I think what we saw in Austin was a great fight between two drivers at the top of their game. I think a few more races like Austin between now and the end of the year, I think the biggest winner will be Formula 1.
Nobody wants to see a championship decided in a gravel trap. Q: Christian Nimmervoll — motorsport. With the Championship being wide open and Covid numbers on the rise again in several countries, are there any extra precautions you are taking during this phase of the championship compared to the summer to protect Max in particular but also mechanics and engineers from potentially having to miss a race?
CH: Yeah. Q: Laurent, could I just put that to you. Any extra precautions at Ferrari with relation to Covid? LM: You know, I think the biggest protection is what has been working extremely well since last year. There are these FIA protocols, they are proven to be working extremely well. We try to stick to it. We try to not to get too relaxed and in the meantime you enjoy getting the public back into the grandstands, you enjoy getting the guests back into the paddock but as a team, we try to stick to this protocol.
Q: Luke Smith — Autosport Laurent, question for you. Ferrari has obviously taken a huge stride forward this season compared to last year — I know you guys very much focused on and returning to the front of the pack but could you tell me how much the atmosphere has changed around Maranello? LM: Well, you know, I think the greatest signs of the reconstruction is that even in the darkest moment of last year the team stayed very united, we know we were in front of a huge task to turn things around and to get out of the situation we were in — but even in this darkest moment the team was very, very strong at sticking together.
The atmosphere, to answer your question, is fantastic. In a way that there is this very, very strong team spirit that comes from having gone through the huge difficulty of last year. More important is how much improvement we are able to make and how many clean weekends we can deliver, one after the other.
We are coming from two strong races and we are hoping to keep delivering at that level. There has been lots of talk about how Max has stood up to the intensity of the title fight and he seems to be dealing with that really well.
How would you compare the way he has reacted to his first title fight to 11 years ago when you had Sebastian Vettel going for his championship and winning it. There were a few mishaps along the way for him. Do you think Max is dealing with it better as a first-time title contender than Sebastian did or are there very big differences in the situations? CH: It feels quite different. There were four drivers competing for that world championship that year and four drivers at the final race that could have won it.
Q: Christian Nimmervoll — Motorsport. In terms of future regulations, what are the remaining stumbling blocks around the table and is it realistic to expect the December World Council to sign off the regulations? CH: There are a few open points that need bottoming out. I think one of things that concerns me is the removal of dyno hours, restrictions for the new engine in and I think that would be a big mistake, so just relying purely on the budget cap is too much pressure on that element of the regulations.
I think the rest of the regulations are making good progress and inevitably there are always some elements that do need tidying up. But there has been constructive discussion with the FIA and hopefully the remaining issues that are on a relatively short list now can be addressed before that December World Council meeting.
If you cast your mind back to Multi plus, I believe, various others do you have any comment on that, please? Team orders are part of the sport being a team sport. The benefit is there as well. Formula 1 is a team sport and everybody has their role to play as part of that team. I just wondered to… just historically, when Red Bull first came in you were referred to as the fizzy drink company. I wondered how much real needle there is between the two of you and how much satisfaction it would give you if you do ultimately win these championships?
CH: To be honest with you as far as we are concerned it is all noise. It all depends on what you do on the track and if you can do your talking on the track then that has way more weight and value. We are going for a first with Max and to add to the titles we have already won. Formula 1 is a competition and as the pressure builds you see people react to pressure in different ways.
We are at the business end of that championship now and you can feel the tension and that will only grow the longer this goes on. CH: I have no issue with Toto. I think he has done a great job there in a team he inherited. Yeah of course there is respect, Mercedes are a phenomenal team. They have achieved great things and there is of course a respect between the two teams. But it is a competition.
We are here to go racing. We want to take the championship. We have been fighting to get into this position to take the fight to Mercedes for you know seven long seasons now and of course we have got ourselves into a competitive position, we want to make sure that we do our very, very best to convert this between now and the end of the year. It will be by far our biggest achievement in Formula 1 if we manage to do that in either of the championships.
