In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton is hopeful the new track surface at the Circuit de Catalunya will promote better racing.
What they say
Hamilton wasn’t impressed with the new surface during pre-season testing but thinks it could make for a better race:
It’s a very closed asphalt, very smooth and shiny. If you look at the test we were blistering, it was hard initially to get the temperature into the tyres but I think we had a test day which was not dissimilar to a day like this. We did the race run on those and had blistering back then.
[We] still had all the wear that we would normally have, but it was a lot faster. The race is going to be a lot faster this weekend.
I think the track has changed a little bit compared to where we were in testing. The tracks always shift through more people using it, the weather, the rain over the period of time since testing and today. I think it’ll continue to evolve as normal through the weekend. I think track-grip-wise it could potentially provide a little bit better racing because the mechanical grip is better.
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Q: How long did it take you to read through the rule book you have now?:
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Raikkonen: Strongest F1 team doesn’t always win... (Crash)
"I think it’s very close between the top three, so avoiding any mistakes and issues you can at least give yourself a better chance to be at the top in the end."
Formula E CEO Alejandaro Agag: "It's crazy not to have a full customs union. I started a company five years ago in the UK, I employ probably 120 people directly and 1,000 indirectly. We have made a plan to leave the UK in 24 hours (if Britain leaves the EU customs union). I will offer jobs to all my British employees, of course, in our new location in Europe, and we will go."
Renault explains Red Bull engine ultimatum (Autosport)
"The question they need to answer is whether they want to remain a factory team or a customer team of Renault. That's not just a matter of one performance improvement in one race."
Crazy F1 Onboard Through the Streets of Italy (Mercedes via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
That’s more like the McLaren I know. Pushing boundaries and coming up with different and unusual concepts in pursuit of performance. That was why I became a McLaren fan in the first place.
Yeah, it might turn out to be useless but at least they’re trying again.
Nick
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Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
11th May 2018, 8:27
Nicely done, Valtteri! Didn’t bin it behind the pace car… er… van.
Liberty seems intent on more street races. If they were all in Italy on a 130+km layout, I’m ok with that. It’s not like I’m asking to them to bring back the Mille Miglia. But, what if they could run a Half Mille Miglia? ;-)
Patrickl (@patrickl)
11th May 2018, 21:56
@jimmi-cynic Must have been team orders. Pretty sure otherwise he could have overtaken that van easily.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
11th May 2018, 23:42
@patrickl – that or maybe it was Max’s mom driving the pace van. ;-)
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
11th May 2018, 9:48
Track resurfacing means fewer bumps, fewer driver errors and therefore usually less interesting races.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
11th May 2018, 21:48
@f1infigures That’s what Hamilton said a while back. Bit odd that he now seems to say pretty much the opposite.
But then things could have changed.
Ajaxn
11th May 2018, 11:07
Good or bad surface wont matter if Mercedes is still trying to get Bottas a win, at the cost of Hamilton’s setup.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th May 2018, 11:40
I wasn’t expecting someone to have 130R as a username, LOL.
Regarding the COTD: TBH, the new nose doesn’t look too different to the one used for the first four races. It looks a bit narrower, but no drastically noticeable difference.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
11th May 2018, 11:50
After FP1, in my opinion, the new surface doesn’t seem to be very good. It seems that the tyres cannot “byte” properly the new surface. The big number of off-track excursions must be because of this issue.
Sush meerkat
11th May 2018, 11:58
I think the red bull ultimatum Missile A-bite-bull is giving them is a political move to back them into a corner, since Renault are pursuing “reliability” currently the parts on order now will most certainly change specification before the end of the season, I doubt next years PU is finalised by May 15.
Squirrel Irritable has a habit of making grand gestures much like Danny BAHAHAHAHA used too.
What Thistle In-capable needs to be aware of is Horner and Newey know this already since they’ve been in the business longer than he has.
BlueChris (@bluechris)
11th May 2018, 13:54
Dear Hamilton, what you forget to say is that its not only the track that is changed but a change in tyres from this race huppen that suits Mercedes as it seems.