FIA race director Charlie Whiting is open to the suggestion that Paul Ricard’s Mistral Straight chicane be dropped from the 2019 French GP circuit layout.

Whiting said the subject will be discussed at the drivers’ briefing in Austria this Friday.

At the same gathering in France last Friday many of the drivers supported the idea, initially put forward by Carlos Sainz, that racing would be improved if the chicane was dropped.

Drivers who had raced or tested without it in place argued that there would be more slipstreaming on the longer straight, and that with the lower downforce levels that the teams would use, Turn 10 (Signes) and the rest of the track would be more of a challenge.

Whiting said the decision to use the chicane was agreed between the FIA and the Paul Ricard management. One extra complication for the latter is that grandstands are located at the chicane, and they would become redundant.

“It was a joint decision,” said Whiting. “It was what was proposed by the circuit, and we saw no reason to say anything different. We wanted to have two long DRS zones, which appeared to work quite well on the back straight.

“There appears to be now a school of thought that we could have done without it, but all the teams and drivers have known about that for a long time. The teams have tested on that track, so I was a little surprised to hear that come out of the blue on Friday.”

Before approving any change for 2019 the FIA would first have to analyse the safety implications of the higher speeds into what is now known as Turn 10.

“We can certainly do a simulation of the long straight and see if the run-off area is sufficient and that sort of thing,” said Whiting. “I would also like to hear the drivers’ opinions now they’ve had a chance to race on it.

"We saw a few decent overtakes there, which I doubt we would have seen otherwise. But it’s a matter of opinion, and I’m happy to discuss it with all concerned. We can kick it off [on Friday].

Asked if he would agree to a change if the run-off area was deemed to be sufficient he said: “If there’s a strong enough argument to do it, yes.”

Sainz was adamant that the track would be more interesting for drivers and fans without the chicane.

“It was actually me who asked Charlie about the long straight,” he said. “I've seen Formula 3 races here and endurance racing without the chicane, and the track looks really cool.

“I said that it would give the track a character which at the moment it doesn't have, and I said everyone would talk about the straight of Paul Ricard and that turn at the end of the straight like everyone talks about the straight in Baku and the braking into Turn 1.

“It would give it that bit of character that maybe the track misses at the moment. It would also give good slipstreaming, a lot more difficult last sector with less load.

"It would be good fun and I think the FIA will consider it for next year.”

Sauber may lose Charles Leclerc to Ferrari at the end of this season, but Frederic Vasseur says he’d rather have a driver he could lose than want a driver he can’t have.

According to the latest paddock rumours, Leclerc will leave Sauber at the end of this season, taking up a dream job at Ferrari.

The Monégasque racing driver didn’t harm his chances of promotion in France this weekend where he qualified P8 before racing his way to 10th place.

“It’s a problem for the rich at the end of the day,” Vasseur told Autosport.

“It’s much better to have this feeling that you could lose something than you would like to have something. It’s a great feeling.

“We know we are improving, in the company, in every single area of the company, every single department.

“Everybody is pushing like hell, and Charles is part of the system, and one of the pillars.

“My job as team principal of Sauber is to stay focused on the current situation.

“I don’t want to think too much about the future.

“We have a lot of work to do with the team, with the drivers, Charles and Marcus also, and the most important thing is to stay focused and not start to think too much.”

Leclerc has scored points in four of the last five grands prix to bring his tally for this season to 11; team-mate Marcus Ericsson has just two.

Renault is to introduce a long-promised new specification of MGU-K at this weekend’s Austrian GP, but its Formula 1 customer teams Red Bull Racing and McLaren are not obliged to use it.

The new MGU-K, which was once scheduled for introduction for as early as the start of the 2017 season before numerous delays, has finally been signed off for use on a race weekend by all three teams.

However, Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says that at least one the customers has preferred to stick with the old spec, at least for Austria.

One of the complications is that under the 2018 regulations drivers can use only two MGU-Ks per season, before penalties result.

