F1 2019

[1%er]

Honda bring a new engine for Baku
Honda will have its first engine upgrade of 2019 for Red Bull and Toro Rosso at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Technical director Toyoharu Tanabe said a reason for its early introduction is a “quality control issue” with the previous engine. The issue that led to Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat retiring at the last race in China. Tanabe said the “spec two” engine’s main benefit was “improved durability and better reliability” but also with a “slight improvement in performance”.

The upgrade could boost Red Bull’s hopes of challenging for a win at the Baku street circuit, which includes what is effectively the longest straight on the calendar. However, it is also likely to mean gird penalties for both Red Bull teams later in the season. Each driver is limited to three power units per season, which means an engine is scheduled to do seven races. Baku is the fourth race of the season, so it is unlikely Honda can get through the rest of the season on just one further engine upgrade.

 

[Supine]

It is a meal in a pub. I could wrangle the SkyGo thing on phone but can't 'half watch' a race so highlights it is.

Just go to the loo during the first four corners and then back for the last couple of laps

 

[Limejuice]

Williams' woes continue.

FP1 - Russell drives over a drain cover which scoops up and destroys the underside of the car. Probably needs a new monocoque. Claire's looking rather anxious.

Red flag, and marshals examining the street furniture: "Is there a welder in the house?"

I miss Charlie Whiting.

 

[Limejuice]

Holy crap, it's a joke.

The crane on the recovery truck is left too high and gets driven into a bridge. Gushing hydraulic fluid.. all over the stricken Williams. It's now marinated in hydraulic fluid. The crane, lacking fluid, is inoperative. A fresh mobile crane is rolled up. They attempt to remove the broken car from the truck.The banksman is giving hand signals to the new crane operative in Martian and the operator only understands Klingon. Global mirth.

Session ended.

The bridge seems to be fine.

Dear Liberty: drop Baku and sign up any other applicant.

 

[MrCurry]

The lesson being: before procuring an expensive sporting event such as F1 to advertise what a modern and capable city you are - be a modern and capable city. Otherwise you just end up advertising your incompetence, as we saw today.

Bit harsh maybe, but that was the impression I got.

 

[Limejuice]

The word I was thinking of was 'clownish', but 'incompetent' works for me.

It won't seem harsh to anyone watching the highlights of FP1 later on. Highlights? The entire session run at normal speed will slip in between the TV advertisements.

 

[cybershot]

And this why street circuits are not the future!

 

[1%er]

Holy crap, it's a joke.

The crane on the recovery truck is left too high and gets driven into a bridge. Gushing hydraulic fluid.. all over the stricken Williams. It's now marinated in hydraulic fluid. The crane, lacking fluid, is inoperative. A fresh mobile crane is rolled up. They attempt to remove the broken car from the truck.The banksman is giving hand signals to the new crane operative in Martian and the operator only understands Klingon. Global mirth.

Session ended.

The bridge seems to be fine.

Dear Liberty: drop Baku and sign up any other applicant.

Video here of the crane hitting the bridge Williams will be really pissed about the drain cover not being welded down as it has meant they need to a new chassis, floor and some body parts. I have a feeling Williams will be looking to the the promoter or whoever is responsible for ensuring the drain covers are welded. If it is the FIAs responsibility then they are very likely to have some rule that means they don't have to pay compensation

On another note we have the first Grid Penalty of the season. The Stewards have confirmed that Antonio Giovinazzi will drop 10 places on the grid after qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Italian has had a third control electronics fitted, which exceeds the number a driver can use throughout the season penalty free. Giovinazzi had issues with his control electronics last time out in China, which forced him to sit out both the opening practice session and Saturday's qualifying.

The penalty was expected heading into the weekend. Drivers can only use two control electronics, MGU-Ks and energy stores during a season without receiving a penalty. Similarly, three internal combustion engines, MGU-Hs and turbochargers can be raced without the driver being handed a penalty. Both Toro Rossos are on the verge of grid penalties as they introduce new power unit components at this weekend's event.

