Aston martin in f1

The second one-hour session of Friday day at Imola featured a number of unusual developments, as the Mercedes drivers did not find major gains using the soft tyres on their mid-session qualifying simulation runs, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc actually set FP2's best time, but had it deleted for a track limits offence. Leclerc then brought the session to an early end when he crashed at the second Rivazza corner in final minutes. Much like in the day's opening session, the first 15 minutes of the session were very busy, with several drivers enjoying time at the top of the standings. George Russell led the pack out and duly set the opening lap of FP2 at 1m22.939s, which was soon bettered by Kimi Raikkonen's 1m20.118s. Carlos Sainz and Leclerc brought the P1 benchmark into the 1m17s bracket, with the latter's 1m17.076s taking him to the top of the times as he followed his teammate around the 3-mile track. Both Ferrari drivers were running the medium tyres – the same … [Read more...] about Emilia Romagna GP: Bottas tops FP2 as Verstappen hits trouble

This comes off the back of an intensive test program that the former Renault F1 team undertook a few weeks ago in Bahrain as it endeavors to return to the sharp end of the grid. The updated parts that will be tested by Alpine in Imola focus on the front end of the car this time, rather than the floor as they did a few weeks ago. Although, that’s not to say that those parts won’t once again be drawn into their test program, as the team looks for ways to improve the global performance of the car. Read Also: Are Z-shaped floors the way to go in F1 2021? How Mercedes is trying to claw back its lost downforce The team have two options when it comes to the design of their front wing endplate, with a notch taken out of the upper rear corner on one design and not the other (red arrow). This is a design feature we’ve seen deployed by various teams since the regulations changed in 2019 and has an impact on the ‘outwash effect’ that teams are continuously tweaking in … [Read more...] about Revealed: Alpine’s aggressive F1 aero updates for Imola

In recent seasons, Red Bull has selected contra-tyre strategy approaches in the middle phase of qualifying to try and gain an upper hand in race strategy versus Mercedes during the Black Arrows' years of dominance. This approach helped Red Bull beat Mercedes in 2020's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix – where Max Verstappen used tyres that were a step harder compared to the Mercedes cars to gain an early advantage. Last time out in Bahrain, where Red Bull confirmed its testing promise as having the fastest car so far in 2021, both teams attempted to get through to Q3 on the medium tyres to avoid running the delicate softs at the start of the race. Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas (as well as AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly) got through on the better race rubber, but Perez was eliminated in Q2 – eventually finishing fifth in the race after starting from the pitlane as a result of his car briefly switching off on the formation lap. When asked if such tactics were a … [Read more...] about Perez: Red Bull must keep taking F1 qualifying strategy risks