Racetrackmasters

Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have spoken out against the Hungarian government’s planned LGBT law referendum. Hungary’s government wants a national referendum to showcase public support for a new law that the European Union says discriminates against LGBT people. The government says the law aims to protect children, but many have criticized it as an attack on LGBT rights. The seven-time F1 champion Hamilton, who is chasing a record-extending 100th grand prix win this weekend, made his opposition known on social media. “Ahead of the Grand Prix this weekend, I wish to share my support for those affected by the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ law. It is unacceptable, cowardly and misguiding for those in power to suggest such a law,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram. “Everyone deserves to have the freedom to be themselves, no matter who they love or how they identify. I urge the people of Hungary to vote in the upcoming referendum to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+, community, they need our support more than ever.” Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted a video on Facebook to say the referendum was necessary to counter strong opposition to the measures by the EU, which he said abused its power by launching legal action against Hungary over the law. The four-time F1 champion Vettel spoke out on Thursday at the Hungarian GP. “I find it embarrassing for the country,” said Vettel, who is third all-time in F1 history with 53 race wins. “I can’t understand why they (the government) are struggling to see why everybody should be free to do what they like.” The law passed last month by Hungary’s parliament bans the depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment to minors in school education programs and media content. Its passage set off a heated confrontation between Orban’s right-wing government and the 27-member EU, which argued it discriminates against LGBT people and contravenes the bloc’s fundamental values. The referendum will cover such issues as whether children should be introduced to topics of sexual orientation in schools, and whether gender reassignment should be promoted or depicted to children. Last Saturday, thousands of LGBT supporters marched in the annual Budapest Pride parade. Budapest Pride spokesperson Jojo Majercsik said the was not just a celebration and remembrance of the historical struggles of the LGBT movement, but a protest against Orban’s current policies. This month, activists erected a 10-meter-high (30-foot-high) rainbow-colored heart opposite the country’s neo-Gothic parliament vowing to wage a civil disobedience campaign. At the Turkish GP last November, Vettel wore a special helmet promoting a message of diversity and inclusion. The helmet’s design depicted a diverse crowd, a prominent rainbow stripe, and a white-to-black gradient with his chosen message “No borders, just horizons – only freedom” written on top. Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, has spoken out at length against racism. He and other drivers have been taking a knee against racism before races for the past year.

Hamilton has enjoyed dominance at the Hungaroring throughout his career and could be in line for a ninth victory on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton has rarely had it so tough. Midway through the 2021 F1 season, the seven-time world champion finds himself in a frustratingly unfamiliar position. For the first time since 2016 he is in a very real battle for the drivers’ championship. He is eight points behind Max Verstappen – the new villain of Hamilton’s dramatic career and the first challenger to the veteran’s supremacy in his Mercedes since Nico Rosberg five years ago. The pair have exchanged the lead at the top of the standings, and clashed quite literally on the track. Red Bull have successfully earned a review of the collision that saw Verstappen crash out of the British Grand Prix last time out – to which Hamilton was handed nothing more than a 10-second time penalty on his way to victory at Silverstone. “We’ll just keep on attacking,” said Hamilton after criticism of his race strategy that saw Verstappen hit the Silverstone tyre wall with extreme force. “There needs to be respect on track, but if not, this will happen more often I guess. And I tried my hardest just to stay as clean as possible.” Verstappen, for his part, is trying to stay out of the soap opera unfolding between the pair. Speaking in the week, the Dutchman said: “I am not interested in getting involved in any of that. “I know what happened at Silverstone as I was in the car and obviously I feel a certain way about how my race ended, but now I’m just focusing on making sure we are the best we can be on track so we can stay ahead in the championship. “The team can take care of the official side of things and anything that needs looking into after the crash but my job is the same as always: to be the best I can and try to win on Sunday.” Thankfully for Hamilton – and perhaps worryingly for Verstappen – he not only heads into the Hungarian Grand Prix having ended Red Bull’s five-race winning streak, but he also has history on his side at the Hungaroring. Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix eight times – including each of the past three years. The multiple world champion is at home on the wide circuit where his Mercedes engine can eat up track over his rivals. Were Hamilton to win on Sunday he would break a new record for the most race wins by any driver at a particular circuit. His eight in Hungary is currently equalled with his eight at Silverstone and Michael Schumacher’s eight achieved at the French Grand Prix between 1994 and 2006.

