No plan for Verstappen / Hamilton partnership
Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has told F1’s podcast there are currently no plans to pair Lewis Hamilton and a “loyal” Max Verstappen together as F1 team-mates, while also opening up on the “very difficult” Hamilton and Nico Rosberg years.
Hamilton chasing a seventh title and Verstappen seen as the natural successor with speed, are two of the most valuable drivers in F1. While a Mercedes link-up has been mooted over the years, it has never been close to becoming a reality.
Hamilton, who doesn’t currently have a contract for 2021, has been partnered by Valtteri Bottas since 2017, and Verstappen is signed up with Red Bull until 2023. Although Hamilton is expecting to sign a new contract before 2021.
Wolff told F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, “Valtteri does a great job for us, and Lewis does a great job for us and they are still at the peak of their performance levels. Then we have juniors that are coming up that have been with us for many years and could be the future for us. So this is what we look at.”
“And the situation around Max doesn’t provide any opportunity now. He’s bound to Red Bull, I respect his loyalty a lot and I think it’s important for Red Bull to have Max. There’s a lot of narrative around that and Red Bull picked him up from very early on when he joined Toro Rosso.”
Hamilton is yet to commit his future to Mercedes but is expected to sign a new contract with the team he joined in 2013.
Wolff suggested the relationship between Bottas and Hamilton was important to Mercedes after the tumultuous Rosberg-Hamilton pairing. In the four year relationship, there were many on and off-track altercations which goes back to karting, which Mercedes can never fully understand.
Adding, “How it all grew from camaraderie to rivalry to animosity is something we were spectators of, but the dynamic, the dynamic of what happened between them was very difficult to follow.”
Wolff also reviled they fell out earlier than it appeared, saying it was in 2013 the continued to grow from there.
Fan attendance cut at Portimao due to restrictions
Organisers of this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix has been forced to reduce the number of fans who can attend this weekend’s Grand Prix due to new Coronavirus restrictions.
The Algarve International Circuit was added to the calendar as part of the revised scheduled forced by the ongoing pandemic, with the circuit hosting the first race in the country since 1996. It had hoped to have 50,000 fans on each day of the race weekend, only for a fresh wave of restrictions to be announced in Portugal last week.
It has resulted in Portimao cutting its planned attendance numbers for this weekend’s race, capping the number of spectators per day to 27,500, as approved by the local government. 46,000 tickets had been on sale, but all of the of those in general admissions areas that did not have a dedicated grandstand seat have been removed.
A statement from the circuit said, “As is well known, Portugal saw measures to combat the pandemic COVID-19 increased last week, as determined by the government, with a series of additional restrictive measures taking effect in the national territory”
“As a consequence of these new measures, the health and administrative authorities have also determined new limitations and prohibitions regarding the presence of the public at Portuguese Grand Prix, namely a further decrease in the total number of spectators allowed.”
Portimao confirmed it would offer fans a full refund on tickets if requested, and that it was working on “several solutions” for those in the general admission zone.
Last week the country reported its highest number of coronavirus in a single day and has reported 100 deaths in the last week.
Stroll did have Coronavirus at the Nürburgring
Lance Stroll has revealed the mystery illness which forced him to withdraw from the Eifel Grand Prix was Coronavirus, but is now feeling “100 per cent” and will take part in this weekend’s race in Portugal.
The Canadian withdrew ahead of practice on Saturday morning after feeling unwell but returned a negative result, he was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg. He had tested negative for coronavirus in the pre-race screening, but another test on Sunday evening returned a positive result.
Stroll in a statement on Instagram, said “I just want to let everyone know that I recently tested positive for Covid-19 after the Eifel GP weekend. I am feeling 100 per cent and have since tested negative.”
F1 has strict coronavirus protocols in the paddock this season, with social distancing, masks and team-by-team ‘bubbles’, and Stroll said he isolated ever since Saturday morning. He was, however, conducting media duties on Thursday and was with the team during Friday’s practice wash-out.
The Canadian added, “To fill you in on what happened, I arrived at the Nürburgring after testing negative in the normal pre-race tests On Saturday morning I started to feel unwell and woke up with an upset stomach. I followed the FIA protocol and self-isolated in my motorhome and did not re-enter the paddock.”
He then chose to return home when he took another test which returned a positive result, before self-isolating with mild symptoms. Stroll, however, says he has since returned a negative result, “and I can’t wait to be back with the team and to race in Portugal.”
Both of Racing Point’s drivers have been forced to miss races this season after testing positive for coronavirus. This evening it was also reported that Lawrence Stroll, team owner, also tested positive following the race.
Stroll positive test doesn’t expose loopholes
FIA race director Michael Masi does not feel Lance Stroll’s illness ahead of the Eifel Grand Prix has exposed any loophole in the FIA’s coronavirus testing protocols.
The Canadian confirmed on Wednesday morning he missed the race after feeling unwell, which later was confirmed as a positive test for the virus. Stroll had been unwell since the Russian Grand Prix two weeks earlier but had been tested regularly for coronavirus after displaying some symptoms, with all results coming back negative.
Ahead of the Nürburgring race, Stroll returned a negative test, allowing him to enter the paddock, before pulling out of the race weekend on Saturday. The virus has a five day incubation period, ad the FIA has a three-day testing program.
Masi stressed the onus of getting tested when showing symptoms lay entirely on the competitors, and that nothing had been reported to the FIA since Stroll’s negative test on the Tuesday.
