Racetrackmasters

Daniel Ricciardo says that his boss, Cyril Abiteboul will get aGerman themed tattoo after getting a podium finish at the Eifel Grand Prix which was held at the Nurburgring. The Australian had a wager with Abiteboul, the Renault team boss earlier this year that if Ricciardo got a podium finish they would have matching tattoos. After his third place finish on the Nurburgring race on Sunday, he said he would do something linked to where they got their first podium finish together. “It’s real. It’s going to happen, we’ll have to do some thinking now, but probably it will be something to do with me, but I think with a German flavour,” said Ricciardo. “This is obviously the place we did it. A little tip of the hat to something traditional in Germany as well.” Daniel Ricciardo’s podium finish is also the first podium for Renault since they returned back to Formula 1 in 2016 as a works team. The finish is also the first after a long wait since his win in 2018 at the Monaco Grand Prix. He shared his win afterwards with his team in Parc Freme as he described the top three finish felt like a brand new experience. “Yes, it’s been a while,” he said. “And actually, to be honest, it feels like the first podium all over again. I think it’s been two and a half years or something, and yeah the feeling, it’s really nice, it’s fresh.” “I’m so, so happy and obviously to see everyone as well: we’ve all waited a long time for this. So, yeah, I think everyone’s going to soak it up.” Daniel Ricciardo’s podium finish has closed up the highly contested fight for the third place between Mclaren and Racing point. Following a tough afternoon for McLaren, Racing Point is now third on 120 points, with McLaren on 116 and Renault just two points further adrift.

Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher’s all time Formula 1 win record by taking victory in the Eifel Grand Prix as Verstappen closely followed in the second place. Valterri Bottas retired from the race after suffering a mechanical problem. Daniel Ricciardo finished third, recording his first podium with the Renault Formula 1 team since he joined them back in 2019. Racing point’s Sergio Perez closely followed Ricciardo and eventually got the fifth position as the pair had a very close battle over the final laps but the fun was later spoilt by the deployment of a safety car. At the beginning Lewis Hamilton pulled close to his teammate, Bottas as they approached the first corner as the two Mercedes Silver Arrows went deep into the right hander, going very wide to the runoff at the exit as Bottas hung around the outside. This gave him the chance to be in the inside line at Turn 2 left and was able to hold back onto the lead. He was clear of Hamilton in the opening stages of the race as he immediately got out of the DRS range and this made him extend his lead over the next few laps. Bottas lead however did not extend more than two seconds as he, Hamilton and Redbull’s Verstappen moved clear of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari which was holding off Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen’s teammate Alex Albon. The three leading drivers were the only ones able to achieve 1m32s on the opening stages of the race as they were riding on soft tyres as Leclerc was about 20s off the lead by the time Ricciardo passed him on the outside at Turn 2 on lap 9. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, begun narrowing down the gap on Bottas and had already gained 0.3s by lap 12, but Bottas locked heavily at the beginning of the next lap making him go deep at Turn 1. This made Hamilton to take the advantage and overtake Bottas from the outside of the turn and take the lead. Verstappen was also over the rear of Valtteri’s W11 but he pitted at the end of lap 13, to replace his ruined soft tyres with mediums. Things did not go well for Bottas moments later as the virtual safety car was called in for George Russel to pull off his damaged car, in an incident which was caused when Kimi Raikkonen tipped on to the Williams FW43 on its right hand wheels when he lost his rear end after a close battle with Sebastian Vettel. The deployment of the safety car meant that Hamilton’s lead would be cut down by Verstappen who had even had a pit stop and would even gain on Hamilton more than Bottas despite Hamilton’s efforts to record lap times on 1m 31s. Things were going from bad to worse for Valtteri Bottas as he fell behind Lando Norris and Sergio perez who were yet to pit as they were running behind Ricciardo who pitted after the deployment of the virtual safety car reporting a power loss on his car. Bottas later retired on the next lap despite Mercedes issuing a set of reset instructions as his car suffered a suspected MGU-H problem. Verstappen was gaining on Hamilton by two seconds, thanks to the faster pit stops as the two drivers recorded laps on the early 1m 30s but the world champion was able to get a clear lead over Max. He gradually extended his lead taking it to 10s at the end of lap 42 and the attention turned to the fight for 3rd. Ricciardo pit stop during the deployment of the safety car meant that he would not have to stop up to the end of the race. Perez was putting up a tight battle to overtake him as Lando Norris experienced a power problem that Mclaren could not rectify as they advised over the team radio on settings change instructions. Sergio Perez was running on the softs for the first 30 laps caught on Leclerc who had pitted after being passed by Daniel Ricciardo and it was his turn to lose time behind the slow Ferrari. By the time he got to the chicane on lap 35, he was 17.5 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo and quickly started to narrow down the gap. Perez was able to chop off 4 seconds on the Renault over the next five laps but the race was interuppted again in the final quarter of the race when Norris pulled out of the track at Turn 6 after his car started smoking out, a safety car was deployed. The top 3 cars, Mercedes, Redbull and Renault were called into the pits as Perez initially stayed on the track but later too pitted to change into soft tyres as the others had done. The safety car stayed up to the 50th lap as Hamilton and Verstappen complained on its speed as their tyres were getting cold in the track that was located in the Eifel mountains. As the race resumed Hamilton had dropped Verstappen at the last chicane as Ricciardo was trying to attack Verstappen at Turn 1 but Verstappen proved unbeatable. The race leaders made laps strong of 1m 28s as Hamilton made stronger laps and was again able to build up his lead. The top positions remained stable as Hamilton finished first making it his record-equalling victory as Verstappen came in second after setting the fastest last lap. Daniel Ricciardo finished third making this his first podium since winning the 2018 Monaco GP. Sergio prez came in fourth 1.4 seconds later. Carlos Sainz finished fifth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who passed Leclerc after the safety car as he had to run behind them by not stopping after the safety car was deployed. Nico Hulkenberg rose from last to finish eighth in place of the unwell Lance Stroll – his cause aided by the safety car, which also helped Romain Grosjean take his first points of 2020…

