Racetrackmasters

Gunther Steiner has revealed that he was recently in contact with Nico Hulkenberg. Steiner, the team boss, is yet to fill Haas’ two newly-vacated seats for 2021, although he admits that young drivers are at the top of the shortlist. “Yes, we focus on young drivers for next year,” he told Sport1. “We want to go with the same drivers in 2022 as well, so it’s important that we lay the foundation with our new drivers next year.” In the paddock, it is an open secret that Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin are the hot favourites to be signed by the small American team. “Formula 2 is very strong this year and logically our collaboration with Ferrari could lead to a collaboration with one of these juniors,” said Steiner. “Mick Schumacher will probably finish first or second in the championship and Robert Shwartzman is currently fourth or fifth, so these gentlemen are doing very well and both are certainly an option for next year.” 33-year-old Hulkenberg, though, is another option, with Steiner revealing: “I certainly spoke with Nico.” But he also says there is no need for further talks. “We know exactly what Nico can do, but I no longer need to talk to Nico about what he wants. We know that exactly,” Steiner added.

Racing Point’s actions in cloning last year’s Mercedes W10 caused controversy earlier this year, with rivals unhappy that the Silverstone-based outfit had gained such an advantage by copying a rival car. Formula 1 teams will be banned from using 3D cameras and complex software systems to copy rival designs, as rules preventing a repeat of the ‘Pink Mercedes’ controversy are revealed. Following a protest from Renault, Racing Point was found guilty of having illegally used Mercedes’ design IP with its rear brake ducts. The team was fined 400,000 euro and docked 15 constructors’ championship points for its actions. Amid concerns that Racing Point’s tactics could open the door for other teams to be forced to go down a copycat route to be successful, the FIA moved earlier this year to come up with regulations that would prevent that happening. The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said at the time: “This will prevent teams from using extensive part of photos to copy whole portions of other cars in the way that Racing Point has done. “We will still accept individual components to be copied in local areas, but we don’t want the whole car to be fundamentally a copy of another car.” The new technical regulations have been revealed and explain in detail that teams will no longer be allowed to share IP with another outfit, or ‘reverse engineer’ rival designs for those listed parts that it must create itself. The rules make clear that teams can be ‘influenced by the design or concept of a Competitor’s’ design. However, they can only do so ‘using information that must potentially be available to all Competitors.’ Such knowledge can only be gained at race and test events, so no work on this front can be done away from the track. To prevent teams from reverse engineering rival designs, the FIA has imposed strict bans on a number of actions that have been open to teams previously. The FIA states that teams will not be allowed: a. The use of photographs or images, combined with software that converts them to point clouds, curves, surfaces, or allows CAD geometry to be overlaid onto or extracted from the photograph or image b. The use of stereophotogrammetry, 3D cameras or any 3D stereoscopic techniques c. Any form of contact or non-contact surface scanning d. Any technique that projects points or curves on a surface so as to facilitate the reverse-engineering process If there are occasions where there are big similarities between listed components on different cars, the FIA has to right to investigate the matter and will ask teams to prove that the design was done independently. The regulations state: “It will be the role of the FIA to determine whether this resemblance is the result of reverse engineering or of legitimate independent work.” Teams will be asked to provide data and information to prove that they have complied with the rules and designed components themselves from scratch. While Racing Point’s 2020 design was in breach of the regulations, and will be used again next year, the FIA says that there will be a cut-off point for judging if components were reverse engineered – so the outfit will not need to change things for next season. It says that any listed parts components used in 2019, or the first event of the 2020 championship, will be classified as having been designed by teams and not reverse engineered. However, any new parts used after that period will need to comply with the new restrictions.

