraulic suspension this weekend, that makes a big difference on this track so with the tyres being so on the limit it’s also not ideal having to go less downforce. It’s a little bit of a difficult situation, we’ll see if we can manage.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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@damsracing
May his force & spirit be with us👊 pic.twitter.com/P28KdKNjRc— Stephane Guerin (@stephguerin_) August 30, 2019
With his fourth @F1 team mate, @Max33Verstappen continues his run of only having team mates older than him:@Carlossainz55: 3 years, 30 days older@danielricciardo: 8 years, 93 days older@PierreGASLY: 1 years, 236 days older@alex_albon: 1 year, 191 days older#F1 pic.twitter.com/2pEz2d9ONc
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You really do see everything @circuitspa A couch on a picker raised up to see the circuit!!! 😂😂😂 10/10 for imagination 👏🏻 #BelgianGP #F1 #imagination pic.twitter.com/uSsre3uHTz
— Ross H (@peco_train) August 30, 2019
Check out these pictures of the new #EFOpen car, the Dallara 320, making its track debut in Italy 🕶☉🏎 pic.twitter.com/LReYxmTJkn
— Euroformula Open (@EF_Open) August 30, 2019
From Grosjean's words it increasingly seems he expects to be somewhere other than Haas next year. #F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/hBEFwo2pBE
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) August 30, 2019
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Starting off on the right leg (Alfa Romeo)
"Thanks for asking about my leg: It’s okay. Beside this I’m not overly happy with today. The lap time is okay, but we have a lot of work to do with the set up of the car and I really believe, if we get the balance right we can improve tomorrow."
Belgian GP free practice (Toro Rosso)
Jonathan Eddolls: "We’re pleased to be working with Pierre again, we worked closely with him last year and he has tremendous speed, so we’re looking forward to maximising his performance in the second half of the season."
Mercedes kicks of Belgian GP weekend at Spa-Francorchamps (Mercedes)
James Allison: "The car balance was a bit too much towards understeer this morning and the track surface here is quite a rough asphalt, which makes it pretty demanding on the tyres if you don’t have the car’s balance correct. That hurts on both the single lap and the long runs because you can’t keep the goodness in the tyres if the balance isn’t there. It will be small changes that we’re looking for but there’s nevertheless some work to do overnight if we want to pick up where we left off before the summer break."
Sir Jackie Stewart pays tribute to ‘the best’ at Jim Clark museum opening (The Courier)
"Jimmy became a global person. Scotland’s greatest export is our people, and Jimmy was part of that, taking motor racing to a new audience"
De Vries tops red hot qualifying session (F2)
"Nyck de Vries delivered on his free practice form with pole position in FIA Formula 2 qualifying, to strengthen his grip at the top of the driver’s championship and set himself up for a potential fourth win of the season."
Daruvala back on form with pole in Spa-Francorchamps (F3)
"Jehan Daruvala scored his first pole position of the season with a scintillating late tour of Spa-Francorchamps in today’s FIA Formula 3 qualifying. The Prema ace was the best of a late sprint to pole, beating out Trident’s Pedro Piquet and Jenzer Motorsport’s Yuki Tsunoda."
4H Silverstone Preview: Part 3, LMP1 (Daily Sportscar)
"And the Toyotas have received additional weight since Le Mans too, they now sit at 932kg, 14 kilos up from Barcelona’s Prologue test, which was itself 14 kilos up from the final round of last season."
IndyCar Q&A: Rosenqvist talks rookie season, credits Franchitti (IndyCar)
"I want to stay in IndyCar and win races and championships. That’s my target. I wouldn’t commit to this level if I didn’t want to do it all the way. You need to learn, and I’ve had a year now to get the basics. Next year it’s time to put it into the next gear."
The new Dallara 320 makes successful first shake-down at Varano (Euroformula Open)
Dan Ticktum: "I have driven all types of single-seaters and for me, like for many drivers, my preferred racing car is the Dallara F312/317. After this first test with the new 320, I am glad to say that Dallara has achieved to make an even better car."
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Comment of the day
Would testing a new race or qualifying format as a one-off give any useful information?
I think one of the main problems of testing formats for one or two races is that two races is not a meaningful sample to draw definitive conclusions from. Look at the last eight races we’ve had – four were dull as dishwater and four were absolute belters. There are a tonne of variables that determine how ‘entertaining’ a race is. The last time they saw one good race and decided to make all races like that was Canada 2010 – and that gave us around seven years of designed to degrade tyres, which had mixed results at best in terms of entertainment.
That’s not to say they shouldn’t test different formats, but there are definitely dangers of drawing too many conclusions from them. I’d probably say I’d rather they test formats more in lower formulae, rather than experiment with F1 which is supposed to be the ‘pinnacle’ of motorsport – although that may also be unpopular with fans of those formats.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
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Rui (@colinmcrui)
31st August 2019, 0:52
F3 and F2 events happen at different times of the day, but why are F2 lap times more than 15 sec. slower than F3? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
31st August 2019, 5:11
That F2 report is a hot mess. They give a 2:23.620, which was Sette Camara’s first lap, but then they don’t mention the pole time (only the gap between first and second). Sette Camara’s time was probably a warmup lap because the pole was a 1:58.304, and the slowest qualifying time was a 2:03.224, with 16 drivers below 2:00.237.
And the F3 report isn’t any better. The only time they give is Jüri Vips’s, who qualified 6th, then they mentioned thast some drivers qualified faster (but not how much faster) and then they give Daruvala’s gap to second, which is useless because you can’t know Piquet’s time. The pole was 2:05.125.
