Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has downplayed the team’s ominous supremacy in the opening race of the new season and says they are braced for stiff competition over the coming months.<\/p>\n
A fortnight ago in Bahrain, the team stormed to victory with Max Verstappen leading his teammate Sergio Perez to finish one-two, while their nearest challenger Fernando Alonso was forty seconds behind. That commanding start has already started questions about whether anybody in the field can come close to challenging the reigning constructors’ champions.<\/p>\n
Mercedes are short of where they would like to be having sought to overcome the issues that hindered them last season, while Ferrari have already encountered issues with Charles Leclerc receiving a ten-place grid penalty following his retirement in Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Newey told Sky Sports, \u201cI’m sure we won’t be as strong as that week in, week out. In Bahrain it was one of those sort of typical ducks feet paddling under the water, it wasn’t quite as smooth as inside as it might have looked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go back twelve months ago and it’s the other way around, Ferrari finish one-two, we failed, we weren’t quite as quick as them, so these things can swing round very quickly. If we had more wind tunnel time we’d use it, so other teams having more than us must help them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says it’s going to be a long season and everyone will be pushing. Verstappen was victorious when Saudi Arabia welcomed F1 back for its second race in Jeddah last year, seeing off competition from the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.<\/p>\n
Such is the high-speed track awaiting this Sunday that there are hopes of a more competitive battle at the front of the grid, particularly after data pointed towards Ferrari holding a superior top speed than Red Bull in Bahrain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen cancelled his media commitments ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix because of a stomach illness. The two-time champion dominated the season-opening race in Bahrain a fortnight ago, and said he has been battling with the bug this week.<\/p>\n
However, he expects to be in his Red Bull for practice in Jeddah on Friday. Verstappen tweeted, \u201cFeeling fine again, after not being fit for a few days because of a stomach bug. Therefore, I, unfortunately, had to postpone my flight for a day, so I won’t be on the track until Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
A further tweet from Red Bull, added, \u201cMax has been suffering from a stomach illness over the past few days and, with the agreement of the FIA, will not be present at track today. Feel better, Max.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen goes into this weekend looking for his eighteenth win in a row, having dominated the season opener in Bahrain, as he looks for his third title in a row.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz says Ferrari is enduring a \u201cbad situation\u201d regarding the reliability of its 2023 engine but says the team is implementing fixes following Charles Leclerc\u2019s retirement in Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Leclerc dropped out of the season opener while running third behind the dominant Red Bull cars, having taken fresh control electronics and energy store engine parts ahead of the race. For this weekend\u2019s race, he has taken a third control electronic thus exceeding the two allowed allowances of that part.<\/p>\n
That decision leaves Sainz as Ferrari\u2019s best hope to battle Red Bull at the high-speed track that should, in theory, suit the SF-23\u2019s reconfigured aerodynamic concept aimed at boosting straight-line efficiency.<\/p>\n
But even if Sainz can keep pace with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on Sunday, there will be significant focus on whether his engine will last the distance. A situation he said Ferrari is \u201crelatively concerned\u201d about during the press conference in Jeddah.<\/p>\n
Sainz explained, \u201cIt\u2019s not the way you want to start a season, with a penalty in race two. Breaking the battery, the ECU, in the first weekend, clearly we are not happy with that and we identified it as a weakness. But it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve seen this failure in a very, very long time. So, it caught us by surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re putting things in place to fix it and I\u2019m pretty sure that we are capable of fixing that in the short term. So, it\u2019s a bad situation but now we can only look forwards and improve it and make sure that we are also more competitive this weekend\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to this weekend, Sainz was confident they could fight to be on the podium. Saying the track is totally different to Bahrain giving him the feeling they can be a bit more competitive. But he says given how competitive Red Bull was it\u2019s going to be extremely difficult.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on Ferrari\u2019s disappointing Bahrain result, where it could not keep pace with Red Bull due to poor tyre wear levels even before Leclerc dropped off the podium, Sainz suggested Red Bull\u2019s 2022 turnaround from a double DNF in the season opener before going on to win both titles provided inspiration.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc will receive a grid penalty at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver will take a ten-place grid penalty following his retirement in Bahrain a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n
Team principal Frederic Vasseur said on Wednesday that Leclerc’s car had two problems with the electronics control unit (ECU) on race day in Bahrain. As drivers are restricted to two ECUs for a season, Leclerc will be penalised for going over his allocation.<\/p>\n
