In the round-up: Sergio Perez says he and his team are keen to move past their disastrous British Grand Prix weekend.
In brief
Perez: Budapest an opportunity to redeem Silverstone
After spinning off during sprint qualifying, and having to start the British Grand Prix from the pit lane, Perez endured a disastrous weekend at Silverstone. He had to sacrifice 10th place to pit in order to prevent Lewis Hamilton scoring the bonus point for fastest lap.“It was a total disaster on our side,” he admitted yesterday, “With the sprint race, when I went off, that basically ruined our chances of doing anything.
“So we regrouped. We worked hard over the week to be as prepared as possible. Now looking forward to this one. It’s, if not the poorest weekend of the season on our side, it was very close. So just looking forward to Hungary and and full focus on this one.”
Norris’ record-setting run of points finishes a reward for hard work
Lando Norris says his run of 15 consecutive points finishes, which began before the season started, reflects the hard work he and McLaren have put in during his time with them.
“It’s impressive,” said Norris. “It’s a reward and a bonus of the work we’ve been putting in and the good results we’ve been having.
“It’s all part of it. Obviously a lot of it’s continued from last season already. But the best thing is so far this season everything is going very well. It’s going to plan – better than plan a lot of the time – so we’ll try to keep it up.”
Alonso not feeling his age as he turns 40
Fernando Alonso admitted he didn’t expect to be racing in Formula 1 at the age of 40 after marking his milestone birthday yesterday.
“I feel not 40 for sure, it’s the number that is surprising me as well,” Alonso said. “When I see it, when I see everyone in the motorhome – because the team prepared a very nice decoration of my room and in the lunch area as well – it’s a bigger number that what I feel.”
Alonso won the Hungarian Grand Prix when he was 22. He said that back then he would never have expected himself to still be in F1 18 years later.
“You live only the present,” he said. “You are not thinking too much about the future at that age and you are just focussed on the race weekend and you can hardly imagine yourself more than two or three years in time from that moment.
“Now, it’s a different thing, I’m more used to the sport, to Formula 1 and all the the things that are quite unique here. When I came into the sport, I was from a very small town in the north of Spain with no experience, no background, no nothing. And then you drive into this world and you are shocked four, four, five, six, seven years until you are used to to everything. So now it’s a little bit different. You know how things are and you are enjoying yourself.”
Tsunoda targets consistency in Hungary
Following a dip in form earlier in the year, Yuki Tsunoda is looking to continue his better run of late in Hungary. He said he was pleased to be “back to normal standard format” with three practice sessions before qualifying.
“I drove in Hungary already [for] two years and I really like this track, so I’m looking forward to it,” said the AlphaTauri driver.
“Recently [I’m] having consistent races compared to the beginning of the season, which I’m happy for, and for building up the confidence for the driving – getting up, getting better. I think what I need now is consistency.”
New Alfa Romeo hire responsible for F1 participation
Since renewing their partnership with Sauber, Alfa Romeo have moved to solidify their own connection to the F1 team by appointing Cristiano Fiorio responsible for the brand within F1.
Fiorio will report directly to Jean-Philippe Imparato, Alfa Romeo Brand CEO, and work on using their connection to F1 to further Alfa Romeo’s electrification strategy in its road vehicles.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Just don’t know how the producers of @BoxToBoxFilms #DTS will find any decent plot lines for this season?!?!?! 😂🤷♀️🤯🤪#F1.
— Jennie Gow (@JennieGow) July 29, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Albon: ‘Hamilton misjudged his line and we saw the consequence of his error’ (GQ)
"When it came to the main race, to me, Lewis misjudged his line and we all saw the big consequence of the error, but turn nine (Copse, as it’s known) is such a high-speed corner."
Hitting a different type of track - with a sledgehammer (Nicholas Latifi)
"I’m a great believer that if you can get different perspectives from other environments, it can have a positive influence on your own surroundings. A military-themed day out on 300-square miles of grassland with soldiers and heavy artillery machinery was definitely a first for me!"
