Racetrackmasters

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed rivals Red Bull have poached up to 15 members of staff to work in its new powertrains department. Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull announced it had secured the services of five Mercedes High Performance Powertrains engineers to join technical director Ben Hodgkinson, who will also make the transition to join the team in Milton Keynes. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 at the conclusion of Friday’s running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Wolff said the number of staff lost had in fact tripled. “I think they have approached 100 people or so and they have got 15 maybe,” said Wolff. Responding to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s suggestion that Mercedes had offered to double the pay of its personnel to help stave off the allure of Red Bull’s venture, Wolff added: “Doubling the salaries is one thing but if you triple them you are not going to compete anymore, even for loyalty. It is what it is. “I respect everybody that wants to defend their business or build the business. The retaliation time has not yet come.” The developing battle between Mercedes and Red Bull has provided an extra dimension to the showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen for the world championship this season. However, Wolff conceded he has not been surprised by Red Bull’s recruitment strategy and suggested he is excited for the chance to compete with the rival team on another front. “I think it is pretty obvious that if you want to set up an engine factory in the UK… there is only one and that is us, we have 900 employees or so there,” he explained. “If you are fishing out 15 of these or so, that is pretty normal but they went mainly for the manufacturing staff so it is not really performance, I guess they want to build up the company. “Credit to the project, it is a Mount Everest to climb and I would like to have a fight with Red Bull Power units.”

Helmut Marko was left frustrated by Max Verstappen picking up some minor front wing damage during the second practice session in Barcelona. Having complained vociferously about the vague track limits enforced by white lines and kerbs in Portugal, Marko was left exasperated as the Dutch driver damaged his front wing in second practice by hitting the kerbing at Turn 8 put in place to stop drivers straight-lining the exit of Turn 7. The damage was only minor, with the endplate half ripped off, and likely wouldn’t have required a pitstop under race conditions, and Marko explained that the wing can be repaired. “Here, you are punished in a different way”, Marko explained to Motorsport Magazin. “If the lap times are not taken away, then it is the front wings that will be damaged. We no longer have a spare, but the damaged front wings can be repaired. We will take care of that.” With Verstappen finishing in ninth place, and Sergio Perez in 10th after a low-key second practice session, Marko said there’s no alarm at Red Bull and they are confident of matching Mercedes over the remainder of the weekend. “There is no panic yet,” he explained. “There were some small things that were not right, we have not been able to finish a flawless run. It will be very exciting again, I am sure. We are within a tenth of each other. “Only in the last sector we do not have a good comparison. At first, we drove a purple sector time there, but then we did not have a good run anymore.”

Seven times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton led Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes one-two in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday. Championship leader Hamilton’s closest rival, Max Verstappen, had been second fastest in the morning for Red Bull but dropped to ninth, 0.615 off the pace, in the afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya. Bottas had set the morning pace with a lap of one minute 18.504 seconds, 0.033 faster than Verstappen, but Hamilton put in a 1:18.170 effort on soft tyres after lunch when the conditions were warmer. That was 0.139 quicker than Bottas’s best effort in the session. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended the second session third fastest, with Alpine pairing Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso fourth and fifth. Hamilton is eight points clear of Verstappen after winning two of the three races so far. The Briton has won in Spain for the past four years and five times in total. “Less than a tenth between ourselves and Mercedes, at a track like this that’s been a stronghold for them for the last seven years or so, that’s encouraging,” Red Bull principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports television after first practice. “Mercedes have been truly dominant here for the last few years. I think if we can get close to them here that’s a really encouraging sign.” Bottas, who dismissed questions on Thursday about his future and the possibility he could be replaced mid-season, will be chasing his second successive pole position on Saturday. Verstappen’s Mexican team-mate Sergio Perez was only ninth and 10th in the two sessions. Sunday’s race will be Verstappen’s 100th start for Red Bull and marks a return to the circuit where the Dutch driver became the sport’s youngest ever winner on his team debut as an 18-year-old in 2016. The 23-year-old has fallen foul of track limits in recent races, having times deleted for going too far wide, but Horner doubted that would be a big issue this weekend. “I certainly hope it won’t, it’s not that type of a circuit,” he said, adding that there would be more discussion about the rules between team principals on Saturday. The opening session was halted with 15 minutes remaining when Alfa Romeo reserve Robert Kubica, making his first Friday appearance of the season, went off into the gravel at the revised turn 10. Haas’s Nikita Mazepin also spun, something that has become a regular occurrence for the Russian rookie. The virtual safety car was deployed in the afternoon when some bodywork came off Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and had to be retrieved.

