Sainz’s ‘euphoria’ affecting Ferrari positivity
Carlos Sainz’s ‘euphoria’ at getting a chance to race for Ferrari has helped lift the mood of the whole team, says Charles Leclerc. Ferrari had a difficult 2020 finishing sixth in the constructor’s championship, but in testing and the Grand Prix in Bahrain, the team appeared to show progress with both cars finishing in the points.
Leclerc has already spoken about the team shaking off the ‘strange’ atmosphere that dogged it at the start of last year, but he now reveals how Sainz has helped change things too. The Spaniard has appeared to embrace his move from McLaren to Ferrari, with his teammate saying Ferrari has been boosted by his enthusiasm to do well.
Leclerc, told the Italian edition of Motorsport.com, that Sainz had brought some benefits with him. Saying “In recent years he has been in several teams, and I think it is always interesting to get an idea of how the opponents work. I’ve immediately noticed his great motivation too. He is in his first year in Ferrari and you can see that he immediately wants to do very well.”
“This euphoria is contagious for the benefit of the whole team. I believe that for a team it is always good to have two drivers who push to get back to victory.” One change he has seen is that Sainz is spending more time working with him at Ferrari than he did with Sebastian Vettel.
Leclerc has played down talk that he has upped his own presence at Maranello, he has noticed that the timings are now different from when the drivers are at Ferrari’s headquarters. He explained that it was appearing as he was posting more photos on social media, and they were spending more time together.
Seidl best team principal in F1 – Brown
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has praised Andreas Seidl as the best team principal in Formula One, with the pair believing the squad’s management structure has helped fast track its recovery.
Brown joined the team in 2016 before being appointed as CEO in 2018, the same year he appointed Seidl as team principal and divided the responsibilities to their strengths. McLaren was one of the first teams to adopt the splitting of the responsibilities of team principal across a number of senior figures rather than one, McLaren is clear that the process works.
But Brown says one factor that cannot be underestimated is just how good Seidl is, with the German having helped guide McLaren to third place in last year’s constructors’ championship. He says that this structure works extremely well for McLaren.
He told Motorsport.com, “Andreas and I have an outstanding working relationship. I think it’s extremely clear what my role is, what Andreas’ role is, and it is very clear to the team too.
“My job as CEO of McLaren Racing is to field the most competitive, financially sustainable racing team, not only in F1, but anything else that we may venture into like IndyCar etc.”
“I think my job is to get the best people in the business, and I think we’ve done that. I think Andreas is the best team principal in the pitlane, in my humble opinion.” Brown admitted he doesn’t know how to run an F1 team, with his job being to give Sedil the freedom to do that with him finding the finances.
He believes that is very important and crucial for the success of the team, having clear responsibilities and accountability.
Seidl says complete clarity between himself and Brown over what their responsibilities are has been hugely important in helping McLaren make good progress in recent years.
Adding, “I think it’s very important, and crucial to the success of an F1 team, to have clear responsibilities, and also clear accountabilities. I’m very happy with how we have defined responsibilities within McLaren Racing, and I’m very happy with Zak being the CEO of McLaren Racing, and being my boss also.”
News in Brief
Leclerc receives 2019 winning Ferrari
Charles Leclerc has received his 2019 winning car from Ferrari who sent it to his home in Monaco. Leclerc posted images on Instagram of the car which he won two races back-to-back in Spa and Monza, the first driver to take two back to back wins following a debut win since Sir Lewis Hamilton in 2007
Hamilton takes pay cut
Its been reported that Sir Lewis Hamilton has taken a ten million dollar pay cut in his basic salary, according to Race Fans as well as his bonus for race wins being reduced by a million. Hamilton admitted he did not feel comfortable negotiating a “big contract” while so many people were losing their jobs due to the pandemic.
Woman’s eSport wildcard
Formula One has announced a Women’s Wildcard to its eSports Pro Exhibition to increase the chances of having a female gamer represent one of the ten teams for the first time in the Pro Series.
Since the constructors’ championship began in 2017 teams have had all-male line up. although some female gamers have raced by invitation in individual virtual Grands Prix held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The female gamers will compete for the wildcard from May 3-9 on Codemasters’ F1 2020 game, with the fastest going through to the Pro Exhibition. No woman has ever won a world championship Grand Prix, Lella Lombardi was the first and so far only woman to score points.
Schumacher “optimistic” about Haas’s prospects
Mick Schumacher says he is “optimistic” about Haas’s prospects in qualifying this year, believing there was no reason why the team cannot fight for spots in Q2 during the season.
The German and his teammate Nikita Mazepin qualified in nineteenth and twentieth in Bahrain. The team has decided not to significantly develop this year’s car because they want to focus on next year regulation changes, Schumacher was four tenths behind Sebastian Vettel in eighth.
But Schumacher says Haas’s qualifying performance was roughly what the team was anticipating on his debut race weekend. when asked about the gap to Q2 in Bahrain qualifying, Schumacher told Motorsport.com, “We shouldn’t say it was disappointing in any way. I think we managed it pretty well. We had one clean lap. That’s what we wanted. We managed to be close to what we imagined in terms of pace.”
“Obviously we had a bit of a deficit. I am 95% happy with my lap. Obviously, there’s still a lot of things that I can improve and definitely will be still working on them for the time being.” Schumacher says for him it was about gaining the experience which he hopes to turn into a consistent pattern of improvement.
