FORMULA 1

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Hamilton boosted by “one of the most positive days” for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton called the penultimate day of testing in Barcelona a “positive day” for Mercedes after the team made progress on tyre management and understanding the W10.
While again there was no attempt to explore the limits on Pirelli’s softest compounds – that is on the schedule for Friday – the new car ran many miles, with Hamilton completing 85 laps in the morning, and Valtteri Bottas 96 in the afternoon. The Brackley team was also able to address the graining issues which proved problematic earlier in the week.

“Today has been a good day,” said Hamilton. “Lots of mileage, which is great for us. It has probably been one of the most positive days for us. We’ve really learned quite a lot.

“We’ve been able to apply our learnings from the morning to the afternoon, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Valtteri felt, but the car looked like it was in a better place. Our understanding of the W10 is continuously growing, so it was definitely a positive day.”

Bottas, who was critical of the car’s handling in week one, said progress had been made, but that it was impossible to judge where the team was in the competitive order in relation to its title rivals.

“We got a lot of laps in today which is always good,” said Bottas. “I did a race simulation which was interrupted by the red flag, but it confirmed the progress we’ve made since last week.

“We're getting more and more prepared for Melbourne, but there’s room for improvement and still a few question marks on where we stand compared to the competition.”

Bottas added: “We need to maximise the last day of testing as it will be our final chance to try out a few things ahead of Melbourne.”

Technical director James Allison, who yesterday made clear his frustration about the graining, said the tyres were not an issue today.

“Today was a very productive day,” he said. “Either side of a trouble-free race distance we did a lot of good investigative work and in the race simulation itself, unlike yesterday where we failed to make the tyres live, we had good tyre behaviour across all three stints.

“We look forward to tomorrow where we will be investigating the range of tyre compounds and focusing more on single-lap pace.”

 

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Ferrari and Haas both hit by exhaust problems

Ferrari exhaust problems caused Charles Leclerc’s on-track stoppage and the delay to Haas driver Romain Grosjean’s running on the penultimate day of Formula 1 pre-season testing.
Leclerc set the fastest time of Barcelona testing so far on Thursday but brought out a red flag in the afternoon.

Ferrari has since confirmed it was caused by “a small issue with the exhaust”.

Its customer team Haas was hit by “an exhaust manifold failure and a gas leak”, according to team principal Gunther Steiner.

He said the team “had to take the gearbox off, the turbocharger and take the exhaust manifold off” to fix it.

Grosjean was limited to just 16 laps after teammate Kevin Magnussen managed 53 in the morning, despite being delayed by a brake-by-wire “programming issue”.

“I think all the issues have been different and identified,” said Grosjean. “So I'm not too worried.

“Obviously we'd like to go around and not have any issues, but it happens sometimes and some issues take a long time to be resolved.

“But the car is good, the feeling is good, that's the main thing.”

Ferrari-engined cars managed 1,489 across the first week of testing but various setbacks this week has made the last few days in Spain much less productive.

The works team is only eighth on the list of teams in terms of laps completed, with 289 – likely title rival Mercedes has racked up the most laps at 448.

Customer Ferrari teams Haas and Alfa Romeo are also in the bottom half for laps completed this week.

By the time Leclerc stopped on-track there were only 20 minutes left in the session, which meant he had already completed 138 laps.

He said earlier in the day he was happy Ferrari rejigged its run plan to give him a full day in the car, after cooling checks and a crash for teammate Sebastian Vettel cost him valuable mileage on the opening two days of the second test.

“With the lack of running we had yesterday and before yesterday, I felt it was good,” he said.

“I felt more confident to go for a full day, to be completely confident after one day and not have a stop in between.”

 

 

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Lowe dismisses future doubt amid Williams plight

Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe says he has no concerns for his position following speculation the Formula 1 team's 2019 car delays may threaten his future.
The FW42 did not run until the third day of pre-season testing at Barcelona, which prompted suggestions ex-Mercedes man Lowe may not remain in his role.

