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Aldo Costa, MB Technical Director and mechanical engineer whose design work has led to 12 F1 WCC and 10 F1 WDC including the last 5 at Mercedes.
Cool that he got to drive one of his creations at a track, Adrian Newey has driven his cars before.
Interesting quote from him on leaving Ferrari in 2011
"They asked me to step down as technical director and I didn't like any of the, let's say, opportunities they were showing to me and I decided to leave," Costa said. "The first ones to call offering me a job were Williams on the very same day, but after a month away from F1 I started talking with Ross [then Mercedes team principal] and we decided to start a new adventure there, which started in November 2011.
And he got his start at Minardi, similar to Newey getting his start at Fittipaldi.
Sometimes a start at a lousy team can led to great things
Really? To me it looks like he was trying to save the spin, but would've been better off just letting the car slide to the outside where he was before he started smoking those rear tires.
I'm with you. No way was Grosjean trying to get out of the way by driving across the track. If he was, then he's even a bigger idiot than he appears. He was trying to stop the spin. Although I must admit, it looks far worse in slow motion, which is how most replays showed it. If you watch it in real time, it was a split second accident that resulted in catastrophe.
It's amazing how he doesn't have any points yet with how good the Haas is this year.
Meanwhile, Leclerc the Rook continues to impress ....
It's probably a complete writeoff for Williams this year. Could be a complete failure with the calibration of the car back with the wind tunnel models or software models.
I'm with you. No way was Grosjean trying to get out of the way by driving across the track. If he was, then he's even a bigger idiot than he appears. He was trying to stop the spin. Although I must admit, it looks far worse in slow motion, which is how most replays showed it. If you watch it in real time, it was a split second accident that resulted in catastrophe.
It's amazing how he doesn't have any points yet with how good the Haas is this year.
The only points he's earned so far this year would be any penalty points that might be tacked onto his FIA Super Licence!
The Haas driver lost control of his car at turn three. He continued to accelerate as the car spun into the pack in a cloud of smoke, where he was hit by Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. All three retired from the race.
Grosjean said accelerating instead of braking in response to the spin was a normal reaction and claimed braking wouldn’t have stopped him sliding in front of other cars.
“I lost the rear end of the car and I tried to put it back as long as I could, it just didn’t work,” he told Sky.
“If I had braked, the car would have [slid] the same way. So I tried to stay on throttle spin it and at least not face a lot of people. It didn’t work.
“I don’t think there was anything different than that [to do]. I guess it’s quite a normal human reflex if you look at [Nico] Rosberg in Malaysia in 2016 with [Sebastian] Vettel, Michael [Schumacher] in Abu Dhabi in 2010.
“Honestly if I had braked I think I would’ve stayed in the middle and it would have been the same thing. Unfortunately once the car started to go forward again going onto the track it was very difficult.”
Grosjean remains under investigation by the stewards over the collision.
Booo. The FIA is now saying that the mirrors are illegal, and will be banned for the next race. Yet the mirrors can stay in place for Spain while being illegal. Not that the mirrors made the halo look nicer, but at least it made it look more interesting.
I really don't get why the FIA bothered to say this was allowed and then immediately banned it as soon as someone did it. Honestly why didn't they just ban if from the get go. It didn't make the halo look great but at least it seemed more integrated into the overall car this way.
I guess the mirror placement wasn't a problem as far as the FIA was originally concerned as Charlie Whiting had taken pictures of it and studied it before giving it the go-ahead. The problem arose with other teams not liking it and posing complaints about it which took about a day to consider thereby deeming it illegal on Sunday but okay to race (I guess in fairness to Ferrari). Maybe if Ferrari had found a way to mount it so it didn't look like an aero device However you look at it, Ferrari was nowhere near MBZ in terms of race pace so maybe the teams opposing it should've STFU.
Whatever way you looked at them, the mirrors mounted on the Halo device - and in particular the mounting itself - appeared to be more about aerodynamics than Sebastian and Kimi seeing what was behind them.
Unsurprisingly, rival teams raised their objections and in the end the Italian team was told that while they could continue with them for the remainder of the weekend, they were to be removed after the race and not seen again.
The FIA's race director, Charlie Whiting, explains why.
"It's a liberal interpretation of the word 'mounting' because that's how they become legal," he told reporters. "The interpretation hinges on whether we think that's a mounting or not. We somehow think not.
"They think it contributes to the rigidity of the mirror," he said of Ferrari. "I doubt they would be there if there wasn't a measurable aero advantage, but these days that doesn't have to be big.
"We sent a technical directive a few weeks ago in response to a number of questions from other teams about the principle of mounting a mirror on the halo was acceptable.
"We answered yes, and gave a few stipulations, one that it has to be a mounting. It's just a matter of interpretation and such a tenuous interpretation is not something we're happy with."
