Perez still liking super-tough Marko
Sergio Perez says he still likes the way Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko plays tough with him after bad races. Since joining the team at the start of the season it’s been up and down, while he took victory in Baku there has also been some frustrating races too.
Earlier this season, the Mexican said he was a fan of Marko’s ‘brutally honesty’ with him about his performances. Although the year has been tougher than he originally anticipated, Perez says he has not grown tired of Marko letting his feelings be known.
Asked by Motorsport.com if Marko was ever super tough with him, Perez said: “When he had to be. When I have a bad race, he will just tell me, and he will always tell you exactly what he thinks.”
“It is something good I think for someone with my experience, with my career in Formula 1, with the career I’ve had. It’s good to have someone that tells you straight away what he’s thinking, and where you are.”
Perez also says that Red Bull’s management has been a incredibly supportive of him throughout the season so far, and says they don’t back away if they feel he can be doing better. He says looking at the information and data after the weekend they don’t hold back, as they know where the lap time is.
Adding, “But the most important thing is that I’m happy and I’m satisfied going home, weekend after weekend. That for me is the most important thing, you know. I’m a very hungry driver and I have to live with myself.”
Perez says he has also built up a good relationship with Max Verstappen, as the pair have worked together to try to topple Mercedes. However says that it is hard to lean on that advice as he and Verstappen have very different driving styles.
Saying, “I have a good relationship with him on track and off track, so we are able to share our views regularly.”
Red Bull & Alpha Tauri in “good place” with driver line up
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the team and sister team Alpha Tauri are in a “good place” with its drivers line up. Both Red Bull-owned teams changed their driver line-ups this season, with the main team taking Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate, and Alpha Tauri slotting in Yuki Tsunoda alongside Pierre Gasly.
Although Perez has found it more difficult to adapt than expect to the unique characteristics of the Red Bull F1 chassis, his bosses have been impressed with his teamwork and the fact he has played a valuable supporting role to Verstappen. The comments by Horner add to growing suggestions that there will not be a change at Red Bull or Alpha Tauri.
Alpha Tauri team principal Franz Tost had said Gasly was fulling the role as team leader and was hoping to build the team, Horner’s comments suggest that Red Bull sees no reason to change things now. He says that Red Bull did the right thing in looking outside its young driver programme at the end of last year, and feels Perez has proved his worth.
He told Motor “Our view has always been to give youth the chance and I think Red Bull, more than any other team, has done that. But occasionally, you need to step out of the programme. I think it was a brave decision to do that, but I think it was the right decision. The dynamic in the team is working well.
Horner said that Gasly “is doing a fantastic job at AlphaTauri”, and still remains a Red Bull driver, putting the team in a good place.
Perez’s biggest difficulty this season has come from being able to extract the maximum pace from the car in qualifying. However, Horner says the Mexican has delivered what’s been needed in being a disruptor to Mercedes and picking up the pieces when Verstappen has had a bad day.
Adding “I think Sergio has delivered the role that we’ve been hoping for. You saw that in Baku when he picked up a victory on the day that he was able to put Lewis under pressure.”
“He’s been collecting those constructors’ points, and playing the team game, as we saw at the French GP. He’s a great team player and we’re very happy with the job he’s doing.”
Ferrari gained less than a tenth
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says the team gained less than a tenth of a second from having extra time to develop its 2021 car in the wind tunnel. This year’s regulation tweaks ahead of next years major overhaul has reduced wind tunnel time to forty runs compared to sixty-five in recent seasons.
But wind tunnel use is also defined by on-track results, with the teams doing worst getting extra runs based on their finishing position in the constructors’ championship the previous year.
As a result of winning last year’s championships, Mercedes’ wind tunnel testing was limited to 90% of the base total for 2021, meaning 36 runs. With Ferrari enduring its worst season since 1980 by finishing sixth in the standings, the Maranello squad was allowed a 102.5% usage.
Binotto believes that the impact of the extra runs has been minimal as the extra time in the wind tunnel corresponds to a week of development. He told Motorsport.com, “Obviously for the position we finished last year we’ve got some more time at the wind tunnel.”
“The extra time we’ve got is corresponding to what we call sessions of the wind tunnel in the entire season, so it’s an extra session, and normally an extra session is a week of development, and normally a week of development is less than 0.1 seconds per lap.”
However, says it is still important to have but it was only worth less than a tenth a lap, with Ferrari believing it’s not a game changer. Ferrari has been among the most-improved teams in 2021, currently tied with McLaren for third in the constructors’ championship with a hundred and sixty-three points.
Schumacher expects future to be resolved by Spa
Mick Schumacher says he is expecting that his future to be resolved by the end of the summer break, with his Haas team being expected to retain the same line-up. The current F2 champion is in his first season of F1, he is also a member of Ferrari’s driver academy.
The German driver is team-mate at Haas to fellow F1 rookie Nikita Mazepin, who joined the team on a multi-year deal at the start of this season. In Budapest, team principal Guenther Steiner told Sky Sports, “I guess it will be, almost for sure, the same two guys.”
Speaking about his future, Schumacher added, “It’s probably around the summer break where things will intensify on that side. With Ferrari, we are always in contact about it, but it has been something where I didn’t really put my thoughts to. It’s mainly the summer break where we will talk about it and see what direction we will go for.”
While Haas would like to retain Schumacher, it accepts that a decision on whether Schumacher stays at Haas or moves to Alfa Romeo ultimately lies with Ferrari. Despite the team deciding not to develop this years car, Schumacher has regularly managed to beat teammate Nikita Mazepin.