McLaren and Red Bull may thus be loathe to make a switch until the new spec has been proven by the works team in race weekend conditions.

“It’s available for all the cars that want it,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com. “It happens that not all teams have elected to go to the new spec.

“It’s one that we’ve been long awaiting, but it’s a bit of a problem that some teams have elected not to use it, which means that they will continue to use the MGU-K of a previous technical definition, with a higher reliability risk.

"But that’s our philosophy, to accept the teams’ choice, having all the information.”

The change comes immediately after works driver Carlos Sainz suffered a failure with the old spec MGU-K in the closing laps of the French GP.

“It’s a part that we know was fragile, it’s a part that we deliberately decided to extend the life of, because we knew that there was a new definition, a new spec coming up, with better performance, better packaging and with a better reliability level.

“It’s coming next weekend, but it’s two laps too late for that particular MGU-K!

"Having said that it’s not that bad, because it’s really showing that we are pushing to the limit and we are accepting to take risks.”

The FIA is set to meet its self-imposed deadline of finalising the 2021 Formula 1 power unit regulations by the end of June, as it aims to issue a definitive document to the manufacturers at the end of this week.

While the basic concepts were announced jointly by the FIA and F1 as long ago as October, refining the detail in conjunction with the four current suppliers and potential new entrant Porsche has taken months of discussion.

The process was also deliberately relaxed because the FIA had an eye on costs, believing that had full details been issued too early the manufacturers would simply have pumped more resources into development.

“It's very complicated,” said FIA F1 race director Charlie Whiting. “There's meeting after meeting after meeting going on these things, and the reports I get on this appear to be very detailed, so they are going into fine detail.

“So I'm fairly confident that it's getting to the end of that process, and at the end of that process, we'll have a far more detailed idea of what the power units will be in 2021.”

Whiting said the end of June deadline was not chosen to facilitate discussion by the team bosses at the next Strategy Group meeting on July 4th.

“Not necessarily. It was just a date that we felt that was necessary to get it done by. It might get talked about, but it's not connected with the Strategy Group.

"The manufacturers are involved in it, that's why it's taking quite a long time, because they are toing and froing on everything.”

However, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said that next week’s Strategy Group meeting would indeed discuss power units and ways of controlling costs, with some having suggested a freeze on development of current engines for 2019-2020.

“The engine, it needs a lot of lead time, therefore the earlier the better it is,” he said. “The solution that we need to find is how can we avoid parallel costs of developing two power units.

"Obviously our fight with our friends from Honda, Renault and Ferrari will continue until the very last race of 2020.

“And at the same time, the moment the rules are ratified, everybody needs to work on the other power unit. So this is I think one of the key points we need to discuss from July 4."

The S-duct is not a new idea in Formula 1 but the ever-changing regulatory landscape does bring with it new opportunities for teams to fine-tune their ideas in the quest for added performance.

This year Renault has shown this through a much more aggressive solution to the placement of the front inlets of its design, which has improved the performance of the entire nose.

Having used a more conventional and compact ‘S’ duct design in 2017, Enstone design chiefs clearly eyed the opportunity to make changes for this season based on what they had learned from rivals over the course of last year.

In 2016, Mercedes and Toro Rosso gave this new S-duct style solution (above) its first official outing, although Mercedes had dipped its toe in the water in 2015 when it conducted a brief test during free practice for the Brazilian GP.

The solution cast aside what had been considered the conventional method of achieving the aerodynamicist’s objectives.

This was for a short S-shaped duct (see Red Bull from 2015, above) sat in a 150mm ‘free zone’ ahead of the chassis’ bulkhead.

But no matter the length of the pipework inside the nosecone, the intention of the S-duct remains the same: to reduce boundary layer separation under the nose and draw airflow back to the surface of the chassis that would ordinarily detach as it ramps over the nose incline.

Having elongated pipework not only allows for a more precise placement of the inlets, but also makes for a less tortuous route for the airflow to follow too.