Though the mounts do not actually contravene any of the current regulations, when asked if they are banned, Whiting said: "Yes, you could say that", adding that the Italian team was allowed to use them for the remainder of the Barcelonaweekend in order that the FIA be shown as being "reasonable" when there has not been a clear and deliberate flouting of the rules.
Yup, Ferrari was not on point this past weekend that's for sure. They confirmed it wasn't the different spec Pirelli tires ("thin gauge vs. thick gauge tread") in the tire test following the race as they were still off-pace.
Valtteri Bottas wants to avoid another one-year deal with Mercedes and firm up his Formula 1 future for "at least" the next two seasons.
The Finnish driver won three races in 2017 after Mercedes signed him from Williams on a one-year deal to replace Nico Rosberg.
He earned a contract extension for 2018 but he and teammate Lewis Hamilton both need to negotiate new deals to remain with Mercedes.
Bottas said that he was in "no rush" to secure his future and that talks had not started in earnest.
"I would like to stay with this team, hopefully for a long time," he told Motorsport. "That is my target. As long as I keep performing like I've been performing this year so far, naturally it should be OK, all good."
Bottas joked that if Mercedes only offers him another one-year deal then "we need to talk", and reiterated he hopes to secure a multi-year agreement.
"I always kind of had one-year deals, so I would naturally like to know at least for the next two years what I'm going to do," he said.
The 28-year-old said he was not interested in receiving an offer from another team to gain leverage in discussions and said he had a good relationship with team boss Toto Wolff.
"We speak a lot," Bottas said. "We are very open always about my performance, about the car performance. We haven't yet talked anything about next year, we think it's still a bit early."
The teammate dynamic at Mercedes is much more positive with Hamilton and Bottas than it was when Rosberg was driving for the team.
That fractious relationship led to high-profile on-track incidents, whereas Hamilton and Bottas have a much more harmonious partnership.
"It started off well but it's only got better as we got to know each other," said Bottas. "We have very good respect both ways.
"After last race [when a debris-induced puncture for Bottas handed Hamilton the victory], straight after he came to me and said, 'You did a really good race and you deserved to win'.
"We are good teammates. We want to help the team together and work together, but we also want to win. He is a pretty complete driver, I feel like I'm getting more and more complete all the time."
Bottas is third in the 2018 standings after five races, 37 points behind his championship-leading teammate.
However, he would be almost level with Hamilton at the top had he not lost victory in Baku.
"It was, for a single race, maybe the biggest disappointment," said Bottas. "Leading three laps before the end and then that gets taken out of you, it's tough.
"Knowing how the championship table would have looked, it was hard, but I can't change it. Now I have this amount of points and that's what I need to work from."
He deserves at least a 2 year contract I'd say. He's fast, consistent and bringing points to the team. On another note, a positive result from the implementation of the halo in a F2 race:
Thx for posting those f-ing scary looking pics ... end of debate on the halo, as far as I'm concerned ... It prevented what would have surely been serious injury, if not death.
Daniel Ricciardo has suggested Pirelli bring the hypersoft to every race so qualifying stops becoming so “predictable”.
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton are the only two drivers to have bagged pole positions so far this season, with Q3 almost always a battle between Mercedes and Ferrari and Red Bull lagging behind on the third row.
In an effort to combat this, Ricciardo has called on Pirelli to bring the pink-striped tyre to every race weekend to spice things up a little bit.
“I don’t understand why we can’t have the hypersofts at every race. Or at least in qualifying,” Ricciardo told Globo.
“I think if we did that it would create more options and surprises, because right now it’s a little predictable.”
Ricciardo used the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying session as an example of why change is needed, as many teams ditched the supersoft tyre in favour of, in theory, the slower soft tyre and set up a one-stop race.
“[We need] a qualifying tyre that is very different from the race tyre,” he added.
“It was already obvious on [last] Friday that the top six would use the soft in qualifying and then try to stop once with the medium. It was no secret.”
The hypersofts will be making their season debut at the Monaco Grand Prix next weekend.
You're welcome. Fortunately the halo was in place; unfortunately it galvanized its necessity and we will be forever stuck with it.
Nope. Still hate the Halo. First, you can't say whether the Halo protected the driver based on those photos. Second, the execution of the Halo is awful. I'd rather they have a fully enclosed cockpit.
You're welcome. Fortunately the halo was in place; unfortunately it galvanized its necessity and we will be forever stuck with it.
Sadly you are correct. Yes it is good that no one got hurt but honestly the risk of open wheel racing I thought was some of the draw to it. Making it as safe as full enclosed car racing takes all that away in my opinion. No I don't want to see drivers die or anything but still thinking making it so takes takes out an element of the sport.
