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Max Verstappen has revealed that a shortage of available replacement gearbox components was the reason he was only able to run 29 laps on the final day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Red Bull had attempted to rebuild the badly damaged RB15 overnight following a heavy accident for Verstappen’s team mate Pierre Gasly on Thursday, which had damaged the gearbox in use at the time.
“It’s all related to what happened yesterday,” Verstappen admitted. “It’s just a shame.”
Even though the team flew in new components in overnight from Milton Keynes, they still weren’t able to get the car back into full working order on Friday. Verstappen completed only a minimal number of laps in the morning and was then to forced to sit out the afternoon entirely.
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“We were a bit short on gearboxes. Two were already broken in two crashes, so that was it,” he told reporters after the event. “If you already have two which are destroyed, it’s not going to be ideal.
“The team worked so very hard to even let me drive today at all,” he continued. “We just had very few parts. Everything came over from England last night, so it’s a miracle we were even able to go out.”
Despite the setback, Verstappen was happy with the way that the test had gone for Red Bull and with the reliability and performance shown by their new Honda engines.
“I think we have a pretty good package, and also the engine seems to work really well,” he said. “It can always be better in winter testing, but in general we had a very strong test.
“We did a lot of laps,” he pointed out of the eight days as a whole. “Even though today was maybe not the best day but in general, I think I’ve always been doing over 100 laps.
“It wasn’t great today, but the speed looks alright. Looking at long runs the top teams are all fairly close. We can be happy with that.”
Verstappen is certainly hoping that this year’s car will fare better than its predecessor. A number of issues early in the season, including a lack of pace and poor reliability with the previous Renault units, wrote off Verstappen’s championship almost before it had started.
“Last year the world championship was out of reach after the summer break,” he acknowledged. “[This year] in Melbourne we need to score good points, no matter the positions.
“We’re fairly good on pace. Not sure whether it’s enough, because we didn’t really get to do low fuel runs [in the final two days of testing].
“But if we look to the longer runs, it looks all pretty promising. So yeah, I’m looking forward to start racing now.”
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Valtteri Bottas left a lasting good impression on M-Sport boss Rich Millener after his rally debut in Lapland last week with the World Rally Championship outfit.
Driving a Ford Fiesta WRC in the Arctic Lapland Rally, Bottas’ claimed a stage win and finished the event fifth overall, a performance that did not go unnoticed.
“As you’d expect with a Formula 1 driver, the speed was nothing to worry about for him, but his technique between the trees was really good – he really seemed to enjoy himself,” Millener told Motorsport.com.
“One of the differences the engineers noticed was in the driving style. He didn’t go to full throttle all the time.
“As soon as these guys in the WRC have the grip they’re full throttle. But in a Formula 1 car you’re constantly looking and searching for grip, so you don’t always go straight to the [throttle] stop.
“He’s done well. For your first ever rally to go to a World Rally Car you’ve never driven before, working with a team you don’t know and a co-driver you don’t know reading notes to you for the first time, fifth is not a bad result in -30C.”
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The M-Sport boss hopes to work with the Finn again in the future, and Millener is counting on another F1 driver to promote that idea.
“I would hope to see him back in the car, it’s good for the sport and interesting to see this crossover,” he said.
“If we had the opportunity, we’d like to bring him to a test in Britain – but his calendar is very, very busy.
“Robert [Kubica] is a very good salesman for the WRC and he’s back in F1 this year so I’m sure we’ll see some interest!”
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The world of motorsport is mourning the sudden loss of Charly Lamm, the legendary Schnitzer BMW team boss, who has died at the age of 63.
The great German team manager’s passing comes just two months after Lamm’s retirement from racing and the family team which he guided to so many touring car and sportscar wins.
Lamm’s trademark organizational skills and attention to detail elevated the outfit founded by his half brothers Josef and Herbert Schnitzer to one of the most prolific racing teams in the history of motorsport.
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Multiple successful campaigns masterminded by Lamm were enjoyed by Schnitzer and BMW in the European Touring Car Championship in the early 80s, and were followed later by equally successful onslaughts in the DTM series and in various national touring championships.
But Lamm’s biggest pride was Schnitzer’s management of BMW’s victorious efforts at Le Mans in 1999 with the manufacturer’s V12 LMR prototype.
Lamm’s final win at the helm of Schnitzer came in the GT World Cup at Macau last November, after which he aspired to embark on a “calmer life” away from the racing arena.
On multiple occasions, Lamm was solicited by Formula 1, and indeed that is where he should have put his exceptional skills to work, but the German always opted to stay away from Grand Prix racing.
As the chief operator of Schnitzer in touring cars, Lamm’s orchestrations of pitstops were an awesome sight akin to watching a conductor direct a philharmonic ensemble with astounding precision.