Lowe joined Williams in early 2017 following a leading role at the title-winning Mercedes squad, but Williams slumped to last in the constructors' championship in 2018 with an extremely problematic.

Answering to Motorsport.com if he had concerns about his position when he realised the 2019 car would fail to make the start of testing, Lowe said: "No. I haven't paid attention to those sort of subjects in the media.

"I'm working very hard, there's an awful lot to do. We're working well as a team and at all levels in the company. I haven't got any concerns on that side."

Lowe was a high-profile signing for Williams but the famous team's slump in 2018 revealed major problems with its design process, and triggered an assessment of the culture inside the team as well.

Founder Frank Williams remains team principal, with his daughter Claire operating as deputy and Lowe steering a technical department that has been reshuffled following some significant departures last year.

Asked if the senior structure would be reviewed as part of Williams's analysis of what went wrong with the 2019 car build, Lowe said it would be wrong to "conclude anything so simple as to blame a person in what is an incredibly complicated set of circumstances and requirements".

"What I've observed over many years in Formula 1 is there's quite often the habit of changing the people when things don't work," said Lowe.

"What I've also observed is stronger teams are the ones who do exactly not that.

"Every difficulty, problem in a team is an opportunity to learn. Not only not to repeat it, but to be even stronger next time.

"What you shouldn't do is get rid of people because you've thrown away that experience and that knowledge."

Claire Williams said earlier this week that the delay in the build of the FW42 was not the fault of external suppliers, or a lack of funding.

Lowe said he did not know the exact reason for the setback and that it will "take a lot of investigation and analysis".

"There won't be a single answer," he said. "It won't be a matter of saying 'it is that, the thing that went wrong', and so on.

"In general, the thing that has caught us out is the sheer quantity and complexity of parts that you have to produce to make an F1 car these days.

"These cars are the most complicated in the history of F1.

"We didn't have all the parts we needed to run a car on day one, and I am sure that [evolution in complexity] was a strong factor, that we have got that estimation wrong around that."

 

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Sirotkin "very sorry" about Williams situation

Ex-Williams Formula 1 driver Sergey Sirotkin says he feels “very sorry” for his former team over the difficulties it has already faced in pre-season testing.

Sirotkin made his F1 debut last year with Williams but did not continue with the team for a second year, and is combining a World Endurance Championship programme with a Renault F1 reserve driver role.

The British team missed the first two and a half days of running because of delays building its new FW42 and has been bottom of the times throughout Barcelona testing.

“We all know that the team is in a very difficult position, but at the same time I have so many great friends there, so many people,” said Sirotkin.

“I know that we spent only a season together, but because it is a very long year and we spent so many days together at the factory, together at race tracks, working in such a difficult situation, it really feels I've been there forever.

“I know how much work we all together put in development and I feel very sorry that because of certain difficulties we don't see a result in terms of performance.

“I prefer not to comment too much. Just, as I know the people there, I know what they deserve.

“I just want to wish them all the best, and hope that they will get what they deserve.”

Robert Kubica and George Russell form an all-new line-up for Williams in place of Sirotkin and Lance Stroll.

Sirotkin has targeted an F1 comeback in future seasons and that is why he has rejoined Renault, for whom he acted as reserve driver in 2017 before getting his Williams race chance.

“We were always kind of looking what we can do to remain in the F1 paddock and kind of keep being in the system, in the business here,” said Sirotkin.

“Then we got the deal with Renault, which is great for a few reason.

“It’s a great team, I know many people and I’ve been here in 2017 and '16.

“It’s kind of a perfect situation that played out after the race drive wasn't possible anymore.”

Sirotkin said he harboured no hard feelings for his lost Williams drive, having admitted at the end of 2018 that his F1 exit had hit him hard.

“I feel I had this really necessary time to be back home, to think over the what’s happened last year and also go through the process race-by-race, how I was performing, what I was doing, and not doing,” said Sirotkin.

