F1 News

[darwin dali]

I used to be able to watch the post-race press conference/interviews where the podium drivers sit down and get asked a couple questions - not anymore. ESPN doesn't show those and rather moves on to baseball or whatever.

[sagi58]

I used to be able to watch the post-race press conference/interviews where the podium drivers sit down and get asked a couple questions - not anymore. ESPN doesn't show those and rather moves on to baseball or whatever.

It's not the fans that count, is it? It's all about the sponsors, endorsements, advertisement...
oh, wait, that's the missing link, it's all about the...

[myownalias]

I used to be able to watch the post-race press conference/interviews where the podium drivers sit down and get asked a couple questions - not anymore. ESPN doesn't show those and rather moves on to baseball or whatever.

Maybe, this will all be part of the new streaming service from Liberty?

[overboost]

Alonso at Spa. Will start from pole for the 6 hour race:

[overboost]

Alonso wins the WEC Spa 6 Hours:



The Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima powered to victory at the Spa 6 Hours, the opening round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Belgium, the Spaniard triumphing on his LMP1 debut.

The McLaren driver shared the Toyota TS050 hybrid with former F1 drivers Buemi and Nakajima. The trio covered 163 laps around the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit which will also host a round of the F1 world championship later this year.

Alonso, in the cockpit for the final stint, survived a riveting pursuit by Mike Conway in the sister Toyota #7 which he shared with Kamui Kobayashi and José María López. Conway tried hard, but ‘rookie’ Alonso kept his composure in traffic and despite the pressure crossed the line to win by just over one second.

The victory, from pole, was Alonso’s first in any motorsport championship since he won his home Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari in 2013, indeed his lack of success at the pinnacle of the sport is what has resulted in the double world champion competing in the WEC. His well-known objective: the Triple Crown of Motorsports.

The Spaniard entered the Indy 500 last year, leading the race for a while before retiring.

Victory in his WEC debut sets him up well for the challenge of his first Le Mans 24 Hours race in June, where victory will further add to his stature as one of the great drivers of the current era.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/05/05 ... -nakajima/

[myownalias]

All the other teams need to get together to protest this; Mercedes need to fix their car to work better with the tires, not have the tire maker adjust their product to suit one team!

[darwin dali]

[sagi58]

Maybe MOA forgot a link?

Pirelli caters to Mercedes' blistering tyre demands!



Pirelli will undertake structural changes to its compounds to avoid blistering at certain tracks following a request from Mercedes.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, the German manufacturer consulted with Pirelli during pre-season testing in Barcelona in order to address the issue of extreme blistering of its tyres.

The Silver Arrows outfit suggested a reduction of the thickness of its rubber on recently resurfaced tracks such as Barcelona, Silverstone and Paul Ricard.

The rubber layer of Pirelli's compounds will therefore be 0.4mm thinner at these specific venues, reducing the weight of the cars by a kilo.

Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola explained the structural change but denied it was being done solely in Mercedes' interest.

"The new asphalt [in Barcelona] is blacker and smoother and producing even more grip. This can lead to overheating," said Isola.

"We would have done it anyway," he insisted, in reference to the modifications.

"With a lot of grip, the lap time is improving a lot. We saw the lap times during the pre-season test was three seconds quicker than last year.

"But the point is that we keep a lot of rubber on the tyre, because with low wear, the tread is there, we are not wearing the tyre. And this means we have high temperatures in the compound.

"So to try to reduce a little bit the temperature we asked for a small reduction in the tread thickness to reduce a little bit the temperature.

"We tested the solution already last year, and in terms of performance or other consequences, they are almost transparent.

"Obviously the reason we stayed on the standard tyre for this year was in normal circumstances you wear the tyre, and if you don’t have enough thickness, you wear the tyre too quickly."

Pirelli invoked a safety argument to justify the in-season change which would normally require a 70 percent agreement from the teams, and the FIA has accepted the specification change.

