F1 Today – 27/02/2023
Mercedes have a “mountain to climb”
Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes have a “mountain to climb” after a difficult three days of pre-season testing. The German manufacturer went into testing with the most questions to answer, having struggled with bouncing/porpoising last year as well as grip and pace.
While testing this year proved more positive, they still struggled with grip and pace, which was masked by Hamilton posting the second-fastest time behind Sergio Perez on the final day. The seven time champion told Sky Sports, “It’s been an interesting few days, it’s never easy. There’s been a lot of discovery. I think the thing I’ve been most impressed with is.”
“It’s my eleventh year with the team and everyone’s turned up with the same mentality, working hard, no one’s been complacent. We realise that we have a mountain to climb and no one’s fussed, everyone has just kept their heads down so I’m really proud of that.”
Hamilton had earlier said Mercedes had the same “balance limitations” from last year despite their hopes they would be title challengers from the off this season. Hamilton and teammate George Russell have both suggested that while they are not starting the season where they want to be, it was a good platform to start from.
Russell added, “It’s a much more beautiful world to be in when we’re not bouncing but we do have some pace to pick up in a straight line. We have some things we need to work on, it’s still not perfect and we’re still not able to match the Red Bull’s, or the Ferraris, currently.”
He also said he wasn’t sure where they would be this weekend.
FIA was “crystal clear” Ferrari’s front wing concept was legal
Ferrari said it had no doubts that its clever front wing design was fully legal when it launched its new SF-23 car earlier this month. The Italian manufacturer has raise eyebrows when the front wing of its 2023 challenger featured the very same slot gap separator trick concept that Mercedes had been told it could not run last year.
The idea is that the support elements are shaped in such a way that they help divert airflow to better increase outwash, something the FIA had hoped to minimise with the new generation of cars.
Last year, Mercedes was informed it could not race with them because the separator design was in breach of a rule that stated they had to ‘primarily’ be there for mechanical, structural or measurement reasons. However, this created a grey area in the regulations which prompted Mercedes to back away from pushing on with them to avoid trouble.
Ferrari’s use of the very same design for its SF-23 caused a bit of a stir until it emerged that the regulations over the winter had changed to remove the need for them to be mainly for non-aero reasons. That effectively opened the door for what Ferrari did, with the team explaining that it had been given full clearance by the FIA.
Team principal Fred Vassuer spoke to the media about the situation, he said, “When we launched the car with this kind of parts, we were sure to have a discussion with the FIA. For them, it was crystal clear that it was okay. The emotion of the other teams, I don’t care.”
Vasseur played down the significance of his team doing something others had not thought of, as he said it was a pretty normal element of racing. Explaining “It’s the game of F1. Each year at test one you have this story about a winglet or this one [car part]. In one week’s time, we will talk about something else.”
Ferrari is not the only team to have aggressively pursued a front-wing design thanks to the wording of the regulations. Mercedes has also kept intact the endplate gap solution that ran from Miami last year but was thought to have been banned over the winter.
For 2023, it has kept the basic concept but complied with the rules by attaching the flaps to the endplate. Rivals have been keeping a close watch on the various front-wing tricks that have emerged, and will do their usual analysis before deciding if they follow suit.
Drugovich to replace Stroll in Bahrain if he’s still injured
Aston Martin has confirmed that Felipe Drugovich will stand in for lance Stroll if the Canadian’s wrist injury means he is unable to take part in this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
The team says that it will give Stroll “every chance” to compete in the opening race of the season, which suggests that the decision could be left until the last minute – and that the Canadian may possibly even drive the car in FP1 with the option of stepping out if he is unable to perform properly.
That outing in FP1 would be the first time that Stroll will have driven the AMR23, giving him and the team a proper chance to assess his fitness. Aston noted in a Tweet on Sunday: “The team will continue to give Lance every chance to race, pending recovery from his injury. Should he not be fit to compete, then Felipe will drive the AMR23 alongside Fernando.”
Following the test, team principal Mike Krack was full of praise for Drugovich’s performance after the Bahrain test concluded on Saturday. Krack said, “Felipe did a very good job. I mean, we must not forget the whole thing here is also new for him. He never drove the car before. He’s a very, very reflective and calm person. And his approach is also like that. So it’s very, very easy.
“I’m always surprised how he can stay so calm, because he’s Brazilian also! He did a really good job, the first day he really took it really steadily, and did all the things that we asked from him perfectly.”
The German says Drugovich was “faultless,” he didn’t put a wheel wrong or miss an apex with the team and was happy with his performance.
Fernando Alonso also gave a positive verdict on his new team-mate, while acknowledging that the F2 champion’s lack of mileage will be a challenge. Alonso said, “Even myself, I feel that I’m lacking laps and kilometres, so I cannot imagine for Felipe, how difficult and challenging it is. But he’s a super-talented driver. He adapted very well this week here in Bahrain, we saw today he was immediately on the pace and good long run.”
