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Hobbo did say only Leigh Diffey and Will Buxgton are working in the commentary box now as he and Matchett are certainly not. I asked him why there were 54 different F1 drivers in 1974 and he said "a lot of us got killed, a lot of us were only fill-in drivers, a lot of us worked for teams that didn't race the whole season." He is absolute "dumbstruck and saddened" by McLaren's current plight and that they "need to quit screwing around with anything other than F1" and that Zak Brown "may not be the guy to right the ship." Hobbs drove for the Yardley-McLaren team at one point in his life that's why I asked.Favorite car to drive? "The 962 was a great car as was the GT40 and the McLaren F1 car as well."
This weekend's Singapore Grand Prix marks the return of the proper downforce battle in Formula 1 after the low-drag challenges of Spa and Monza.
The formbook for the weekend remains unclear at the moment, with Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull all having a decent claim about coming out on top around the Marina Bay street circuit.
Red Bull will be buoyed by its dominant form around Monaco earlier this year, while Ferrari has shown itself to have a quick car at all types of circuit.
And while Mercedes may not he heading there feeling it is favourite, its brilliant execution of races this year has been key to its world title ambitions.
What has been particularly interesting this year, however, is that despite the closeness of the fight at the front, the top three teams have approached the season with different concepts which is highlighted in their varied rake and wheelbases.
It is no secret that Mercedes has the longest wheelbase car, but Ferrari and Red Bull made changes to their approach in 2018 in a bid to go more in the direction of their German rival.
Both teams lengthened their cars for this season, with Ferrari also adopting a more aggressive rake although not quite going to the extreme of its Red Bull rival.
Circuit of The Americas chairman Bobby Epstein wants the United States Grand Prix to revert to its usual date after 2019, when a date swap with Mexico will cause a clash with NASCAR.
The Austin circuit has traditionally formed the first part of a doubleheader with the Mexican Grand Prix since the race in Mexico City returned to the calendar in 2015, but on next season’s calendar the two races have swapped places. That switch has led to the USGP taking place on the same weekend as the fall NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway, and while Epstein says such a clash is not ideal, he believes it would have been avoided if possible.
“We like our date in October — we’re happy with it,” Epstein told RACER. “Our preference is October, but I think Mexico had a conflict so we switched.
“It’s not ideal to go up against NASCAR. Texas is a very big state and the motor speedway in Fort Worth that has a NASCAR event that day is four hours away, and we don’t see a lot of overlap in terms of the fans. But even if there’s one, you still want to try and accommodate as many as we can.
“So it’s not ideal, and I’m sure if F1 could logistically work it they wouldn’t try to do this either. It’s not to anyone’s advantage. It’s not like they look at it and say, ‘Let’s put it on the same day as a NASCAR race.’ It’s not being done to hurt NASCAR, it’s just unfortunate for the fans that have to choose between the two.
“And, I think in some cases there are sponsors in common and it forces them to choose where to focus their resources. So everyone knows it’s not ideal. I’m sure that what caused the flip was because Mexico didn’t have flexibility that year.”
Asked if he sees the change in date to have the USGP held in early November being a one-off, Epstein replied: “I hope so! It’s not the best weekend for us either, but going any later in November is far less desirable.
“In fairness to the Liberty guys … years ago we bumped into the date with Texas Motor Speedway (2014) and I know they tried to make an effort to avoid that date. It is the case sometimes in a transition that some of that institutional knowledge is unintentionally lost.”
fascinated on the amount of rake the modern F1 cars run.
For the MB with it's 150" wheelbase, that 1.25o results in the rear floor being ~3.3" taller than the the front.
I guess the rear suspension heave springs are lighter than the front so at high speed the rear floor drops to the ground effect and drag is less.
^ agree, I was surprised but not shocked.
Woulda thought with the death of Marchionne, Kimi's consistency and best season at Ferrari in his 2nd period he'd been re-signed for a one year 2019 contract.
With Kimi at Sauber (Ferrari Jr in essence), they have a similar-ish RBR/STR setup. So I imagine, if Leclerc isn't performing as expected in 2019, a seat swap could happen?
It is believed that Stroll will join his father Lawrence at Racing Point Force India from Singapore, after the billionaire fashion mogul rescued that team.
"We don't know when but Lance will probably leave the team," Williams boss Claire told Speed Week.
"We wish Lance and Lawrence good luck, but it means nothing other than one driver leaving Williams and another taking his place."
Pole Kubica is Williams's reserve driver, but it is rumoured that the British team will have to sign a 'pay driver' to help fill the financial gap left by Stroll.
Williams said: "If Lance actually leaves, it's more likely than not that Robert will replace him."