Needless to say, several outfits are not happy however, believing Pirelli has given in to Mercedes' appeal.

"We have no problems with blisters," a McLaren source said.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo agrees: "Our car is gentler on the tyres than the Mercedes."

An unnamed team boss added: "Why should we change the tyres if Mercedes has a problem?"

[sagi58]

All the other teams need to get together to protest this; Mercedes need to fix their car to work better with the tires, not have the tire maker adjust their product to suit one team!

Pretty sad that Mercedes has Pirelli "convinced" that it's a safety issue,
so it's ok to make changes mid-season.

If this makes Mercedes suddenly the better car, we'll all know why it
was "necessary"!!

[overboost]

Yep. It's the first of three races; Barcelona, Paul Ricard & Silverstone; that we get the special 'Mercedes' tires. Poor babies might get blisters otherwise.

It's just easier this way. Otherwise Merc has to do the whole illegal, 3 day, 1000 km, 'black helmet', private, in-season testing thing again.

Way to go FIA and das Pirelli.

[sagi58]

...It's just easier this way. Otherwise Merc has to do the whole illegal, 3 day, 1000 km, 'black helmet', private, in-season testing thing again.

Way to go FIA and das Pirelli.

What I'm about to ask are NOT facetious questions, nor are they rhetorical!
I really would like to understand this:

When Ferrari was putting hundreds and thousands of miles testing on their own track,
it became a problem for a number of teams who did not have the advantage of owning
their own track or, as I see it, who didn't have the finances to cover the hours and hours
of payroll budget this would incur. I get that. Big bucks = advantage.

Having said that, how is having ONE tire supplier, who SEEMS to favour one team any better?
How is it fair to penalize teams who can afford to test hours upon hours?
How is it fair to turn around and change the compounds, without testing them, once the season has begun?
Shouldn't ALL teams be treated equally and be given the opportunity to weigh in on this sudden decision?
How is it safe for teams who have built their car for specific compounds to be thrown a curve ball in the guise of safety?

Finally, will all those Ferrari-haters who have bitched, ad nauseum, for years finally stop whining about unfair advantages?
Better, will they finally recognize they should change their tune to a favourite K.C. and the Sunshine Band: "That's the Way, Uh-huh, Uh-huh, Mercedes Does it, Uh-huh, Uh-huh"?

[darwin dali]

...Mercedes likes it, uh-huh, uh-huh...

[sagi58]

...Mercedes likes it, uh-huh, uh-huh...

[Delfy]

This is F1. Teams will always look to exploit any loophole available. All teams do this and have done since F1 began. I can understand the frustration when your team isn’t the recipient of rule tweeks / changes but it’s swings and roundabouts. I’ve read a fair bit on this forum , though I haven’t posted much , and it seems a Ferrari weighted place. I have huge admiration for Ferrari, their achievements and charisma over the years, but they aren’t above playing any card that will give them advantage. Fair do’s I say! Talking of tyres, during the Schumacher years they pretty much had an exclusive tyre designer. Last year they were oil burning. This is the nature of F1. Its the edge of technology and teams will always look to get an advantage. But you can’t accept that advantage then cry foul if another team does the same.

[overboost]

The merc tires are cause for concern on the Ferrari as per Vettel's comments after Spanish FP2:

Vettel said the updates brought by Ferrari to Spain – which included the mounting of the mirrors to the halo and tweaks to the SF71H's floor – all "seemed to work".

"The car's OK, the updates are working, I can feel the car is better," he said. "The biggest change came from the tyres, they seem to be quite a bit different."

Pirelli has elected to bring tyres with a thinner tread to Barcelona – as well as the Paul Ricard and Silverstone F1 races later in the year – and Hamilton said he, like Vettel, noticed the difference with the Spanish GP specification.

"I think the race is going to be interesting, just with the tyres," he said.

"We've got much different tyres this weekend, given that there's less rubber on them, so they're feeling just different, sliding a lot more."