The announcement only refers to Bahrain where Drugovich was always likely to be first choice over fellow reserve Stoffel Vandoorne given his testing experience this week. Vandoorne’s next Formula E race is in Sao Paulo at the end of March.
Vandoorne or even Sebastian Vettel could return after retiring in 2022, should Stroll’s absence extend to the second event in Saudi Arabia. That extra time would give Vettel a proper chance to get up to speed with his fitness and try the AMR23 in the simulator.
Alpine planning upgrades for Bahrain
Alpine says it has “a level of confidence” ahead of the opening race of the season in Bahrain, where it will introduce its first upgrade package. While Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly did not feature that high on timing screens over the three-day pre-season test in Sakhir as the team focused on longer runs and experimentation with its A523, deciding not to run with low fuel or use the softest tyres in Pirelli’s range.
However, its rivals have indicated that the team looks competitive and will potentially be vying with Aston Martin to be head of the midfield. Technical director Matt Harman indicated that the team was satisfied with the outcome of the testing as it knows how much performance it has in hand.
Harman told Motorsport.com, “We have a level of confidence. Of course, we do, because we’re clearly not running the car at its full potential. I don’t like to labour on that too much, because I have no idea where the others are running, to be quite honest.”
“We do our analysis, we all know we are looking at each other, and where we are. There’s a massive level of uncertainty in that. But from our point of view, things are responding as we expected, our aerodynamics are working as we expected.” He says that during the test they tried “interesting different developments” which proved to be “quite positive.”
Meanwhile, CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer agreed that testing had shown some promise and that was cautiously optimistic. He said, “We haven’t taken the fuel out yet to see what we can do over one lap. My optimism comes from the fact that our long-run pace looks pretty good, and that we’ve had decent feedback from the drivers saying they’re happy with the car.”
Harman revealed that the first upgrades will be for this weekends opening race in Bahrain, saying there will be some “visual differences” for the opening race. The team are targeting challenging for third in the constructors this season and are looking to be as competitive as last year.
Last year Alpine was notable for regularly bringing new parts to the car, while others did fewer but larger packages, with Harman hopeful the team can do the same this year.
he said, “It may not be every race, because as the cars are evolving they’re becoming more integrated, and therefore the packages that you need to bring need to be a little bit more widespread.”
But there will be an attempt to try and develop something every race, and things you can see visually. Harman says the team has the same resources as last year.
Barcelona to run on faster circuit layout
Organisers of the Spanish Grand Prix this year will run on a much faster circuit layout, with the final chicane replaced by two high-speed right-hand corners. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s final sector will revert to a design not used since 2006.
A chicane was introduced before the final corner in 2007 in an attempt to increase overtaking opportunities. However the changes over the last fifteen years has failed to increase overtaking, and organisers are again hoping that the redesigned corner does increases overtaking and creates better racing.
The redesign replaces a medium-speed right-hander followed by a tight chicane immediately before the final corner, with two corners that are expected to be taken well in excess of 150mph. The layout has been used by MotoGP since 2018
F1 cars have changed significantly since 2006 and a new design philosophy introduced with rule changes last year allows cars to follow more closely through fast corners.
Haas’s ‘boring’ test a year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Twelve months on from splitting with a title sponsor and driver on the eve of a new season, Guenther Steiner said Haas enjoyed its most seamless test since it arrived in Formula One.
On the final day of the first test last year, Russia launched it full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which it called a ‘special military operation.’ The following sanctions lead to it terminating the contracts of title sponsor Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin, leading to the return of Kevin Magnussen a week before the first race.
Haas had a solid three-day test in Bahrain this week and appears to be firmly cemented in the midfield going into the race. Steiner said the entire test, which ran with remarkably few reliability issues or stoppages across the grid, had gone well.
Steiner told reporters, “You have to look out there. I think it’s the best one in Formula One ever. We’ve seen how many red flags? Three? Everybody doing the laps… if you go to the lap count of previous season, first test, this never happened before in my opinion. I’m so amazed about it. Five years ago every two, three hours there was a red flag. Now we’re all doing the laps, just boom, boom, boom.”
When a journalist pointed out to Steiner that the team had no freight issues, a car that was ready at the start of the test and none of the drama of 2022, he laughed and said: “Almost boring, huh? I’m happy when we are fast. And I’m not happy [still], because there’s always something. But you’re right, this year everything was a lot smoother.”
Reflecting on how the team coped with the drama of last year, he said: “We had a little chat a few days ago, and said think about what we had to do last year at this time. It was like, how the hell do we get out of this hole? Because we kept on falling into holes.”
The feeling is that the midfield pack has closed up further this year, but still a big gap remains between the top three and midfield. The order of the midfield pack is unknown, Steiner pointing out their could be variables at each circuit.