Several drivers offered an early verdict on the new configuration of Barcelona’s Turn 10, differing on whether the widened corner will promote overtaking or not. The former left-hand ‘La Caixa’ near hairpin that had been part of the Circuit de Catalunya’s layout since 2004 has been altered and redrawn with a wider arc, a change that provides a larger run-off area, thus improving safety. But the widened configuration implies a higher entry speed into the corner, which in turn could limit overtaking opportunities at Turn 10. Despite the changes, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly doesn’t believe the modification has significantly lengthened the track’s back straight. “Honestly, I don’t have the answer now because we haven’t tried it yet, but it doesn’t make the straight line a lot longer,” said the Frenchman. “Clearly, I think there will be slightly more lines possible out of Turn 10, so I do hope racing improves, and it gives us the opportunity to put a bit of pressure on braking and maybe try something different on exit and overtake. “[That would] give us a bit more opportunities in terms of racing, but in terms of driving, yeah, it’s mostly a bit more open, a bit faster corner.” Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz agreed that drivers could follow different lines through the revised. “In the past, Turn 10 was obviously very difficult to follow a car in front [through] – just because there was only one line,” commented the Spaniard. “There is a strong point [about the changes] – that maybe having a wider line [now], you can maybe place your car a bit differently compared to a car in front and get a bit more clean air. “But, at the same time, it’s a higher speed corner, [where] we will feel the downforce loss if we follow. One thing might compensate the other.” Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc felt the alteration and faster entry is likely to limit overtaking, although the changes could have a bearing on the action further down the road at Turn 1. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that there will be different lines there and that should be a bit better to follow, but I also feel that Turn 10 was an opportunity to overtake, so I don’t know,” said the Monegasque. “I think there will be less overtaking in Turn 10, but if then it helps us to follow closer for overtaking before Turn 1, then that’s great.” Alpine’s Fernando Alonso reckons the changes will have little impact on the racing overall. “Honestly, the corner was there anyway in the past,” he said. So sometimes, if you braked a little bit late into 10, you take that runoff area and you re-joined the track in 12. “So, I don’t that it’s going to be a huge impact on the laptime, on the set-ups, on the overtaking possibilities – I think it’s pretty similar. “It should be quite transparent from outside or from the spectators’ point of view.”