112 - Lewis vs Max (Stefan Johansson)
"Unfortunately the cars today have so much aero-grip that drivers can get away with these outside moves often. Back in the day you’d never think of passing anyone on the outside because the grip wasn’t there. The only way to make it work was to gauge it for a couple laps and be really sure that you were comfortable with it. Now it’s like every track has two lines through a corner."
Budapest beckons for Veloce Racing as Chadwick targets return to top step (source)
"Chadwick: 'We have to go into this weekend on the front foot. Alice (Powell) did a fantastic job at Silverstone but now we have to come back stronger and fight for the win if we want the championship lead back.'"
The next step in McLaren's use of sustainable composites in F1 (McLaren)
"The chassis didn’t change over the winter break and neither did Lando, so the seat he raced in is from the same mould we used to make the original. The reason it’s taken longer than we would have liked to race with the seat is that there’s always a degree of cautiousness around bringing highly experimental components to the car."
The British Grand Prix experience (Factor UK)
"I happened to take a series of photos using my old Nikon SLR, without a motor drive, as Mansell made his pass and managed to secure a couple of reasonably sharp shots."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
As Lewis Hamilton voices opposition to proposed Hungarian anti-LGBTQ+ laws, Hunocsi gives a perspective from the country hosting this weekend’s Grand Prix.
Sadly, as a Hungarian I can tell you that here it is not the case. A large percentage of people are bigoted, and he’s not popular here (you can guess why), and while he certainly won’t change any person’s mind, he might have an uncomfortable weekend (although an F1 crowd might not care about these things too much).
Fortunately the pro-LGBTQ+ stance is much more popular than just a few years ago, but I’m afraid too many people’s minds cannot be changed on even smaller issues than this.
I am neutral about Hamilton, but I’m glad he raised his voice, and I’m hopeful a few others might join him, although he’s wrong on that people should vote on the referendum (the questions are very cynical and the referendum isn’t legitimized anyway if without a 50% attendance).
@hunocsi
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David BR (@david-br)
30th July 2021, 0:09
Good to know Perez knows which circuit is next at least, given he’s spent the past two weeks sim racing round Silverstone. Hopefully he knows which car he’s driving too.
Red Pill (@redpill)
30th July 2021, 1:13
Glad Perez is seeing it realistically. Red Bull needs him now than ever and he needs to bounce back and really pull off some fantastic numbers/points this weekend.
I would think the warming up to the car period is now over after ten races and now needs to perform much better, beating Bottas when possible and score solid points on a regularly basis for the rest of the season. The car is proving to be world class caliber this season so time to step up and put it to good use. I want to see Perez stick around and continue racing in F1, hopefully it will be in a RB car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th July 2021, 7:11
Indeed, he had some higher highs than bottas but on average he’s not doing the bare min expected of him as often as bottas is. There’s rumors of bottas replacements, so don’t see how perez can feel safe in red bull.
pastaman (@)
30th July 2021, 2:10
I had my fill of milk already last week, maybe next week I will finally click on something here. It’s so bad I’m actually reading Formula E news and I don’t even follow the races.
Rob (@)
30th July 2021, 2:58
Going out on a limb and predicting a sainz victory and another poor performance for Perez, who historically hasn’t done well here
BasCB (@bascb)
30th July 2021, 7:13
Won’t read that Albon interview – since he pretty clearly mentioned that he saw it more or less as a racing incident when presenting the after race show with Will Buxton on F1TV (after seeing stuf etc), now saying he sees it differently is just part of toeing the company line at Red Bull.
Mayrton
30th July 2021, 9:03
Anything less of a front row start makes Perez utterly useless. Mercedes has a really easy season once again.
Dave
30th July 2021, 10:22
Re Perez: Checo has my strong support. Only him. Wheatley, Newey and their pit crew are okay/good people in my opinion.
Re Norris: Return to the long-time supplier. One orange, one Gulf. Keep it closer. Reach the limits. That’s the McLaren I see.
Re Alonso: Guess Kimi doesn’t feel it either. Outside of F1, Helio doesn’t feel it.
Re Tsunoda: Unless you can go wheel-to-wheel and it isn’t going wrong.
On this day too: Jacques Villeneuve’s last ever race.