 

[Limejuice]

An FIA guy was interviewed on Sky and said the manhole cover was properly bolted down and checked, but it failed for reasons unknown. Translation: Dear Claire, tough!

Talking of comedy, Stroll really isn't as good a driver as his daddy's money says. That was a daft screw-up.

Also, the truck returning his car tried to dump it off at the Racing Point garage... but there was no crane to off-load it. Because the truck with the crane drove into a bridge and donated its hydraulic blood to a Williams car.

Yer gotta larf, innit.

 

[Limejuice]

Hmm... listening to Sky commentators and talking heads argue among themselves about the rules of F1 and stewards' decisions is not great television.

I refer to the Gasly - weighbridge - pitlane-start kerfuffle.

"And ninthly, m'learned friends, I would like to enumerate all 117 occasions on which the stewards have imposed inconsistent penalties..."

 

[Limejuice]

FP3: Ferraris are a country mile ahead of Red Bull and Mercedes.

Wowsers.

 

[Ax^]

did not see it to this morning

 

[1%er]

Add Rio to the list
Wilson Witzel, a lawyer and judge who was elected Governor last October and took office in January, noted in a tweet that the F1 organisation has written to him expressing its support for a Grand Prix in Rio. He wrote: “I was honoured to receive the letter from Sean Bratches, director of commercial operations of F1, who showed interest in bringing the Brazil GP to RJ. I have been talking for some time about the design of the track in Deodoro. We will work hard for F1 to return to our RJ”.

An F1 spokesman played down the significance of Witzel’s tweet saying “It’s normal to explore every option. Many cities have received letters”. F1 boss Chase Carey visited Rio last November and had a meeting with Witzel, who had just been elected but not yet take office. MotoGP promoter Dorna has also expressed its interest in racing at the venue via a letter of intent. Design company Tilke is involved in the project, which has been in the planning stages since last summer. Deodoro is a military base that was utilised for some of the lower profile events at the 2016 Olympics, including hockey, rugby sevens, shooting, BMX, mountain biking, show jumping and the modern pentathlon.

However, efforts are being made to make Deodoro an environmental protection area, which would put a stop to the development of a circuit. Ironically, the main Barra Olympic Park was built at the expense of the former F1 venue at Jacarepagua, which hosted the Brazilian GP in 1978 and from 1981-’89 before the race returned to a rebuilt Interlagos in 1990. Liberty has a strained relationship with the city of Sao Paulo and the race promoters. The event is the least lucrative flyaway race in terms of the fee paid to the F1 organisation. Previously the fee paid by the city was backed up by an extra payment from TV Globo, but that ended after the 2016 race, leading to a shortfall that Liberty had not anticipated when it bought the F1 business and which was even highlighted in the 2017 annual accounts as a justification for the company’s financial performance.

The manhole incident
Williams will seek to be compensated for damage caused to George Russell's chassis on Friday. The British driver ran over a manhole cover that had been loosened by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. "It just seems like it's one thing after another for our team at the moment, it's a little premature to actually quantify the cost, but we will be doing it and we clearly will be discussing that with the FIA" team boss Claire Williams said. She didn't put a dollar figure on the damage caused, but indicated that the struggling British team will seek compensation.

There was a similar incident back in 2017 in Malaysia involving Romain Grosjean, it was the Sepang circuit that paid compensation to the Haas team after that, so i would guess it will be the Baku circuit that pays up this time. In a statement speaking on behalf of the FIA Mika Salo who is one of the stewards this weekend in Azerbaijan said The covers have been repaired for two weeks, but I don't really know any more. They were good, but that one was broken, it is not in our hands at all, it's down to the local organisers. The whole thing has nothing to do with the FIA".

 

[1%er]

According to the Miami Herald an F1 street race in the downtown area is off the table officially and will not happen, although there is now talk that it could be held at a new venue adjacent to the Miami Dolphins stadium.

 

[1%er]

Good morning all, looks like it could be an interesting qualifying if FP3 is anything to go by

 

[a_chap]

"...The whole thing has nothing to do with the FIA".

 

[Limejuice]

Ah yes.

Street circuits.

