F1 Today – 26/07/2021
Verstappen-Hamilton crash costs Red Bull £1.3m
Red Bull says the collision between Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton on the opening of the British Grand Prix cost the team £1.3m in repairs. Writing in his column on the team’s website, team principal Christian Horner said that they continue to consider whether to request a review of the incident and penalty issued to Hamilton by stewards.
Under the FIA’s International Sporting Code, competitors can request a right of review up to 14 days after a stewards’ ruling if “a significant and relevant new element is discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned”. The 14-day period expires on August 1, race day in Hungary next week.
The two championship rivals collided on the opening lap of the race at Silverstone, when Verstappen spun off at high speed going into the barrier which he struck at 51G. both drivers blame each other for the accident.
Hamilton was found to have been ‘predominantly at fault’ by stewards and handed a 10-second penalty. After serving the sanction at his first pit stop, Hamilton raced back from fourth to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with two laps to go for an eighth Silverstone win to cut Verstappen’s title lead from 33 to eight points.
Horner wrote in his column, “It is no secret that we felt at the time, and still feel, that Hamilton was given a light penalty for this type of incident. Given the severity of the incident and the lenient penalty, we are reviewing all data and have the right to request a review.”
“We are therefore still looking at the evidence and considering all of our sporting options. The other significant factor is the cost-cap element of this. That crash has cost us approximately $1.8million (£1.3m) and an accident like that has massive ramifications in a budget cap era”
2021 is the first time teams have had to operate within a budget cap of £125m on performance spending. Horner also said that Verstappen’s seat had been broken in the impact with the Copse barriers.
Horner says “The narrative that Max was being ‘overly aggressive’ at that stage was unjustified. You only have to look at the fact Max has zero penalty points on his licence and has not been found guilty of any on-track misjudgements in recent years.”
He admitted that both drivers are of course uncompromising in their driving style, but they are both highly skilled drivers with a great deal of experience. But accused Hamilton of being the aggressor, and says the seven-times champion needs to show respect.
Last week, Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison said, “We were concerned after the incident and prior to the restart to make sure that the stewards had read and were following the FIA’s internal guidance to stewards on the rights and wrongs of overtaking.
‘Because as far as we are concerned, the manoeuvre that took place, the manoeuvre that Lewis did was absolutely in line with the FIA’s overtaking guide.”
Mercedes braced for difficult Budapest
Mercedes is bracing themselves for their title rivals Red Bull to fight back at this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix, after being “bruised” by its defeat at Silverstone. The German manufacturer ended Red Bull’s five-race win run, despite Sir Lewis Hamilton being given a ten second penalty for his collision with Max Verstappen.
The team had an upswing in performance and form, after being beaten comprehensively beaten by Red Bull in both races in Spielberg, with Hamilton topping qualifying on Friday and finishing second in the sprint race. However, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says it would be “naïve” to expect a repeat in Budapest.
Following Silverstone, he told Motorsport.com, “This is one of our best tracks so it would be naive for us to think we can go there and expect to carry this performance in.”
“Red Bull are going to be good at a high-downforce circuit – frankly they’re going to be good at every circuit at the moment – and they’re going to be a bit bruised after the experience here. So I’m sure they’re going to come back really strong.”
Mercedes made decent gains in both the drivers and constructors championship, while Red Bull scored three points from Verstappen’s sprint qualifying win. Hamilton is now just eight points behind Verstappen in the drivers, while Mercedes are four points behind Red Bull in the constructors.
Shovlin felt it would be a huge boost for Mercedes if it could reclaim the lead of both championships heading into the summer break, having trailed Red Bull since Monaco. Saying, “We’re about halfway through the championship, there’s very fine margins in terms of the points and, for us, we’re just going to throw everything at it now to try and get through.”
He says it would be fantastic if they could get ahead of themselves in Budapest, but admits that is a stretch target. Silverstone showed, according to Shovlin “that anything’s possible. You’ve just got to keep going, trying to get better and trying to improve.”