“Just doing it slowly, a few thoughts here and there, and kind of really getting it in my mind.

“It is nice to be talking here about all this, but it is shame that I cannot jump in the car and do the things [I learned] now.

“But it’s been a good time to rethink everything and to get the best knowledge from what happened.”

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Ricciardo denies Horner charge of "running from a fight"

Daniel Ricciardo says he was not "running from a fight" with Max Verstappen by leaving Red Bull to join Renault for the 2019 Formula 1 season.
During filming for F1's upcoming Netflix documentary on the 2018 season, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is said to have questioned whether Ricciardo was "making the right career choice" following the Australian's shock announcement last summer.

According to The Telegraph, in one episode Horner says: "My assumption is that he is running from a fight."

Ricciardo and Verstappen had a positive personal relationship at Red Bull but Ricciardo has admitted the handling of their Azerbaijan Grand Prix crash last year was "one of the little pieces" that led to him deciding to leave the team.

Verstappen went on to establish an on-track advantage over Ricciardo in 2018, although Ricciardo was also hit by an abnormal number of reliability problems.

In an interview with Australian media outlet EFTM, published this week, Ricciardo was asked about Horner's suggestion he was "running from a fight" with Verstappen.

Ricciardo said: "Firstly, and I'm sure he's not the only one who has that opinion, I can see how people might want to think that or say that.

"Everyone has an opinion. That hasn't been pulled out of nowhere. It is what is – I obviously say no, not true. I love a good fight.

"It was more about me than Max. It was about me, a lot of reasons.

"One, I've stated a few times and I think some people will understand it, I was at Red Bull five years.

"They'd won four world titles and I joined straight after that. In five years, looking from that first year, I'm going to win a world title. That's going to happen.

"It didn't and we never really got close. I'm not bitter about it, that's what happened."

Ricciardo's decision to switch teams aligns him with the works outfit of an engine manufacturer that has been behind F1's benchmarks Mercedes and Ferrari for several years.

However, the seven-time grand prix winner has already made it clear he felt the risk of failure was greater had he stuck with Red Bull for its switch to Honda engines.

In his interview with EFTM, Ricciardo reiterated: "My ability to become more frustrated in this environment was too high and I just don't want to be that kind of unhappy, bitter person that's just always 'what could have been', or 'if only I've joined Red Bull in 2013'.

"So, it wasn't about Max. [But] I understand how some people might think that."

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FERRARI DROP MISSION WINNOW FROM LATEST 2019 F1 ENTRY LIST

The FIA have updated the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship entry list ahead of the season opening Australian Grand Prix weekend which begins on 15 March at Albert Park in Melbourne.

Notable tweaks to the team names is that Ferrari have discarded the Mission Winnow (aka Marlboro) from the Team name which is now simply: Scuderia Ferrari.

The mysterious Mission Winnow campaign, launched by Phillip Morris late last year, was accused of being a smokescreen to promote the Marlboro brand which has been associated with Ferrari sine the mid-eighties.

During testing in Barcelona, the branding was also ‘turned down’ on the Ferrari cars with the chevron-style letters coloured a less prominent dark gray as opposed to the in your face and obvious, white lettering.

Also a change to the previous edition of the entry list is that Racing Point have penned down their engine as ‘BWT Mercedes’ tipping their hat to their ‘pink’ sponsors. Last year Red Bull ran Renault PUs rebadged as TAG-Heuer.

 

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BINOTTO: VETTEL AND LECLERC WILL BE FREE TO FIGHT

Clarifying reports that at times Sebastian Vettel will be favoured over Charles Leclerc, new Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto is adamant that his two drivers will indeed be allowed to race one another this season, in other words, equal status for both within the team.

This is a clear shift in policy at Maranello where they have tended to favour one driver over the other eg. Michael Schumacher bossed all his teammates, Fernando Alonso was favoured over Felipe Massa and most recently Kimi Raikkonen played second fiddle to Vettel.