CH: Losing hurts. If anybody is happy about finishing second they are in the wrong job. The most important thing is to enjoy the competition as well. Wanted to know how plans are going with that. You have the work going on at the campus, and similar to the question I asked Laurent, in terms of the atmosphere at the team both with this title fight and with the evolution to basically becoming your own power supplier next season, how are things at the team?
That is really taking shape and it will be operational in spring next year. Each week we are welcoming newcomers into the team. But if there is a lot of technology which we don't need, at the end of the day, we want motor racing to remain a sport where the driver will be able to make the difference.
So I think it's something we need to re-address, and make sure that we divide all the improvement we have done, we can still do on safety all what is necessary, and what we could get rid [of] and probably also save some weight and give more space to the skills of the drivers.
It certainly sounds as though Todt would like to see a much simpler F1 power train package in , with less tech contributing to lighter, nimble cars. However he admits that we can't go too far backwards. I never said the cars are too heavy, I said probably the cars over the years have taken weight. I think we need to understand the evolution. But on the other side, it's an evolution of motoring. If you take your road car 40 years ago, and if you take your road car now, it's completely different.
But here, it's a man and a machine, and the machine has drastically changed, and will keep changing because it's evolution of motoring, so you cannot avoid that. We have a car with without power steering? It's against the nature of the evolution of motoring. So we need to accept that, F1 being the pinnacle of motorsport, which means the pinnacle of motoring. It has to be close to what it is. Having earlier avoided saying too much about his legacy Todt sums up one of his achievements as changing the structure of the FIA, and creating more transparency.
It's not my job to do it, but my job is to make sure we have the best people. And incidentally, we have something which is very important. We have got what we call technical sporting committee, because I hate to be in a position to have one guy deciding you can, you can't.
So we have a steering committee, which we have also reinforced to help governing as much as we can. So we have to be very, very strict on achieving that. It has been a tricky past few races for Sergio Perez. The Red Bull driver has mustered just 16 points since the British Grand Prix in July and the team's constructors' championship chances have taken a hit. Yet the Mexican remains optimistic that he has all the tools he needs to turn his performances around. But he came into the weekend with a streak of recent crashes hanging over him.
The technical directive issued by Formula 1 to reduce levels of automation in pitstops has given teams an unwelcome period of adjustment. Although safety was the primary goal, it has already had a significant impact on the title race and puts extra pressure on teams to deliver as the season reaches the business end. The Russian GP was decided by late-arriving rain that allowed some to climb and caused others to plummet.
But the events which played out beforehand are equally significant when considering the all-important driver ratings. Until rain turned the Russian Grand Prix on its head in the closing stages, Lando Norris was set to convert his first Formula 1 pole position into a maiden win. But having recovered well from being shuffled back at the start, Hamilton and his Mercedes team called the changing conditions spot-on for a landmark th F1 victory.
At the Italian Grand Prix Daniel Ricciardo turned around a troubled F1 season and, in F2, Oscar Piastri demonstrated once again that he is a potential star of the future. Tickets Subscribe. Sign in. Registration Sign in Facebook connect. All me. Download your apps. All rights reserved. By: Adam Cooper.
Jul 1, , AM. Related video. Previous article Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix session timings and preview. Load comments. What's next for Todt as he enters his final lap as FIA president? Formula 1. World Superbike. Video Inside. More from Adam Cooper. Next article Renault bringing software and hardware updates for Spa and Monza. Load comments. Formula 1's safety car could become driverless, says FIA. Formula 1. More Franco Nugnes. Bahrain March testing.
Formula 1 Formula 1. Historics Historics. Subscribe to PLUS. Formula 1 Sep 30, Formula 1 Sep 29, Formula 1 Sep 28, Formula 1 Sep 27, Formula 1 Sep 26, Listen to this article.
0コメント