However, she admitted that financial considerations must also be weighed, particularly as Williams is losing title sponsor Martini as well.
"In the current era of sponsorship, it's not easy for an independent team to reach its goals without paying drivers," said Williams.
"We are working very hard on the financial side so that we can sign up drivers with more experience. That's one of our goals for 2019.
Williams has also lost a key contract as a battery supplier to Formula E.
"Formula E was one project, but there are many more for us such as with Jaguar and Aston Martin," said Claire.
As for whether a replacement for Martini has been found, she answered: "We are having intensive negotiations, but it is unclear whether there will be one main sponsor or a multi-partner solution.
"What I am confident about is that we will have the funding we need."
Williams currently sits rockbottom of the constructors' championship, 12 points adrift of ninth-placed Sauber.
Niki Lauda, who last month had a lung transplant, will miss all of the remaining races this season, German media outlet Bild newspaper is reporting.
The F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman is reportedly still in intensive care in Vienna. Meanwhile, Lauda's friend, Red Bull Racing consultant Helmut Marko, told Bild that he has not been able to visit the 69-year-old.
"Only his family, so his wife and his children, can visit him," Marko said. "The doctors say the danger is that he will become infected with a virus or other people's bacteria. We all miss him. Mercedes misses him, Formula 1 misses him. Everyone misses him -- his charisma, his straight words."
The newspaper said Lauda will not attend any of the remaining seven races this year, but Marko insisted, "Niki will fight through this and be with us again. We need him."
Although they’re the Red Bull junior team on paper, Toro Rosso are very much their own entity. But with Honda power set to be used by both Red Bull and Toro Rosso in 2019, the Italian team are ramping up to increase their collaboration with the senior outfit for next year.
Toro Rosso announced in September of last year that they would move to Honda power for 2018, with Red Bull opting to take the same route for 2019 earlier this year. And while the two teams have used the same power units before – both running rebadged Renault items in 2017, for example – 2019 will see the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars sharing an entire rear end, including a complete gearbox, as well as some front suspension parts.
“We will have a very close cooperation with Red Bull Technology next year because we will have the same rear part,” said Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost, “which means the power unit, gearbox and the suspension – everything within the regulations [that we’re allowed to use].
“The front suspension as well," he added, "the inner parts, not the outer parts. But that’s a lot, because the complete rear part means also the hydraulics, the electronics, all this kind of stuff.”
The move will see Red Bull and Toro Rosso move closer to the Ferrari/Haas technical partnership model, whereby Haas benefit from using all the Ferrari parts that the Scuderia are legally allowed to make available for other teams, including power units, transmissions, suspension components, hydraulics and electronics.
It’s a model that’s clearly helped Haas, with the American team currently angling to overtake Renault’s fourth place in the constructors’ championship in only their third season in F1.
Toro Rosso, meanwhile, have never finished higher than sixth in the constructors’ race since their debut season in 2006. Could closer ties to Red Bull see that change?
Formula 1 will face a "real problem" of only having a couple of manufacturers ever able to win races if the sport does not act fast to stop the use of 'slave teams', says Renault technical chief Nick Chester.
Moves towards a budget cap in F1 from 2021 have led to concerns that one way for the bigger outfits to get around their spending restrictions will be to collaborate with smaller teams.
It would help the manufacturer ensure that its performance could progress with the spending being done by the smaller outfit.
The FIA has already promised to act on the matter, and Chester is clear that the situation needs to be taken very seriously if F1 is to maintain a competitive field.
"I think it is a real problem if that model continues into budget cap," said Chester, when asked by Motorsport.com for his views on team collaboration. "I cannot see how a team can fight at the front without having one or two satellite teams.
"I think it is something really important that the FIA and F1 need to look at. If that model cannot be effectively got rid of, it will be a big problem and you will end up where, if you want to win, you have to be a manufacturer with two satellite teams or you don't think about winning. So, I think it has a lot of implications going forward."
F1 race director Charlie Whiting said over the Italian GP that the FIA had been alerted about the fears of servant teams, and would be looking into what can be done.
"It's something that we should be concerned about, and it's something we will be discussing," said Whiting. "The [Haas/Ferrari] relationship started it.
"We knew exactly how that was possible in the beginning, and there was a loophole in the beginning which has been closed to new entrants, which is what [Haas] were able to do, a lot more work than a current team, before they were established as a proper entrant.
"But the sort of things we're hearing about are alliances between existing teams. I think that needs to be looked at very carefully."
Chester believes that one way to act would be to increase the number of parts that teams have to produce themselves so cannot be shared – or make more components standard.