Last season, rivals Mercedes drew criticism at times for their handling of Valtteri Bottas, who did not win a single race throughout 2018 and was ordered to allow Lewis Hamilton through on occasion. The Finn was referred to as the world’s best wingman by his boss Toto Wolff.

At the launch of the SF90 last month, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto prompted concern of a similar ‘team orders’ scenario at the start of the new Formula 1 season when he suggested “particular situations” would see the team side with Vettel.

However, at a media briefing during F1 testing in Barcelona this past week, Binotto explained that his directive would not prevent Leclerc from challenging his teammate.

Asked if the two would be allowed to race one another, the team chief said, “I think that it’s good for Ferrari. When you’ve got your intentions clear from the very start, at least you do not make mistakes when you may have a bigger situation.”

“Obviously the two will be free to fight. We will not ask Charles to be slow or Sebastian to be faster. We need both of them to run to the maximum, to try to do their best.”

“But certainly, if there is a big situation at the start of the season, Sebastian is the one who’s got more experience. Many years he’s with us, he’s already won championships, so he’s our champion,” affirmed Binotto.

Reflecting on his drivers’ performances during testing, he added, “Both set very similar lap times. We already knew that Charles is a very fast driver, as we have seen throughout his years with the Ferrari Driver Academy and last season in Formula 1. As for Sebastian, his performance shows him to be the multi-world champion we already know.”

Leclerc is preparing for his first campaign with Ferrari, having debuted in F1 with Sauber last year. He replaces Kimi Raikkonen.

Vettel can be forgiven a sense of deja vu with the current situation, his final season with Red Bull in 2014 he faced off with up-and-coming Daniel Ricciardo who was promoted to the senior team from Toro Rosso.

The Australian humbled the four-time F1 World Champion, who departed to Ferrari at the end of that season where he entrenched himself as number one, with a (mostly) compliant Raikkonen in the sister car.

How Vettel and Leclerc pan out will be a major sideshow to an intriguing F1 season that gets underway with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix weekend starting 15 March in Melbourne.

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HAMILTON: CHANGES WE WERE MAKING HELPED US PROGRESS

In the wake of 2019 Formula 1 preseason testing coming to an end on Friday, reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton is confident that Mercedes are “heading in the right direction” ahead of the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix on March 17.

Mercedes were more subdued than ever in the first test, but their drivers were not fully comfortable in the tricky W10. The team then arrived for the second preseason test with an extensively revised car and only had a stab at hot laps on the final two days in Spain.

Hamilton, who claimed that the Reds were half a second ahead, came within a mere 0.003 of a second of  Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel fastest time on the final day of testing, capping a thorough second week of running at the Circuit de Catalunya for the Silver Arrows.

The W10 was the clear champion chassis in terms of race pace mileage, with Hamilton and Bittas in the cockpit they combined to rack up 1189 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix venue, equivalent to 18 race distances over eight days.

It also proved to be handy at speed, revealed by a late stint by Hamilton on soft rubber and chasing times he ended second fastest by the narrowest of margins. The consensus in the paddock is that the Champs have more to unleash in their package.

All will be revealed when they really turn it on for when it matters, qualifying in Australia on Saturday afternoon Down Under on 16 March.

Speaking after his final stint in the car, Hamilton reported, “The last couple of days have been very positive. It felt like the changes we were making helped us progress and gave us clear feedback of when we were moving in the right or the wrong direction.”

“Even so, there is still a lot to do, and we are not there yet. There are lots of areas that we’re working on, and we’re heading in the right direction.”

Meanwhile, teammate Valtteri Bottas believes the competition will be as fierce as ever in Melbourne at the opening round of the 2019 season on 14-17 March.

“We’ve used our time on track here in Barcelona efficiently,” Bottas said. “[We’ve been] learning a lot and improving our performance over the past two weeks. The competition is going to be very, very tough this year, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.

“We need to keep pushing and find more performance if we want to be competitive in Melbourne, but we have a strong team and have made good progress in the last days.”