Honda putting a Japanese driver in a Honda-powered F1 car (that actually finished races) was what I've been waiting for given the past. No big surprises there. Here's a feel-good story from the Spanish GP that's fun to watch:
Makes sense for Alonso to retire, saves McLaren ALOT of money, they don't have a decent car anyways so it makes no difference and Mercedes nor Ferrari have any interest in him.
Still 32 wins, 2 WDC, and 97 podiums is quite an accomplishment.
Not a fan of the halo aesthetics but in the crash above it definitely helped. FIA did a bunch of recent open wheel crash analysis and it would have made a difference in majority of loose tire/wheel strikes.
FIA did say it probably have made no difference in Jules Bianchi's accident injuries, too much energy.
Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits that he is "bloody worried" about prospects for the Monaco GP, where the Brackley team struggled for performance last season.
In 2017, Valtteri Bottas finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton seventh, with the latter starting only 14th after a difficult Q2 session.
"Bloody worried," said Wolff when asked for his thoughts on the upcoming street race.
"We've seen in the last years that there were always tracks that suited us well, and some that we weren't perfect, for whatever reason.
"It's very difficult to undo the DNA of a car, and Monaco, Budapest, Singapore, were all tracks where we underperformed – underperformed a lot – last year.
"It's a great challenge for us to come back this year, tame the 'diva' - it's not a diva this year, actually, she's behaving better.
"It's a difficult one. Why our car doesn't like to be quick around the corners in Monaco, we haven't found out yet."
Hamilton believes that Monaco might be difficult for Mercedes, and he expects Red Bull to be particular strong, especially after the RB14 was fast in the tight final sector in Barcelona last weekend.
"Monaco is going to be a serious challenge," said Hamilton. "The others are going to be hard to beat. If you look at Daniel Ricciardo [in Spain] he was much quicker in the last sector, and the last sector is all downforce, so they're going to be rapid in Monaco, and very hard to beat.
"Montreal as well, where it's very, very hard to get temperature into the tyres, it's going to be multiple laps of driving to get temperatures into those tyres there.
"So different things that are coming up are challenging, I don't think it's going to be clear as it was [in Spain] at every single race."
Bottas agreed that Red Bull could be the team to beat in the principality.
"It's difficult to say how we're going to do there and the performance between the teams has been really changing a lot through the weekends," said the Finn.
"We know it might not be the best for us, like this weekend Red Bull has been really quick in the last sector [in Barcelona] which is all twisty corners, and that's what Monaco is all about so.
"I think Red Bull is going to be strong, Ferrari were on pole last year, so it's not going to be an easy weekend.
"But if we keep pushing and learning like we have been all season so far we can hopefully have a good weekend, and a good car for the qualifying, because that's going to be really important."
Honestly hopping for a really strong performance from Ferrari this weekend. They really need it I feel to stay alive and maybe even get ahead after the kimi retirement and the dissapointing finish for Vettel the last two races after looking so strong out of the gate.
Alot of eventual failures in US Grand Prix's.
I went to Detroit six times, friends went to Phoenix.
I should have gone to the Indy Grand Prix, a colleague went and the prices and seats were excellent value and nice sight lines for most of the track.
MotoGP champion Marc Marquez will get his first taste of Formula 1 machinery when he takes part in a Red Bull-organised private test in Austria next month, Motorsport.com has learned.
Marquez's Honda MotoGP teammate Dani Pedrosa and nine-time Motocross world champion Tony Cairoli will also take part in the test at the Red Bull Ring on June 5-6.
It remains unclear exactly what type of car will be used by the three riders in the test, but it is likely to be V8-powered, and therefore dating from 2013 or earlier.
Marquez, Pedrosa and Cairoli will all head to Red Bull's F1 headquarters in Milton Keynes in the coming days for seat fittings and to spend time on the team's simulator.
Marquez and Pedrosa drove a Japanese Formula 3 car at the Honda Thanks Day at Motegi in December.
Valentino Rossi is also no stranger to F1 machinery, having made multiple outings for Ferrari as he weighed up whether to switch disciplines in 2006 before ultimately deciding to stay in MotoGP.
It is “possible” that Mercedes could walk away from Formula 1 if they aren’t happy with the 2021 regulations; that’s according to Niki Lauda.
The Formula 1 teams and Liberty Media are preparing to do battle as they debate the sport’s future and the 2021 regulations.
Ranging from engines to budget caps to redistribution of prize money, not all the teams are happy with Liberty’s proposals.
But while Ferrari have been the more vocal in their criticism, and threats to quit, Lauda says Mercedes could also walk away.
“There is certainly a limit for the top teams. It’s possible that one or the other will get out if it goes in the wrong direction,” the Mercedes non-executive director told Wirtschaftswoche.
But while the 2021 regulations could yet change the face of F1, and the make-up of the grid, Lauda isn’t happy with some of the rules that have already been implemented this season.