Mclaren’s driver, Lando Norris will start the Eifel Grand Prix with a new engine in the back of his Mclaren MCL35. After the Saturday qualifying round the team decided that he will be starting the race on a brand new power unit. Norris will start the race at the Nürburgring with a brand new Renault engine. This engine is still within the limits of the season and therefore Norris will not receive a grid penalty. He had a great qualifying session and beat his team mate Carlos Sainz for the fifth time this season. On Sunday he will fight for a good number of points to maintain his fourth position in the championship. In the build up to the race the team revealed they had found a problem with the unit he used for qualifying on Saturday. The team said: “We detected an issue with Lando’s power unit yesterday after qualifying, which Renault is investigating. As a consequence, we had to change his PU this morning (new elements: ICE, MGUH, MGUK and TC).” Norris will not receive a penalty for taking the new engine as this is the third use of each component and therefore within the allocation.The Briton was happy with making Q3 on Saturday and grabbing P8 on the grid with an older McLaren package than his team mate Carlos Sainz, who will start the race behind him in 10th.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Botta beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the qualifying round of the Eifel Grand Prix which was held at the Nurburgring. Nico Hulkenberg finished 20th after replacing Lance Stroll who is unwell. Mercedes has been maintaining its win in the qualifying round so far in the 2020 Formula 1 season, but it was facing very stiff competition from Redbull’s Max Verstappen who was top on Q1 but later came in just a fraction of a second later than Lewis Hamilton in Q2. Verstappen had even led the way through the first turns of Q3 but Bottas and Hamilton proved to be unbeatable on their second runs. Bottas led the middle sector of the final round recording 1m 25.269s which put him 0.265s ahead of Lewis Hamilton who later proved to be the fastest in the final sector of the last lap. Verstappen on the other hand was the quickest in the first sector of the lap but later in the other sectors of the lap was slower than the Mercedes duo coming in 0.293s adrift of Bottas. Charles Leclerc took the fourth fastest lap time for Ferrari after taking on Alexander Albon in his RB16 who later finished fifth after recording an improvement in the last moments. All the leading cars will be starting tomorrow’s race on soft tyres despite the Mercedes and Ferrari and also Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who was testing the medium tyres on Q2. Ricciardo was the sixth fastest in Q3 as his teammate Esteban Ocon came in after him on seventh. Mclaren’s Lando Norris qualified in eighth position ahead of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top ten. As Leclerc was trying to improve and set his fifth best lap time in Q1, he knocked out his teammate Sebastian Vettel who later set his personal best on the mid section of the final lap but ended up taking the 11th position. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat also did their personal best runs in Q2, but luck was not on their side as they ended up placing p12 and p13, while Antonio Giovinazzi made a faster last lap giving him P14 for Alfa Romeo. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen came in a few seconds later from Giovinazzi taking P15. Nico Hulkenberg was out early on the track early in the Racing Point’s RP20, although he was due to travel to the Nurburgring on Saturday to work for the German broadcaster, RTL but he received a late call to replace Lance Stroll who was not feeling well ahead of the qualifying round. He made several runs on the soft tyres as the session was underway and found himself being among the slowest of the lap times but was eventually able to move up to P19 ahead of the final runs in Q1. The German had deep moments in the final run at the first corner and brief lock ups on the right front and left front respectively at Turn 6 – the right-hander that runs down towards the hairpin – and on the approach to the final chicane. He however lost time in the last sectors and finished 0.204s slower than Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen. Romain Grosjean missed the cut after having his best lap of the session (1m27.118s ) deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4 in the shadow of the Mercedes grandstand that overlooks the corner and Turn 1. The Haas driver was able to set another time in the closing moments but was shuffled down and out ahead of the Williams pair George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, as they finished P17 and P18.