"We either need to reverse out of some of the non-listed parts, so there is less part sharing, or if there is going to be part sharing then they need to be standardised," he said.
"Otherwise there are just too many benefits to the satellite team model, which just makes it unattractive for anyone not operating that model."
Asked about what would happen if action was not taken, Chester replied: "I think it is bad news because ideally you want a lot of teams that can win.
"You want the manufacturers, you want some very good independents, and if you have this model where teams can collaborate, there is no point in being an independent any more. It kills that chance of having a good independent team.
"None of the satellites will ever make it to the front either, so you will just end up with three teams at the top."
There will always be the "haves" and the "have nots" in any sport, especially F1. I'd like to see the the proportional value of what the teams spend versus how much they reap in prize money. I have to imagine the teams are largely making money, even Williams, who is on the bottom of the pile currently. They may not be making hundreds of millions like MBZ and Ferrari but they aren't spending $500M euros/year either. Haas is an out and out businessman first-if he's not making money, he's not in it for the glory. Sure he'd like to be at the pointy end of the grid but I'd bet my last dollar he's still making a profit at the end of the year.
Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene has said he apologised to Valtteri Bottas for referring to him as a “butler” at Mercedes.
Arrivabene’s remark came after Bottas played the support role at the Italian Grand Prix, holding up Kimi Raikkonen in order for Lewis Hamilton to sweep past him in the closing stages at Monza.
Asked why Raikkonen did not sacrifice himself for team-mate Sebastian Vettel, he said: “We hire drivers, not butlers”.
But Arrivabene regretted his choice of words for a driver he respects.
“As soon as I said it in the heat of the battle, I knew it would create a controversy,” Arrivabene told Italy’s Autosprint.
“Since then I have exchanged messages with Valtteri Bottas. I wanted to apologise to him and understand what I meant.
“It had slipped out but it’s not a label I want to use for Bottas.
“I appreciate his response very much that he understood.”
Vettel’s bad Sunday afternoon at Monza began with Raikkonen covering him off completely on the dash to Turn 1, but the Ferrari boss said he would not have expected the Finn to do anything else with no team orders in effect.
“I just instructed them to not do anything stupid,” Arrivabene added.
“It was said that Kimi did something unfavourable to Sebastian, but what should he have done?
“What he did is exactly what Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel would have done.
“It is completely wrong to point the finger when there are still so many races to go.
“I answer for the whole team, so it doesn’t matter who made a mistake – the driver or the team. Someone must answer, and this person is me.”
Robert Kubica will pursue alternative racing options if he does not land a Formula 1 drive in 2019.
The Pole has not started an F1 race since the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP because of the rally crash early in 2011 than left him with life-threatening injuries.
Kubica is Williams's reserve driver this season and may yet step up to a race seat this year if efforts to move Lance Stroll to Racing Point Force India, which his father is an investor of, come to fruition.
The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner told Motorsport.com he will probably end his chase of a shock F1 return if he does not earn a full campaign next year.
"I spent a lot of time and effort to have a chance and the priority would be to be on the starting grid in Australia," he said.
"But if this doesn't happen I would consider some different championship or different role. As I said, now I'm focused on trying to get a chance."
Kubica has said repeatedly that he has no doubts about his ability to compete in F1 again but acknowledged it would take time to get back his "rhythm".
He believes returning this season would have eliminated any questions over his competitive prospects in the same way his work with Renault and Williams has gradually reduced the focus on the limitations his arm injury has left him with.
Kubica said: "When you don't do it for long time or you do it like I do it, every three months, it's normal that you have to go through different phases in order to get back your rhythm, get back feelings as natural as possible.
"If you would take even the best tennis player and you say to him: now you stop for six years. Even without injuries, nothing.
"Then you give him one hour training and smash him into the final of Wimbledon, he will probably struggle more than all the people who are playing regularly.
"I would have so much time in the car [if he had raced this season], there would be no more question marks about myself."
Kubica considered dovetailing his Williams role this season with a World Endurance Championship campaign in the LMP1 division.
He did not proceed with that option because he did want to take on too much, but said the WEC has its attractions if F1 ceases to be possible.
"It is completely different racing, a completely different category," he said. "It might be a good challenge.
"I saw it with rallying, OK, rallying is completely different than racing, and endurance races, they have more similarity to let's say F1, but still it is a different category.
"I think new challenges are nice. There is always some extra that gives you boost to go there and to see how you perform."
^ looks OK, could be better but could also be much worst.
I like the swept front and rear wing endplates, always hated the boxy end plates.
The barge boards with those weird top fairings are unusual, guessing for aerodynamics of the front tire
Overall not bad, do not like the huge winglets on the front wing, nor the dorsal fin.