Honda has confirmed that it will run the power unit involved in Max Verstappen’s Silverstone crash during opening practice in Hungary on Friday. Red Bull driver Verstappen suffered a 51g impact at the start of the British Grand Prix after clashing with Lewis Hamilton through Copse corner. Formula 1 power units are made up of six components and drivers are restricted on how many they can use through a season. They are permitted three engines, three MGU-Hs, three turbochargers, three MGU-Ks, two energy stores and two control electronics. If this allocation is exceeded a driver faces a 10-place grid penalty for the first change, followed by other demotions if further parts are installed. At the British Grand Prix Verstappen was on his second of the components for which three are permitted, and first of the components for which two are allowed. The newer components were installed at the French Grand Prix, in late June, and consequently were firmly within their anticipated life cycle. The power unit was transported to Honda’s facility in Japan and a thorough analysis was undertaken. Honda has now given the power unit the green light to be run during opening practice at the Hungaroring, after which a full analysis will be carried out to determine whether it is fit for purpose in race trim, as it seeks to avoid penalties later in 2021. “The PU was sent back to Sakura for thorough checks,” Honda said in a statement. “We also replaced certain parts, as allowed in the regulations, without breaking the FIA seals. “We will use the engine this Friday to give it a proper track test, after which we should have a clearer picture of its viability as a race engine.” Verstappen claimed his maiden pole position at the Hungaroring in 2019 and has finished runner-up to Hamilton in both the 2019 and 2020 races.

It is now known that Red Bull’s team is contesting the penalty given to Lewis Hamilto for touching and disabling Max Verstappen at the Silverstone Grand Prix. Marko has given some more information to RTL on why information is available for a review of Hamilton’s punishment. “We are bringing forward new facts/evidence that were not available to us at the time of the suspension of the race, or when the whole thing was settled, partly because we were focused on what is going on with Max and how he was doing.” This, according to Marko, is where Mercedes and Red Bull will discuss on Thursday during the review. “Those facts will be put forward at the meeting on Thursday and we hope it will lead to a reassessment of the penalty. We have images, but the most important thing is that we will come up with new evidence, but you have to understand that I cannot disclose the exact details.” Because that question was logically asked of him. The answer to that was clear. “Appropriate is a penalty that would have prevented a win. A suspension for the next race. Something along those lines.” Tomorrow Red Bull will tell its side of the story and show why Hamilton deserves a bigger punishment than he has currently received. After that, the weekend in Hungary is already upon us, where Red Bull and Verstappen will be looking to take sporting revenge.

The 2021 F1 season’s major title contenders, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen, recently caused chaos at Silverstone during the race. While the seven-time world champion escaped with minor front wing damage to his car, it wasn’t as simple for the Dutchman, whose car was pretty much shattered into pieces. This led to a wave of hype from the entire F1 fandom, with most of them claiming the incident to have kindled an ugly rivalry between the duo. Hence, it looked like there could be more such Verstappen-Hamilton encounters over the rest of the season, much like the Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry in 2016. However, Verstappen isn’t necessarily obliging to the hype being fueled into the ongoing duel. As reported by F1, the Red Bull driver opined that he isn’t interested in kick-starting a rivalry with Hamilton. Hence, this could mean that Verstappen will try to avoid the replication of the Silverstone incident in the future. “I don’t have much to say on all the media hype. And to be honest, I am not interested in getting involved in that,” he clarified. Ever since the race at Monte Carlo, Verstappen had slowly been extending his lead to Hamilton, and the gap between the duo ahead of the British Grand Prix was 33 points. However, the dramatic incident at Silverstone meant that the difference fell down to a mere eight points. Hence, from the Hungarian GP, Verstappen will have the massive task of building the gap to the Briton from scratch. The Dutchman opened up that his focus is entirely intact on winning every single race over the remaining course of the season. “My job is the same as always, to be the best I can and try to win on Sunday,” Verstappen said.

It is usually around the time of the Grand Prix extreme weather in Hungary. When it is hot it is really hot. When it rains, it rains a lot and it rains hard. For this weekend the first scenario seems the most realistic, but a mix of both is not excluded. For now, it looks like Friday will be sunny at least. With temperatures of 30 degrees and more, it will be very warm at the start of the race weekend. The teams will have plenty of time to prepare and collect data. The temperature will also be around or above 30 degrees during qualifying and the race. However, on Saturday and especially on Sunday there is a greater chance of showers. According to the latest reports, there is a good chance of heavy showers over Central Europe on Sunday afternoon, during the race. Friday will be sunny, Saturday seems to be warm and sultry and Sunday is warm with a greater chance of showers. A rain race is certainly not excluded on Sunday.

