In the round-up: Antonio Giovinazzi spent most of the Russian Grand Prix “struggling with the car” after a radio failure left him unable to communicate with his team.
In brief
Giovinazzi: “I was struggling with the car, to be honest”
Giovinazzi revealed he suffered a radio failure on lap one of the Russian Grand Prix, meaning he had no way of communicating with the Alfa Romeo pit wall.“A silent race with no radio again from lap one to the end,” said Giovinazzi. “I had contact on lap one and then I lost some time behind the Haas and Williams.”
Drivers had to make late-race calls on when to pit for intermediate tyres, in worsening conditions. Without being able to contact his team, Giovinazzi made a late tyre change on lap 50 – at the same time as Lando Norris, who had been attempting to go to the end.
“I was struggling with the car, to be honest,” said Giovinazzi, who finished 16th.
Norris’ rain dilemma “every driver’s worst nightmare”
George Russell empathised with Lando Norris’ lost win at the Russian Grand Prix, saying the call to pit was impossible to make completely correctly.
“It’s every driver’s worst nightmare to be leading the race and you start seeing rain on your visor.
“You’re damned if you do box, you’re damned if you don’t box. You’re in a lose-lose position,” said Russell, who also lost a potential maiden win at last season’s Sakhir Grand Prix.
“I’ve been there, it definitely hurts, but he’ll recover. I guess you try and take the positives from it and he’ll have a victory sooner or later, I’m sure.”
Ferrari hybrid system upgrade improved Sochi performance
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto was pleased with the gains he saw from the upgraded power unit the team ran on Charles Leclerc’s car for the first time last weekend. “We introduced an update to the hybrid system for the power unit, which worked the way we had expected and produced a little bit more performance,” he said.
However, Binotto bemoaned that the team had been unable to secure Leclerc a points finish, despite his recovery from starting 19th.
“We were not perfect in other areas, for example the pit stops and tyre management with Charles in those final chaotic moments of the race, whereas with Carlos [Sainz Jnr] everything went according to plan and we will build on the experience gained today.”
Formula 3 champion Hauger given post-race penalty for tyre change
Dennis Hauger, who sealed the Formula 3 title on Friday, was given a 10-second stop-go penalty, converted to a 30-second time penalty, after scrutineers deemed he had changed tyres without a permissible justification.
F3 does not have pit stops during its sprint race format and drivers are not allowed to change tyres unless they have become “punctured or damaged,” according to Article 39.8 of the series’ sporting regulations.
Hauger pitted, reporting serious vibrations, after spinning at turn seven. All four of his tyres were changed by his Prema mechanics but when checked after the race, the discarded tyres were judged not to have suffered enough damage to have justified the replacement.
The technical delegate examining Hauger’s car further found that there was no evidence of significant vibrations through the steering wheel, so Hauger’s stop was deemed a violation. All his lap times from lap 11 were therefore discounted. Arthur Leclerc therefore earned the final fastest lap of the season.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Catalunya: good strategic contest
Paul Ricard: decided on the penultimate lap
Sochi: weather twist and a landmark momentWhen the typically sleepy races are enthralling. You know you're in a special season. #RussianGP #F1 #C4F1
— Alex Jacques (@AlexJacquesF1) September 26, 2021
Lando, gotta feel for you mate. You did the right thing and followed your gut. It was alot easier for Lewis as he had nothing to loose with a free pit stop to retain P2. Such a cool race. Max and Carlos class drives also.
— Antonio Felix da Costa (@afelixdacosta) September 26, 2021
O'Ward on the contact with Jones: "It's not the first time he's hit us, not the first time he's done something stupid all season. I just wish he could use his head a little bit more – or at least respect the guys who are fighting for the championship." #IndyCar
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) September 26, 2021
This has to be one of the best #F1 seasons ever. Awesome race. Loving it. Feeling for Lando but that win will come soon enough 🙌🏻 #F1
— Daniel Abt (@Daniel_Abt) September 26, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Loake keeps his cool to win dramatic Silverstone finale (British F4)
"The 15-year-old made a level start from the fourth row and capitalised on a first-lap collision between championship leader Matias Zagazeta (Phinsys by Argenti) and his chief rivals Matthew Rees and McKenzy Cresswell (both JHR) at Becketts to move into the frame for a third victory of the campaign."
Martins has mixed feelings over top rookie spot after finishing fifth in 2021 standings (Formula 3)
"Martins: 'Now I finished P5, it was the worst I could’ve done. I’m happy because I’m the first rookie, but still a bit disappointed. I knew that if I was doing good enough this season, I could’ve ended up P3, but in the end it was a really good season, I learned a lot.'"
Zhou 'sure' that UNI Virtuosi have the pace to keep fighting for the title (Formula 2)
"Zhou: 'This weekend has been a tough one, but we are still there in the Championship. A few people are catching up behind us, but that isn't something to worry about.'"
Euroformula Open round 14: Monza (Euroformula Open via YouTube)
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
Looking at who gained and lost during the Russian Grand Prix, Pinak Ghosh points out the Mercedes boss’ chance of predicting lottery numbers had a good day.
The winner of the day is Toto Wolff. He predicted a win for Lewis. That happened.
He wanted Bottas to pass the cars ahead and team wanted a top 5 and that happened too.
@pinakghosh
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F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
27th September 2021, 7:32
Räikkönen is back and suddenly Giovinazzi is his old slow self again. Very strange.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
27th September 2021, 9:02
Honestly I just thought it was pretty impressive he did the whole race without radio!
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
27th September 2021, 9:57
@t1redmonkey He was just incredibly slow in qualifying after two Q3 appearances and invisible in the race. Probably it didn’t make much of a difference as with the lack of communication it would have been impossible to change to intermediates at exactly the right time, but still… Where did his speed go?
Qeki (@qeki)
27th September 2021, 11:03
@f1infigures Maybe he knows something about next year we don’t
Jere (@jerejj)
27th September 2021, 14:13
@qeki That he won’t stay.
@f1infigures He’s just inconsistent and in races especially.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th September 2021, 9:37
Literally a whole race without radio. Impressive. Almost like going back in time.
BasCB (@bascb)
27th September 2021, 13:56
Especially this race where it was really important to be able to communicate since there were hardly any gaps to pit into, the teams were unsure about how the tyres would hold up and with the rain towards the end @jerejj
someone or something
27th September 2021, 18:58
On top of that, the early collision with Schumacher didn’t help. No idea how bad it was, but all drivers have a habit of asking their race engineers about damage immediately after a collision, no matter how light. That way they know what to expect, if they can lean on the car or should be prepared for handling issues.
Hitting another car and then hearing no feedback whatsoever from the team must’ve been rather distressing and detrimental to getting into the groove early in the race.
stefano (@alfa145)
27th September 2021, 23:32
I might be off topic and sound harsh, which I don’t mean to, but wasn’t Norris expecting a penalty for crossing pit entry line? I read no news on that
stefano (@alfa145)
27th September 2021, 23:42
ok forget it, I just found out he got a reprimand and kept seventh, good for him