Bottas and Hamilton are aiming to end Vettel’s recent dominance of the Australian Grand Prix, the German having won the past two years in Melbourne.

“The next time we’ll drive the W10, it will be in Melbourne. We have a few days left to work on the car, so we will give it everything. I’m looking forward to Melbourne,” added Bottas.

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RICCIARDO: IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO CATCH THE FRONT TEAMS

Renault noob Daniel Ricciardo believes his new team have made genuine preseason progress during eight days of testing in Barcelona, ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship season-opening Rolex Australian Grand Prix on weekend from 15 to 17 March.

Ricciardo rounded out the final day of F1 preseason testing at Circuit de Catalunya eighth position on the timing screens on Friday, while teammate Nico Hulkenberg headlined the French team’s pace, recording the fourth fastest time in testing, six-tenths of a second behind pacesetter Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari.

“It’s been a pretty good week, and we’ve done a decent amount of laps with some consistent running,” Ricciardo said.

Renault covered a massive 961 laps around the Circuit de Catalunya throughout the 2019 pre-season, the third most of any team behind championship contenders Mercedes and Ferrari.

While Ricciardo understands it will still take time to match the winning duo on performance, the Australian believes his new team are on track with their 2019 targets, “It will take some time to catch the front teams.”

“But that is not what we expected to happen at winter testing, and we are very realistic about that. At the same time, it’s impossible to make accurate performance predictions.”

Nevertheless, the 29-year-old is as enthusiastic as ever heading into his home race, working with the team to continue improving the new RS19 for round one in Melbourne.

He continued, “We still have work to do and things to improve on and that’s what we’ll focus on now. We will dissect the data we’ve harnessed over the past days back at the factory. We are making progress, but the bigger steps will happen gradually going forward.”

“I’m heading to Melbourne feeling that I belong here, and I just want to go racing now!” added the big smiling Aussie.

Ricciardo will line up on the grid at Albert Park for his 151st Grand Prix start, with Renault the fourth team for whom he has driven for in the top flight – HRT, Toro Rosso and Red Bull being the others.

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OUTSIDE LINE: WHAT TO MAKE OF MERCEDES’ PRESEASON?

Unable to match Ferrari for either short or long-run pace, the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship season seems set to provide Mercedes with its toughest fight yet.

From one annual event to another, 2019 preseason testing is officially in the books, and now we can all take part in the yearly tradition of questioning Mercedes.

Sure, they might have won every title for the last half-decade, but that never seems to stop doubting, and this year was certainly no different.

Losing the vaunted “preseason championship” for the third year in a row to Ferrari, the past two weeks have seen plenty of the usual rumour-mongering and naysaying we’ve come to expect both in and outside the team this time of year, and yet with what seems like added volume this time around, it’s fair to wonder if the concerns aren’t unfounded.

Certainly if you’re comparing Mercedes’ testing performance year-on-year, this is their “worst” preseason of the V6 turbo era. In 2014 and ’15, there was absolutely no doubt they had the best package, and it naturally followed those seasons were a one-horse race.

2016 saw Ferrari make great strides, but at the same time it was clear Mercedes was prioritising reliability over all else, and they duly romped to the title again. 2017 and ’18 both saw the Ferrari hype train going full steam ahead (particularly in ’17) with some rapid lap times, but the Silver Arrows had generally stronger race pace that could assuage some concerns, and eventually they did pull away when it mattered.

This year however, they’ve been neither faster outright, nor on the long-runs, and it’s the consensus opinion across the F1-verse is that the Scuderia is better.

Of course, it’s not like Mercedes have been bad in Barcelona – Lewis Hamilton finishing 0.003s off Sebastian Vettel on the final day certainly isn’t a disaster – but it’s the lack of a “yeah, but still” response to Ferrari’s pace that is concerning.

Hamilton himself thinks his team is “half a second” behind, and while he’s certainly cried wolf enough times to take that statement with a grain of salt, if calculations provided by the BBC are accurate, this might be the occasion where just like the eponymous boy, he is finally telling the truth.