Rear wing almost looks like it has 'fenders' over the rear of the back tire.
Also looks even more difficult to enter/exit with the halo than the current cars.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has rejected rumours that Mick Schumacher is a target for Toro Rosso in 2019.
Mick, son of legendary seven-time World Champion, Michael, has soared up the Formula 3 European Championship standings this season and a hat-trick of victories at the Nurburgring has put him just three points behind Red Bull-backed leader Dan Ticktum.
That rich vein of form, according to Motorsport Italy, had placed him on Toro Rosso’s radar for 2019, with Schumacher needing to finish within the top three of the World Championship to earn enough superlicense points to race in Formula 1.
Marko, though, has said that he is not on the shortlist.
“He is not on our list and we have no contact at all with him,” Marko simply said via Auto Bild.
Toro Rosso could have two vacant seats up for grabs, with Pierre Gasly making the step up to Red Bull and Brendon Hartley told he needs to improve before the end of the season to keep his position in the team.
Daniil Kvyat has been strongly linked with a return to Toro Rosso after twice being shown the door by the Red Bull junior team.
Esteban Ocon’s current Mercedes ties rules him out of an opportunity, while axed McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoornewill be hoping to attract their interest with his Formula 1 career on the line.
Mick Schumacher’s path, meanwhile, is set to be a little longer as he continues to work his way up through the junior ranks for the foreseeable future.
Maybe one day we will have another Schumacher on the Formula 1 grid, just not yet…
Barnard is definitely one of the most important F1 designers of the modern time along with Chapman, Newey, Murray, Costa and Byrne.
Saw him several times in the garages at the Detroit Grand Prix (in the extremely large basement of Cobo Hall), as serious looking as Ron Dennis.
Barnard has worked with Lauda, Prost, Schumacher, Piquet, Mansell,
Go to 4:15 of the video which gets into Barnard's discovery of the wasp tail on the non-tunneled MP4/1C which allows downforce from the air pressure buildup in front of the rear tires.
This and the diffuser undertray help make up for the loss of the the banned ground effect wind tunnels for the 1983 season. The "wasp" tail is still used today in F1 cars.
Antonio Giovinazzi is reportedly the firm favourite to partner Kimi Raikkonen at Sauber with the Alfa Romeo sponsored team waiting for the Scuderia’s decision.
Although Marcus Ericsson is keen to retain his Sauber seat for next season, that now depends on Ferrari and what they want.
IMO maybe not GOAT but this season (and last) is showing Hamilton to be legendary something only Senna, Prost, Clark, Fangio, and maybe Stewart have achieved.
Not a fan and would not have thought this in 2016 but Lewis is getting better all the time.
I like this better than the 'Ferrari' concept from before with the massive front wing winglets. The main body of the car looks shorter in length from above, and the bigger wheels will be an adjustment to get used to seeing..
Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting finds it "hard to believe" that Sergio Perez deliberately drove into Sergey Sirotkin during their intense battle in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Perez and Sirotkin came to blows at the Marina Bay circuit after the Mexican swerved left into his Williams rival, following mounting frustrations about being held up by the Russian.
The crash earned Perez a drive-through penalty for his actions, although some suggested that such an unnecessary clash warranted tougher action and even a black flag.
But Whiting did not think that what Perez did was so bad, as he is sceptical that a driver would be so stupid to deliberately crash at racing speed.
“I haven’t spoken to him, nor have the stewards as far as I’m aware,” said Whiting. “But it’s hard to believe a driver would intend to hit a [rival's] car.
“He’d been trying hard to get past Sirotkin, and he looked a little bit frustrated, and I just think he misjudged how far in front he was in front of him.
“You saw how closely they were racing all the way through [Turns] 14-15-16-17, and I think he just misjudged it.”
For several laps before the collision Perez complained on team radio about Sirotkin breaking the rules by weaving under braking – but this was something Whiting had not noticed.
“He [Perez] complained about this happening in Turn 7 and Turn 14, and we didn’t see anything that gave us any trouble. Then he complained again, and we looked again, and frankly he simply wasn’t close enough.
“Sergey was maybe just being circumspect going into Turn 14, but as they were approaching the corner, just moved slightly left. It wasn’t as if Sergio was getting really close, he was a good distance back.
“I just said to them he’s going to have to get a lot closer if we’re going to start looking exactly what he’s doing under braking, because it really wasn’t an issue for us.”
Baku memories
Perez’s swerve towards Sirotkin reminded some of what Sebastian Vettel did to Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car in Baku in 2017.
But Whiting thinks the incidents were different, because Vettel’s actions took place at much slower speed.