“I cannot consider myself a sportsman – the drivers are the athletes – but I try to give them the tools to go fast. This was what lifted my passion for the sport and what I could do for a very long time,” Lamm said last year after retiring from the sport.
“I have to see if I can get away from the drug of motor racing or if I come back as a tourist.”
RIP Charly Lamm 1956 – 2019
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McLaren rookie Lando Norris took away a few good lessons from his F1 baptism of fire in Melbourne which he will put to good use in Bahrain.
The 19-year-old acquitted himself well on his grand debut in Australia, delivering an outstanding P8 performance in qualifying before finishing 12th on Sunday, having spent the bulk of his afternoon battling traffic.
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“Melbourne was a mixed weekend for me, qualifying went well and I was pleased with my performance there, however Sunday didn’t go as I’d planned,” said the youing Brit as he previewed the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“We weren’t able to take advantage of the opportunity for points, however my debut grand prix was a great experience. I learned a lot and it was good to complete a full race distance for the first time.”
©McLaren
Norris will now take the sum of his Melbourne lessons and apply them at Sakhir, a venue he knows well, having won there last year at the opening round of the FIA Formula 2 championship.
“I learned a lot and it was good to complete a full race distance for the first time,” he added.
“I’m looking forward to taking what I’ve learned from Melbourne and applying it in my approach to preparation for Bahrain.
“Bahrain is a track with good memories for me after my pole and win there in Formula 2 last year and I’m excited to race under the lights for the first time!”
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Lance Stroll’s Racing Point RP19 will be fitted with a previous-spec Mercedes engine for qualifying following the failure of its brand new spec-2 unit in FP3.
The Canadian was on the verge of completing an installation in the final free practice session when flames and a plume of smoke trailed the pink car as he headed for the pitlane.
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It was an ominous sign for the Racing Point crew who quickly diagnosed an engine failure that halted the local hero’s session.
More worrying was the fact that the engine is the same new-spec unit used this weekend by the Mercedes works team and Williams, and which was introduced for this weekend’s seventh round of the world championship.
For qualifying and the remainder of the race weekend, Stroll will revert to the high-mileage engine he used in the first six races of the season.
Mercedes has yet to reveal the exact cause of the failure, a diagnosis that may have to wait until the unit returns to Brixton in the UK, but the manufacturer’s engineers are likely already hard at work scanning and scrutinizing all their spec-2 engines in Canada in search of any warning signs or anomalies.
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Sebastian Vettel knows where he wants to be next season, but the Ferrari driver won’t commit to a future thereafter until he gets a clear picture of Formula 1’s 2021 regulations.
Vettel is contracted to the Scuderia until the end of 2020, and while he’s happy where he currently is in his motorsport life, the German has questions about the future and the direction of Grand Prix racing.
“I’m certain I really want to drive this year and next year, then I don’t know what happens to the regulations,” Vettel said in an interview with The Times.
“Nobody knows so far. I certainly can’t sit here and say, ‘No [I won’t leave]’ just for the sake of being in Formula 1.”
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The four-time world champion laments Formula 1’s recent evolution and the fact that business now outweighs sporting considerations.
“A lot of the values that used to be around, they are only partly around,” he added.
“Formula 1 is now more a show and a business than a sport.
“You can say the same probably for other sports, but maybe in other sports it doesn’t filter down as much to the actual athlete as much as it does here.”
Vettel believes Formula 1 needs to offer more clarity on what it ambitions to be
“There just needs to be [a decision about] what we want,” said the 31-year-old driver.
“If we say we are a show, then bring on the show. I feel we are wasting so much time and energy with regulations that are just expensive really for nothing.”
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Full race results from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, round four of the 2019 Formula 1 season.
2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Race results
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Gap |
Stops |
1
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
51 laps – 1:31:52.942s
1
2
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
+ 1.524s
1
3
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
+ 11.739s
1
4
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
+ 17.493s
1
5
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
+ 69.107s
2
6
Sergio Pérez
Racing Point
+ 76.416s
1
7
Carlos Sainz
McLaren
+ 83.826s
1
8
Lando Norris
McLaren
+ 100.268s
2
9
Lance Stroll
Racing Point
+ 103.816s
1
10
Kimi Räikkönen
Alfa Romeo
+ 1 lap
1
11
Alexander Albon
Toro Rosso
+ 1 lap
1
12
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo
+ 1 lap
1
13
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
+ 1 lap
2
14
Nico Hülkenberg
Renault
+ 1 lap
2
15
George Russell
Williams
+ 2 laps
2
16
Robert Kubica
Williams
+ 2 laps
3
17
Pierre Gasly
Red Bull
DNF
0
18
Romain Grosjean
Haas
DNF
2
19
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
DNF
2
20
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault
DNF
2
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There was no shortage of interest for Mick Schumacher this morning in Bahrain when the 20-year-old son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher made his F1 debut, courtesy of Ferrari.
