Verstappen criticism unjust – Horner
Criticism of Max Verstappen has been 99% unjustified according to Team principal Christian Horner. The Dutch teenager has face Criticism over his aggressive driving style and has been warned by race director Charlie Whiting that he risked getting “a bad name” unless he tempered his ways.
Horner was asked by Autosport whether there was a need to protect Verstappen from the criticism, Horner told Autosport: “It depends on whether it’s merited or not, and 99% of it hasn’t been. So therefore you ignore it and you get on with your job.
The only reason he’s generating interest is because of the way he is performing. He is a young guy and he’s going to make the odd mistake, but he learns very quickly. It’s all part of his development, part of his learning process.” Horner says that all the greats of the sport naming Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Ayrton Senna have faced these criticisms.
Horner has been impressed with the way Verstappen has handled himself for an eighteen year old saying it is “ often easy to forget, and is already in his third year of motorsport [car racing] after a long and illustrious karting career. What he has achieved is quite staggering in quite a short space of time.”
Verstappen changed my driving – Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo says he has honed in his race craft by watching Max Verstappen who has impressed some with his racing. Verstappen claimed his stunning maiden win at his first win with the team in Spain.
However the Dutch teenager has had mixed fortunes since then, with a handful of great drives tinged with several controversies following criticisms about his aggressive style. Ricciardo was a lot stronger following his promotion to Red Bull too beating Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo told ESPN “I think with Max and Seb as team-mates it’s obviously two different points in their career. But equally you can still learn from both of them. Seb’s experience, the way he interacted with the team was pretty interesting to see. That was cool.”
Ricciardo says Verstappen is coming through with youth, fire and and engery which maybe the younger kids are doing and it’s interesting to learn from both of them. The Australian thinks Verstappen is as good a benchmark as Vettel was in 2014.
“I think Max is getting a lot of attention, he’s the youngest ever F1 driver and winner. So I get asked about him a lot, as well, but it’s not a hindrance.” Ricciardo says Verstappen has attention and pressure, but for him he will keep doing his thing and knows his team-mate is very talented.
Japan tyre selection
Pirelli have announced the drivers tyre selections ahead of next weekends Japanese Grand Prix. They teams had the more harder end of the compounds the orange-marked hard, white-marked medium and yellow-marked soft tyres.
Ferrari have the most aggressive strategy with both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen going for nine sets of the quickest, least durable compound. Vettel has combined these with one set of mediums and three sets of hards, while Raikkonen has chosen two sets of each.
Both Mercedes have eight soft, but Hamilton and Rosberg have chosen differently on the mediums and hards. With Hamilton going for three hards and two Mediums and Rosberg choosing the other way around.
Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, both McLarens, Carlos Sainz and Jolyon Palmer have seven softs while Bottas spilt the other two compounds, Bottas’s team-mate Massa has gone for an extra hard.
Both Force India’s and Daniil Kyvat have seven soft, two mediums and four hards. Both Manor’s have six softs, four mediums and three hards. Both Sabuers have eight softs, three mediums and two hards
Downforce falling short in test – Pirelli
Tyre supplier Pirelli say they have concerns that the cars they are currently testing next years tyres is falling short of the required amount of downforce by around 20%.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are working with the manufacturer to develop the wider tyres with modified 2015 cars aimed at stimulating expected increased level of downforce.
But Pirelli has found the data gathered from the on-track running in terms of downforce is not matching that from its simulations. When asked by Autosport how far off the car were Pirelli racing manager Mario Isola said: “It’s difficult to say. It depends if you consider the beginning of 2017 or end of 2017. It is probably around 20% that is missing.
“During 2017, we will have quite a big development of the cars, which means we are even more far from that target. The problem of not having the downforce at the right level is you don’t stress the compound at the level that is required and expected for next year.”
He says that evaluating the degradation is hard because performance and downforce is increasing, you have higher degradation. This is why Pirelli have been working with the teams to have a car that is able to generate more downforce.
Isola added “We know they are working on the car to generate more downforce. They know they have to react quickly and we know they are doing their best to do that.”
Agag dismisses Formula One role
Founder and Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag has dismissed the speculation that he could play a role in running Formula One after Liberty Media’s takeover of the glamour sport.
“There haven’t been any contacts at all, whatsoever. My interest is Formula E and I think there is still so much to be done in Formula E and it’s really exciting to be in Formula E,” said Aga.
The 2016-17 season of Formula E is scheduled to start in Hong Kong an hour after next weekends Japanese Grand Prix. Following the announcement of the takeover by Liberty Media it was announced the Chase Carey wants to appoint executives to run the sport’s commercial and sporting operations.
Agag, because of his experience and connections, has been touted as a possible candidate. Agag has welcomed the takeover by Liberty and says d there had been no discussions “in terms of synergies or co-operation or anything”.
“If you ask me for my feeling, I think it’s good. I think if Formula One had been bought by a competitor of the Liberty family, the extended family, it would be more difficult” he added.
The Spanard says that US series have more to fear from the Liberty take over. Saying “I would be concerned because the Formula One push in America is going to affect them, if anyone. But definitely Formula One and Formula E are totally compatible in America and everywhere else.”
Formula One makes nearly double the profit than Formula E according to Repucon and has a global audience of 61.5 million compared to F1’s 400 million according to the Daily Mail. However both are falling.