“The Halo system is the worst thing ever done to Formula One,” he said of the cockpit protection device.
And let’s not forget the grid girl ban.
“I do not understand why the grid girls were abolished. The Americans seem to have to swim in the #Metoo movement.
Renault F1 driver Carlos Sainz expects qualifying in Monaco to be "absolute madness" thanks to the extra pace provided by Pirelli's new hypersoft tyres.
All teams have heavily weighted their Monaco compound choices towards the hypersoft, with Red Bull, Williams and Renault even choosing as many as 11 sets from their total of 13, with just one example each of the supersoft and ultrasoft.
Although not designed for Barcelona, the pink-sidewalled tyres were sampled by several drivers during testing after the Spanish GP.
"It is quite impressive, that tyre, I must say," said Sainz. "It gives easily a second per lap, and we're at Barcelona where the last sector normally you arrive with the tyre quite on the limit.
"This tyre around Monaco could be something special. We will see very quick laptimes if that is the case. I would be prepared to see lap records in Monaco again."
Asked how impressive qualifying could be this year, he said: "Absolutely madness. It will be crazy.
"Already last year with the new cars it was something incredible, and this year, two steps softer compound and the tyre that for me is the best tyre Pirelli has done in a lot of years, it's going to be crazy."
Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley is also expecting fast laptimes.
"I think in Monaco you have a lot less degradation anyway than a track like Barcelona," said the Kiwi. "I think it will be entertaining to have so much grip around one lap in Monaco.
"I don't suspect the drop-off will be as big as other tracks.
"It's very low on tyre degradation. I think all the drivers are happy that we have it, because qualifying will be very fun."
Pirelli boss Mario Isola expects the hypersoft to make more of an impact on its second outing in Canada, which is more of a traditional track.
"While the soft, super and ultra are quite close, the hyper is a step," he said. "The point is that Monaco is also a unique circuit, so I'm not sure if we can see the real potential of the hypersoft in Monaco – we'll probably see something more in Montreal about the hypersoft. Monaco is very, very low severity."
He also suggested that teams will run the majority of the race in the principality on the new tyre, changing as late as possible.
"The hypersoft is not [just] a qualifying tyre in Monaco, it's also a tyre for the race, and I'm sure that comparing the numbers and what we saw in Abu Dhabi, you can run a decent stint in Monaco with the hypersoft.
"In Monaco it's always the same, the softest choice is the one that everyone will want to take as long as possible."
Alot of eventual failures in US Grand Prix's.
I went to Detroit six times, friends went to Phoenix.
I should have gone to the Indy Grand Prix, a colleague went and the prices and seats were excellent value and nice sight lines for most of the track.
I went to every F1 race at Indy-they were all great except the last one when Michelin told the teams not to race and 6 cars did. The GA ticket for Fri/Sat were without equal in the racing spectator world. Good times for sure.
Ferrari’s radical halo-mounted wing mirrors were the talk of the town in Barcelona – and they were back in the limelight on Wednesday in Monaco after the Italian team unveiled a new design following the FIA’s clampdown on the original layout.The key change from the Spanish Grand Prix arrangement is the removal of a winglet that Ferrari claimed served a structural role in reducing vibration of the mirrors but which the FIA felt was being exploited primarily for aerodynamic gain.
It remains to be seen whether rival teams will follow the Scuderia's lead in adopting this approach.
Technical analysis from Mark Hughes...
The winglet (indicated by a red arrow in the drawing below) used in conjunction with the mirrors in Spain was connected to the mirror by a thin cable which the team claimed enabled the mirror and winglet to be considered as one halo-mounted piece, with the winglet serving a structural role in reducing vibration of the mirrors.
The FIA countered that if this were the case, the winglet could have been mounted much lower (but where its aerodynamic effect in turning the upward wake of the airflow back down would have been much less) and from the same mounting point as the mirror. They concluded therefore, that the second mounting point implied that the primary purpose of the winglet was not structural but aerodynamic and that from Monaco onwards the arrangement must be changed.
The teams and the governing body must dance around quite an intricate line of interpretation on matters such as this. Both the Red Bull RB14 and Force India VJM11 feature aerodynamic strakes as part of their mirror mounts that help condition the airflow behind, but in these cases they are less extreme than the Ferrari interpretation.
It illustrates that for the second consecutive season, Ferrari under the technical directorship of Mattia Binotto is aggressively pushing the boundaries after years of quite conservative design and development.
05-14-2018, 07:56 AM
Yet the mirrors can stay in place for Spain while being illegal. 
Not that the mirrors made the halo look nicer, but at least it made it look more interesting.
However you look at it, Ferrari was nowhere near MBZ in terms of race pace so maybe the teams opposing it should've STFU.