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It was undoubtedly a special moment: for Mick, his family – with his mother present – and for Formula 1.
The Ferrari junior will enjoy a full day of testing with the Scuderia on Tuesday before running with Alfa Romeo on Wednesday.
Here is a first batch of pictures of Schumacher in action at Sakhir.
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Mick Schumacher is expected to make his F1 debut next week at the post-Bahrain Grand Prix young drivers test where the young German could run with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari!
Schumacher could make his debut with the Scuderia on Tuesday and then switch over to the Swiss outfit on the following day according to a report from Autosport.
The 20-year-old will be on duty next weekend at Sakhir where he will kick off his 2019 Formula 2 campaign with the front-running Prema squad.
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Schumacher, a member of Ferrari’s Young Driver Academy, will then begin his testing preparations on Monday before getting his baptism of fire onboard the Scuderia’s SF90 on Tuesday.
Il will undoubtedly be a seminal moment for the young charger and his family, and the first time a Schumacher will be seen behind the wheel of a red car since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, the last race of Michael Schumacher with the House of Maranello.
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The Japanese government recently agreed to pay $8.7 million to dozens of Korean women who were forced to become prostitutes serving Japanese soldiers. The payment is meant as compensation for their suffering. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his “deepest regrets” and “contrition” from deep in his heart to the victims.
Among the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 women recruited from different countries to serve Japanese soldiers, 80 to 90 percent were from Korea. Girls as young as 11 years-old were forced to serve between 5 and 40 soldiers a day, and almost 100 soldiers on weekends. Those who resisted were often beaten, burned or wounded. The abuse was such that many women took their lives. During the Japanese retreat many were left to starve or were executed to eliminate any trace of the atrocities they were subjected to by the Japanese military.
After the end of World War II, the government of Japan had insisted that the “comfort stations” were in fact private brothels that had been administered by private citizens. Only in 1993 did the government admit that the Japanese military had been “directly or indirectly” involved in establishment and operation of “comfort stations” and in the transportation of the women.
The first Korean former comfort woman to tell her story was Bae Bong Ki in 1980. Another comfort woman, Kim Hak Soon, who died in 1997, related in 1991 how she was abducted by Japanese soldiers when she was 17 years old, and forced to carry ammunition by day and serve as a prostitute by night. Her testimony sparked several other testimonies by women who were obliged to work as sexual slaves in military comfort stations. Evidence of such stations has already been found in the Koreas, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, New Guinea and Okinawa.
Illustrative of the ordeal comfort women went through is the testimony of Chung Seo Woon in the book titled “Making More Waves” (Beacon Press, Boston, 1997). Chung was an only child born in Korea to the family of a wealthy landowner. Because of his activities against colonial rule, her father was sent to prison and badly tortured. When she was 16 she was allowed to visit her father. The same Japanese official who allowed her to see her father later came to her house. He told her that if she went to work in Japan for two years her father would be released. Despite strong objections from her mother, she agreed to do so.
Chung was placed on a ship with many other girls and women. She was hopeful that at the end of the two years her father would be released from prison, as she had been told by the officer. After being taken to Japan, the women were sent to several other countries and a group of them left in each country. After reaching Jakarta, the group that included the young Chung was taken to a hospital where she was sterilized.
The group was then taken to Semarang, a coastal city in Indonesia, and placed on a row of barracks. From then on they were obliged to perform sexual intercourse every day with dozens of soldiers and officers. In the process, she was forced to become an opium addict. Chung attempted to commit suicide, by swallowing malaria pills.
Two of her friends reported her to the authorities, she was revived, and, she remarks, “It was then that I made up my mind to survive and tell my story, what Japan did to us.” When the war ended and she returned home, she found her house deserted. From neighbors who came to help her she learned that her father had died while in prison. Her mother, humiliated by the Japanese soldiers’ attempt to rape her, committed suicide.
Chung decided to rid herself of her opium addiction. She was able to do this after eight months, and she worked hard to regain her dignity. She was never able to attain a normal sex life, but found companionship and care from a physician who had had a nervous breakdown after serving in the Japanese Army. In 1993, the Japanese government apologized to the comfort women, although it didn’t admit that the military actually coerced the women into serving against their will.
In November of 1994, an International Commission of Jurists stated that, “It is indisputable that these women were forced, deceived, coerced and abducted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military . . . [Japan] violated customary norms of international law concerning war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children . . . Japan should take full responsibility now, and make suitable restitution to the victims and their families.”
Japan has made the right decision by apologizing and financially compensating the remaining victims of abuse by Japanese soldiers. However, the gesture only renders partial justice to the Korean “comfort women.” There are tens of thousands of Korean women who are not alive to claim it.
Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a
winner of several journalism awards.
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