The F1 thread

[Raid]

McLaren have signed 18 year old Brit Lando Norris for next year, to partner Carlos Sainz.

Lando Norris handed F1 debut with McLaren for 2019 - RaceFans

Lando Norris will make his Formula 1 debut for McLaren in 2019 as part of an all-new driver line-up with Carlos Sainz Jnr, the team has announced.

Not terribly surprising to see Vandoorne go. I know he was up against Fernando Alonso, but he was out-qualified by him in 30 of 33 races, and that's just not acceptable for a modern F1 driver with so many waiting for a seat.

[Drarok]

Re: The Haas floor, it doesn't seem to say whether or not it's been designed that way, damaged into a non-compliant manner, or what?

[Raid]

From the official FIA release that you can read here: https://www.fia.com/file/72438/download?token=tISsFCi-

Renault submitted that Art. 3.7.1.d of the Technical Regulations of the FIA Formula One World
Championship state that a radius of 50mm (+/-2mm) must be applied to each front corner of the
reference plane. (See Art.) The text of this Article was being applied differently by several different
teams, and a clarification was sought. As a result, TD/033-18 was issued on the 25th of July, 2018 –
which, in essence gave the teams until the Grand Prix of Monza to comply with the clarification
indicated in the TD.

Renault provided a picture that they claimed was of Car 8, which they stated shows that the part in
question, at the start of the Grand Prix of Monza was not in compliance with art. 3.7.1.d of the FIA
Formula One Technical Regulations, as clarified with the TD, and therefore they protested against
the compliance of Car 8.

Haas submitted that they understood the TD, and that they have been in contact with the FIA’s head
of Single Seater Technical Matters. They submitted the email correspondence, which were also
provided to the Stewards by the Technical Delegate. They provided details of their new solution and
sought acceptance of that solution. In their final email in the chain, they provided both drawings of
their solution and stated “Given the forthcoming summer break, we will endeavor to introduce this
upgrade for the Singapore GP, but will be somewhat at the mercy of our suppliers so we would
request some flexibility in this matter.”

It sounds like the FIA were aware that the floor was potentially illegal, but Haas were unable to fix it before this weekend's race. It also sounds like they perhaps weren't the only team that had been running an illegal floor, but that other teams had now met the requirements. With Haas not doing so, they left themselves open to protest from other teams, and this is what happened. It should be noted that Renault do benefit quite a bit from this as Haas are their nearest rivals, and this disqualification gives Renault an eight point lead.

[Maturin]

So Kimi signs up with Sauber next season and LeClerc moves to Ferrari:

Kimi Raikkonen: Ferrari driver to join Sauber in swap with Charles Leclerc

Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will leave Ferrari at the end of this season and rejoin Sauber, with Charles Leclerc replacing the Finn.

[Raid]

I wasn't sure they'd actually do it, but I'm glad to see that they are. Let's just hope Ferrari are better with young drivers than McLaren are (who've tried their best to ruin the careers of Perez, Magnussen and now Vandoorne).

[DjchunKfunK]

That seems a bit harsh. Other than possibly Perez, I don't think any of those drivers have shown anything that would suggest they have the ability to succeed in F1 at the top end.

[Raid]

I'm thinking more along the lines of putting fresh new drivers (although Perez had been in F1 for a couple of years with Sauber I think) in a dreadful car designed for someone else and expecting them to immediately perform. They did at least give Vandoorne two years, but in their worst cars in years against someone widely regarded as the best driver in the sport. And remember that Ron Dennis hailed Magnussen as the next Lewis Hamilton. I don't think you could put much more pressure on a new driver's head, and I'm willing to bet that after his 2nd place in his first race, they simply expected too much. When Dennis kicked Perez to the kerb in favour of Magnussen, outgoing team principal Martin Whitmarsh had to desperately phone his contacts to try and get him into another team (presumably before Whitmarsh ended up at the bottom of the McLaren Technology Centre's lake in concrete boots) because he was too promising to let go.

[Drarok]

Leclerc has been doing well, but replacing Räikkönen (yes, I googled it to check I was spelling it right and got all the accents done for me) seems a bit weird at this stage. Especially to put such a well-pedigreed driver down to Sauber. It's like they're putting him out to pasture in his old age. Bit sad.

[Raid]

I actually think it's a shrewd move. Ferrari want multiple teams, just like Red Bull, I think that's partially the reason for the Alfa Romeo branding Sauber are sporting these days. Sauber have a longstanding relationship with the Scuderia, it's the reason LeClerc (a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy programme) is there in the first place, and together with Ferrari-supported Haas, they effectively have two B-teams running their engines and other components. Having B-teams seems to be the way to get around the tight testing regulations these days, and they help to season young drivers before risking putting them in the big red cars. Anyway, what Sauber need to continue their progression upwards is a fast driver with a lot of experience, and Kimi is perfect for that. He's not fast enough to win a championship with Ferrari, but he can develop the lesser team to better aid Ferrari's driver progression.

I do think it's maybe a year early for LeClerc though.

[Raid]

Well, I think that's about it for the drivers' championship. Vettel really needs Hamilton to start having reliability problems if he wants to get his hands on the drivers' trophy. Strictly speaking, Seb will still be champion if he wins every race, but only by two points, and I seriously doubt Seb is going to win every race. Arguably it was tyre selection strategy that screwed Ferrari again this week; just as in Italy they only brought a single set of the Softs, so they couldn't do any running on them prior to the race itself. Both Lewis and Max did their second stints on them. Seb, without any information from practice, had to use the Super Softs in his second stint, so he had to trundle around at a snail's pace (instead of attacking the drivers ahead who were on slower tyres) because he had to make them last until the end of the race.

[Maturin]

It's funny, much of last season and the start of this season, it was Mercedes who were screwing up strategy regularly - but Ferrari seem to have taken over in that regard.

Pretty dull race, as usual here, but Hamilton's brilliant pole lap is probably the highlight.

[Raid]

Yeah, I don't tend to like races that are won on the saturday, but Lewis absolutely earned it. It was a phenomenal lap.

And yes, Ferrari have made a couple of blunders on tyre selection recently, but other than that they've been pretty bullet proof and they've built a great car. The main reason Seb isn't leading the drivers' championship is because he's screwed up so many times this year.

[Wrathbone]

So, how much will Ferrari offer Raikkonen to drive into Hamilton on Sunday?

[Raid]

What a bloody disappointment. Bottas did the best job this weekend, and his team took away his victory. On purpose. I understood their reasoning for having the two drivers swap at the time it happened, but they could have easily swapped them back at the end, as Vettel had dropped to some 4+ seconds behind. Lewis does not need a 50 point advantage with five races to go, it's excessive. I know it's not the first example of team orders at Mercedes this year, but it's the most blatant and easily the most galling.

[eny]

Totally agree tbh.