Ferrari doesn’t believe victory is a realistic aim despite their recent form heading to the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Scuderia has been back near their best with Charles Leclerc’s pair of poles in Monaco and Baku, followed by an unfortunate second place to Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone. Since Austria, Ferrari has also shown a very strong race pace, as highlighted by the Monegasque leading 50 laps of the race almost a fortnight ago. However, while the Hungaroring has been a strong circuit for the Italian team and would appear to suit this year’s car, Leclerc is tempering expectations a little. “It’s good to be an optimist, and I think we all want to be an optimist after such a good performance in the last three races, to be honest,” he told Motorsport.com. “But on the other hand, we also need to be realistic. We are in a good mood, but I feel like going for the win in Budapest could be a bit optimistic. So realistically, I think I will be happy if we are just behind the two top teams.” The reason for that is while the Hungaroring has long been one of F1’s slowest circuits, the original perception of ‘Monaco without the barriers’ is shifting. “Budapest recently has become actually a medium to high-speed track with these cars,” Carlos Sainz explained. “If you look at Monaco and Baku there are second or third gear corners. But Budapest nowadays, with these crazy high-downforce cars, you have a middle sector where you are fourth or fifth gear all the time. So it’s not a pure low-speed track like it used to be in the past. “I don’t think it will be such a good track for us. I think it’s a great opportunity to be right behind Red Bull and Mercedes, but downforce is still king and we see from data these guys are still ahead. “As we saw at Silverstone, on the hard tyre Lewis had a bit more pace than us and they should be ahead in Hungary.”

Forbes’ latest list of salary reveals place Lewis Hamilton atop the the Formula 1 standings for the drivers’ payslips. As a seven-time World Champion, Hamilton has enjoyed the kind of success in Formula 1 which can only be equalled by Michael Schumacher in terms of titles, but the records for most pole positions and race wins, among others, reside next to Hamilton’s name. The Briton has become an increasingly active voice in the Formula 1 paddock as he pushes for greater equality in motorsport, but away from the track he has many other ventures in the worlds of fashion, music and food. But his Formula 1 efforts alone are paying off handsomely for Hamilton, who tops Forbes’ list of the highest-paid Formula 1 drivers for another year, a streak which began back in 2014. Forbes state Hamilton is set to earn $62million across the 2021 season for his on-track activities, made up by a $55m base salary and a projected $7m in bonuses. Hamilton currently trails Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship by eight points and so if he overturns that, then his $66m earnings for 2020 could well be matched for the current campaign. Should the title go Verstappen’s way, his earnings are projected to reach $42million for the 2021 season. Either way, he is comfortably P2 on this particular leaderboard. Of course, sponsors are another source of income for the drivers, but in this department there is a gulf between Hamilton and Verstappen. Hamilton pockets around $12m from his sponsors, the majority of whom pump their funds into his Mercedes team too. Each race weekend, Hamilton will be seen arriving to the track in the latest catwalk fashion, while away from racing he is no stranger to celebrity events. As for Verstappen, none of that is up his street. Instead, he enjoys his private life in private, which may explain why his endorsements are estimated at only $1million. A comfortable third in the list is Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, whose highly anticipated return to Formula 1 is set to earn him a $25m base salary for 2021. Behind the Spaniard, we find the likes of Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel also taking home a very healthy pay cheque. Projected top 10 2021 driver earnings in full: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) $62million2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) $42million3 Fernando Alonso (Alpine) $25million4 Sergio Perez (Red Bull) $18million5 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) $15million6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) $12million7 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) $10million8 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) $10million9 Lando Norris (McLaren) $9million10 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) $8million

Saudi Arabia has put up its hand as a potential alternate Formula 1 venue in the covid-marred 2021 season. The first-ever Jeddah street race is already scheduled to take place in early December – just a fortnight after the re-scheduled and now cancelled Australian GP was due to happen. Qatar and Bahrain have indicated that they could step in, but it may make more sense for Formula 1 to simply do a back-to-back double in Saudi Arabia instead. “We have not yet received a request from Formula 1 to organise a second race, but we are perfectly on track with our preparations,” Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisal, a Saudi royal and provincial governor, is quoted by the Belgian news agency Sporza. Some may scold F1 for considering a second race in Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom has been accused of using Formula 1 to ‘sportswash’ human rights abuses. But F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali plays down those concerns. “We believe in going to certain countries that are showing that they want to change in the future,” he told GQ magazine. “We also don’t want to be involved in politics. Instead of talking about the negative things, we should be discussing the positive things that F1 can make happen.”

