In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton indicated he is moving closer to agreeing terms with Mercedes to extend his contract beyond the end of the current season.
In brief
Hamilton wants to sort deal and “focus”
During the FIA press conference after yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix Hamilton said his representatives will meet with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff today. He later stated that “wasn’t a subtle hint” and it is “just another one of the meetings that we’re having.”
However he admitted the subject of his future was on his mind and he’s keen to finalise the arrangements so he can put more of his energies elsewhere.
“It’s always something that’s at the back of your mind so once that’s done, then you’re able to then focus more and think about the future,” he said. “As I said I’m working as hard as I can with this team and I see so much strength within the team, I think they’re still so hungry.”
Mercedes achieved their best result of the season so far in Spain. “When we go back right now there’ll be a great energy within the office,” said Hamilton, “but these guys, they’ll take two seconds to enjoy themselves and be happy and then they’ll be back down into the books and trying to figure out how we can win the next race so that’s what I love about them.”
Zhou “had to take avoiding action”
Zhou Guanyu dismissed Yuki Tsunoda’s claim he intentionally left the circuit as their pair fought for position to create the impression his rival hadn’t left him enough space. Tsunoda was given a five-second penalty after Zhou took to the run-off at turn one.“It was very straightforward,” Zhou explained. “I was ahead before braking into turn one and then mid-corner I was actually giving a lot of space and then I just saw he wasn’t stopping, tried to release the brake and run me off. I had to take avoiding action in the escape road, otherwise we will be clashing together.
“So that was tricky after that because I had so much rubbish on my tyres. But in the end I was able to keep it behind in the right position and get the points position back.”
“Back to the drawing board” for Haas
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said they will have to rethink their approach to tyre management after both his drivers finished lower than they started. Nico Hulkenberg lost seven places and finished 15th. Kevin Magnussen took the chequered flag three places behind him.
“Quite a disappointing result today, we just couldn’t get the tyres to stay alive,” said Steiner. “We did one more pit stop than everyone else, but even if we hadn’t stopped, we would’ve gone slower and ended up there anyway.
“We need to go back to the drawing board and try to find a solution to our tyre degradation.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Ferrari fastest at 24 Hours Le Mans Test Day (FIA WEC)
'The number 51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P was the quickest of the entire field, with a 3m29.504s lap set by Antonio Giovinazzi, 0.144s ahead of the number six Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor and 0.323s ahead of the repaired number seven Toyota Gazoo Racing GR10 of Kamui kobayashi. The top seven cars were covered by less than one second at the end of the session.'
Alessandro Alunni Bravi: 'We had reasonable pace throughout the weekend and we confirmed that the good things we showed in practice were not a fluke. We saw that our race pace is better than our qualifying pace, which is something we will address as a priority as we aim for another step forward ahead of Montreal.'
Crowds gather in downtown Detroit for Grand Prix second day (Detroit Free Press)
'Deborah Micheaua, 68 of Southfield, has been attending the grand prix since it began in 1982, missing only two years, she said. 'It's fantastic, I would tell anybody to come down and enjoy these beautiful days,'.'
Vasselon: Toyota 'Surprised' By BoP Rules Change (Sportscar 365)
'It has not been agreed, clearly. The danger we see in this change of rule is that it will bring back sandbagging.'
Broken lights and a policeman’s bike: Bentley’s run at first Le Mans in 1923 (The Guardian)
'On their return home, the Bentley team discovered that the event had made little impact on the British public.'
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 to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
.@FIA Staff gathered beside our new mobile technical offices with @F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona as we continue to make investments across our championships. pic.twitter.com/zeQArSAKWP
— Mohammed Ben Sulayem (@Ben_Sulayem) June 4, 2023
We are 1⃣2⃣5⃣.5⃣6⃣5⃣ attendees today!!! 👏👏👏#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/GvDpGgherF
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) June 4, 2023
That race was the perfect repudiation of the clueless idea that forcing everyone to make two pit stops would automatically make all races exciting.#F1 #SpanishGP #RaceFans
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) June 4, 2023
Went to my first race this season and @MercedesAMGF1 ended up getting their first double podium this year!
Maybe I should go to more races? #F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/qAZwdq4H1v
— Yatish Chandra (@yatishchandraa) June 4, 2023
Suspension failure!
Guess the track wasn’t made for our car…— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) June 4, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Charles Leclerc’s strategy made no sense to @Tifoso1989:
starting on hards and stopping early with no sign of tyre issues is pointless. His times were consistent albeit a bit slow which is understandable due to the delta between the compounds.
It would have made more sense to start him on the softs.
@Tifoso1989
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Ratboy and Davef1!