Is it time to police track limits with yellow and red cards? That is an idea put forward by NOS commentator Louis Dekker. With Mercedes and Red Bull sewing the seeds for an epic 2021 title battle, quite rightly the excitement around Formula 1 has surged. But the subject of track limits continues to hang over proceedings like a dark cloud. We have seen the results of the Bahrain and Portuguese Grands Prix heavily impacted and few are happy with how the boundaries of a track are currently policed. The main issue so far has been the lack of consistency in how each breach is dealt with, so Dekker believes bringing in yellow and red cards could be the solution. “In terms of entertainment, it can sometimes pay off. Why don’t you use all those sensors to go to a system where you give drivers yellow and red cards,” he said during the NOS Formula 1 podcast. “If you do it once, you get yellow. And if you do it again, it’s red. And that means, for example, you have to drive through the pit lane. You can also portray that very nicely. If [Max] Verstappen or anyone else has ‘yellow’ after his name, it will also be fun for the television viewer.” Verstappen is the driver who has bore the brunt of track limits so far in 2021, losing the lead and therefore victory in Bahrain while then being stripped of his pole time and fastest lap of the race at Portimao. It has, of course, been highlighted that these are little errors which the Dutchman must cut out, due to how costly they have been, but Dutch Grand Prix promoter and ex-driver Jan Lammers feels it is wrong to “over-analyse” the situation. “This is just something that happens. These guys drive so much, then it’s his turn and the next weekend it’s the other one’s turn [to make mistakes],” he told RacingNews365. “But that’s top sport. Lionel Messi sometimes misses a penalty. “We shouldn’t draw any structural conclusions from that, we shouldn’t over-analyse it. The fact this was a weekend where things turned out the way they did doesn’t mean this is a recurring theme. “You can say yes, he is making too many mistakes. But when I say that, you can’t avoid saying ‘don’t you notice he has made so few mistakes so far?’ It’s a contrast because he has made so few mistakes in the past.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes Lewis Hamilton was the only difference between the Silver Arrows and Red Bull at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Seven-time champion Hamilton took a commanding 97th career victory at Portimão after fighting back from falling behind title rival Max Verstappen to overtake the Red Bull and later his pole-sitting team-mate Valtteri Bottas. With debate raging on as to which of the two championship-contending teams holds the upper hand after three races, Shovlin pointed to the driving talent as the main differentiating factor. “To be honest, we are sort of splitting hairs really,” said Shovlin. “I think Lewis had the fastest lap of the day on Saturday but any one of the three drivers could have been on pole. “I think, if you looked at today it was Lewis who won it. He was down in P3, he overtook on track twice and got up front and controlled the race. “The cars, it is very difficult to pick them apart but if you are going to pick anything apart, Lewis was the best driver today and that is why he is sat on the top step.” On a low-grip surface, Hamilton was able to control the degradation of his tyres far better than his rivals despite following closely before his race-winning overtakes. Asked as to why Hamilton was able to stretch the life of his tyres, Shovlin added: “Lewis is very good at overtaking. “He seems to know where to position the car building up to it and also often, he doesn’t keep trying lap after lap, he sort of just sits there and takes the opportunity. “His feel for the tyres is the key to how he manages to sit there, not overheat them and look after them but he has got the same tyres as everyone else and he damaged them by getting hot and sliding on them. “The key to it is keeping them cool and limiting the sliding and I think he is just better at it than the others.”

Toto Wolff has dismissed as “nonsense” reports suggesting he may replace Valtteri Bottas with George Russell before the end of the 2021 season. When asked about the rumours by Osterreich newspaper, including the assertion that Lewis Hamilton is ‘almost always’ ahead of Bottas, the Mercedes team boss replied: “Nonsense. “Bottas is really good – he can take on anyone in the field. And again and again he is able to drive faster than Lewis, like last time in Portimao qualifying,” said Wolff. “Lewis deserves to be world champion through being more consistent,” he added. There are also rumours swirling that Wolff is keen to put pressure on seven time world champion Hamilton to kick off his contract talks about 2022. Asked if news on the topic will soon be forthcoming, the Austrian answered: “At the moment we are concentrating on the championship. We must not take our eyes off the ball. “If at some point there is time we will talk about the future, but we haven’t started that yet.” Finally, Wolff was asked about the obvious tension between Mercedes and 2021 title rival Red Bull – especially after the latter poached a key member of Mercedes’ engine operations. When asked about the tension, he said: “It’s very simple – Red Bull recruits employees with the promise of a great future. What I always say is that the future is not clear. “But it’s quite normal to fight off-track. And the fight for the best people is constant.” Red Bull has said Mercedes heads into this weekend’s race weekend in Barcelona as the favourite, to which Wolff replied: “Well, they have the crystal ball. “The truth is that it remains a head-to-head race.”