He is hopeful that this season the team would be able to challenge for a place in Q2. Schumacher saying he sees a lot of motivation in the team and optimistic about the team getting into the second part of qualifying at some point.
Teammate Nikita Mazepin shared that optimism after describing his qualifying in Bahrain where he qualified eight tenths off as “very bad.” Asked if he agreed with Schumacher he said “I think what he said was correct.”
Adding, “Then in regards to my lap out there, obviously, it was very bad, because I had this issue with the brakes and obviously I had only one attempt on the lap itself, which is annoying. But then it’s very important to look at the bigger picture. We knew that first qualifying and this year was going to be rather tough.”
Silverstone backs vaccine passports
Silverstone has joined other sports venues calling on the British prime minister Boris Johnson to give its backing to a review of Covid certificates as an option for helping major events such as the British Grand Prix run with capacity crowds this summer.
Earlier in the year the circuit’s managing director Stuart Pringle said the BRDC and other sports bodies were in talks with the government exploring options for capacity attendances at major events later this year and is supportive of the ‘vaccine passport’ concept.
Silverstone is one of ten signatories of a letter from leading sporting organisations to the Government requesting “certainty as soon as possible” on when fans can return to stadiums at full capacity.
The letter said “Looking ahead to June 21, we support the Government’s ambition to secure the full return of fans, without restrictions if possible. Of necessity, this will depend upon the Government agreeing that it is safe to lessen or drop social distancing requirements.”
“How this can be achieved is being examined by the Events Research Programme (ERP) which is looking at a range of options, including the extent to which social distancing can be relaxed. This work is supported by all of the major sporting bodies. All of our sports are committed to working closely with the ERP to explore all of the options that will allow us to swiftly return to full capacities.”
The circuit says it understands that the guidance will be given by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. But says it needs certainty from the government to plan efficiently and effectively with many big sporting events scheduled for late June and onwards.
The letter says that sporting events are of great benefits for the economy and to help that every possible action must be taken for an unrestricted return as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Adding “This includes investigating how a Covid certification arrangement could reduce and then safely remove the requirement for social distancing.”
Alpine “scared” itself with hot-weather struggles
Alpine says it wants to understand why its car was less competitive in hot conditions after “scaring” itself in the Bahrain afternoon sessions last month. The rebranded Renault team failed to score points on it debut after failing to fight against its midfield rivals,.
Esteban Ocon spent the majority of the race outside of the points after dropping out in Q1 and was hit by Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages. Teammate Fernando Alonso qualified ninth and was on the fringes of the points before a brake issue forced him to retire after thirty-two laps.
The French manufacturer found their performance fall below expectations in the warmer sessions, which suggests the car has some sensitivity to heat. Its executive director Marcin Budkowski explained to Motorsport.com, that FP3 in Bahrain “was a bit more difficult for us, and we got back to a level of competitiveness that is more representative in the evening sessions, so FP2 and qualifying.”
“The temperature has been quite extreme. It was hotter than during the test. I sat on the pit wall in the beginning of FP3 and it was 38ºC, I think 47-48ºC track temperature. That’s way hotter than it was two weeks before at the test.”
“Obviously they’re the same for everyone, but you will have different cars reacting differently to these conditions. We scared ourselves a little bit, it’s fair to say, on Friday morning. We were looking a bit uncompetitive and it’s good to get back to somewhere a bit more competitive.”
Budkowski says the team were two to three tenths behind McLaren and Aston Martin who they are looking to fight with this season. This weekend for Imola they are bringing a “pretty decent” upgrade, in an attempt to join the midfield pack.
Although Budkowski did not anticipate the hot-weather issue rearing its head again at the upcoming European races due to the springtime conditions, he hoped it would be resolved by the time the summer events come around. Saying, “We have a bit of homework on understanding why we’re seemingly less competitive in the hot sessions than in the evening sessions [in Bahrain].”
F1 needs to accept Netflix’s massaging of the truth
McLaren CEO Zak Brown says that Formula One should accept Netflix’s massaging of the truth in Drive to Survive, even though it has upset some fans. The third series of the programme divided opinion between fans, with some revelling in the background insights while others getting riled by the way it has top-spun some of the drama.
In particular, the frequent cutting in of radio conversations or comments to play up controversy grated with some, and it was noted how it tried to portray a sense of conflict between McLaren duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris. Despite criticism, Brown says the sport needs to understand the wider benefits that have come from the Netflix series, which has proved to be hugely popular and help raised the profile of F1.
He told Motorsport.com in Bahrain, “I think Netflix has been great for F1. It’s been trending number one. I think it was number one in 25 countries. So I think the primary goal of Netflix is to entertain and bring new viewers to F1. And I think it’s accomplished that tenfold, which is great.”
Brown says Netflix’s treatment of F1 should be compared to the way that Hollywood frequently puts entertainment over the need to be realistic in movies. Adding look at “ Top Gun, you watch it, and I’m sure every fighter pilot went, you can’t do that in a jet. But it was a great movie.”
“So, of course, all of us living in the sport know that Carlos and Lando had a great relationship, and there wasn’t the kind of a tension portrayed there. Any time you get into a television show, they’re going to create some entertainment that we all within the paddock know, maybe it wasn’t quite like that.”
Brown says this is OK as the most important thing the series has done has attracted new fans from around the world, with them being supportive of Netflix and what they’re trying to accomplish, even if they take a little bit of creative licence here and there.
