F1

2022 - 3 - 10

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

New Mercedes F1 car has no illegal parts, insists team principal ... (The Guardian)

Mercedes principal Toto Wolff denied his team's new F1 car had sidepods that flouted regulations.

Brawn said the Mercedes approach, which he described as “extreme”, had not been expected and noted that even if the car is within the regulations such innovations could now be banned mid-season should eight of the 10 teams (known as a “supermajority”) agree. “That doesn’t correspond to the spirit of the regulations. “We were keen in not running alone, but being in touch with the FIA, that is why I think it will be OK. It is clear that when you come with an innovation it creates the kind of debate that we are having here.

Mercedes 'spaceship' mirrors prompt Ferrari calls for F1 rules ... (autosport.com)

Ferrari has called for a clampdown on Formula 1's mirror design regulations, amid fears that Mercedes' new concept could trigger wild 'spaceship' designs.

They serve as an interesting aerodynamic function that many of the teams have picked up on since and have reworked into their 2022 designs. F1 teams pushed their luck again in 2018 when they decided to mount their wing mirrors on the side of the halo. On the legality overall, I don't think that we can have any 'doubt’. “I think that the way that they have designed their car, certainly there is a significant aero purpose in the mirrors itself. “Good concept, quite different to the one we got. “I find them quite surprising, and it is something that we are not expecting.

Bahrain F1 2022 testing: Latest technical images (Motorsport.com, Edition: Global)

Join us as we delve into the new and interesting details on show during the first day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain, courtesy of Giorgio Piola and Sutton ...

Also note the triangular shaped edge wing that’s detached from the floor. This side-on view of the Mercedes W13 shows how large the SIS fairing is, as it forms a manta ray-like wing profile. It’s clear to see how mounting some of their coolers in the saddle position above the power unit has helped narrow the sidepod bodywork. Photo by: Giorgio Piola Photo by: Giorgio Piola Note the flow conditioning vanes housed in the panel behind the radiators. Photo by: Giorgio Piola Also note the pitot tubes that have been placed around the leading edge of the rear wing to help collect flow field information that can be studied later. Photo by: Giorgio Piola Photo by: Giorgio Piola It’s also a great way of seeing just how wide the upper side impact spar (SIS) fairing is when compared with the main sidepod bodywork. Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Magnussen accepted F1 was a 'closed chapter' after 2020 (Motorsport Week)

Kevin Magnussen says that he made peace with the thought of never returning to Formula 1 after he departed Haas at the end of the 2020 season.

I felt really excited when he called me and asked if I wanted to come back. “I had some thoughts about what if we’re going to run it back again, if it’s going to be fun or not, but with this regulation change there’s some opportunity that things will be a little better. “So I thought that it was still not going to be a possibility, then Gunther called me, and it was a big surprise.

F1 Testing, Day One in Bahrain: Pierre Gasly fastest but Ferrari and ... (Sky Sports)

Pierre Gasly set the fastest time on the opening day of 2022's final pre-season test in Bahrain, but it was Ferrari who caught the eye with their pace and ...

C3 (medium) Haas, meanwhile, missed the morning session due to travel disruption, but Pietro Fittipaldi got out on track in the afternoon. C3 (medium) 13) Esteban Ocon C2 (hard) 6) Lando Norris C4 (soft) 5) Alex Albon 2) Carlos Sainz C5 (softest) 1) Pierre Gasly Perez completed more laps than anyone on Thursday - 138 - though finished the day in the gravel after a clumsy spin, which led to a red flag and an early finish to proceedings.

F1 terminates Russian TV contracts, ends F1 TV availability (Motorsport.com, Edition: Global)

Formula 1 has terminated its television contract with Russian broadcaster Match TV as sports series across the world continue to cut ties following the ...

The promoter of the Russian Grand Prix, Rosgonki, initially claimed there was a chance this year’s race could still go ahead. Match TV signed its latest deal in 2020, which ran to the end of the 2023 season. In the immediate aftermath of the escalation of military action by Russia and the start of the invasion at the end of February, F1 called off the Sochi race before ultimately terminating its contract.

F1 testing - Controversy and confusion in Bahrain as Mercedes ... (Eurosport.com)

The first racing controversy of the new Formula 1 season is here after the Mercedes team managed to shrink their sidepods to a remarkable degree.

"The risk in the future is all teams will start designing mirrors that look like space ships. Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto later offered: "Looking at the Mercedes car, no doubt it is a great car. It's obviously a fairly different concept, but that's for the aero guys and the designers to get into.

Russian driver's ties to Putin shine light on Formula 1's seedy ... (Fortune)

The EU sanctioned the driver as punishment for his father serving as a member of the Russian president's closest circle.

Hidden risk in 'extreme' Mercedes move; no easy fix for McLaren ... (Fox Sports)

Hidden risk in 'extreme' Mercedes move; no easy fix for McLaren problem: F1 Testing Talking Points.

The Australian put his struggles last season partly down to a lack of testing time — there were only three days in the 2021 program — so getting more experience with the new car will be crucial to him rebounding this year. The Scuderia has brought very few updates to the car for this test and has instead chosen to better understand its design to better target its upgrade schedule through the year. It’s particularly important for Alpine to get laps under its belt as the only team running the Renault engine, which has been revolutionised for this season. The team will have a chance to cause controversy of its own tonight, when its next round of updates is due. “The exact problems I’m not too sure, but it’s just temperatures and stuff, it just didn’t allow us to do long runs,” he said after completing 50 laps, the fewest of any team to run the entire day. Team boos Franz Tost set his habitual target of fifth in the standings for this year — the team finished just shy in sixth last season thanks largely to Yuki Tsunoda’s rocky start to his career — and looks well on track to meet it based on testing. The gap between compounds is yet to be defined, but there’s ordinarily at least half a second from one to another, which would sink Gasly’s time lower into the order. That doesn‘t correspond to the spirit of the regulations. The Mercedes design chooses a higher centre of gravity and more adventurous packaging and cooling — the car now features several cooling louvres to compensate — in exchange of aero gains. It’s to be expected fresh out of the box, but the team will need to make big gains by Saturday night to feel comfortable heading into the first round. While the paddock dealt with the first technical row of 2022, Sergio Perez was at least doing Red Bull Racing’s talking on the track. In 2019 the team used a similar strategy.

Steiner: Magnussen the only driver Haas spoke to for vacant F1 seat (autosport.com)

Haas Formula 1 team boss Gunther Steiner insists that Kevin Magnussen was the only driver he spoke to as a potential replacement for Nikita Mazepin.

And that's what we did." Maybe in the back of your head you think, let's go the safe route, and that's what we did. It's like I know what he wants, I know what we want, and it's the same thing. And that was Kevin, because we know him, he worked with us. “But then you just keep on working on it and solve the difficulties, and find solutions. We are here to get better again, and we need him to help us to do that, like he did last time."

F1

Explore the last week