This is something that has been capitalized on by Ferrari, which since 2017 has opted to crossover its pipework inside the nosecone to improve flow conditions further.

In the case of Renault, it has opted to further compartmentalise this flow with three distinct pipes inside the nosecone, separating flow left, right and centrally.

The small differences between design teams highlight once again that no matter how much design trends force teams to gravitate their best ideas towards one another, there are always subtle differences that ultimately add up to the lap time differences that we see on track.

Hamilton agrees new ‘£40m-a-year deal’

Lewis Hamilton has agreed a two-year extension with Mercedes worth “£40m” per season; the only indecision is whether to announce it at the British or German GPs.

According to several sources, Hamilton has put pen to paper on a new two-year deal.

The contract, according to the Daily Mail, does not include an option for 2021 in light of the new rule changes that could shake up the sport.

The deal is worth £40 million-a-year and will see Hamilton retain his status as Britain’s highest paid sportsman.

Sport Bild reports that the only thing that remains undecided is whether to announce the new contract at home’s race home at Silverstone or Mercedes’, at Hockenheim.

“It’s all about the right time for the announcement,” revealed Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff.

Ricciardo set to sign new Red Bull deal

Daniel Ricciardo is set to end speculation about his future by signing a new deal with Red Bull.

Ricciardo has been playing the waiting game this season as he assessed whether an opportunity would arise with either Mercedes or Ferrari for the 2019 season.

But, Mercedes are set to stick with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as their driver line-up for another season, whilst Ferrari are only thought to be considering Charles Leclerc as a potential replacement for Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren are the only other team to have been linked with the Aussie, but he is now very likely to stay put with Red Bull and continue to drive alongside Max Verstappen.

Ricciardo held more talks with Red Bull ahead of a promotional event in Austria and said to the press: “It’s not over yet but it will come. Soon. The time is not far away.”

Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko also said that a new contract agreement with Ricciardo is “getting closer” and told Motorsport.com that Ricciardo’s options, in the end, were limited.

“Mercedes and Ferrari have a number one driver who is clearly declared,” said Marko.

“I know Ricciardo did not receive an offer from Ferrari.

“Renault will, as far as I know, stay with the current drivers. Above all, I don’t think Renault is playing in the budget regions that Ricciardo has in mind.

“Daniel is in a situation where he has no sporting alternative to us. He probably imagined it differently.

“We want it [to continue with Ricciardo], but not at any price.”

Renault's long-awaited new MGU-K made its track debut in FP1 at the Austrian Grand Prix, but both Red Bulls and the McLaren of Fernando Alonso have stuck with the older specification.

The new component, which Renault believes offers both improved reliability and performance, has been fitted to the works Formula 1 cars of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg, and the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne. In each case it’s the second example of the season, so there are no grid penalties.

However, Red Bull has elected not to use the new spec as both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo would receive grid penalties if they take an extra MGU-K - with the same true for Alonso.

“It’s available for all the cars that want it,” Cyril Abiteboul told Motorsport.com this week. “It happens that not all teams have elected to go to the new spec.

“It’s one that we’ve been long awaiting, but it’s a bit of a problem that some teams have elected not to use it, which means that they will continue to use the MGU-K of a previous technical definition, with a higher reliability risk.

"But that’s our philosophy, to accept the teams’ choice, having all the information.”

Abiteboul added that the new unit has “better performance, better packaging and with a better reliability level".

Hulkenberg played down the significance of the change, but revealed that the new unit has saved some weight.

“We don't expect a huge deal from it,” said the German. “It's not going to make us a second a lap quicker or something. It’s one piece of the puzzle in all the updates we bring over the course of the season.

“For me the positive news is that there is quite a bit of weight saving. Recently I have been quite a bit overweight, especially in qualifying, which just costs performance.

"That will help me more than anything else, I think. Also the team hopes for improvements on reliability.”