2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button has said that he feels Valtteri Bottas might benefit from a switch back to Williams come the end of this season. The Finn left Williams at the end of 2016 to take over from Nico Rosberg as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes, with them being partners ever since. Bottas has largely played second fiddle to the Briton, however, with him good enough to win the odd race and pick up regular podiums but never really showing the consistency you need to fight for a championship title. This year, too, he’s had a fair few struggles that have prompted suggestions that it might now be time for George Russell to step into his shows and sit alongside Hamilton in the Silver Arrows’ garage, with the young Williams man a member of the Mercedes driver programme. That said, former world champion Button has suggested that a move for Bottas in the other direction might just help him mentally. “I think there’ll be some drivers leaving their teams at the end of the season,” said Button via a Readly campaign. “But, at this point in the season, many top teams have their drivers in place for next season and are pretty happy with them. There are quite a few contracts up at the end of the season, I think, but I don’t think there’ll be any significant changes. “It could be a complete swap around with Williams and Mercedes, I guess with George going to Mercedes and Valtteri coming to Williams. He’s been at Williams before, and I am sure it hurts to go to a team that isn’t fighting in front. But he would be great for Williams. “He comes with a lot of experience, and maybe he’ll find his feet again and mentally, he’ll be in a better place. He’ll also be at a team that doesn’t have Lewis Hamilton in it. “I think Mercedes have been happy with Valtteri not being on pace the last few seasons. But he’s always come away with good points in 2nd or 3rd in the races, so Mercedes has always won the Constructors’ Championships. “But this year, he hasn’t been performing as well and has been out of the points, and they are not getting the points they are used to, so that’s why they are probably looking elsewhere to get another driver for 2022. “With my Williams hat on, it would be sad to lose George, but the team completely understands that if he gets an opportunity to race in a car like Mercedes – they have to let him go.”

Honda have admitted they still don’t know for sure whether Max Verstappen’s engine can be used again, following his high speed crash into the barriers at Silverstone. Upon first inspection of the engine, hopes were raised that the unit can be used again and reduce the likelihood of a grid penalty later in the year if Verstappen requires using more engines than the permitted three for the season. Honda wished to examine the power unit more closely before being able to give a definitive answer. “We probably won’t know that before the Hungarian Grand Prix,” a spokesperson told RacingNews365 ahead of the weekend in Budapest. “The tricky part about whether an engine is still good enough to race or whether it is only kept for Fridays is that with all the technical limitations you are limited in what you can research before an engine is actually started again.” If the engine can’t be used again as a race engine, with 13 races to go in the season, it’s very likely Verstappen will take a grid penalty later in the season as Red Bull would need to use a fourth power unit.

Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton has announced the launch of a new charitable foundation, called Mission 44, and has pledged an initial £20m from his personal wealth. Hamilton has regularly spoken of the need for greater equality, particularly within motorsport, and recently released the findings of the Hamilton Commission. On Tuesday he unveiled Mission 44, while his Mercedes team will work with the foundation under the newly titled Ignite initiative. Mission 44 will “support, champion and empower young people from underrepresented groups in the UK,” and will be fronted by CEO Jason Arthur. Arthur has previously held roles in the education and youth sectors, having been Deputy Chief Executive of the Step Up To Serve charity, as well as a Cabinet Member for Finance and Health in Haringey, alongside teaching positions. A personal £20m pledge from Hamilton will be used to support Mission 44’s work, which will include assisting organisations and programmes that narrow the gap in employment and education systems, and increasing diversity within leadership and civic leadership positions. The charitable partnership between Hamilton and Mercedes, which was revealed upon the announcement of his 2021 contract, has been formalised through a joint initiative, called Ignite, which will sit under the Mission 44 umbrella. Ignite will have a specific focus on improving the underrepresentation of students studying STEM and engineering, primarily within the motorsport industry. “Supporting the ambitions of underrepresented young people has always been important to me and Mission 44 represents my commitment to create real change within this community,” said Hamilton. “In my early life, I experienced first-hand how coming from an underrepresented background can affect your future but, luckily for me, I was able to overcome those odds through opportunity and support. I want to ensure that other young people from similar backgrounds are able to do the same.” Hamilton has raced for Mercedes in Formula 1 since 2013, having been linked to the manufacturer since his junior days, and recently committed his future to the company through 2023. Hamilton and Mercedes will work together on Ignite, as part of the shared vision between the pair to focus on increasing diversity and opportunities within the motorsport sector. Ignite’s efforts will include developing STEM curriculum materials, providing financial support to talented and motivated students who lack the means, and enhancing education encrichment opportunities around STEM and motorsport. “We are delighted and proud to be standing alongside Lewis today for the announcement of Mission 44 and the Ignite initiative,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “Lewis has long spoken about the challenges he has faced in motorsport. His determination to turn his experience into such powerful and decisive action is a measure of both his character and his unwavering commitment to support people to fulfil their potential. “At Mercedes, we have listened and worked closely with Lewis over the last year to understand how we can help open up our sport to achieve a more diverse and inclusive workforce within our own team. “The opportunity to work together through Ignite, with Mission 44 and our own Accelerate 25 programme, is both exciting and challenging.”