So nah, F2 is still faster than F3, the reports are simply written in the least helpful way possible. It can’t be that hard to put some actually useful data in them.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
31st August 2019, 0:53
My biggest issue with them testing different weekend & especially qualifying formats during a season is that I don’t think testing ideas like this should be able to impact the championship battle. A driver losing the title because something happened at the 1st corner of a qualifying race or something just because F1 wanted to test silly ideas would in my view not be fair.
To be perfectly honest the more I hear about some of the future plans & ideas the less it makes me want to spend money to keep watching it because honestly a lot of what i’ve seen proposed for 2021 is stuff I can’t say i’m 100% a fan of. Some of it I see as a bit gimmickey but some of the ‘spec component’ stuff I just see as been completely against the spirit of F1.
If they want to introduce a budget cap (And i’m still not 100% sold on that as something thats workable) I think they should allow teams more technical & design freedom rather than less. Hearing talk of spec parts & having a group within F1 that will monitor teams developments & shut down anything they deem may hurt the show is something i’m really not a fan of.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
31st August 2019, 10:46
@stefmeister
This is another good point – experimenting with the format devalues the current championship and might skew the results by having one or two races that are a virtual lottery.
SteveR
31st August 2019, 1:42
Not getting those tires hot enough? Meh, just add toe in until they start working.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st August 2019, 7:43
”Look at the last eight races we’ve had – four were dull as dishwater and four were absolute belters.”
– Monaco and Canadian GPs weren’t bad, though, especially the latter, but neither the former considering its standards.
The French GP I felt at the time also got an unnecessary amount of hate, as it wasn’t that bad either. I’ve never implied it was a classic, but neither an absolute bore-fest. There’s definitely being far-worse races quality of racing-wise over the years. The Spanish GP, yes, apart from the laps after the SC-period, was quite straightforward.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
31st August 2019, 10:49
@jerejj Fair enough, I may have exaggerated slightly to make the point. It’s always going to be a bit subjective but I’d say four were below average races and four were very good though.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
31st August 2019, 11:14
@keithedin @jerejj
We really only had 2 races ‘dull as dishwater’: France and China.
Melbourne, Baku, Spain and Monaco were ok and Bahrain, Canada, Austria, Germany, GBR and Hungary were very good.
These three things really set the narrative for this season: 6 ok, but overall unspectacular races + 2 borefests, stewards deciding things in a room fans can’t see and Ferrari failing to be anywhere near competency lead to effectively gifting both championships to Mercedes by the end of June (!)
frood19 (@frood19)
31st August 2019, 8:20
COTD makes a very good point. Decision making in this sport has never been particularly evidence based, which is surprising given the number of scientific/engineering minds in the general caravan. I feel money just guides everything and to hell with any kind of scientific method. The promotion of Brawn was encouraging but the culture has to change throughout the organisation and this will obviously take time.
Grosjean’s comments could hardly be more transparent (who would keep him if hulkenberg is available?!) but perhaps he’s bluffing. Drivers are rarely so open!
Nitzo (@webtel)
31st August 2019, 8:39
Should Hulkenberg replace him at Haas, what are the odds of Romain replacing Kubica at Williams ?
i know this is an offbeat idea, but i do not think Kubica has done enough to warrant a place at Williams next year.
If he does end up at Williams, then i definitely do not want to hear Ro’moan’ Grosjean’ on the team radio during a race !!
James
31st August 2019, 9:56
I think a driver like Romain would help a team like Williams. He gives a lot of feedback and is very blunt about whether something is or isn’t working. I’d also say that consistency is less important when fighting for the last four positions, but a one off decent result is more valuable and Grosjean does tend to deliver a handful of exceptional races each year.
Only Facts!
31st August 2019, 9:53
Where is Grosjean going to?
MAG and HUL toghether at HAAS? Only If Hulk signs as 2nd driver “yes sir / ok sir” blind obedience type of contract. That would bring the peace they need to turn things around.
But again who would take GRO?
Best spot for a french drivers hás just been taken by OCO at Renault. Williams is paying travel expenses only to Kubica, would they be willing to up that bet to GRO level?
Alfa could take him If RAI decides to leave (president is 39 y.o….), but they must have KVYAT on the radar too, after his days as Ferrari back up/simulator.
Stay tuned for the next chapter.
BasCB (@bascb)
31st August 2019, 14:01
Who knows, maybe Grosjean is buying into the new Asian team Panthera only Facts
Jockey Ewing
1st September 2019, 11:44
Kimi is still better than Grosjean ever will be. Ok he can turn into an oracle like
Takuma Sato, or Gabriele Tarquini and pwn elsewhere before his retirement age.
Also i’m not sure KMag will be competitive enough against Hulk. KMag shown some
improvements from season to season, but he could be replaced by many young talents
While Hulk was not utterly bad against Perez or Ricciardo, and he was not
dangerous or hotheaded like KMag or Gro. Results having a high variance in such
sport with so marginal differences. Only multiple seasons can prove really.
Ofc you can read better if you are insider and have tons of telemetry what we don’t have.
Jockey Ewing
1st September 2019, 11:50
I wont dare to put Grosjean into Indy, there are short ovals with lap records below 20 secs…
can you imagine? At a full grid thats 1 car / second density, constant wheel on wheel, frequent 3wide
situations. Thats just unbelievable.