Racetrackmasters

Daniel Ricciardo said it was “frustrating” that he couldn’t get a true feel of Istanbul Park on Friday ahead of the Turkish GP. Drivers were lapping in the 1:40s during the opening practice session thanks to a combination of low temperatures, overnight rain and most importantly a very slippy newly-laid surface. Ricciardo finished FP2 all the way down in P15, 3.3s off the pace, and admitted that it was a “frustrating” Friday for all the drivers. “I probably speak for most, it was pretty frustrating,” he told reporters. “It’s such a beautiful circuit and we obviously want to push it, but we were a little restricted just with the new surface and the grip. “We had to be quite patient today, hopefully it can pick up a bit, but I think it’s going to rain tomorrow so we might have to just deal with it this weekend. “We struggled a little bit, but found a little bit right at the last few minutes of practice in terms of setup, actually more confident even though we don’t look great on the timesheets. I think we’re more confident now going in to tomorrow. “If it rains tomorrow it will probably be an ice skating rink out there. “I know this is a last-minute calendar so I don’t want to be critical but if there were some other categories [racing] then it would probably help get the track [rubbered] in. “We are doing all the work, but like I said it’s the same for everyone, just want to go faster that’s all. “I’m certainly confident I’ll be better than P15.” Ricciardo’s Renault team-mate Esteban Ocon got the better of the Aussie in both Friday sessions with P10 in the morning and P12 in FP2. He compared the track conditions to being like driving on intermediate tyres instead of the slicks. “It was a tricky day, but we ended on a positive note. We improved the performance significantly, which is good and that’s not an easy thing to do,” he told the Renault website. “It was probably the trickiest conditions I’ve ever driven in as it was really slippery out there. I’d probably compare it to what it feels like driving on Intermediates, only that we were on slick tyres. “It was new territory, and this is why we still have stuff to learn. Our long runs seem strong, so let’s see tomorrow. The track is awesome, and hopefully with a bit more grip we can push a bit more!”

Lewis Hamilton’s contract for the coming years is still not complete. Negotiations seem to depend on what his current team boss, Toto Wolff, is going to do and the amount of money involved. The latest rumour is that there is a three-year deal for GBP £120 million. Nothing is certain yet about Lewis Hamilton’s contract with Mercedes. But the Brit who will be able to take his seventh world title this year and be in a shared first place in the world, according to DailyMail, will be signing for three years. There are also reports that the Brit will make £40 million a year. That is four million pounds more than he earnt in his previous contract per year. The fact that this is a rumour is an important point. Only last week news came out of drastic salary cuts for F1 drivers. The Mercedes driver will therefore remain associated with the brand at least until 2024 with this possible contract. In principle, the golden Mercedes-Hamilton duo can go for another three titles in both the constructors’ championship and the drivers’ championship. In any case, there is still enough time and space for the Brit to become the best in the world. With an eighth world title, he will exceed Michael Schumacher’s record. So for the next three attempts at this record, he is reportedly going to get EUR 133 million.

Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Mattia Binotto will be skipping this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul and will instead run the team from its base in Maranello. The Ferrari boss had revealed that he had plans to miss some of the remaining races in the current season so as to find out how effecient it is to manage the team remotely. Ferrari F1 sporting director Laurent Mekies confirmed that Binotto would be remaining in Maranello for the weekend. “Mattia has always approached his role in an innovative way, trying to think outside the box,” Mekies said. “He has come up with a method of working that gives the flexibility to manage the priorities in the most efficient way possible, he had already adopted this approach when he was technical director and has applied it even more so now as team principal.” “At first it might seem strange not to see him physically in the briefings or on the pit wall, but he will make use of all the current communication technologies so that his voice and input will be loud and clear to everyone, both inside and outside the team.” This comes as F1 is set to embark on a record-breaking 23 race calendar come 2021, all the Formula 1 teams are evaluating how best they can rotate their staff to avoid burnout as the plan will even affect the senior team management officials. Mattia Binotto is not the first senior F1 team member to opt to skip a race weekend in recent years. Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff missed last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix as a trial to potentially not travel to more events in the future, but has attended every grand prix this season. Binotto said at Imola two weeks ago that it was crucial Ferrari looked after its staff to ensure they had the “right level of efficiency, concentration and focus” despite the challenges of next year’s bumper calendar. “Considering myself, you need to balance your tasks at the race track and at the factory,” Binotto said. “The factory is important, where we are developing the car and preparing the cars.” “For myself, I think I will not be at all the races. Even in 2020 I am considering skipping some of the races in the last part of the season, starting from Turkey,” The Ferrari boss added. “But that is more of an eventuality for next year, because when you are responsible for an entire team, certainly the race event is important, but also the entire management of the team is important.” “When increasing the number of races, there is a judgement that needs to be done to take care where you can on some engineers and technicians to eventually find a balance.”

