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F1 2023

Is wet weather set to disrupt the Canadian GP weekend?​

Formula 1 teams and drivers will likely need to be prepared for “intense” showers over the course of the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix weekend. The official weather forecast for the event point towards a repeat of 2022 with a risk of rain present across the weekend and a possibility of showers that could influence Saturday’s qualifying. The race is expected to be dry. A low-pressure weather system over Quebec will bring unsettled conditions on Friday which look set to deteriorate over the course of the day with second practice at 5 pm local time at threat of sharp showers.

The rain is expected to persist and grow heavier come Saturday with an 80 per cent risk of rain in place. It is therefore highly likely that both final practice and qualifying will both be impacted by the weather. The weather is expected to improve in time for the race on Sunday, although the threat of rain will not disappear. Forecasters have officially estimated a 40 per cent chance of rain for the race, although that may change in the coming days.

Any rainfall will come as a relief to many in the area after a dry spell resulted in wildfires in the region last week. Smoke from the fires continued to reach Montreal earlier this week, although the air quality has now improved. F1 had addressed the wildfires last week, saying they did not expect them to jeopardise the running of the event.
 

Two F1 teams PUNISHED by stewards in Canada after BREAKING FIA rules​

AlphaTauri and Aston Martin have picked up fines during FP2 of the Canadian Grand Prix. AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll were pulled up for pitlane speeding to various degrees during the disrupted practice session, with each team receiving a fine from the FIA for their transgressions. FP2 ran 30 minutes longer than usual, thanks to CCTV issues and Pierre Gasly’s stationary Alpine disrupting and ending FP1 earlier in the day. By the end of the session, Stroll had run ninth fastest, five spots behind his team-mate Fernando Alonso. Tsunoda, on the other hand, outperformed his team-mate Nyck De Vries. The pair came in at 15th and 16th respectively.

Stroll breaches speed limit by almost 20km/h
The incident that led to Stroll’s penalty occurred around 4.40pm, as he drove at a speed of 97.8km/h in the pitlane – 17.8km/h over the mandatory speeding limit. The FIA concluded that Stroll made a breach of Article 34.7 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, fining Aston Martin €1,000 for his mistake. Tsunoda’s incident occurred just before 6pm, but was less severe than Stroll’s in that his recorded speed was 80.4km/h, only 0.4km/h above the limit of 80km/h. As a result, Scuderia AlphaTauri was fined €100.
 

McLaren upgrade involves "every single aerodynamic part"​

Such is the extent of the MCL60's upgrade that it will be introduced over a number of races and will involve "every single aerodynamic part". Barely before a wheel had turned, McLaren was aware that its 2023 contender was not the car the team wanted it to be. Soon, like Mercedes, there was talk of a return to the drawing board, though in the Woking team's case there was even talk of a B-car.

Speaking in Canada, Andrea Stella confirmed that the upgrade will be introduced in stages, beginning with the forthcoming Austrian Grand Prix. "At the start of the season, we realized that the car needed a fundamental redesign so this redesign is actually interesting," he told reporters. Asked the extent of the upgrade, he replied: "I would say, pretty much every single aerodynamic part, that's why the upgrades will be spread over the course of a few races. It will be decently noticeable," he added. "We even had to redesign some parts under the bodywork. That's also why it took some time to be in condition to deliver these upgrades. So I would say pretty much the entire car. They pretty much deliver more downforce with similar characteristics,” he said of the upgrade. “The key point is whether they will correlate trackside. I think the correlation so far has been good. This generation of cars, in general correlation with development tools, is good, so we expect a few tenths of a second of lap time improvement. In terms of upgrades here (Canada), we only have a rear wing which is the version that is most suitable for the level of drag that you adopt at this track. Most of the upgrades we will see over the course of the following events, so there will be a major overhaul of the car that will be delivered across Austria, UK and Hungary. In terms of Canada, we definitely prefer the characteristics of Barcelona because the car is strong in high speed corners. Here we have no high-speed corners, quite a lot of low-speed traction so it could be a bit of a struggle. We would certainly welcome some weather."
 

Ferrari chief to leave after 2023 Hungarian GP​

According to the Italian edition of Motorsport.com, the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix will be Laurent Mekies’ last weekend on the Ferrari pitwall, before taking up a period of gardening leave. It was announced ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that Ferrari’s race director would be joining AlphaTauri at the start of 2024, to replace Franz Tost as team principal.

Tost is currently deciding whether to retire or to accept a new two-year contract, as a consultant for the team. Mekies has continued working for Ferrari since his move to the Red Bull sister team was announced, with a departure date having not been confirmed. However, the penultimate race before the summer break at the Hungaroring is reportedly when Mekies will make his final appearance in red, prior to a period of gardening leave.

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur is believed to have been frustrated by AlphaTauri’s announcement ahead of Azerbaijan, given that a departure date for Mekies hadn’t been decided at the time. Vasseur is believed to have met with Ferrari president John Elkann and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner during the Monaco Grand Prix, to confirm when Mekies would make the official switch.