Vasseur said that the ECU had a problem when the car was started on race morning in Bahrain, and that Leclerc retired with a problem with the replacement part. The Frenchman told BBC News, \u201cIt is something we have never experienced in the past and I hope now it is under control. But unfortunately, we will have to take the penalty in Jeddah because we only have a pool of two ECUs for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also says the issues would not restrict the performance of the engine for the remaining races. Leclerc was running third at the time of his retirement, behind the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n
Ferrari are also bringing upgrades for this weekend’s race attempting to close the performance gap to Red Bull which was seen in Sakhir. The gap was especially large during the race, when Leclerc was dropping about seven-tenths a lap in the first stint before the Dutchman backed off having built a substantial lead.<\/p>\n
Vasseur said: “I can’t be satisfied with the situation and I want to do a step forward. The characteristics of Jeddah are completely different compared to Bahrain and already it will swing a little more to what we have today and we will also bring some updates to Jeddah and I hope we will do a step forward.”<\/p>\n
He also said the team had problems finding the right set-up, which restricted the team’s pace. Vassuer also says there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of driveability and the important thing to do was to focus on the current situation and bring improving the situation.<\/p>\n
However, he added, \u201cBahrain is not always very representative and we are still at the early stage of the car and we need to have a better understanding of it to try to get the best from the package.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrari is working hard to improve what they need to work on in terms of reliability and fixing the drivability. They have \u2018a long list\u2019 of improvements they need to make and hope they can move forwards.<\/p>\n
There have also been reports in the Italian media that head of vehicle performance David Sanchez has left the company and is believed to be heading to another team, which has not yet been named but is said by media reports to be McLaren.<\/p>\n
Vasseur said employees leaving and joining teams was normal in F1 but that he did not expect any other significant changes this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton thinks his Mercedes are a second and a half a lap slower than Red Bull in race trim as his team needs to make some “bold decisions” if it is to find its way back to the front.<\/p>\n
Mercedes went into 2023 confident having resolved the porpoising they would be closer to Red Bull and Ferrari, however, in Bahrain they discovered they had made nowhere near the amount of progress that it had hoped. The team ended up as the fourth-fastest team in the race behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin as Hamilton and teammate George Russell finished a distant fifth and seventh respectively.<\/p>\n
Asked to explain the deficit, Hamilton said, \u201cLast year we were very draggy, and we were struggling not only on the straights, but we had to take a much bigger wing and we were equalling if not losing in the corners as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year it’s mostly through the corners. Down the streets we’re quick, but on exits these guys have a lot of rear end through the majority of the corners. I think in the race they weren’t pushing and so I think they’re a lot quicker than they even seemed. We have it as them being a second and a half faster in the race per lap or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton says, at the moment, to win a race they need Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin not to finish a race, but that didn\u2019t mean they couldn\u2019t catch up.<\/p>\n
Asked about his comments where he said, \u2018team didn’t listen to some of his concerns on the car development,\u2019 he accepted that wasn\u2019t the best choice of words. But he felt that Mercedes wouldn’t be able to close the gap once he had seen the 2023 car’s concept still looked vastly different compared to the competition.<\/p>\n
he reflected, \u201cIn hindsight, it wasn’t necessarily the best choice of words. But of course, there are times where you’re not in agreement with certain team members. But what’s important is that we continue to communicate, we continue to pull together, I still have 100% belief in this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Mercedes sticking to its unique ‘zero pod’ concept, he added: \u201cI knew that we weren’t in the right place when you saw the car for the first time. It looked still so much different to those of our competitors and it’s always nerve-racking in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But following Bahrain CEO and team principal Toto Wolff to proclaim that Mercedes now had to radically change its design concept for it to return to winning ways and Hamilton agreed that “bold decisions” would need to be made.<\/p>\n
When asked if those decisions had already been made in the wake of a disappointing start, he said: “I think we’re in the process of it, yes.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lando Norris has dismissed reports of a crisis at McLaren following their nightmare test and opening race in Bahrain. The Englishman says it sounds worse than it is and they are confident we can get some good points this weekend.<\/p>\n
Lance Stroll says he is \u201cgetting better\u201d every day following his cycling accident which caused him to miss testing before managing to finish eighth in Bahrain. He said \u201cI think the worst part is behind me. Still, not 100%, it takes a bit of time for these things to heal, but definitely feeling a lot better than ten days ago\u201d<\/p>\n
After Esteban Ocon accrued 20 seconds’ worth of penalties and retirement in Bahrain, Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer says it will be a steadier weekend for both the Frenchman and his team.