“The safety car was out in Baku,” added Whiting. “You can say it was, I wouldn’t say safer, but less likely to cause an accident than when at racing speeds.
"But that’s a decision that the stewards took, and presumably they took that into account.”
Formula 1 has no need to change its blue flag rules, says race director Charlie Whiting, despite complaints from drivers about difficulties passing backmarkers in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Dealing with lapped traffic proved to be one of the biggest challengers for the leaders on Sunday, with Lewis Hamilton losing time behind the battling Romain Grosjean and Sergey Sirotkin at one point and nearly getting caught by pursuer Max Verstappen.
Later on, fourth-placed Valtteri Bottas was left particularly frustrated that he could not get close enough to Nico Hulkenberg on fresh tyres to trigger the warning signals for blue flags.
The FIA only puts out the blue flags when a driver is 1.2 seconds behind a car it wants to lap, and Bottas shouted over the radio that such a gap was too big for a track like Singapore.
But Whiting thinks the current time margin is right, and any move to increase it would just end up ruining the races of the slower cars.
Asked by Autosport about the situation, he said: "This time last year it was one second, and we had discussions, and we opened it up to 1.2s.
"I don't think we should go any more than that, because then you get into a situation where a driver has to back off and lose a lot more time than he really should to let the other car through, if he's got to do it at his earliest opportunity.
"If we say, when he's 1.4s or 1.6s behind, you've got to move right over, back off, and lose a lot of time, we don't want that to happen because it's not fair."
Whiting said Bottas was the only driver really struggling to get within the 1.2s margin, and that it is the not the FIA's duty to overcome issues that faster cars may have with car handling or tyre management.
"I think it's reasonable to expect that a driver can get within 1.2s," he said. "Everyone else did except Valtteri.
"I don't know why that was. Maybe his car wasn't exactly how he wanted it. I spoke to him earlier and he said he just couldn't make any headway.
"That's not our problem, without wishing to sound unkind.
"Everyone else was abiding by that and had to work to that, so we couldn't make an exception for him."
Despite Whiting not seeing the need for change, Bottas reckoned the matter would get discussed in the drivers' briefing at the Russian GP.
"At most of the circuits it's fine. But it is very difficult to get within 1.2s here," he said after the race in Singapore.
"I'm sure at the next drivers' briefing or whatever we're going to speak about that.
"The more and more downforce with the current spec of cars, it's only going to get more difficult.
"Previously it was 1.0s, now it is 1.2s. With more downforce being added, it's going to be bigger. Hopefully next year it will be different."
The absolute state of the Red Bull Racing junior program at this exact moment is not great. With very few drivers following the traditional feeder series ladder sponsored by Red Bull and a massive driver shift (Daniel Ricciardo to Renault, Pierre Gasly to Red Bull), there aren’t many more numbers the team can call to fill empty seats.
Which means it looks like they’re going to be signing Daniil Kvyat, who was demoted from RBR to Toro Rosso for lackluster performance and thencompletely dropped from Toro Rosso.
The Red Bull junior program is something of a hot disaster. As fellow journalist Hazel Southwell notes, no young driver is going to turn down a wonderful sponsorship and a guaranteed progression through the ranks up to F1, so long as s/he performs. But it’s also a pretty cutthroat environment. If you do anything to besmirch the Red Bull name, you’re gone. Just ask Jean-Eric Vergne and Sébastien Buemi.
Kvyat was pretty much thrown under the bus when he was unceremoniously dismissed. As Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost told Autosportback in 2017:
He is not any more with Red Bull and he is therefore free to do whatever he wants to do. He is not any more with Red Bull or Toro Rosso.
They were, to put it lightly, not impressed. It looked like they were more than content to toss Kvyat to the curb and never acknowledge the Russian driver again.
Well… until now.
Pierre Gasly’s promotion to Red Bull Racing means that there’s going to be a free seat. Toro Rosso had been digging deep into the junior formulae in a desperate attempt to come up with something. But the fact that Lando Norris was at the top of their short list tells you just about everything: all the youngins are already contracted to other F1 junior programs.
Kvyat had gone to Ferrari as a simulator driver, but he still retained his Red Bull ties because those contracts are next to impossible to break.
Now that they’re out of options, Toro Rosso has changed their attitude. With time off from the pressures of Formula One and a chance to hone his skills in the simulator, they believe Kvyat is in a much better place mentally and emotionally to handle the stresses of racing on the international level.
There’s no official confirmation yet, but the rumor mill has been churning out the idea that Kvyat’s deal is already signed and ready to be announced at Sochi, his home race.
09-08-2018, 07:20 AM
Kimi's smartass answers are awesome.