Jeddah could move to early 2022
Organisers of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix say they are hoping to move the race to an earlier slot next year, as speculation the season will begin again in the Middle East. The city of Jeddah will host its first race 03 – 05 December this year, as the penultimate race of the season.
the promoter of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisal, says that the preference for 2022 is to be nearer the front end. Ticket sales for this year’s Saudi race have just been released to the public.
Prince Khalid told Motorsport.com, “For us as a promoter, we prefer not to be the last races. Teams can do good really in the first races and then the other races have become not so interesting, as a promoter.”
“We wanted to have race in the beginning [of the season] but in the time we had to do the work for the track and prepare the track, we couldn’t have a race in 2021 at the beginning of the year. Our decision was to have a race at the end of 2021, or [wait to] have an early race in 2022. Our decision was we wanted the race in 2021.
“So we are now discussing with F1 about what is best for us to have our race in 2022, and hopefully we can get to an agreement.” The pandemic is likely to play a role in deciding the way next year’s calendar is decided.
It is expected that Melbourne will again be shifted back to later in the schedule to give the country more time to deal with international travel restrictions. That would leave the way open for Bahrain to again open the season, as it did this year. It would then make a lot of sense for Saudi Arabia to form a back-to-back.
Prince Khalid also expressed an interest in Jeddah becoming one of the trial venues for sprint qualifying, saying “I think it’s good. You have more races to see, more action on Saturday. We would love to be one of the countries that had the sprint race.
But added, “The decision now is F1’s and we will see.”
Saudi Arabia says its met drivers to discuss concerns
The race promoter of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix say they have met with drivers to discuss their concerns about the country’s human rights record ahead of the countries debut in December.
The inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will take place in Jeddah later this year as part of a 10-year deal for the nation to stage an F1 race, with a view to moving to the new entertainment city of Qiddiya in the future. However since the race was added to the calendar last year, human rights groups have accused the sport and the kingdom of ‘sports washing.’
Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton has previously the “massive problem” surrounding human rights in some of the countries F1 races in, and spoke to officials in Bahrain about the matter earlier this year. Last year, he intended to meet with Bahraini crown prince and prime minister Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, that was cancelled after Hamilton caught coronavirus.
The race promoter and chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisal, said that he would be happy to discuss such concerns with “not only Lewis Hamilton, with anyone, in terms of a normal person, or the media”.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Prince Khalid said, “Whatever I say about my country, it’s better for you to come and see it yourself, meet with the local people, and then you can have your opinion. I’m sure you have friends from teams that came for Formula E or for Dakar. You can ask them, and they can give their opinion.”
“You can come and have a chance to see our country freely, and then you can say your opinion about our country, because we’re confident about what we progress and where we are going. So we have no issues [discussing it].”
As part of its plans to modernise under its ‘Vision 2030’ program the kingdom is trying to reduce its dependence on oil and diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism.
F1 has been vocal in its own CSR programme, We Race As One, since the start of the 2020 season, pushing to make the series more diverse and inclusive, as well as highlighting other important social matters.
Asked by Motorsport.com what the race was doing in line with F1’s own We Race As One programme, Prince Khalid said they were “working closely” to “align in our missions”.
Third “not unrealistic” for Norris
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl believes it is “not unrealistic” for Lando Norris to target third in the driver’s championship following his strong start to the season. The Englishmen is regarded as the third-best driver in terms of performance behind title rivals Sir Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Norris is the only driver to have scored points in every season and only has been outside the top five once, including three podiums at Imola, Monte Carlo and Spielberg. At his home race at Silverstone, fourth place in the race moved him to third in the drivers. That put him ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes Valtteri Bottas.
Seidl believes its not unrealistic for Norris to stay third if he has a similarly strong second half of the season, but says Mercedes and Red Bull are stronger. He told Motorsport.com, “Whether it is a realistic target is difficult to say, because the Red Bull car and the Mercedes car is really a better car. Valtteri and Checo also showed some great races this year and from the past, on what they can do.”