Further to that point, when rumours are flying out like the tidbit dropped by F1TV’s Will Buxton midweek – wherein a Mercedes rival suggested they could be pursuing two entirely different development paths, swapping on a race-by-race basis over the course of the season – it’s hard not to take notice. If this is even remotely true, it’s pretty damn extraordinary.

Developing one car is hard enough (not to mention expensive), let alone two, but if they’ve been unable to nail-down a concept the way Ferrari have (and it definitely seems like the Italians have stolen a march with their front-wing design), it does make sense they’d try something radical in order to keep up.

In any case, Mercedes head to Melbourne with an honest-to-goodness fight on their hands. At the very least, Ferrari have delivered a better car out-of-the-box, and while it’s far, far too early to panic, it’s certainly left Mercedes with more to prove at this point of a season than any other in their half-decade of dominance.

MIKA: I always find these topics during pre-season non applicable. I mean... it's "testing", teams will be undergoing numerous day to day tests on speed, reliability etc. Pre-season doesn't win championships or races. 

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WILLIAMS: THE CAR WAS TIRED AND WE RAN OUT OF PARTS

Williams preseason woes are well documented, but the crisis is by no means over for the once mightiest Formula 1 team after they admitted they had run out of spare parts for their “tired” Fw42 and thus Robert Kubica’s season, and indeed the team’s, was further compromised

Williams Chief Technical Officer Paddy Lowe, responsible for the last two F1 projects at Grove, has failed the team miserably by delivering to Kubica and rookie teammate the 2019 car a week later than their rivals, as they try and surface from the muck caused the FW41 – the worst car ever built by the 16-times World Champions.

Speaking to reporters after the final day of testing on Friday at Circuit de Catalunya, Lowe explained, “We planned an ambitious programme to mirror George’s from [Thursday].”

“The long-running in the afternoon was unfortunately brought to a halt because a number of critical bodywork parts had reached a stage of degradation that meant that we were no longer learning useful information from the car nor indeed for Robert.”

Lowe added, “So we decided to switch our time to those final race procedural practices – starts, pit stops etc. – that we need to do before Australia.”

“Up until today we were on track to complete our originally intended mileage and to consume all available tyre sets. But today this car has become ultimately too tired to continue.”

“In the interest of saving our resources for the important racing in Australia, we felt it was right to change the plan. In general, the car is not at its best and this has affected our performance.”

In other words: “We ran out of spare parts…”

Meanwhile Kubica, at Williams thanks to Polish quasi-government backers PKN Orlen who pumped around $15-million into the team’s coffers for the privilege, has kept remarkably restained with regards to the crisis in the team.

After all, there is a great deal riding on this season for a driver who last lined-up on an F1 grid almost a decade ago and, sadly, this is the worst possible start to the next chapter in his exceptional and improbable F1 comeback.

Although Kubica did a qualy simulation run on Friday morning, his best time of 1:18.993 was a massive 2.7 seconds down on the top pace and over a second slower than their closest rivals.

The 34-year-old summed up his frustrating Friday in the car, “It’s a pity to end testing with a difficult day before we head to the first race. Out of the runs that we did, we managed to learn some things, but it hasn’t given me the level of confidence that I would have liked ahead of Australia.”

“It wasn’t the day that I was hoping for after the delay to the start of testing, but you have to take the positives out of these difficult situations,” added Kubica ahead of his 92nd Grand Prix start scheduled for 17 March at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

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VERSTAPPEN: PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GASLY’S CRASH SIDELINED US

An unwritten rule: When invited to a friends house you don’t trash their new toys! Well, Pierre Gasly was clearly not given that advice and, as a result, pranged the brand new Red Bull RB15, with it compromising his team’s preparation for the 2019 Formula 1 world championship season.