Mercedes will not supply engines to Red Bull and AlphaTauri once Honda pull out of Formula 1 at the end of next year, motorsport head Toto Wolff said on Friday. Red Bull may have an unexpected option of Ferrari to consider as an engine supplier from 2022, based on comments made on Friday. A week has passed since their current partner Honda confirmed their exit from Formula 1 at the end of next year, leaving Red Bull and sister team AlphaTauri looking for alternatives. The possibility of taking over Honda’s engine project and developing their own units is one outcome being discussed, as is the last resort of returning to Renault power, but when it came to the other two manufacturers on the grid, certainly in the case of main rivals Mercedes, their position was clear. “[We can’t] for various reasons, but the main thing is we are supplying four teams, including us,” team boss Toto Wolff said at the Nurburgring. “We are almost in a state that we can’t make power units for all of us so there is no capacity. “But I have no doubt [Red Bull advisor] Helmut [Marko] will have a Plan B, as he said, and probably doesn’t need to rely on any of the power unit suppliers.” The Austrian’s last comment certainly hints that he feels Red Bull may simply take Honda’s engine project in-house. But if not, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto certainly didn’t rule out recreating a partnership which, with Toro Rosso, lasted until 2013. “We are not considering it, [but it is] something we need to start considering now,” he said. “I think we have not decided as first I think it will be down to Red Bull to eventually look at us and ask for supply, they’re a great team, no doubt. “I think supplying them is a lot of energy somehow which is required, but something on which we need to consider and have no position yet, on which we need certainly to take our time to think that and have a decision. “It was sudden news from Honda and I think now we need to consider something that was not being considered a few days ago.”

The Formula 1 governing body, FIA on Friday approved a ban on the sort of ‘reverse engineering’ that allowed the Racing Point RP 20 to compete in the 2020 Formula 1 season with a car resembling last year’s Mercedes W1O which won the World championship. The FIA stated that its World Motor Sport Council(WMSC) approved the changes to the 2021 technical regulations that will prevent the teams from the extensive use of reverse engineering of rivalling teams’ car parts for the design of the car’s aerodynamic surfaces. This happened with the Canadian team, Racing Point whose car sparked a lot of controversy after unveiling the RP20. This led to a protest by rival teams, like Renault and Ferrari, with Racing Point fined 400,000 euros by race stewards and later docked 15 points for copying the 2019 Mercedes W10’s brake ducts. The team was however allowed to continue competing without having to get rid of offending parts. There was an appeal by the teams who wanted a tougher form of punishment to be imposed on the Canadian outfit as they were against the appeal. The rival teams later dropped the appeal after FIA issued a clarification on the matter. “The collaboration between FIA, Formula One and the teams has produced a series of acts… which clarify the responsibilities of each championship participant in the design of the components of a single-seater,” Ferrari said at the time. The WMSC also gave final approval to the sport’s new Concorde Agreement governing the sport for the next five years. All 10 teams had agreed it already with commercial rights holders Liberty Media.