“It is down to the strong performances by Lando together with the team and the competitive car we have this year and we managed after ten races to be P3. So it is not unrealistic to stay there if he can put up this half of the season again like this.”
Seidl says that the team needs to be honest and that to beat Red Bull and Mercedes on track they need them to get something wrong because McLaren isn’t in a position yet to beat them on pure performance.
Norris’s result at Silverstone saw him break the McLaren team record for the most consecutive points finishes, marking his fifteenth race in a row inside the top ten to eclipse Fernando Alonso’s benchmark from 2007. He was wildly expected to face a strong challenge from teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
Seidl acknowledged that McLaren has its sights set far higher than P3 in the championship, but accepted that on current form, the most it can achieve is to hassle the leading two teams on occasion. Saying, “Of course we wake up in the morning because we want to win races on the Sunday.”
“That is not possible at the moment yet down to our own performance. So we will try to do better races in terms of strategy or car performance or staying out of trouble more than the others, or by luck from time to time.”
Masi says the sport should be proud of how Silverstone went
FIA race director Michael Masi says the sport should be proud of how the sports first sprint qualifying worked out but hasn’t ruled out future changes to the format. Masi was ultimately responsible for writing the sporting regulations that cover sprint weekends, with input from the teams and the F1 organisation.
The final version of the regulations was published only a few days before Silverstone following late approval by the WMSC. The Australian says that any necessary detailed updates to the rules will be discussed before the second sprint at Monza, but he stressed that everything had worked as planned.
Masi told Motorsport.com, “I think everyone should be proud of what we achieved. I think looking back at the original intention, which was that it gave three competitive elements over the three days of the event which for the viewers, the spectating public and the fans, I think it has its benefits.”
“There was always an open mind from the FIA, F1 and the teams that we would take the first event and see what improvements can be made from a regulatory sense. I think overall there was one little element that one team brought up which is inconsequential and something to think about and be discussed.”
The Australian says this has been a team effort to get to this point, and he is proud that they have got to this point. Masi says he accepts that these were published late explaining that was because the regulations were being changed a lot before the final set was agreed.
Masi says he thinks that Silverstone was a massive success thanks to the work of everyone involved to get it together. He also says ahead of Monza, that there would be discussions with stakeholders to discuss changes that may need to be made.
Masi said he had enjoyed Silverstone on a personal level, but he doesn’t believe that sprints should be rolled out for every race weekend in 2022. Saying “I think it was good it was something different. Speaking to friends around the globe they have said that the part they liked was that it was different.”
“Obviously we have seen changes in the sport before to qualifying, but really the structure of a Grand Prix weekend has been relatively stable for a large number of years.”
Masi says it was intense for the first few laps, saying it was good and to see the excitement and Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso with their overtaking at the start. All of that added to the spectacle and from what I understand it came over well from a spectators perspective to see that.
Haas to give Schumacher a new seat
Haas is planning to resolve Mick Schumacher’s in-car position issue in time for this weekends Hungarian Grand Prix, after the German driver spent the opening eleven races driving at a crooked angle.
But it was not due to a problem with the seat, but because of Schumacher’s body shape that has seen him face a similar scenario throughout his junior career. Schumacher sought advice from four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel about the seat offset, while Haas only learned of the issue through his mother, Corinna.
Team principal Gunther Steiner said at Silverstone, that the team would have a new seat in time for this weekend in Budapest, saying “We hope it is not crooked, the next one.
He told Motorsport.com, “I actually spoke with Mick when we were in the factory on Tuesday, and we had a little laugh about it, because it came out so big, this crooked seat [story].”
“For sure it will be ready for Hungary. If we make it on Monday, it will be ready for Hungary. But if it is crooked or not, I don’t know yet. The plan is to have a straight seat in Hungary.”
For this to happen, Schumacher said the seat offset was “small” and a “secondary concern” for the Haas team during his debut F1 season.