After six days of solid and trouble free running for the RB15 with new boy Gasly and Max Verstappen alternating in the cockpit, on Thursday in Spain the Frenchman made a costly mistake when he clipped the grass at speed at Turn 9 and became a passenger as the car slammed the wall and sustained substantial damage.

Since then the potential title contenders have been on the back foot trying to repair the car with limited spare parts, so much so that Verstappen lost most of the final day of F1 preseason testing at Circuit de Catalunya on Friday,

After a delayed start to his Friday, he managed only 29 laps in the morning stanza after which the RB15 disappeared into the pits shortly before lunch and will only be seen again in on track and in anger during FP1 in Australia on 15 March.

Verstappen told reporters that a gearbox issue was the cause of the problem that sidelined them for most of the final day in Barcelona, “It is related to the crash yesterday. We did a change but you’re always limited with parts you have in testing.”

With reference to the damage caused by Gasly, when he shunted during the first week of preseason testing, the Dutchman added, “When you already have two [gearboxes] which are destroyed, it isn’t ideal.”

“Still, the team did an amazing job to turn the car around last night. A lot of parts were flown in and the team was working really hard to get the car ready, and only half an hour into the session we were out again.”

“Hopefully it will not hurt us too much that we didn’t run a lot today. But I’m quite confident we can have a good start to the season.”

When the flag waved to end the eighth day of testing Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton were top of the timing screens, the Ferrari driver a couple of thousandths of a second quicker than the world champ in the Mercedes, marking themselves again as the two teams to beat.

But Verstappen is unconcerned about their pace, “They are very quick but I’m happy with what we’ve done so far. Melbourne is a different track again, different temperatures, so it’ll be about finding a good set-up. Also, it is the first race, and it’s still a long season.”

This year Red Bull have Honda engines bolted to the back of their cars for the first time, and only time will tell if the smart gamble pays off, but for now it appears that the right boxes are being ticked.

But how expensive was Gasly’s mistake?

Consider this: the RB15 racked up 739 laps in six days at an average of 123 laps per day, but during the final two days in Spain collectively they could only manage a meagre 74 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix venue.

Expensive enough to get a bollocking one would guess…

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HAMILTON: FERRARI ARE FASTEST BY POTENTIALLY HALF A SECOND

Ahead of his final afternoon of Formula 1 preseason testing, reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton has warned that Mercedes are lagging behind Ferrari by what could be as much as half a second.

While Ferrari have strutted their stuff throughout testing, Mercedes have appeared to keep their powder dry but it turns out that chassis issues with the W10 does indeed have the Silver Arrows camp worried.

Valtteri Bottas has twice highlighted problems with the car, which was refreshingly candid so early on in the season, but his teammate Hamilton backs him up.

During an interview with Sky F1 on Friday, Hamilton said of the difference to the Reds on day seven of testing, “I think the gap is potentially half a second. Ferrari are the fastest. This is going to be the toughest battle yet. We don’t know because everyone has different engine modes and fuel loads.”

“Ferrari’s pace is very, very good at the moment. The challenge is going to be harder than ever. It will be four races before we really know where we stand. We don’t obviously have a lot of time, but over this week we will hopefully gain another tenth just with our understanding of the car.”

Hamilton pointed to the fact that the W10 has over one thousand laps on its odometer, almost five Grand Prix distances, “The car is kind of old now, it’s worn and torn, so we will have new components, all that stuff will come along.”

“We really won’t know because everyone has different power modes and fuel loads, so Melbourne will be the first time you get a sight of it and it’s a good four races before you know just where you stand.”

“We don’t mind a challenge. We’ve got a hill to climb but we know how to do it,” he acknowledged but refuted suggestions that the team plans to change the concept of the W10, but said Ferrari may have right philosophy.

Hamilton was speaking in Barcelona not long after teammate Valtteri Bottas had hit 1:16.561, but the reigning champion dismissed the relevance of closing the gap.

“Testing is testing. There’s no reward for being quick in Testing,” added the five-time Formula 1 World Champion.

