Pierre Gasly suffered a near-miss when debris struck his helmet visor near his eye on the first lap of the Russian Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso driver described how a piece of Daniel Ricciardo’s car struck him at the start. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free “At turn one Daniel lost a piece of carbon which went straight into my visor,” he said. “This was really scary because I thought it was going right through and it was straight in my eye. “It touched the visor and then came in the cockpit, so in turn four I had to take the carbon piece and throw it from the cockpit and then after that the brake just got really bad.” “At the time I had like five tenths of a second just to see it flying and hitting the visor. It was a piece, maybe a winglet it came from contact with Daniel and someone and it came pointing towards me and straight in my right eye. “When I saw it coming I thought ‘fuck, it’s going through the visor’ and fortunately the visor is really … [Read more...] about Gasly feared debris would hit his eye in “really scary” incident
Reprovision no team id present this is really bad
2018 Singapore Grand Prix team radio highlights
In the team radio highlights from Singapore: Sebastian Vettel was dismayed by Ferrari’s tactics, Romain Grosjean fumes at F1’s rules, and Kevin Magnussen thwarts a cheeky effort by Fernando Alonso. The race began badly for Force India, as Sergio Perez knocked his team mate out of the running at the start: Ocon: I got hit by Sergio Badly. Badly, badly. To Perez: Checo do we have any damage? Stay positive until this marshalling sector. Perez: No I don’t think there’s any damage. To Perez: Run switch ‘Safety Car’. Perez: Was that Esteban? To Perez: Esteban is out, Esteban is out. Checo you can work more on the brakes. Perez: Sorry guys there was no room. I basically did not even see him. Just felt the contact. To Perez: OK Checo let’s just focus now. Sebastian Vettel has passed Max Verstappen for second place and was sitting on Lewis Hamilton’s tail while the race leader nursed his tyres. Ferrari were listening to Hamilton’s radio … [Read more...] about 2018 Singapore Grand Prix team radio highlights
Hamilton says he needs to close gap to Russell after ending “bad day” 14th
Lewis Hamilton had a difficult start to the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free The Mercedes driver ended Friday’s two practice sessions in 16th and 14th place. He was over 1.1 seconds slower than pace-setter Max Verstappen and half a second down on his team mate, George Russell. “It was a bad day, to be honest,” said Hamilton. “I really struggled out there. I’m a long way off: Two seconds off in the first session and over a second in the second. So just working away at trying to fix the car, fix the balance.” Mercedes enjoyed a more competitive weekend in Singapore but Hamilton said the high-speed corners at Suzuka are showing up some of the cars’ weaknesses. “We were obviously much closer in the last race where we didn’t have any high-speed [corners], pretty much, only one high speed corner but it’s not as high as the speed of the corners here. “Our car has, more often than not, been a little bit … [Read more...] about Hamilton says he needs to close gap to Russell after ending “bad day” 14th
Transcript: What Alonso really meant by being “thrown to the lions” at Suzuka
Fernando Alonso expressed frustration that one of his radio messages during the Japanese Grand Prix was broadcast on Formula 1’s television feed “out of context.” Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free It’s not the first time a mid-race radio comment by Alonso at Suzuka has been the subject of scrutiny. But the circumstances last weekend were rather different to those of eight years ago. The radio message in question occured on lap 20 of 53 last weekend. Alonso was in his second stint, having swapped his starting set of soft tyres for hards nine laps earlier, and he had just been passed by a string of rivals, including the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr. Having risen as high as sixth after the start he was now running seventh and appeared to be struggling. “You’ve thrown me to the lions, to stop that early, mate,” Alonso grumbled. “It’s unbelievable.” On the face of it, Alonso appeared to be venting in frustration about being passed. On … [Read more...] about Transcript: What Alonso really meant by being “thrown to the lions” at Suzuka
The blame game – 2005 United States GP at Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS, June 21, 2005 – Let’s pass blame around for this debacle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in what was intended to be the sixth annual US Grand Prix here. It turned out to be a six-car show with only Michael Schumacher’s intimidation of teammate Rubens Barrichello while exiting the pits from his second stop to excite any one of the remaining fans at the Brickyard. It’s estimated the Speedway had 130,000 on the grounds before 1PM EST but they began filing out shortly after the “start." This “race” was a yawner after all 14 Michelin-shod drivers retired before the official start, completing only their formation lap. All, including polesitter Jarno Trulli went immediately to their garages. Michelin vs Bridgestone Start the blame game with Michelin, who did not fully study the changes to the road-oval circuit after resurfacing and subsequent diamond grooving between the 2004 Brickyard 400 and the Indianapolis 500. In pre-May tire tests, Firestone engineers … [Read more...] about The blame game – 2005 United States GP at Indianapolis