Speaking before Stroll confirmed his positive test, Masi told Motorsport.com, “No, we don’t feel there is any loophole. The requirement for Lance, or any other attendee on that matter, there are the various time requirements to test prior to entering the paddock, and then the follow-up testing from that point.”
“Based on the Tuesday test, his next test would have been Sunday morning to fulfil the requirements of the FIA COVID protocol. So that one is quite simple.
“With regards to Lance feeling ill, like any other driver, it’s incumbent upon the driver and the competitor, in this case, Racing Point, to determine if they feel that their driver is not up to the capacity to drive the car, which they obviously did and chose to do yesterday.”
Masi says Appendix S of the FIA’s COVID protocols, says that Racing Point as the stakeholder, and Lance himself as an attendee to declare within the parameters of the protocol if they are having any of those requirements, and then there is the requirement from there to report.
He says none of this was reported to the FIA. Stroll was the second driver to miss a race through illness this year after Racing Point teammate Sergio Perez skipped both Grands Prix at Silverstone after testing positive for COVID-19.
Last week’s coronavirus update reported eight positive results from 1,506 tests conducted between 9-15 October.
Ferrari introducing Portuguese upgrade
Ferrari has announced they will be introducing another aerodynamic upgrade to the rear of its car at this weekend Portuguese Grand Prix, completing its 2020 development programme after a difficult campaign.
The Italian manufacturer has struggled for pace, lacking in both engine and aerodynamic performance which has left it in sixth place in the constructor’s championship. In an attempt to rectify its aerodynamic issues, the team has developed a wide array of upgrades, which it has rolled out over the past two weeks. Upgrades introduced at the Russian and Eifel grand Prix included a new nose, rear wing, and bargeboard.
At this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, Ferrari will complete the set of upgrades with a new diffuser.
Ferrari’s Head of Performance Development Enrico Cardile explained “We already introduced a few small modifications to the car’s aero package in Sochi and added others at the Nürburgring. In Portimao we will have a further update, mainly to the diffuser, completing the programme set out over the past few months.”
Ferrari has decided that its upgrades at the last two races were a success after Charles Leclerc was fourth in qualifying on the Nurburgring and finishing seventh, backing up a sixth-place finish in Sochi.
According to team principal Mattia Binotto, the upgrades were not expected to deliver huge performance gains, but showed the Italian squad was heading in the right direction.
Cardile hopes Ferrari will “get confirmation” at Portimao that its development is “on the right track” after being plagued by correlation issues in the Maranello wind tunnel.
Cardile added, “Indications from the past few grands prix are positive and we hope the same will apply this weekend. We have to consider that, more than ever this year, development is aimed at the following season.”
As part of the measures brought in because of the pandemic, teams are only allowed a limited redevelopment of the current car, which will also undergo a downforce cut as mandated by the tweaked technical regulations.
Ferrari confirmed earlier that it will spend its entire allowance of two development tokens for the 2021 season on the rear of its troubled car.
Ocon needs patience but not in a disaster
Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul has cautioned Esteban Ocon to be patient and insists his current situation is “not a disaster”. The Frenchman is currently twelfth in the driver’s championship, forty-three points behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fourth.
At the last three races, Ocon has been hampered by reliability issues in three races, most recently a hydraulic problem that stopped him in the Eifel Grand Prix, and which have cost him points. He has also struggled to match Ricciardo in qualifying, and in races where both men have had a clear run, he has consistently finished behind the Australian.
Abiteboul told Motorsport.com, “I think he needs to do what he’s been doing since a few races that unfortunately has not really materialised, but for reasons that are not in his direct control. It’s still not totally clear what happened with the brake warming issue in Mugello. We still don’t know.”
“But let’s be clear, Monza was difficult. It’s been a bit of a reset of Esteban, the way that we are all working together. There’s been lots of discussion, lots of hard work from [his engineer] Mark Slade, who’s not new to race engineering, in order to bring him through the steps.”
Abiteboul says that Ocon still needs to be very pragmatic about the situation while acknowledging he still faces strong competition from teammate Ricciardo. He says that Ocon has never had a teammate as strong as the Australian, who he believes is stronger than Perez.
Adding “I think he needs to be very pragmatic, set himself some realistic targets, but also look at his current performance, which he should not be ashamed of, and build his confidence, build also his ability to be a bit patient.”
Melbourne on course for the opening race
Organisers of the Australian Grand Prix have confirmed that they are on course to be the season opener in March. This contradicts reports by Spanish website Soymotors, the season will begin in Bahrain on the weekend of the 12 – 14 March.
It’s widely expected a ‘near-normal’ calendar will run with twenty-two races, with Vietnam making its debut and the return to Zandvoort for the first time since 1984.
“The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is in regular dialogue with Formula 1 on the 2021 provisional calendar, which will be published in the coming weeks,” said Andrew Westacott, Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO, in a statement to Sky Sports.
This year’s race in Melbourne was abandoned hours before Friday practice after one member of McLaren’s team contracted coronavirus. The season’s scheduled opening 10 events were called off, with a revamped 17-race calendar instead beginning in July.
No provisional calendar has been released, but promoters at Zandvoort, Monaco, Bahrain, Montreal, Shanghai and Silverstone, have started promoting dates around their normal slot in the season.
Speaking last week on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Carey provided an update on the sport’s progress with putting together a more global 2021 schedule. But F1 chairman acknowledged that the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic remained unknown into next year.
“At this point, we are pretty close to having a calendar for 2021,” said Carey, who steps back from his role at the end of the year to become non-executive chairman.
However, was cautious given the uncertainty around the evolving situation with Coronavirus pandemic.
