In the round-up: McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says Fernando Alonso is approaching 2018 with a “different mindset”.
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What they’re saying
Following their frustrations in pre-season testing, Boullier was asked if Alonso is happy at the team. Here’s what he said:
He is happy, yes. Obviously he’s a competitor so he wants the best of the best and he wants more, always.
Even if you ask Lewis Hamilton ‘are you happy? he tell say ‘no, I need this, I want this, I want that.’ They always want more.
Alonso is in a different mindset this year. You may have seen he’s spending a lot of time here even when he is not driving the car. He’s quite interested and supportive of what we are doing.
Links
Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
F1 breakaway championship is a realistic possibility, says Toto Wolff (The Guardian)
"The perspective of doing something else is a realistic one, and it could happen if we don’t achieve to align our vision."
Wehrlein: Not being on F1 grid after beating teammates is 'weird' (Crash)
"Now there are two former team mates of mine (Esteban Ocon and Marcus Ericsson) at the start that I have beaten in the past two years. That's a weird feeling."
Red Bull: Honda can catch Renault this year (Autosport)
"The engine is very light and now the reliability is there. They speak of continuous performance improvements. The engine should be at Renault level by the end of this year."
Hamilton on top, but concern at grassroots level (Reuters)
"If there are such big barriers to participation that we can’t get the talent in the first place, that means we don’t get the best people in. I really do believe that at the grassroots level today, those barriers do exist."
"The Formula One world champion will earn £40m a year over the first two years of the new agreement, while he also has the option of a third year."
Ferrari’s last stand against plans for a fairer future (The Times - registration required)
Martin Brundle: "If Ferrari is stopping Formula One doing what it needs to do for the next decade, then you have to fight fire with fire. We need to get the right template, otherwise it doesn’t matter who is in it, it will fall over."
Max Verstappen steers into Ziggo deal (SportsPro)
Under the terms of the agreement, the Dutch pay-TV channel will feature the 20-year-old more prominently in its programming, including in esports coverage.
NB. Ziggo Sport is part-owned by Liberty Media.
"The tragedy was that once Bernie (Ecclestone’s) fingers were burnt, he was reluctant to re-introduce new technology. So TV technology stayed the same for many years. HD-TV for F1 coverage was only introduced in 2012! And Bernie only accepted because satellite TV stations like Sky threatened to leave F1 if he didn’t!"
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
I wish @MotoGP would take a leaf out of @Formula1 's book at create generic theme tunes and weird unreadable fonts. Do MotoGP not understand what the fans want?
— Alan Dove (@Karting1News) March 20, 2018
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Standing restarts after red flag periods will return this year, but is it a change for the better?
I like this in one way – it provides a convenient route to a standing start at a wet race which would otherwise have only been able to have a safety car start.
But for races which have already had one start when the red flag is flown, it’s a horrible idea because it’s being done for no reason other than to try to create some drama. It’s also (entirely needlessly) recreating the most dangerous and contact-heavy part of a race, at a time when the FIA (apparently) thinks safety is the top priority.
And it’s entirely discretionary, and left up to the race director. So Charlie’s going to open to all manner of accusations if he chooses it one time, but not the next time, and something happens…
That said, it’s a thousand times better than the original idea that led us to this one – remember when they wanted to do standing restarts after every safety car period? Ugh. I think the revulsion people had towards that is increasing their dislike for this – it’s certainly making me feel a little more hostile, because this could potentially be a step towards going back to that idea.
Neil (@Neilosjames)
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st March 2018, 0:04
the new font introduced alongside the new logo really is bad. It’s unreadable… I hope they don’t use it for the TV graphics
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
21st March 2018, 1:23
@fer-no65 The new font will be used for the new TV graphics.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st March 2018, 3:21
@fer-no65 @gt-racer I prefer the previous TV graphics design, so I wish they’d kept it. I also liked the 2010-14 design, but regardless, I can live with the new design as well.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
21st March 2018, 4:40
@fer-no65 Bad is subjective, for me it’s neutral. As for unreadable? No, it’s perfectly readable. The “a” and “M” may stand out more than other letters, but it’s still perfectly readable and distinguishable from other letters.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st March 2018, 9:59
@fer-no65 @sonicslv It isn’t unreadable but i’ve certainly been finding it much more difficult to read the new font compared to the previous one. Not totally sure why but it has been an issue for me.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
21st March 2018, 15:54
@stefmeister Maybe because it’s wide font? And the lowercase set is made to be as square-ish as possible. I think you’ll get used to it soon. For me, I just have the weird feelings when reading long sentence with lowercase, but if it using full uppercase font, I don’t have any problem at all.
thepostalserviceisbroke (@thepostalserviceisbroke)
21st March 2018, 0:34
Et tu, Toto?
Good luck putting together the corporate and commercial infrastructure, as well as the TV rights, circuit scheduling, and recruiting other teams/manufacturers to join you two should Merc and Ferrari break away.
