F1 Today – 15/01/2021
Leclerc test positive for Coronavirus
Charles Leclerc is the latest driver to test positive for coronavirus, the Monacan is the fifth F1 driver to test positive for the virus after Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
Leclerc says he has mild symptoms but is feeling “ok.” He had already been in self-isolation after being in contact with a subsequent positive case. In a statement posted on Twitter, he said, “I want to let you know that I have tested positive for Covid-19. I am regularly checked according to my team’s protocols.”
“Unfortunately, I learned that I have been in contact with a positive case and immediately went into self-isolation, notifying anyone I had contact with. A subsequent test I took has come back positive.”
The positive tests comes a week after McLaren’s Norris tested positive and when the opening race in Melbourne was postponed.
Ferrari said in another statement, “In accordance with the team’s protocols, Charles is tested regularly and yesterday, the result from his latest test came back positive.”
“Charles notified us immediately and has informed everyone he has been in close contact with in the last few days. He is currently feeling ok with mild symptoms and is now self-isolating at home in Monaco.”
Former Mercedes boss Hubbert dies aged eighty-one
Former Mercedes boss Jurgen Hubbert who was a key role in its move into DTM and F1 in the 1990s has died aged eighty-one. He created the first partnership with McLaren resulting in two world champions with Mika Häkkinen in the late 1990s and Sir Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Hubbert was born in 1939 before studying engineering at the University of Stuttgart in 1965, and he joined Daimler-Benz that year. He then started rising quickly through the company becoming a deputy member of the board.
Hubbert then started a review and decided motorsport, which Mercedes hadn’t been involved with since the end of 1955, was the way forward. He noted in 2018, “When I looked at the situation the company was in it became clear to me that we had got ourselves into some difficulties.”
“Due to an ongoing internal debate, we had been neglecting our vehicles. The focus was on becoming an ‘Integrated Technology Group.’ I hoped that we could polish up the image of the brand using motorsport activities. I remembered the 1950s when I was still at school and took a lively interest in the sport, and I also looked back to the 1930s.”
Mercedes re-entered DTM with what would become the Sauber, now Alfa Romeo F1, which morphed into a works World Sportscar Championship with them winning the 1989 and 1990 as well as Le Mans.
He hired Norbert Haug to head up its motorsport programme, however the plan to enter F1 in 1993 was shelved but it became Sauber’s engine supplier before teaming up with McLaren in 1995.
The partnership resulted in the first win for Mercedes in F1 for forty-two years before winning back to back titles with McLaren in 1998-99.
Hubbert took on a more senior management role within Daimler while also becoming a powerful figure behind the scenes in F1. He was one of the key players behind the GPWC, the aborted attempt by the manufacturers to break away from Bernie Ecclestone.
Away from F1, he played a role in the introduction of the A-class, M-class and CLK, as well as the birth of the Smart car range. He also found time to pursue an academic career, teaching engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe.
Bottas has no interest in mind games
Valtteri Bottas says he has no interest in playing mind games with Mercedes teammate Sir Lewis Hamilton, like his predecessor Nico Rosberg did. During their four seasons together at Mercedes, Rosberg and Hamilton had a fraught relationship off track and sometimes clashed on it too.
While there have been suggestions that the Finn could benefit from adopting a similarly tough stance in a bid to unsettle Hamilton, the Finn thinks that going down that route would actually backfire. Bottas believes that will cause unnecessary trouble for the team and extra effort for him, Hamilton himself would respond by simply being motivated to drive even faster.
He told Motorsport.com, “I think that the strength we have in the team is definitely that we can work as a team. We can for sure race hard, but we can also leave it there. And we know the fact that if we can work together, that’s how the team is going to benefit in the end.
“So there’s not going to be any hiding of setups or data or anything. And the team spirit in team sports is underestimated. I think it’s really important that you keep the motivation up, and [have] no conflicts.”
Bottas says many have suggested that he become more like Rosberg and play mind games, but he knows that won’t work against Hamilton as well as being a waste of energy for him, and make him faster.
Although determined to keep the positive spirit within the team, Bottas does think that he needs to adjust his approach to the forthcoming season if he is to do better.
2021 could be the defining year in his F1 career, as well as fighting Hamilton he only has a year’s contract, and Russell’s performance in Sakhir last year had led to speculation he could join Mercedes next year. Currently, none of the Mercedes drivers have contracts beyond 2021.
Bottas added, “I’m keen to explore something, you know. I feel like maybe it’s time to try something different. Of course, I always look forward to the future, and there will be opportunities. But in this sport, there’s not going to be a million opportunities.”
Melbourne postponed because of quarantine measures
Victoria’s sports minister Martin Pakula has confirmed the Australian Grand Prix was postponed because it would not have been possible for hundreds of team staff to quarantine for fourteen days upon their arrival.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the season-opening race has been postponed until the 19 – 21 November because of the strict border controls, including a fourteen-day quarantine for arrivals into the country.