On this day in motorsport
- 40 years ago today Michele Alboreto scored Tyrrell’s final win in F1’s last race at Long Beach
ykiki (@ykiki)
5th June 2023, 2:56
On this day in motorsport, Michele Alboreto won in DETROIT and not F1’s final race in Long Beach (which was won by Watson a couple months earlier).
Qeki (@qeki)
5th June 2023, 6:29
Don’t ruin WEC. You almost made it perfect with all the manufacturers and rules…..
At least other Alfa had pace..
Imagine hearing 24h race first time in 1923 even if you haven’t even seen a car.
MichaelN
5th June 2023, 11:25
The 3m29.504s laptime is quite striking, they’re so much slower than the LMP1 cars were!
Maybe it’s for the best, as it was becoming a bit too much for the ACO at a Grade 2 track.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th June 2023, 6:45
Zhou indeed had to take avoiding actions because of Tsunoda’s understeer, meaning if contact had happened, the latter would’ve been equally at fault for not being in full control of his car.
Indeed a perfect repudiation since pit stop amounts have never automatically meant a race is exciting per se.
However, this one was decently exciting because of variable strategies rather than a straightforward medium-hard, etc., & also good amount of racing from P2 downwards.
Yes, Leclerc’s strategy was questionable, given he started on the hardest compound.
MichaelN
5th June 2023, 11:31
F1 drivers love to claim understeer when running wide to defend a position, but somehow they always seem to manage just fine when trying to overtake on the inside. As for Tsunoda… everyone saw what he did when Pérez came up behind him. Such an “independent” team.
Indycar – even in Detroit – once more showed that proper racing rules always results in better on track action for drivers and fans alike. And they don’t even need DRS.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
5th June 2023, 7:32
Thank you for the COTD !
Bob C.
5th June 2023, 7:49
I would so like to like Haas as the plucky underdog (and having a Danish driver…) but they are not really making it easier for me by having the same type of problem seasons in and out.
Maybe there’s something wrong with that drawing board, that they keep returning to, that needs looking at?
S
5th June 2023, 9:53
This ‘race’ wasn’t exciting – but it wasn’t because of the number of pit stops. It was because of the cars, the rules, the track and the truly excessive amount of management that teams can do at all times. It is not a sport – it is a mathematical exercise conducted by computers.
I’d love to know of even one person who has ever said that “forcing everyone to make two pit stops would automatically make all races exciting.”
I would say, though, that more stops do create more variables – and that is at least potentially more exciting. Unpredictable and rewarding are perhaps better terms than exciting, though.
dot_com (@dot_com)
5th June 2023, 12:49
I do have this weird feeling that Hamilton may still jump ship to Ferrari. He’s almost at the end of his career and I think he’ll always regret not racing in red if he doesn’t. Surely it must be on his mind at least a little.
grat
5th June 2023, 16:10
Any chance of Hamilton heading to Ferrari died in Barcelona, after suffering serious injuries at Monaco.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
5th June 2023, 14:46
I always roll my eyes when various people on Sky constantly push the idea of having forcing everyone to run all 3 compounds to ensure every race is 2 stops because the number of pit stops isn’t usually the thing that makes a race good or bad & indeed over the years i’ve seen just as many very good 0-1 stop races as I have very bad 2-3+ stop races.
The thing that can make racing more interesting when it comes to strategy is when there is multiple viable options or when it’s marginal between 1-2 stops which then encourages different teams/drivers try different things. Or of course when you have a situation like Montreal in 2010 where the circuit and/or weather conditions throw everyone a curveball (In that case higher than expected tyre wear) and nobody is really sure how to manage it.
I’ve said this before but I think the biggest mistake that was made after Montreal 2010 is trying to artificially emulate that everywhere with the High-deg tyre philosophy as all it did was take something that was as good as it was because it was unexpected & turn it into something everyone was expecting & therefore planned how to deal with. Thats why you had so much focus on tyre management in those early years of the Pirelli era, Everyone knew the tyres were going to act a certain way so everyone spent most there time focussing on how to cope with it.
You never had that at Montreal 2010 because nobody turned up to that weekend expecting tyre wear to be as big a factor as it was & it’s that unexpected element & everyone having to figure it out on the fly that made that race as good as it was.
S
5th June 2023, 16:00
That, right there, is the secret sauce that makes any F1 race good.
Management/data/simulation/communication is the opposite of that. There is simply too much of it, and it’s ruining both the sport and the show.
grat
5th June 2023, 16:16
The problem is, people who aren’t racing engineers keep thinking they can engineer spontaneity and unpredictability.
The race engineer’s job is to remove as many variables as possible from the equation– so they’re going to do their jobs, and minimize the impact of any regulation that consistently tries to enforce unpredictable behavior.
It’s funny when pundits and armchair experts think they can outsmart some of the smartest engineers on the planet.