When the initial announcement was made ahead of Baku, Horner actually spoke very highly of Mekies and how he’d be a “great addition” to AlphaTauri. “Of course, naturally I was consulted on the replacement [for Tost],” Horner said, as reported by PlanetF1.com. “Laurent is a very capable guy, was at the team previously, speaks the language – I think he will be a great addition as a team principal.”

Whilst it’ll be Mekies’ first team principal gig, he has worked for AlphaTauri before. Mekies worked for AlphaTauri as a chief engineer when they were formerly known as Toro Rosso, before departing in 2014. He went on to work for the FIA where he rose to the position of chief race director in 2017, meaning he worked with the late Charlie Whiting. The Frenchman left the governing body to make his move to Ferrari in September 2018, where he initially worked as a sporting director.

Ferrari are expected to replace Mekies by promoting from within Maranello; however, it’s believed that they’re going to split Mekies’ roles between two individuals.
 

F1 driver called in for crunch talks with team amid threat of never-before-seen race ban​

Alpine held talks with Pierre Gasly in a bid to prevent the Frenchman achieving an unwanted Formula 1 first. Under the current rules, any driver who picks up a dozen penalty points within a 12-month period must serve a one-race ban. It is a punishment that has never been triggered in F1. But Gasly has come close to it in recent months. Alpine signed him from AlphaTauri last year knowing that he was sat on 10 points, the first of which weren't due to expire until several weeks into this season.

The 27-year-old kept his nose clean in the early rounds and now two of those points have expired. Two more are set to go on July 10, meaning he will be down to six and further away from danger. But he still made team principal Otmar Szafnauer nervous last time out in Barcelona. Gasly picked up two separate three-place grid penalties in qualifying for impeding opponents. And although neither of those punishments came with penalty points on his licence, Szafnauer decided to step in. He explained as much as a he spoke to reporters ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

He said: "So we met in between Spain and here with Pierre and his engineering team. We met for about an hour and a half to discuss communication strategy, how we communicate with him, the information that he needs, the timing of the information that he gets, what he does with that information – just so we can get a little bit better." It had been a strong qualifying for Alpine in Barcelona. Gasly went fourth quickest, though dropped to 10th on the grid courtesy of those penalties, while team-mate Esteban Ocon started sixth on the grid, rising a place because of that penalty for his fellow Frenchman.

But neither of them could make any progress in the race, Ocon slipping back two places to finish eighth while Gasly remained 10th. While even just a small total of points is always welcome, Szafnauer felt it was an "unfortunate" result given how strong they had looked in qualifying. He added: "Had [Gasly] actually started fourth and ran fourth instead of starting where he did and then being pushed wide and ended up 14th after lap one... It's significantly different running 14th than running fourth. So we have to make sure that when we qualify that high, we can actually race there. And we will do some things differently and especially on Pierre's side. Esteban is more used to his engineering team, because he's been with us for a lot longer."
 

F1 Qualifying Results: Canadian Grand Prix 2023​

1. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] - 1:25.858

2. Nico Hulkenberg [Haas] - +1.244s

3. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin] - +1.428s

4. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] - +1.769s

5. George Russell [Mercedes] - +2.035s

6. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] - +2.087s

7. Lando Norris [McLaren] - +2.188s

8. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] - +3.436s

9. Oscar Piastri [McLaren] - +5.491s

10. Alex Albon [Williams] - No time

ELIMINATED IN Q2

11. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari]

12. Sergio Perez [Red Bull]

13. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]

14. Kevin Magnussen [Haas]

15. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo]

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri]

17. Pierre Gasly [Alpine]

18. Nyck de Vries [AlphaTauri]

19. Logan Sargeant [Williams]

20. Zhou Guanyu [Alfa Romeo]
 
Anyone who can’t get this right is banned from this thread ;)

PS. quali sets us up for a good race, don’t you think? I’m hoping it will somehow stay dry and the newly updated mercs can show us what they’ve got, because from 4th on a circuit he loves, could this be Lewis’s best chance for a win? In wet weather though seems like the mercs aren’t performing great.
 

STARTING GRID​

Your full starting grid is as follows!

91e1e6cdd5249b9011f5fea43c55ff4d3a1c99f9.png


* Hulkenberg, Sainz, Tsunoda and Stroll handed three-place grid penalties
 
I like to see Alonso getting toward the front again.

Interesting that his car seems more competitive now.

Anyone know what engine is in it?
 
weltweit said:
Yes, somehow Mercedes have lost something with this and last years car.

How are the mighty fallen :)
Click to expand...
The last big regulation package focussed on power, and the Merc engine was a second a lap faster than the best of the rest.

The current package leans towards aerodynamics. Mercedes don't seem to have a mastery of the black magic of aero.
 
Limejuice said:
..
The current package leans towards aerodynamics. Mercedes don't seem to have a mastery of the black magic of aero.
Click to expand...

It does disappoint me about F1 that there are plenty of drivers that can win races but it seems usually it is the best car that wins. I get that it is a team sport, like endurance racing is, but with F1 it is very in your face that it is the car.

Give one of the top driver the best car and they will win. Give them a so so car and they won't - unless there is rain or some odd balancing factor.
 
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