The Australian Open tennis Grand Slam begins in Melbourne next month and Victoria’s sports minister, Martin Pakula said it was easier for that sport to deal with the quarantine rules.
Pakula said, “Tennis has been able to do that … but it’s not something that has been possible for Formula One. In those circumstances … when you’ve got the combination of that, the number of returning Australians … in our view that made it better to have a Grand Prix later in the year if that was possible.”
“One of the beauties of buying yourself ten months is that I suspect things will look different in November to how they look in January.”
Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott says preparations for the race would have been affected if it went ahead in March, with team staff spending most of their time in hotel rooms.
Westacott added, “When you look at the arrangements of setting up very big businesses … and the logistics and challenges they face coming into a new season, it wasn’t possible to have them operate in a strict quarantine arrangement.”
Vettel ready to help Schumacher
Sebastian Vettel says he will be “happy to help” Mick Schumacher much like his father, seven times champion Michael, helped him but says the Formula Two champion will also have to “find his own path” in the sport.
The twenty-one-year-old will make his debut in Bahrain in March, his name and his success in his career including last years F2 title. Vettel idolised Michael Schumacher as a youngster and says Mick can certainly lean on him for advice as he gets set to test out his skills against F1’s very best.
Vettel told Sky Sports, “I still am a Michael fan. and I’m happy to help where I can. Mick is a great guy and I obviously have a very special connection to his father.”
“It’s a shame that Michael is not able to witness Mick’s progression in the last years and his step now into Formula One. From my side, I really like him, we get along well, and I’m happy to tell him everything I know.”
Vettel raced against Schumacher in three of his four championship-winning seasons between 2010 and 2012.
In a recent interview Mick told Bild, “I think what my dad was to Sebastian, he is for me someone that I’m close to”.
Vettel responded: “I’m flattered! Obviously, I watched his father win a lot more races than he could have watched me win!”
Asked if he would be a father figure to Mick, Vettel believed it’s also important for him to forge his own path in F1 and was happy to help, but saw him as a person.
The four-time champion says he, however, will help where he can, with things that he went through in his career.
Haas honoured but pressured by Schumacher debut
Haas team principal Gunther Steiner believes that bringing Mick Schumacher into Formula One is “an honour” for Haas, but also brings “a lot of pressure.” Mick, the son of seven times champion Michael, will make his F1 debut this year alongside Nikita Mazepin.
Steiner says while it’s an honour that Schumacher name is returning to F1 with Haas, he is under no illusions of the added spotlight that would be on the team. Steiner told Motorsport.com, “The Schumacher name, through Michael, is a legend in Formula One.”
“To get his son in is fantastic, and I think it is an honour for us. If I think back to when Michael was driving, he had this aura [about him], and now we have his son in our team. I think for a young team, we do things right and we do things wrong, but we always try to do our best whatever it is.:
He says having Mick the honour of giving him his debut has a lot of pressure, which Steiner is fully aware of. Haas, he says, will do its duty to move him onto bigger things in life.
Schumacher is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and took the F2 title at the Sakhir Grand Prix, beating Callum Ilott and Red Bull youngster Yuki Tsunoda.
Steiner felt the added boost of having the F2 title under his belt would help Schumacher through his rookie season in F1, helping his confidence through tough times. He described it as “a big statement”, and says it was a very competitive season.
He told Motorsport.com, “Like every championship, you have good years when it is more competitive and years when it is less [competitive]. I think [2020] was a very competitive one. It was fought over until the last race.
“For him, coming in as a champion will give him that initial confidence when he maybe be struggling in F1 because everything is new. “He can always go back and say he was the F2 champion. All these things help when coming to F1.”
The week ahead
The week ahead is hard to predict, the two main factors grumbling on in the background is Coronavirus and when we finally get confirmation that Lewis Hamilton has signed his new contract.
In the last two weeks Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc have tested positive, we have had Melbourne and Shanghai postponed, and these new variants emerge. Covid-19 is still a threat it hasn’t gone away but you have this feeling that Liberty and the FIA are determined to start this season a week late.
But we know as we saw in March last year things can change very quickly. Normally we would be getting announcements about launches, I think given restrictions we are not likely to see big launches with cars being revealed on social media or the day before the Bahrain Test, but we will have to wait.
Hamilton we all know is highly likely to re-sign but we have not heard anything about that yet, and I don’t expect we will the ultimate deadline is the Bahrain Test, but I think its unlikely to hear anything until the end of the month.
The tabloids will try and spin headlines like ‘Hamilton tipped to demand George Russell contract clause,’ which Mercedes dismissed. The fact is the only people who know are Hamilton and Toto Wolff, we shouldn’t be worried yet.
Autosport International has been cancelled, normally that takes place in mid-January now we are not expecting a public event to take place. But the date has been set for 10-11 March for the industry but no fan event yet there could be.