Month: November 2019

Sebastian Vettel is expecting an entente cordiale with Charles Leclerc next season at Ferrari, believing the two drivers should work together in the interest of the Scuderia.

Leclerc’s past credentials and a highly impressive maiden F1 season with Ferrari will propel the Monegasque to the next level in 2019 as he moves to the House of Maranello.

Leclerc will take over from Kimi Raikkonen, with whom Vettel has enjoyed a good working relationship since joining Ferrari in 2015.

And the German hopes he’ll be able to pick up with his team’s new recruit where he’ll leave off with the Finn.

“It’s going to be different for sure, because Charles is not Kimi and Kimi is not Charles,” Vettel explained in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.

“He is young, so he will have a lot on his head and a lot of things in his mind. So I think for the team we need to work together on track.”

Leclerc well prepared by Ferrari for life in the fast lane

Vettel has no doubts about Leclerc’s burning ambition, especially as the 21-year-old has already declared that he’ll be fighting for race wins at the outset.

But the four-time world champion wants first and foremost for the pair to be aligned with Ferrari’s interests, including when it comes to lending the new recruit a helping hand.

“I am sure he wants to beat me, [and] I want to beat him, the rules are clear. It was the same with Kimi. But I think the key is that we work together and, as I said, he will have a lot things going on in his head.

“I am his teammate, so I am also here to help. I am the last one that is trying to hide or playing any games or anything like that.

“That is why I think I get along very well with Kimi, because in this regard we are very similar. So we will see.”

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The FIA International Court of Appeal has been hearing the Haas F1 Team’s argument for overturning Romain Grosjean’s exclusion from the results of the Italian Grand Prix.

The appeal started on time at 9am on Thursday morning in Paris and was concluded on schedule, but the verdict from the panel of judges won’t be published until Friday as per standard FIA protocol.

Grosjean finished the September race in sixth place, but was subsequently disqualified following a protest to the stewards lodged by the rival Renault squad.

The protest related to the legality of the front edge of the floor on Grosjean’s VF-18, which stipulated the need for a 50mm radius. After the Italy race, the Haas floor was found not to comply with Article 3.7.1.d of the sport’s technical regulations.

• Renault rejects Haas claim it broke ‘gentleman’s agreement’

The clarifying FIA technical directive TD/033-18 issued on July 25 had required certain teams to make changes by Monza. However Haas said it was unable to do so before Singapore due to supplier constraints over the summer shutdown, in this case specifically relating to chassis manufacturer Dallara.

Haas suggested that it had taken a lack of response to its email as tacit acceptance of their situation and implied permission to delay the change until the following race.

However the FIA denied any such permission had been given or intended and that the team had been informed that failing to make changes would leave it open to protests such as the one filed by Renault at Monza.

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, team owner Gene Haas said that last week’s controversy about Mercedes’ wheel rim design had bolstered his team’s case in the appeal.

Ferrari had threatened to protest the use of ‘holes’ in the rims which purportedly gave the W09 an aerodynamic advantage. Mercedes sought a preemptory ruling from the stewards confirming the legality of the design, but there’s likely to be further meetings about the issue in coming weeks.

“What did they say about Mercedes, that their little disc didn’t have any effect on aerodynamics, it was immeasurable?” Haas told Motorsport.com. “It’s the same thing for us.

“What we did in putting a radius on a corner really was immeasurable,” he continued. “When it comes to Mercedes, they get away with it. But when it comes to us, we get hammered. That radius was not relevant to performance.”

Haas added that the specification had been written without an accompanying illustration, thereby making it open to interpretation.

“That’s why they were arguing about it for months between the teams,” he pointed out. “Then they finally put a date on it and said ‘this is what we want’, and we were saying we need one more race to get it done.”

Renault has former FIA technical director Marcin Budkowski on its management team. but he was staying out of the debate this week.

“The appeal is between Haas and the FIA,” he said. “We’re just what they call an interested third party.”

If the appeals panel finds in favour of Haas, then the current 30 point deficit between Haas and Renault would be reduced to just ten points with two races remaining in the 2018 world championship.

Grosjean’s team mate Kevin Magnussen has also recently been excluded from race results. He finished in the points in the United States Grand Prix but was later deemed to have used too much fuel during the race.

The Haas team accepted the decision and decided not to appeal on that occasion.

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By his own admittance, Valtteri Bottas’ 2018 campaign fell well short of expectations, but former F1 driver Mika Salo believes his fellow Finn is being too hard on himself.

Despite driving for a team that garnered 11 wins this season thanks to Lewis Hamilton, Bottas concluded his season without ever standing on the top step of the podium, a feat he achieved three times in 2017.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff fears the misfortune that befell the 29-year-old this year and the necessity to confine him to a support role in the latter part of the season may have taken their toll on Bottas’ mentally.

Mercedes admits it needs to get Bottas ‘back to a good place’

“At least he has identified what were the weak points for him and will work in the winter so that they are not there next year,” Salo told Finland’s MTV.

“Valtteri has no choice but to reset completely and start again next year.

“Pretty much everything went wrong this year,” he added.

“Baku was really bad. If not for what happened he would have led the championship and who knows how the season would have gone after that.”

Salo said Baku is just one example of how 2018 was not all Bottas’ fault.

“There were so many little things that were just bad luck, not anything that Valtteri did badly. But they surely affected him on the mental side pretty badly,” he said.

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Former F1 driver Thierry Boutsen is sad to see Stoffel Vandoorne lose his seat in F1, but believes his countryman just didn’t perform well enough to remain on the grid.

Vandoorne’s credentials in the junior categories of motorsport, and notably in GP, a championship he won in 2015, suggested a bright future for the Belgian in F1.

His nomination as a full-time McLaren driver in 2017 held much promise but it all went downhill at the outset as the Woking-based outfit lost its way, plagued by technical issues and poor execution.

Brown: ‘Vandoorne should have been more aggressive with us’

Yet for Boutsen, Vandoorne failed to meet expectations, especially relative to his team mate Fernando Alonso.

“It’s very simple, Stoffel had the chance to drive for two years in Formula 1 but was unable to demonstrate what he could do for a variety of reasons,” Boutsen told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

“He should have at least shown that he was as fast as his teammate, but Fernando Alonso was always a good half second ahead each time.

“There are several explanations, but whether it is driving or technical problems it doesn’t matter. Stoffel had two seasons to show his talent and he did not succeed.”

A veteran of 163 Grands Prix, Boutsen knows all too well that F1 takes no prisoners.

“It saddens me because Stoffel has the talent to be there, but F1 is like that. Drivers are like Kleenex — use them when they’re good and as soon as they’re not, throw them out.”

©NorbertScanella