Three teams voted against adding sporting penalties for breaching the budget cap, according to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. For 2021, a new spending limit of $145m per season was imposed on the teams. This is set to reduce to $140m for 2022 and $135m for 2023. As is the case with any sport that uses a budget cap, there are always challenges when it comes to ensuring competitors operate within it and determining sanctions if they do not comply. But at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Wolff stated three teams rejected the introduction of sporting penalties for budget cap offences during an F1 Commission meeting. As reported by Autosport, Red Bull, Ferrari and AlphaTauri are believed to be the trio. “A large group of teams, seven out of 10 teams, voted in favour of introducing sporting penalties for financial cap infringements,” Wolff stated. “At the moment, there are only financial penalties. And three teams voted against it, saying ‘we’ll take a financial penalty but we don’t want to have a sporting penalty’. “That’s a bit odd. But I think the compromise we have achieved now is to understand why that is and which regulations they feel are incomplete or uncomfortable.” In a “couple of weeks”, Wolff hopes all teams will accept the same treatment for financial and technical infringements. “The target we have set ourselves is a couple of weeks to sort it out and then everyone understands that financial cap regulation infringements should be seen just the same as technical infringements in terms of sporting penalties,” he confirmed. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that penalties for not following the budget cap were “already clear”. And so he said ongoing talks were actually about the “procedures”, since these are new regulations that are still being refined. He hopes everything will become clear “within a month”. “There is discussion currently about procedures which, because it’s a new set of regulations, they are all being tidied up,” he added. “I hope within a month, everything will be clear in terms of procedures.”

Sebastian Vettel’s AMR21 will recieve in Barcelona this week the same aero upgrades enjoyed by Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll last weekend at Portimão. Stroll was awarded the latest developments in priority given his tally of points in the Drivers’ standings relative to Vettel. Although the German outpaced the Canadian in qualifying and on race day, for the first time this season, Aston Martin Performance Engineering Director Tom McCullogh says the result did not imply that Stroll’s updated car offered less performance, on the contrary. “In the race Sebastian slipped from his P10 grid slot to a P13 finish, while Lance climbed from his P17 grid slot to a P14 finish,” explained the Aston engineer. “You do not have to be a skilled mathematician to realise that their race performances were opposites, and the reason for that is that.” “Without aero updates, Sebastian was unable to stay ahead of three cars that had qualified behind him, while, with aero updates, Lance was able to move ahead of three cars that had qualified ahead of him. “The post-race analysis we have done duly showed that Lance was able to access greater race pace than Sebastian was, the result of the aero updates uniquely fitted to his car, which he used to good effect.” Vettel says he is eager to sample the updates this weekend at Barcelona’s high-grip Circuit de Catalunya. “This weekend, I’ll have the upgrade Lance used in Portugal – which he felt was promising – so I’m looking forward to experiencing it for myself. “Looking at the last race, it’s clear that we have better race pace than single-lap performance, so we’ll be looking to make improvements on Saturday to give us the best chance of points on Sunday. “We all know Sunday afternoons at Barcelona can be tricky for overtaking, so it’s important that we maximise our opportunities where we can.”

The Spanish Grand Prix has come under fire in recent years, as F1 races around the Catalunya circuit have generally been underwhelming, to say the least. George Russell and Lando Norris are the latest drivers to highlight the issue. Lando Norris has questioned alterations to the Catalunya track layout on the eve of the 2021 F1 Spanish Grand Prix. His comments follow those of fellow British driver George Russell, who feels that removing the final chicane of the current configuration could lead to better racing. Norris’ main source of frustration concerns new changes to Turn 10, which is now a lot less tight. According to the McLaren man, this could backfire – as the corner is suddenly less of a big braking zone. “I don’t know what that new turn is like either (Turn 10). I’m not so confident on that,” Norris told RacingNews365.com and selected members of the media. “It looks to be a weird corner. Turn 10 was probably the only other overtaking opportunity apart from the pit-straight and there’s not as much of a big braking zone now. So if they change it to that, I think I would say no.” Williams driver George Russell also recently gave his opinion on the Barcelona circuit and changes that could be made to improve the spectacle for the fans. Russell, who was recently named as a director of the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers Association), thinks that the removal of the final chicane at Barcelona could make a big difference. “An example we have at the moment is Barcelona, the circuit offers pretty poor racing. The races are always pretty dull,” the 23-year-old told RacingNews365.com. “On the whole, we think that if the circuit were to return to the last two corners that were there 15 years ago, two fast corners, you’ll actually be able to follow slightly closer. You’ll be coming onto a straight at higher speed, the slipstream effect will be greater, all the way down to Turn 1. “For the fans, you’re seeing the cars at a much higher speed, for the drivers you go around an incredibly quick corner, which is exciting. It’s a win-win.”