Haas drivers, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are now fighting to make their 2021 plans after they found out that Haas won’t be requiring their services beyond the 2020 Formula 1 season. Both drivers confirmed ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix that they are in talks with Indycar teams. Haas had confirmed ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix that they would present an all new driver line-up for 2021 as they are yet to make official announcement on their new driver line-up for 2021. This decision left Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen very doubtful of their future in Formula 1 racing. However, the two drivers confirmed that they had been in talks with the Indycar teams which are all located in the United States over the recent weeks. When Grosjean was asked about holding talks with the stateside teams, he gave a simple yes saying, “I think there’s always opportunities.” Although both of the drivers refused to disclose the teams they have been holding talks with, Grosjean added, “We’re late, some of the teams are fully booked, but there are opportunities left and looking at what we can do, how we can do it, I think there is some wish from both sides to make it happen, which is nice.” “The races are pretty fun, there’s good opportunity to win the race or to be on the podium,” he added. “The cons are obviously I don’t really know much about motorsport in the US. The tracks look cool, it’s a very good championship and I think there’s more pros than cons… but obviously the lifestyle and where we live and what we do with the kids and their education and their future is very high on the priority list. “It’s not like I’m a youngster that can just jump on a plane with a backpack and not look behind me! Let’s see what’s coming, I’m hoping in the next few days and then we can look at details and so on.” Magnussen also confirmed his talks with Indycar teams, but the 28-year-old expressed that as much as he would like to follow in his father’s Jan footsteps by racing in Indycar, he feared it was not possible come 2021. “As I’ve said many times, IndyCar is something that is very high on my list and I’ve always been a fan, so I’d love to try it,” said Magnussen. “My dad’s been racing in America for about 20 years, and I’ve spent a lot of time over there and I just really like being in America. So I think that would suit me pretty well… It’s a challenge that I would get really excited about.” “There’s a lot of new things, but I’ve always found oval tracks to be something that I think is spectacular and very different to what I’ve ever done in my career,” Magnussen added. “We don’t really do ovals in Europe… and the other tracks, the road courses out there, are fantastic as well, really old school. And again, the thing about all the cars being very similar is also a very good thing. That means you can make a bigger difference as a driver.” ” we’re a little bit late in the year, so a lot of teams have already got drivers for the future and I don’t think it looks likely for next year.”

Lewis Hamilton can seal a record-equalling seventh drivers’ world title on Sunday (Nov 15), position himself to be “best of the best” and set up long-awaited negotiations for a new Mercedes contract at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Briton needs only to prevent his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas outscoring him by eight points to retain his crown and, in the eyes of many including former Ferrari rival Felipe Massa, move on to become the most successful in F1 history. A seventh championship would draw him level with Massa’s erstwhile Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher for titles, but with the record for wins, poles and podiums, as well as consecutive points finishes, he will in many eyes already be the “greatest of all time”. Brazilian Massa, who himself missed out on a title triumph when Hamilton claimed his first in Sao Paulo in 2008, has no doubt that the Englishman, whose contract expires later this year, will deserve that sobriquet and a salary to match it. “Lewis can really be the best of the best and everybody will say that for years and years, or maybe decades, or whatever,” he told the F1 Nation podcast. “So, I think he is just preparing his two or three-year contract, which I think he deserves. “What he is doing… He shows that he definitely deserves it – to be different to all of the other drivers in terms of everything and even in terms of salary.” Hamilton departed the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola earlier this month with an enigmatic suggestion, after his record-increasing 93rd win had secured Mercedes’ unparalleled seventh consecutive constructors’ championship, that he may not return to racing in 2021. Notions of retirement were rejected by his team chief Toto Wolff, who is also out of contract this year. Massa suggested Hamilton is set for a bumper new deal ahead of any confirmed “salary cap” in the sport. “I remember when Michael was my team-mate and he was like that,” he recalled. “Michael was completely different to everybody in terms of everything – in records, numbers and salary. “For sure, Michael helped many other drivers to increase their salary. That’s what Lewis is, in my view, trying to do. I think he is ‘doing right’ and he deserves it.” In the simplest terms, Hamilton will be champion again if he beats Bottas, who trails him by 85 points with four races remaining. For the Finn to keep alive his own title bid, he must out-score Hamilton by nine points or more. Given that Hamilton has beaten him at 10 of this year’s 13 races to date and has been in the points at a record 46 consecutive races, Bottas faces a daunting challenge. Even if he wins on Sunday at the Istanbul Park Circuit, returning to the calendar for the first time since 2011, Hamilton can still take the title by finishing second and clocking the fastest lap. With the title race reduced to a duel between the two ‘silver arrows’ drivers, many other teams have turned already to plans for next season – Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto deciding to stay in Italy to concentrate on car development. Sporting director Laurent Mekies will take charge, but maintain close contact with Binotto, missing his first race since taking over last year. “He has taken an innovative approach so his voice and input will be heard loud and clear,” he said.

