Sainz hopes small tweak will “revert” slump
In the round-up: Carlos Sainz Jnr feels hopeful about Ferrari’s upgrades for this weekend in Hungary.
In brief
Sainz hopes floor upgrade will “revert” slump
Sainz hopes that Ferrari can begin to turn their slump in form around with a revised floor at the Hungaroring this weekend. He revealed the team have made “a very small modification in the floor that we’re hoping that could help with the issues that we’ve been battling with recently.”
The team has experienced an increase in bouncing in high-speed corners since introducing its new floor design at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
“Whether it will work or not, we need a bit of time to see,” Sainz continued. “We need this weekend, probably, to make the analysis.
“The team is pushing flat-out to revert the situation, because clearly we’ve been out-developed by our competitors and now we are trying to fight back and get ourselves back in the mix.”
Albon has “low expectations” for Williams
Despite scoring his team’s second top ten finish of the season at their home grand prix at Silverstone, Alexander Albon doubts Williams will be able to compete for points again in Hungary.
“I don’t think it’s a circuit that should suit us,” Albon admitted in Thursday’s press conference.
“It’s kind of a little bit like Barcelona: Hot, a bit more about pure downforce. I think it’s a good test for us. We’ve come up with some new options and new ideas coming from Barcelona and thinking about how we want to address some of our issues. We’ll just go out there in FP1, try a few things and see if it works.”
IndyCar at Iowa “like Moto GP on dirt” – Palou
After describing IndyCar’s two races at Iowa last weekend as “boring”, Alex Palou says that the repaving job on the circuit heavily impacted the ability for drivers to race on the oval.
“Even when leading, being in the middle of the pack – the IndyCars we had, the package of IndyCar tyres, aero, engine, whatever we had on track this weekend – it was impossible to make it run,” Palou said.
“It was never an issue before. It was a repave for our cars. But having that said, we’ve seen other series here run well. It’s like putting a Moto GP on dirt. It’s a cool track, but you cannot put it on the same and expect a very nice race.”
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Links
Leclerc on ‘incredible’ Hamilton, mindset and Ferrari dip (BBC)
”I need to be convinced that I am the fastest driver when I put the helmet on, but I am really looking forward to it, and it will be super-interesting for me. I have always said you learn from every single team-mate you have over your career. When I look at the way he drives – because we always look at each other and data – you don’t really see any weaknesses. And that’s where Lewis is incredible. He’s only got strengths. So I’m really looking forward to seeing how he works with his engineers, the feedback, and all of these kinds of things, to learn and become better.”
Hamilton hails Ralf Schumacher but insists F1 has work to do on diversity (Guardian)
”Clearly he has not felt comfortable to say it in the past and it’s definitely not a new thing. It just shows we are in a time that finally you can take that step and don’t have to fear. So far he has had only positive feedback from people and that’s because of the time we are living in.”
ERS activation issues roil IndyCar teams (Racer)
Gavin Ward: ”The disabling or enabling it has caused some issues at recent events, and my opinion is there’s not really any reason why they need to switch it off. And if you don’t want to let people start their cars with it in pit lane, then people will just use (external) starters like we already have been. I think they’re worried that drivers are going to be trying to use it on pit lane, looking at the dash, or be distracted by something while they’re driving down pit lane.”
Season 2: Create history (EA Sports)
Details about the second season of F1 24 content.
1971: A grand prix in Birmingham (BBC Archive)
Archive footage from 1971 when plans for the Birmingham Superprix were first being explored. Featuring input from two-times F1 world champion Graham Hill.
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