The Mercedes Formula One team on Friday confirmed that they have isolated six more staff, including a second person who returned a confirmed positive Covid-19 test. The team had announced on Thursday that one person from their travelling race team had record a positive test ahead of this weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix. As a result, the team re-tested everyone at the Nurburgring circuit, an exercise that resulted in another positive test and one that was inconclusive. Both of those team members were immediately put into isolation along with four others. The results came through on Friday morning, with one further team member having been confirmed as having contracted the virus, and one test coming back inconclusive. A retest for that case is now underway. As part of the FIA protocols put in place to minimise the chance of a virus outbreak spreading, Mercedes has identified the team members who were in close proximity of the affected individuals. That means four further team members, who have all tested negative, have been removed from the bubble at the Nurburgring and will take no further part in the weekend. Mercedes has flown out six replacement staff members to fill roles at the team and try to minimise the impact of losing its regulars. The team flew six reserve staff to Germany on Thursday, a decision that maintained the numbers at the track, but has thrown the champions’ race preparations into difficulty. Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who is making a second attempt to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 Grand Prix victories, described the events as “a concern”. Speaking on Thursday, he said: “It’s sad to hear, for the guys that work so hard. We obviously had this week in between [races] and those guys work so hard to stay safe and be here on the weekends.” Mercedes said they are following strictly all of the protocols laid down by the sport’s ruling body the International Motoring Federation (FIA), adding that they are not releasing any further information

The second Formula 1 practice session for the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions at the Nurburgring.After the event’s opening practice session was called off on Friday morning, with the track’s medical helicopter unable to fly safely to its destination hospital if there was an emergency, conditions did not improve during the two-and-a-half hour gap between FP1 and FP2. As rain fell steadily and temperatures remained rooted to 10 degrees air and 13 degrees track, the FIA communicated a repeat message that the medical helicopter was still restricted 15 minutes before FP2 was set to start at 1500 local time. The helicopter restrictions means no track action can take place in such circumstances, as the nearest hospital is over 20 minutes away – the FIA’s maximum allowance by road. FP2’s 90-minute time remaining countdown started as scheduled at 15:00, with the FIA immediately announcing the next update would be given at 15:30. When that point was reached, race control stated another update would be provided at 16:00 and at that stage the session was cancelled. Speaking during FP1, FIA race director Michael Masi said: “With the fog that’s come in, the medical helicopter is not able to take off and fly to the hospital. The distance by road is too far, should something occur. “With the region that we’re in, it’s probably not dissimilar to Austria earlier in the year when we had a similar situation. It’s just the nature of the area and the location. “The fog’s come in, and it’s all been going up slightly but coming down more dramatically, so we’ll just judge at the time [if it is safe to start]. “From an FIA perspective, the safety of all the participants and the drivers hopefully going out is paramount, and that’s not something we will compromise.” After FP2 was cancelled, the teams will be left with just a single scheduled practice session the one hour of running in FP3 before qualifying. Next month’s Emilia-Romagna GP at Imola will have a single 90-minute practice session before qualifying at the Italian track as part of an experiment with a condescend schedule to be run over two days of track action. The FIA has been contacted to clarify if the Eifel GP schedule can be altered given the lack of support events on the schedule compared to normal F1 races. The Eifel GP features support category action from “Touring Car Legends”, which was set to have one practice session, qualifying and two races whereas F1 is generally supported at European events by F2, F3, and the Porsche Supercup series.