In Budapest, during the mixed-up race in Hungary when the German went wheel-to-wheel with Red Bull title challenger Max Verstappen.
Though out this year, Haas has admitted they are not developing the car with the hope that next years regulation change can make them competitive in the midfield. The new regulation overhaul in a bid to increase competition through the field, and Haas are one of the teams who hope the changes will allow them to make a step-change in fortune after slipping towards the back of the field since finishing fifth in 2018.
The teams 2022 car is being led by Simone Resta, who joined the team at the start of this year as part of a strengthened relationship with engine suppliers Ferrari. Speaking about the 2022 car, Steiner added, “I think development is going well. I can see similarities to the years before we had our issues, like ’17 and ’16, so it looks good.
Ricciardo wants to be in “prime spot” to fight for the title
Daniel Ricciardo says he wants to be in “a prime spot” to fight for championships in 2024, should McLaren be ready to challenge for the championship. Earlier this month, racing CEO Zak Brown said the Woking-based outfit will have no excuses not to be in a position to fight for the titles by 2024, once all its infrastructure investment, including its new wind tunnel, are in place and functioning at full capacity.
The team had planned to move their wind tunnel operations back to Woking this year after a decade of using Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne, however, the two year construction programme was delayed because of the pandemic. Brown told Motorsport.com, “What I will say is we will have caught up by 2024 with all of our infrastructures, most specifically the wind tunnel. I think we’ll have no excuses come the 2024 season.”
Ricciardo’s current contract with McLaren is due to expire in 2023, but he feels the team still needs a few years before it can catch up with F1’s frontrunners. He said, “I understand that the team is on a great trajectory, but now there are still a few hurdles in place that are probably going to stop us, let’s say, fighting for a championship for the next year or two.”
The Australian described the wind tunnel as a pretty big piece or even the last piece of the puzzle for the team. Saying for now his aim was to keep building on where he is now and then hopefully be in a prime position for 2024, saying while it seems a far ahead you need to think like that.
Adding “So that’s where being here for a while now kinda helps take a breath, step back, go through it and understand that there’s a reason why things aren’t great right now. I need to find some answers as opposed to just throw my hands up and walk away from it all.”
All of Ricciardo’s seven victories have come with Red Bull, his last being in Monaco 2018, he admits that he has had to adapt mentally to remain motivated after three years not fighting at the front. Explaining you must adapt your mentality to remain motivated.
He added, “In a way you have to change a little bit. I don’t know its mindset, goals, target, but you have to create different victories in your mind where a victory might not always be first place. Going back to last year a victory at Renault was getting that car onto the podium. I knew if I was able to do that would give me that satisfaction.”
Alpine calls for monitoring of customer teams
Alpine F1 executive director Marcin Budkowski says his team expects the FIA “to be all over” rival teams collaborating on their 2022 car designs. Last year, Racing Point was at the centre of a copying row after arriving at testing with the car which looked a lot like the Mercedes from 2019, the team it bought a gearbox, power unit and other unlisted parts from.
Alpine, then called Renault, lead the charges of copying against Racing Point, now Aston Martin, when it filled protests against the team at the Styrian, Hungarian and British Grands Prix, arguing Racing Point’s rear brake ducts were illegally copied from Mercedes.
The protest was upheld, and Racing Point was docked fifteen constructors’ points and fined 400,000 euro after Silverstone. Renault initially appealed the decision before drawing a line under the matter.
In the wake of the Racing Point controversy, F1 tightened its rules on reverse engineering, banning the use of 3D cameras and complex software systems to copy rival designs.
Now the team has called on the FIA to remain vigilant ahead of the massive 2022 regulation changes. Alpine potentially has a lot to lose as they currently don’t have any customer teams, so it could be argued they are trying to restrict their rivals all of them customers of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Budkowski told Motorsport.com “Clearly going into 2022, a massive change in regulations, big development slope, lots of performance being gained on these cars, very green fresh set of regulations, the benefits you can get from collaboration, whether it’s legal or less so, are massive.”
“If there’s a year where these kinds of collaborations can pay off, it’s this year, for 2022. So clearly, if there’s a year where we expect the FIA to be really all over it, it’s this year.”
Ask if he believed there could be a repeat of the copying row or he thought it was being policed sufficiently, Budkowski said it was a “difficult question” but admitted there was some concern.
He says as an independent team, they don’t come under scrutiny for sharing anything with our competitors, because it would be against our own interests.
The week ahead
Next week F1 starts the second half of the season at Spa, this is the start of a triple header and the next two races are Max Verstappen’s home races. Much of the focus I think will be on him and Red Bull, coupled with a serious challenge to Mercedes there will be questions about who will come into this tough second half strongest.
Verstappen knows that history suggests that Sir Lewis Hamilton comes off the break strongest and he needs to put the pressure on. He has however had tough weekends at Silverstone and Budapest, so there are a lot of unanswered questions. When we get to Thursday I expect a lot of the media to ask about approach to this second half of the season.
We still don’t know how many races there will be, though I expect a double header in Austin, there hasn’t been confirmation about replacements for Suzuka and Melbourne, while Istanbul remains uncertain because of travel restrictions. Shanghai and Interlagos I think will be cancelled, maybe Mexico and Austin.
I think we are likely to hear at Spa or Zandvoort about how the October / November calendar looks, we are still in this pandemic. We need to remember this could also have an impact on the championship, if we see more races cancelled and not replaced that means there are less points on the table.
Upgrades are going to be a challenge as the next three races are very different circuits and Monza normal has a special package. But we will see throughout the weekend, its going to be a case of wait and see.