Isaac
21st March 2018, 5:54
Seriously! This cockiness is unbelievable.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
21st March 2018, 8:39
It’s just a negotiating tactic. While Ferrari and Mercedes genuinely do want boring processions in which they get to drive in front of lesser mortals, they’re not stupid enough to actually start a breakaway series that noone will want to join on their terms.
harold wilson (@bonbonjai)
21st March 2018, 9:31
Krommenaas
I think Toto shows his inexperience here. When Ferrari do it, they have previous, as it were, the only question then becomes will they go through with the treat to leave this time. With Toto, it’s obvious, at least to me, he is just trying to add fuel to the fire. They could leave of course, but Mercedes, get so much free pr exposure for their brand, for the amount of money they spend on their F1 team, that I don’t take his threat seriously. Ferrari’s threat on the other hand should not be dismissed.
Robbie (@robbie)
21st March 2018, 12:31
I think you are reading too much into what TW is saying, which includes the word ‘if’.
I believe it to be the case that Liberty will not be removing the DNA of F1 to the point of pushing Ferrari out. As Brawn has already said, Ferrari, and we can include Mercedes, are not very far apart in what they envision for F1 post 2020, which is not far from what Liberty is thinking too.
From everything Brawn has said I find it nearly impossible to imagine that they would change F1 so much that there would actually end up being a breakaway series, let alone Ferrari leaving. Has Brawn or Liberty actually said anything that seems so dire for the future? So risky? Nothing is even written in stone yet…they’re still discussing things, they being Brawn and his team, and the teams.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
21st March 2018, 19:33
It’s easier than it seems. If Bernie can do it, anyone can. And they could do it without losing 50% of the pie to ‘promoters’.
For a mere pittance, Mercerrari could hire a few astute F1RaceFans commenters as consultants to get the series ‘look and feel’ spot on.
We can help make it happen: Formula Corsa Motorrennen!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st March 2018, 1:53
Alonso is happy, last year there was no “chikens” and this year there’s “le chikennes”. The problem is that besides Indy and Le mans, alonso is driving a “chicken”.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st March 2018, 2:23
It may be that Pascal was 10 kg lighter, around .3 or .4 track dependant, lighter than ericsson but I reckon there have been dozens of drivers performing far worse than Pascal, that have led long careers in f1. Anyway Mercedes, SFI, Manor and now Sauber never said anything positive about Pascal, and that is odd, teams tend to back their drivers.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
21st March 2018, 4:14
@peartree I think Pascal has build reputation around himself as difficult to work with. If that’s true then nobody could be blamed but him. The performance he shows is not great enough (like Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel or Raikkonen during their rookie years) to justify teams to put up with his antics.
frood19 (@frood19)
21st March 2018, 10:03
@sonicslv seems a bit unfair to me. you’re holding him to a higher standard than ericsson for what reason? who cares if he’s a bit of a diva (rumour and speculation)? he’s quicker! that should be all that matters.
it’s all down to money and it’s very sad for a talented driver and for a struggling team.
a big part of me thinks that sauber would get better results without ericsson’s sponsorship money and with werhlein in the car, but that’s too much of a risk for them so it’s understandable they have done it. but it’s still terrible for PW.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st March 2018, 13:07
the good old situation of we need money now not more money in the future, a plague really in F1. FI at least managed to surpass that phase in their existence, can Sauber do the same? And while we are at it, Williams could start behaving like the team they once were.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
21st March 2018, 15:31
@frood19 I’m not holding him with higher standard than the usual rookies (less than 3 full season) A non special performance driver but acting like a diva is never interesting to keep. What’s worse, if they hated by people outside their team (like Magnussen maybe?) then at least they can’t directly fire them. Being a diva however is equal to being hated by people who actually work with and employs them – people who actually can fire them. If they’ve shown the performance like Hamilton, Alonso, or Max in the rookie years, then yes, it maybe worth it to put up with their antics, but otherwise the lines of prospecting young F1 driver is still long.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st March 2018, 21:45
@frood19 If Vasseur is saying that Ericsson lost to Pascal due to weight. Where does that put Pascal? …Out of F1. We don’t rate Ericsson therefore Pascal is at the same level but with no sponsorship and only the fans backing him out, Merc doesn’t care so Pascal is on DTM again.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
21st March 2018, 1:57
No! [ishowmysupportforonlyrf] :-)
Jere (@jerejj)
21st March 2018, 3:24
Regarding the Autosport-article: Let’s wait and see whether Honda indeed can reach Renault level by the end of the season or not. I doubt it to some extent at least.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
21st March 2018, 8:29
I won’t actually be all that surprised.
For a start, I imagine Toro Rosso will be more than willing (read instructed) to take a penalty to “test” new spec PU’s during the year, something Renault and Renault customers won’t have the luxury of doing.
On the other side, by their own admission, Renault will focus on reliability and will be unlikely to do much in the way of increasing performance before they get on top of that.
Could very well be a very close call by year’s end.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
21st March 2018, 3:48
RedBull: “Thanks to McLaren in years of pushing zero-size, Honda had made an engine package that technically interesting, very light, reliable and on continuous performance improvements.”