Daniil Kvyat finished in the fourth place at the Emilia Romagna GP which was quite a performance given that he has been always behind his teammate pierre Gasly in terms of performance. Kvyat’s recent performance although may have come a little bit too late to save his AlphaTauri seat for the 2021 Formula 1 season. This is because AlphaTauri has already confirmed Pierre Gasly and Formula 2 race winner Yuki Tsunoda for the 2021 driver line up and Kvyat seems to be on his way out of Formula 1. The Imola race was a rare opportunity for Kvyat to grab the headlines with his charge from seventh to fourth in the final six laps after the restart, overtaking Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc to take his best result since finishing third at Hockenheim last year. It was a reminder that, while Kvyat has not lived up to the potential he showed earlier in his F1 career, he can be a very effective race driver But by all relevant performance metrics, Kvyat has been outperformed by Gasly this year. Gasly has out-qualified him 11 times in 13 races – with the average gap over the year just under two tenths – and has scored 63 points to Kvyat’s 26. Even factoring in the good fortune Gasly had to be in a position to win at Monza, Kvyat has been convincingly outclassed. While his race performances are generally better than those in qualifying, Gasly has also excelled on Sundays in comparison. This has been the case ever since Gasly returned to what was then called Toro Rosso after the August break in 2019. Even at Imola, Kvyat was two tenths slower than Gasly in qualifying and would likely have finished as the second-best Toro Rosso had the Frenchman not suffered a coolant leak that forced him to retire early on. Kvyat has usually shrugged off questions about his future, insisting that he’s not concerned regardless of whether or not AlphaTauri keeps him. But he did argue after the race that he is delivering at a high enough level and a performance like this will help his cause in the unlikely event Tsunoda is not able to take up the drive. “I am doing enough, but it’s not up to me,” he told Sky Sports F1. “There are other things out of my control and I am just focusing on enjoying these last five races of the year and then we’ll see. “We had a strong race. I am very happy for my side, from the team side they made a very good [strategy] call and I’m very happy with them. I’ve been in this team since 2014 and they came a long way. I am proud of that and also had a lot of fun on that safety car restart “It’s a shame to miss out by very little on the podium spot but I pushed until the end. Daniel [Ricciardo, who finished third, having not stopped for fresh rubber under the safety car] just managed to warm up his tyres when I got behind him.” While part of the reason for Kvyat’s results was the improved performance relative to the rest of the midfield of the AlphaTauri, which allowed him to reach Q3 for the first time in a year, the car’s strengths were in the right place to suit Kvyat. Generally, he’s struggled more in qualifying compared to Gasly when the rear end of the car has been more lively, but one of its strengths at Imola was stability. Despite his struggles to match Verstappen at Red Bull, Gasly has not lacked for confidence when driving for Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri even at times when the car hasn’t been so well-balanced. This has ensured he has very rarely been outperformed by Kvyat. “You need a reasonable level of efficiency round here, our downforce package is pretty much suited to it and you need a good level of stability in the car,” said technical director Jody Egginton after qualifying. “We’ve been working hard to get rear-axle stability into the car and that’s allowed the drivers to push here, which gives them confidence. And the car’s got a reasonable operating window. “Our main area of focus nearly every event has been getting the rear axle to work properly and getting the rear tyres to work properly over the longer runs – and we’ve managed to have the rear axle under control, the tyres are in the window. The car’s well-balanced over short and long runs. So if we hadn’t got that right here, and we were struggling with the rear axle, be it tyre or stability, then we wouldn’t be where we are.” Team principal Franz Tost suggested during the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend that the final decision on AlphaTauri’s second driver will not take place until after Tsunoda runs in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix young driver test. This also follows the final event of the Formula 2 season, which is almost certain to confirm he will have sufficient points to qualify for a superlicence. This means Kvyat’s slender hopes of retaining the seat are technically still alive as is the possibility Alex Albon could be recalled if required – with Tost suggesting “it’s better to have a queue than nothing” when it comes to driver options for 2021 even though an F1 career that should encompass 110 starts by the end of the season is set to stall again. “We were not lucky, we took the right decision because all the other teams could have done the same,”said Tost of the decision to stop under the safety car that allowed Kvyat to launch his late charge. “Some of them did it, some not. We did and we got something out of it. “Three places at the end because he was seventh and afterwards he was fourth, just behind Ricciardo and with more laps to go I think he could have had a good chance also to overtake him. “It…