In other Renault changes for Austria, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Vandoorne and Alonso each have a new energy store, Sainz has a new turbo, and Alonso has a new control electronics.

None of those changes will trigger a penalty, but in each case the driver is on the bubble with that particular element, and thus one more change away from a grip drop.

Leading drivers have warned Formula 1 chiefs against trying to make the sport too much like "Mario Kart", following the addition of a third DRS zone at the Austrian Grand Prix.

In a bid to try to help overtaking around the Red Bull Ring, the FIA has added an extra DRS zone between Turns 2 and 4.

But while a lack of overtaking has been an issue in F1 this season, top drivers like Sebastian Vettel are fearful about a push that could make grand prix racing too artificial.

"I don't know if it is a solution to put in [extra] DRS zones," said Vettel.

"Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people that maybe like the idea of Mario Kart, including myself, I played it when I was young, but then again I think it shouldn't get artificial. We will see how it works out.

"Maybe it helps with overtaking and so on, but if you end up driving past another car it isn't very exciting either.

"There is more tension and more excitement if the car is behind and maybe something will happen rather than just sailing past."

Romain Grosjean joined Vettel in worrying about the fact that half the track in Austria was now DRS could make things too easy.

"Let's see how it goes," said the Haas driver. "When I saw it first of all, I was a bit sceptical because I think it's a lot of DRS zones, basically every straight.

"So we just need to see how it goes into racing and if it's not like Mario Kart where I pass, then you pass, and then I pass back."

Kimi Raikkonen added: "Half of the track is DRS, so it should make it pretty easy. I don't know if it's too easy or not.

"Obviously we want overtaking but there must be a point where it's kind-of artificial overtaking. But let's see."

But not all drivers were so sceptical of the change, with world champion Lewis Hamilton thinking that the extra DRS zone could make things better.

"I think ultimately they're doing that to try and make racing more exciting because it's not exciting enough, and the fundamentals are too big to change within the season," he said.

"We're trying to make the best with what we have. I think the way they've got it set up, you can get DRS in one zone, you can overtake, and then the other guy can get DRS in the next part.

"So it could be good maybe. It's not particularly the easiest of tracks to follow on, so it will be interesting."

Leclerc ‘agrees’ two-year Ferrari deal

Lance Stroll has had 10 seconds added to his Austrian Grand Prix race time and received three penalty points for failing to obey blue flags as Sergio Perez lapped him.

The time penalty meant that Stroll traded 13th place with his Williams team-mate Sergey Sirotkin, who had been behind him on the road.

Stroll made a pitstop for fresh tyres with just four laps of the race to run, and came out ahead of Perez.

The team told him to try to remain un-lapped by the Force India driver, and by attempting to do so he ignored the blue flag signals.

"Lance went quite a long time without moving over, but he was on new tyres as well," said race director Charlie Whiting.

"One can understand that, but I think he should have moved over."

The FIA stewards took a dim view of the Canadian's decision to prioritise the request from the team over his obligation to let a potentially faster car past.

In their verdict they stated: "The driver of car #18 admitted he had seen the blue flags, light panels and the light on his steering wheel.

"He stated his team had told him to attempt to un-lap himself but had not advised him to let car #11 pass until almost one lap of flags and lights had been displayed to him.

"The reason for awarding three penalty points is that the issue of blue flags was specifically raised at the Friday night drivers' briefing and confirmed in the race director's notes, in particular the requirement to allow the following car to pass 'at the first available opportunity'.

"In this instance the driver decided to give priority to the team instruction (to un-lap himself) over the regulations and the race director's specific instructions (regarding the blue flag procedure)."

Whiting acknowledged that there was an issue with the blue flag signal in Pierre Gasly's car during the race, but said it was specific to the Toro Rosso and was not an issue with the automated FIA system.

"It was only Gasly. A connection on the car seemed to have failed, so we were doing it manually," Whiting explained.

"Once we realised that was what happened, we could do it manually and still rely on the automatic system which we have at the moment. It was a problem on the car."