\nHe said \u201cI believe Esteban\u2019s [Ocon’s] race was a one-off, a culmination of a string of errors, some on his side, some operationally, and his side of the garage will undoubtedly bounce back in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Haas has dismissed claims by PBS America that its parent company has broken \u00a0Russian sanctions was wholly “false”. The broadcaster alleges that \u00a0Haas Automation company had directly provided machines and parts to Russia, which would violate US export control and sanctions regulations.<\/p>\n
However, in a detailed statement hitting back at the claims, Haas has made it clear that it has always been in full compliance with US government laws and that no machines have been exported to Russia since March 2022. These sanctions were introduced following the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a special military operation.<\/p>\n
It claimed that eighteen Haas machines being used in Russia, but the US-owned company says these were shipped before sanctions were in. place. It also says it has terminated the relationship it had with its Russian distributor, even though it was not formally required to do so.<\/p>\n
The statement said: \u201cOn March 3, 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas Automation terminated, in its entirety, its relationship with its sole existing independent distributor for Russia and Belarus, Abamet Management.<\/p>\n
“Since that date, Haas has not sold or shipped any machines, parts, or software to Abamet or anyone else in Russia.\u00a0 This crucial fact was made clear to the PBS reporter before the story was aired.<\/p>\n
Haas says it was a \u2018falsehood\u2019 to suggest that shipments of equipment were made up until October last year. while Haas acknowledged that equipment it had previously sold could have changed ownership after it had been released, it suggested any such movement would have been without its approval.<\/p>\n
It said that any shipment would have been in direct contravention of express Haas policy concerning Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine. They say they have cut all ties with Russia, including the Uralkali sponsorship deal of its F1 team that cost it millions of dollars of revenue.<\/p>\n
Haas added: \u201cIt is a bitter irony, therefore, that the PBS report paints Haas as being supportive of the Russian military, which couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when Americans are struggling to develop the most effective course of conduct in support of Ukraine, it is irresponsible in the extreme for PBS to present this poorly-sourced hit piece, which ignores basic facts and asserts other facts that are clearly false.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The FIA has moved the third DRS detection point at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit until after the final corner to avoid dangerous antics at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The final DRS zone was located in the braking zone before the final hairpin connecting two long straights. Drivers would sometimes avoid passing the car in front on the back straight, so they could still enjoy DRS on the following main straight, leading to defending cars braking erratically to force the overshoot.<\/p>\n
That tactic was used during the 2021 race when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battled for the lead amid an acrimonious title fight. Verstappen slowed to let Hamilton through on purpose, so he could then have the benefit on DRS on the run down to Turn One and easily pass his rival again.<\/p>\n
Similar gamesmanship took place in last year’s race between Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, following last year’s race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner suggested the activation point should be moved to avoid “cat-and-mouse games”.<\/p>\n
The governing body has responded by moving the third DRS activation point from the Turn Twenty-Seven braking zone to the main straight. The pre-race event notes show the point is now located 170m past the hairpin, so drivers won’t be enticed to brake erratically into the final corner.<\/p>\n
The Jeddah Corniche street circuit has also been modified for the second year in a row to improve visibility. At Turns 14 and 20, two of the quickest blind corners on the circuit, several barriers have been moved back to create better sightlines and enlarged run-off areas.<\/p>\n
To further address safety concerns the ultra-fast circuit has been made slightly slower with the addition of a bevelled kerb through the high-speed left-right sequence at Turns twenty-two and three, which is expected to reduce speeds by 50km\/h.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Round two of the 2023 season sees the first of four street circuits in a row, Jeddah hosts its third Grand Prix. The night race is a combination of Monza and Baku making it the fastest street circuits and one of the fastest of the season but the big question is can anyone catch Red Bull.<\/p>\n