Frédéric Vasseur, the Team Principal of the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team, says this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix represents an important milestone for the Hinwil-based team, with the outfit celebrating five-hundred races in Formula 1. The Sauber F1 Team made its debut in Formula 1 at the 1993 South African Grand Prix and scored points that day with JJ Lehto, and although they are now named Alfa Romeo, Sauber are still an integral part of the DNA of the squad. “The 500th race for the team is an important milestone, one that shows the incredible heritage of this outfit: we are now in a very small group in the company of some of the most historical teams in the sport and that shows the strength of our project,” said Vasseur. “As an independent team for most of our history, we have shown that it’s possible to build a long-term project and we are confident the best is yet to come – the next 500 races will be even better.” Vasseur says it would be great to celebrate five hundred races with another good performance, especially on the back of their first two-car points finish of 2020 last time out in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. “It would be nice to celebrate this occasion in style with another good performance, especially after the double points finish we scored in Imola, which was a big confidence boost for the team,” he said. “The progress we have made is a positive, as is scoring points in three of the last five races, but we know there is a lot more work to do before we are where we expect us to be. Returning to Turkey will be another chance to continue on this path: it is another track on which there is not a lot of information available and we can use it to our advantage.” Kimi Räikkönen is renowned for not paying attention to milestones, but the Finn says it is a big milestone for the team, especially those who have been a part of Sauber/Alfa Romeo for the long term, “I am not very interested in numbers, but it’s a big milestone” says Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen made his own Formula 1 debut with Sauber back in the 2001 Australian Grand Prix and scored a point that day (after the penalisation of Olivier Panis ahead of him), so has played a part in the team’s history. “This weekend’s event will be race 500 for the team: I am not very interested in numbers, but it’s a big milestone, especially for all the people who have been working for the team in all these years,” commented Räikkönen. Räikkönen is a former winner of the Turkish Grand Prix having won the inaugural race back in 2005, and he is excited to see what a modern-day car can do around Intercity Istanbul Park. However, he does doubt whether or not turn eight will be as exciting in 2020 as it was in previous years. “As for the race, it’s nice to come back to a place like Turkey,” said the Finn. “It’s a track that made for good racing in the past, so it will be interesting to see how the modern Formula One cars do on it. “Everyone talks about turn eight but, with the performance cars have now, it may not be as impressive from within the cockpit: of course, it will be nice to watch, but there are many other corners where a driver can make the difference there.” Team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi says the team can be proud of reaching the five-hundred race milestone, and he hopes they can celebrate by returning to the points this Sunday, “I am sure everyone is really proud of our history,” says Antonio Giovinazzi. Points have been hard to get this year with Alfa Romeo having scored only eight points across the opening thirteen races, with Giovinazzi having scored four of those thanks to a ninth place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix and tenth place finishes in the Eifel and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Giovinazzi has never raced before at Istanbul Park, although he is eager to get the weekend underway on Friday having watched footage from the circuit of previous races there. “It’s going to be a special weekend for the team, 500 races is an incredible milestone and the fact only three other teams ever made it to this number before shows just how impressive an achievement this is,” said Giovinazzi. “This is a team that feels like a family and I am sure everyone is really proud of our history, so hopefully we will have a good race to celebrate in the best way. “I have never raced in Turkey, it’s going to be a completely new experience for me but I’ve been watching footage of the last events there and it seems like a great track: I can’t wait to be in the car on Friday.”