Valtteri Bottas has admitted the misfortune dogging his 2018 Formula 1 season "feels like a bit of a bad joke" after the Austrian Grand Prix poleman retired from Sunday's race.

Bottas beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole in qualifying but dropped to fourth after a poor start led to him getting crowded out at Turn 1.

He regained second by passing Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen on the outside down to Turn 3, but retired during the opening stint with a loss of hydraulic pressure.

Bottas said: "The luck I'm having this year feels like a bit of a bad joke at the moment.

"My start was not ideal. I had quite a bit of wheelspin and there was less grip than we expected, so I dropped a few places.

"Going into Turn 3, I could recover two places and was back in second place. After that the car felt strong, we were running well, but then I suddenly experienced a loss of hydraulic pressure.

"There was nothing I could have done to prevent the DNF.

"I guess it was just not meant to be today - but one day it will be."

Bottas has been playing catch-up from the beginning of the season when a qualifying crash meant he started 15th and finished eighth in Australia, but his attempts have been blighted by factors outside his control.

Bottas' bad joke

China: Denied a Schumacher-like win

After Mercedes' strategy arguably holds him back from a Bahrain GP victory in round two, Bottas almost makes amends one week later in China.

Bottas jumps race leader Vettel in the pitstops after a stunning in-lap/out-lap reminiscent of Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari pomp.

However, a safety car changes the complexion of the race and sets up Daniel Ricciardo's charge to victory at Bottas's expense.

Azerbaijan: Last-gasp heartbreak

At the following round in Baku, Lady Luck appears to be evening the score for Bottas as a long stint combined with a late safety car lifts him above long-time leader Vettel.

He survives an attack from the German at the restart but at the end of that lap hits debris that was not cleared on the start-finish straight.

It causes a puncture and sends him into retirement.

France: Assaulted by Vettel

An error from Vettel at the start means Bottas never has the chance to challenge race winner Hamilton at Paul Ricard.

Vettel draws alongside Bottas on the run to Turn 1 but backs out, only to lock his left-front tyre and clatter into the Mercedes.

Bottas spins, then limps back to the pits to change tyres and continue. He is limited to seventh in his recovery thanks to significant floor damage as Vettel goes on to finish fifth.

Austria: Back-to-back disappointments

A first pole of the year becomes fourth after Turn 1, then second after a good move two corners later – then early retirement thanks to a loss of hydraulics pressure on lap 14.

That drops Bottas to fifth in the standings, behind race winner Max Verstappen, and means he trails new championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 54 points.

The Formula 1 season is set to start a week earlier next year, with the Australian Grand Prix confirming a mid-March date for 2019.

Having been run on the second-last weekend of March for the past two years, AGP organisers have locked down the March 14-17 slot for next year – subject to ratification by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

That weekend would give the Albert Park race some clean air in what is the busy month for Melbourne, sitting in between the popular Moomba Festival the weekend before, and the start of the Australian Football League season the week afterwards.

The opening round of the AFL season is likely to be the primary motivation behind the date switch, the country's biggest sporting code having kicked off on the same weekend as the F1 season for the past two years.

It does however create a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship's Sebring fixture, which could create a headache for Fernando Alonso should the Spaniard elect to remain in F1 in 2019.

According to Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott, having the date locked in early should help tempt more overseas F1 fans into heading to Melbourne.

“To announce the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2019 date more than eight months out from the event is fantastic news and we hope this will encourage overseas and interstate visitors to plan for a lengthy visit to Melbourne and Victoria,” Westacott said.

"We are immensely proud of the four-day spectacle Melbourne puts on and honoured to raise the curtain on one of the world’s most prestigious annual championships.

“The start of an F1 season, our Aussie superstar Daniel Ricciardo, a Supercars championship round and so much off-track action – it’s a must-attend event in 2019."

The AGPC reported a four-day crowd of 295,000 at this year's Australian GP.