The picture of smiley pins on Honda Racing tweet at test week which said ‘the communication was never better’ were quite telling.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
21st March 2018, 7:01
It’s a shame that seeing as though Williams broke the under 25 Martini rule anyway, that they couldn’t consider Wehrlein and some deal be made with Mercedes. Obviously Russian (and Canadian) money was more appealing.
anon
21st March 2018, 7:57
@rdotquestionmark, where exactly did this rumour come from in the first place? There never seems to have been anything from Martini themselves about requiring a driver over 25, and Williams also stated that Martini never required a driver over 25: people kept repeating the line about requiring a driver over 25, but never seemed to provide any credible source for that claim (it seemed to be something that kept circulating from one forum to another).
Equally, Mercedes stated in public that they were leaving it up to Wehrlein to find himself a seat (this coming after Wehrlein had suggested that he was expecting Mercedes to help him get a seat), so it seems that they had no interest in wanting to cut a deal with Williams. It seems that even di Resta probably had a better chance of a seat than Wehrlein did, suggesting that there was something about Wehrlein that just did not appeal to Williams (and, given that di Resta had no money behind him, it suggests that there was another factor than money if he was still viewed more favourably than Wehrlein).
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
21st March 2018, 8:42
The “Martini doesn’t want drivers under 25” thing should be instructive about the myths that perpetuate in the echo chamber of F1 fandom. Along with “McLaren said it has the best chassis” and “Sauber’s investors demanded Ericsson” and “Kubica beat Sirotkin” etc etc.
GongTong (@gongtong)
21st March 2018, 20:24
@krommenaas
“The problem is that most of the available drivers in Formula 1 were not 25. So it meant six hectic weeks for us,” – Claire Williams.
It’s been a widely held FACT that Martini wanted a driver over 25. However, it has also been clarified that it wasn’t in fact, contractual. Although there’s no proof of that. A spokesperson (I don’t remember who) stated that as long as there was a representative over 25 at each race where the drinking age was high, then that would be fine.
Paddy Lowe also claimed that Martini would “understand” if they chose younger drivers. Although, of course this too cannot be proven. Martini did announce their departure from the sport… however, this has been made clear it was nothing to do with the driver lineup. They are of course linked to a return with a rival, so perhaps that is untrue. But the talk of a preference for an older driver was not baseless.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
21st March 2018, 20:29
You’re right I should have said “allow” instead of “want” (because of the gentleman’s agreement among alcohol companies). My bad.
rob91
21st March 2018, 7:35
It is not Toto Wolff’s decision whether Mercedes are in F1 or somewhere else so he should keep his mouth shut about such things.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
21st March 2018, 9:58
you can say that about any spokesperson though, and yet they exist.
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st March 2018, 9:34
Happy birthday to Ayrton Senna!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st March 2018, 21:54
@hugh11 He died long time ago.
Lewisham Milton
21st March 2018, 9:57
This year, Alonso’s mind will be on Le Mans instead of Indy.
Robbie (@robbie)
21st March 2018, 13:52
Hopefully his mind will be more at ease in general with a more competitive F1 car. Hard to imagine it won’t be more competitive than his last three seasons obviously.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
21st March 2018, 11:25
Verstappen’s Ziggo deal is ridiculous; they already had him for at least 6 hours over the year and there was no tension whatsoever, it’s fan service. It’s disgusting, this side of F1 is just horrible. Apart from the nonsense of the Ziggo pundits.
In that light @dieterrencken is doing a lovely job, although, of course I don’t agree with everything he writes.
Small corrections from monday;
@peartree; The car is completely build for Vettel at Ferrari, Ferrari will never go equal status so Danny would end up like Kimi (who suffers from the Formula horribly)
@robbie
That source is the same guy that told me Sirotkin would be the next new face in F1 as he got significant new backers, the only reason he didn’t went to Renault but Williams as I was told, turns out to be the whole Renault/RBR/STR/Honda/Mclaren-deal which gave Sainz his seat. But 90% of the site was on Kubica and some thought Massa would stay and so many other people without backing (to give you an idea how laughable the side you take is), so you’re absolutely being bluntly obnoxious as for me it seems…to hint out a non GP2-champion, an Russian and against far more popular drivers: Sirotkin when Palmer was still riding when I’m not just sitting at a couch in Canada talking to strangers online would be a very daring guess and shows you enough about my sources.
Not smart from you to say the least. But you probably won’t acknowledge this anyway as I know your true purpose here.
Don’t worry I’ll tag you again later calling some of your quotes out.
nase
21st March 2018, 16:04
…
…
I feel I deserve a medal for biting my tongue this time.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
22nd March 2018, 14:41
Are you well?
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st March 2018, 11:28
https://twitter.com/adamcooperF1/status/976351333115572224
I think this new font looks sort of dated because it’s a fairly similar style to what futuristic games from the 90’s tended to use (Wipeout for instance).
My biggest problem with it however is that I really struggle to read it, No idea why but it’s a real issue for me & the more of it that i’ve seen over the past few weeks the more apparent it’s become.
Balue (@balue)
21st March 2018, 12:59
The Rencken interview is very enlightening