Lance Stroll out of the Singapore Grand Prix in joint decision with Aston Martin
Lance Stroll will not line up on the Singapore Grand Prix grid having taken the decision “together” with Aston Martin to sit out the race. Stroll suffered a massive crash in Saturday’s qualifying at the Marina Bay circuit when the Canadian clipped the kerbs through the final corner and lost the rear of his AMR23. He speared into the outside wall at speed, his car almost airborne, before spinning back across the circuit. Lance Stroll is ‘still sore’ after his qualifying crash He was taken to the track’s medical centre where he was cleared of serious injury but on Sunday morning made the call with Aston Martin to sit out the race. The team statement read: “The team face a huge job repairing the car today and Lance is still sore following such a high impact. Lance’s focus now shifts to fully recovering ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.” Team boss Mike Krack added: “The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday’s accident – however, he … [Read more...] about Lance Stroll out of the Singapore Grand Prix in joint decision with Aston Martin
How Japan’s underdog LMP1 helped start Toyota WEC juggernaut
Earlier this month, Toyota wrapped up this year’s World Endurance Championship manufacturers’ crown with another convincing display on home turf at Fuji. It marks the fifth time in a row, and sixth in total, it has come away with the silverware, including the occasions when a teams’ title was awarded instead of a manufacturers’. Pending the outcome of the final round of the season in Bahrain, Toyota could feasibly come away with a clean sweep of wins barring the Le Mans 24 Hours, where a contentious pre-event Balance of Performance change handed the initiative to Ferrari. Toyota has come a long way since the beginning of its current WEC programme, which began in 2012 with the TS030 HYBRID LMP1 - which was followed up by the TS040 and TS050, and then in 2021 by the GR010 HYBRID built to Le Mans Hypercar rules. But while its rise from underdog against the likes of Porsche and Audi to the dominant force fans know today is well documented, less well known is how a privateer … [Read more...] about How Japan’s underdog LMP1 helped start Toyota WEC juggernaut
It’s advantage McLaren in the strategy game at the Japanese Grand Prix
With Pirelli predicting the best strategy for the Japanese Grand Prix will be a two-stop of soft-hard-hard, it’s advantage McLaren as the Woking team is one of only three outfits where both drivers have those tyres in hand. Oscar Piastri will line up alongside Max Verstappen on the front row of the Japanese Grand Prix, the Aussie having grabbed a career-best grid slot, with Lando Norris sitting third. But while the McLarens didn’t have the pace to challenge Verstappen on Saturday as the reigning World Champion crossed the line an incredible 0.581s faster, they could try for a two-pronged attack on Sunday. McLaren: The only way we can attack Max is tactical And according to Pirelli they have the tyres do it. Formula 1’s tyre supplier believes the best strategy for the Suzuka race is a two-stopper with the driver starting on the soft tyres and then slitting the rest between two sets of hard tyres. On a weekend in which the drivers dealt with high temperatures and … [Read more...] about It’s advantage McLaren in the strategy game at the Japanese Grand Prix
Are Red Bull and Ferrari on back foot for potential Japanese GP tyre wrecker?
The iconic figure-of-eight track has always been punishing on its rubber, but things could well be a bit more extreme this time around. Race day is expected to be another scorcher, and complaints that George Russell mentioned on Friday about a "strange" sliding have been caused by a track surface that has had a 15% drop in macro roughness (so effective grip) compared to 12 months ago. As Ferrari's Charles Leclerc said: "Especially with the very warm temperatures this year, the overheating is really, really bad. So, I expect that it [the race] will be all about the tyre management and the strategy." A two-stopper looks nailed on then, but it comes with not all teams having the luxury of what appears to be the ideal tyre allocation to get them through without much drama. F1 tyre supplier Pirelli thinks the best approach to the race is to start on the soft, run through until laps 12-18, and then split the rest of the grand prix up into two hard stints. But that is … [Read more...] about Are Red Bull and Ferrari on back foot for potential Japanese GP tyre wrecker?