In our Prixview, to this weekend we said Ferrari needed to find answers to Red Bulls pace, and they are confident set-up changes will unlock more performance at a circuit that should suit them, while all eyes will be on Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso to see if their dramatic ascent to the front of the grid can be maintained.<\/p>\n
Last year’s race saw Max Verstappen take his first win of 2022 following a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle with Charles Leclerc, displaying the thrilling potential for wheel-to-wheel racing at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.<\/p>\n
Mercedes will also be looking to bounce back from a disappointing opening race, with all eyes on Lewis Hamilton following his apparent criticism of the team following their Bahrain struggles. with all eyes on Lewis Hamilton following his apparent criticism of the team following their Bahrain struggles.<\/p>\n
But all eyes will be on the thrilling potential for wheel-to-wheel racing at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.<\/p>\n
The Austrian Grand Prix will be on the calendar until at least 2027 after circuit owners Red Bull signed a new four-year contract with the sport. Austria returned to the calendar in 2014 following a ten year hiatus but is seen as part of the core historic circuit with the Spielberg hosting its first race in 1964.<\/p>\n
The first Grand Prix at this circuit, then the \u00d6sterreichring, followed five years later.<\/p>\n
This year, it will be one of an expanded roster of six events to host the ‘sprint’ format. These use a shorter race on Saturday to set the grid for the main Grand Prix. During the pandemic, it also was the first circuit to host two world championship races in a season.<\/p>\n
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said: “The race brings together the perfect mix of a challenging track, high-speed racing, and a beautiful venue.”<\/p>\n
In recent years it has become one of a group of tracks popular with large numbers of travelling Dutch fans supporting Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This weekend the question is can anyone catch Red Bull they were dominant last time out in Sakhir. Going into this weekend Ferrari appear confident that they have found answers to where they were lacking during the race weekend in Bahrain, we know that Charles Leclerc retired but before that he looked to struggle to keep pace with Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
Red Bull look to be the team to beat, in theory looking at Bahrain they looked to have a good all-rounder. This is, however, a street circuit where anything can happen, on paper it should suit Red Bull given the advantages they had in Bahrain but street circuits can throw up surprises given the variables.<\/p>\n
Jeddah is a race where we do see safety cars and red flags throughout the weekend, this is a challenging circuit which needs focus and timing. Qualifying is not as important as Monaco because we know you can overtake, but still the banker lap is needed as drivers can make mistakes.<\/p>\n
Mercedes are still a bit of an unknown they have made a step forwards but street circuits historically despite all the success over the last decade, have been difficult for them for some reason. But I think you can never count them out as we are heading into a series of street circuits they need to resolve those issues now.<\/p>\n
Aston Martin are the team to watch this weekend and over the next few weekends to find out if they can genuinely challenge Mercedes all year, I think they might be able to. The pace and performance allowed Fernando Alonso to score a podium and they were quick in qualifying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Red Bull’s dominance in Bahrain ‘not as smooth as it looked’ Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has downplayed the team’s ominous supremacy in the opening race of the new season and says they are braced for stiff competition over the coming months. A fortnight ago in Bahrain, the team stormed to victory with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[53,344,390,517,664,675,709,781,867,882,885,1283,1584,1637,1642,1733,1775,1776],"class_list":["post-11675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-analysis","tag-53","tag-business","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-david-sanchez","tag-f1","tag-f1-today","tag-ferrari","tag-fred-vasseur","tag-grid-penalities","tag-haas","tag-haas-ferrari","tag-max-verstappen","tag-prixview","tag-red-bull","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine","tag-saudi-arabian-gp","tag-saudi-arabian-grand-prix"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}