With luck we'll get through qualifying before dawn.

 

[1%er]

I thought Leclerc was on for pole here, this will really change things for the race. Also Vettel doesn't look really fast so far in Quali, I'd never right him off in Q3 he could still get pole but if not, things are again going in Mercedes favor

 

[cybershot]

I need to go supermarket. Come on get on with it.

 

[Badgers]

Was planning to watch highlights later but here we are then

Vroom

 

[Limejuice]

That corner is going to be a bit slippy. Odds against another red flag?

 

[1%er]

Get in there Lewis into the 1.40s

 

[Badgers]

It has being a bit of a calamity practise/quali this weekend gotta know this is going to be an incident filled race tomorrow. Gutted I can't watch it live.

 

[1%er]

Mercedes 1 & 2, who'd have thunk it reading the press this morning and following FP3

I think we will see Lewis passing Bottas on the long straight very quickly tomorrow

 

[Limejuice]

Mercs up front again. I didn't see that happening.

Good result for Nozza as well.

 

[MrCurry]

My fantasy F1 pick for pole was LeClerc, so that’s not gone so well. I don’t mind though because I’m still chuckling from the aged Merc ex-CEO being captioned onscreen as Johnny Herbert. Bet ol’ Johnny was spitting chips!!

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 1
Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 2
Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 3
Johansson’s radical proposal to make F1 awesome again – Part 4

Lots to read here, but I agree with most of what he has to say.

 

[1%er]

Liberty Media ban Nico Rosberg
Something to cheer Limejuice on this Sunday Morning.
Nico Rosberg was banned from the paddock of the grand prix in Azerbaijan this weekend. The 2016 world champion is a television pundit for German and British television. But according to the Dutch publication Formule 1, he is not in Baku, after Liberty Media banned him. In China, the former Mercedes driver reportedly gave his personal world champion pass to his camera man, which is strictly forbidden. Officials for Formula One Management removed Rosberg’s friend from the grid, and then banned the former world champion from both Baku and Barcelona in two weeks.

Rosberg will be back in Monaco, far too soon for many

Is Raikkonen's frontwing illegal
Alfa Romeo called to the stewards, in revealing the summons, the stewards state that Raikkonen's front wing "deflected more than 5mm under a load of 60N". Article 3.9.8 of the Technical Regulations, states that: "Any part of the trailing edge of any front wing flap may deflect no more than 5mm, when measured along the loading axis, when a 60N point load is applied normal to the flap". If the charge is upheld, Raikkonen would likely be excluded from the qualifying results and would therefore start from the pitlane along with Pierre Gasly and Robert Kubica.

Baku promoter to compensate Williams
Azerbaijan Grand Prix promoter Arif Rahimov says Williams will be compensated for damage to George Russell's car. Russell's car was destroyed in Friday's first practice, when he ran over a loose manhole cover, which was sucked up and into the chassis of Russell's car. Williams had to change the chassis on Russell's car, indeed Baku is the first race of 2019 that they have brought a spare to, according to reports.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams said the British team would talk to the FIA about compensation. Rahimov said the manhole that came loose was rusted from underneath and therefore was "impossible to notice visually". "As a street track, there are more than 300 of these covers and we checked all of them several days before the weekend, these things happen, as they did also in Monaco and China and Malaysia, so it even happens on normal circuits. We have apologised several times to the Williams team. The damage will be reimbursed by insurance. We don't yet know what amount we are talking about, but it will definitely be covered" he said

The circuit also bought Williams a bouquet of flowers by way of apology, which were stood on display in the team's hospitality at the circuit on Saturday.

 

[1%er]

Good morning all, Mercedes in pole position for another 1, 2 race finish, but this track has good overtaking opportunity's and it isn't easy to just run and hide out front as the chances of a safetycar is very high.

 

[Limejuice]

Good morning all, Mercedes in pole position for another 1, 2 race finish, but this track has good overtaking opportunity's and it isn't easy to just run and hide out front as the chances of a safetycar is very high.

If there were a sweep on how many safety cars we'll see today, I'd choose two.