There are a lot of speculations that Max Verstappen will be receiving a new teammate at Redbull for 2021 F1 season. This has come as a result of underperforming Albon who has yet to get to the required standards of the Formula 1 team. However, the biggest question is who is up to the task to join the United Kingdom based Austrian outfit. Robert Doornbos tries to highlight the driver possibilities given that Verstappen has a very huge influence on the driver decision. Alexander Albon on the other hand, after his mistake in the Emilia Romagna GP now looks on the very edge and there is certainity that he might be leaving Redbull. The 24-year old has had an year and a half to prove his worth for the team but has not been performing well enough to cement his seat for the 2021 F1 season. Doornbos goes ahead to discuss the possibilities as he takes into consideration the influence Verstappen has on Redbull. “Max has indeed been asked about his preference and he has indicated that he would be happy with the arrival of Nico Hulkenberg. He has good contact with them and of course, Nico has given his business card with his raids for Racing Point,” says the former Formula 1 driver. However, he still sees an option. “There is another hijacker on the coast and that is Sergio Perez. In Imola, he has once again shown that he has amazing racing skills and is constantly able to finish in the points. He is therefore an important candidate for the seat. Max certainly has influence, but he is not the deciding factor.” Doornbos was also asked why Kevin Magnussen is never mentioned, but the Dutchman is very clear about that. “He scored a nice podium on his debut for McLaren and shows beautiful things with Haas despite the limited material, but I don’t see him as a candidate. Red Bull looks outside the talent pool, but not at Magnussen. He would be ideal for Indy Car,” concludes the former Indy Car driver.

Formula 1 and the FIA have confirmed that eight cases of Covid-19 were detected in the latest round of testing on championship personnel. Between last Friday (October 9) and Thursday 1,506 tests were carried out on drivers, teams and personnel, with the time frame including three days of the Eifel Grand Prix weekend. Under the Covid-19 code of conduct outlined by governing body FIA all Formula 1 personnel labelled as Profile 1 Attendees must carry out a test for the virus every five days. Those who return a positive test are immediately isolated while those in their sub-bubble are also quarantined subject to a negative test or further instructions. Formula 1 teams are operating in bubbles, and sub-bubbles, in order to reduce the risk of the virus. Masks are mandatory within the paddock while social distancing is enforced where possible. Cases of Covid-19 have spiked in recent weeks in Western Europe, where the majority of Formula 1 personnel are based, with tighter measures set to be introduced in several regions of the United Kingdom on Saturday. Formula 1 has an elite sports exemption that clears personnel from some restrictions.

Formula 1’s 2021 season is still set to start in Australia despite the COVID-19 pandemic, while a new street race in Saudi Arabia is also likely to join the calendar. The 2020 season schedule had to be completely revised due to COVID, with the championship only officially starting in Austria in early July with back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring. An initial attempt to start 2020 in Melbourne as planned was cancelled on the Friday of the race weekend after a McLaren team member tested positive for the virus, and led to the sport going into shutdown as the world dealt with the global outbreak. Now a 17-race schedule has been finalized that will end in Abu Dhabi on December 13, attention has turned to the 2021 plans that still prove extremely challenging due to the uncertainty of the COVID situation moving forward. Australia enacted extremely harsh travel restrictions to control the virus, and currently only returning Australian citizens, residents and those with special permissions are allowed into the country. The majority have to quarantine for two weeks, and there is a limit of 4,000 people per week who can enter, but the restrictions have not stopped plans to start the 2021 season in its traditional location of Melbourne. Albert Park is due to kick-off a 22-race calendar — the same amount of races that were originally on this year’s schedule — with RACER understanding at least one new addition is likely to be added in the form of a street race in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, late in the year. There has been an increase in Saudi investment in the sport in recent years, including the arrival of energy company Aramco as a global partner and race sponsor this season. Plans for the 2021 calendar remain provisional due to the COVID-19 situation, with increasing numbers of cases in Europe seeing further restrictions introduced in many countries — including the UK where F1 is based — in recent weeks.