On the morning that Hamilton was speaking to reporters teammate, Valtteri Bottas set the second fastest time, three tenths shy of Sebastian Vettel’s effort at the lunch break in Barcelona.

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LOWE: WE CAN TURN WILLIAMS BACK TO ITS DAYS OF FORMER GLORY

The past two years at Williams have seriously tarnished Paddy Lowe’s once stellar reputation, for a second year running he and the technical team he heads at Grove have got their sums seriously wrong.

Last year, the FW41, the first car produced under Lowe’s watch at Williams was a well-documented disaster, probably the worst one ever built at their factory and, as a result, the once mighty team finished stone last in the 2018 constructors’ championship.

Now they have got their timing totally wrong, the FW42 was almost a week late. However, by all accounts Robert Kubica and George Russell appear to be happy with the car out the box – it is a far better piece of kit than its predecessor, but the delay in getting it out on track has already compromised their season.

For obvious reasons, Lowe took a while to emerge and face the music as the crisis became very public last week with the no show of his car until the end of the first test, but he finally did surface on Thursday when he spoke in an interview with Sky F1 in Barcelona.

Asked about the situation, Lowe explained, “I’m working very hard, there’s an awful lot to do and we’re working well as a team. Quite often the habit is to change people when things don’t work. But what I’ve also observed in Formula 1 is that the stronger teams are the ones that don’t do that.”

“Every problem within a team is an opportunity to learn. When you have an issue, you take that learning and you turn it into an advantage. I’m not aware of any different view.”

Lowe acknowledged that he has to lead the team out of the rut they are in, “Absolutely, but I won’t do it single handed. This is a team effort and we’ve certainly got some very strong people in the team. There’s a great job to be done and a great job of work and we certainly don’t underestimate the challenge there.

“We have ten fantastic teams in the sport these days, they are all highly professional and sophisticated – that was not the case in the past in Formula 1, so I think we should celebrate that. But inevitably it leaves some at the front, some at the back, and some in the middle and we’ll keep moving forwards as best we can.”

“But I’m confident we can do so. Given time, we can turn this team back to its days of former glory,” added Lowe whose future is sure to hinge on the success, or lack thereof, of the 2019 Williams, his second effort as technical chief with the team.

[MIKA27]

Perez lauds F1's “incredible job” with 2019 changes

Sergio Perez says that Formula 1's rulemakers have done "an incredible job" in creating a new aero package for the 2019 season that is intended to allow more overtaking.
This year's revised front wings resulted from a joint project pursued after last year's Australian Grand Prix by the FIA and the engineers working at the F1 organisation under Ross Brawn.

As the Barcelona pre-season tests unfolded and more drivers had the chance to follow other cars, a consensus emerged that the changes have been positive.

"I did a bit with [Valtteri] Bottas," said Racing Point driver Perez when asked if he had followed other cars on Wednesday. "Certainly I feel that you lose less downforce.

"So I think so far I'd say that F1, they have done an incredible job at the moment with the rules.

"We will see in Melbourne really, what it's like racing with other cars around you with similar pace and so on, but I really hope the show can be a lot better."

Asked about the benefits of a bigger DRS effect, he added: "I think the delta to overtake a car should be reduced by quite a bit given you can follow more and the advantage from DRS.

"So I hope the racing can be a lot more fun for the fans and for the drivers."

Bottas agreed that it appears to be easier to follow now.

"I've only been following properly maybe one lap, and behind only one car, not multiple cars," said the Finn. "It felt a bit better, a bit easier to follow.

"You do still find the effect of losing downforce because the cars have a lot, and no matter what when you have turbulent air you lose the downforce, even though the front wings are more simple.

"I feel it's a bit better, it just felt a bit more consistent. Like the car felt predictable still, following another car. I think that's good. The bigger effect is maybe the cars being more draggy and more of a tow effect on the straights.

"It's going in the right direction, it's going to be easier to pass if you have the pace."

Daniel Ricciardo, who says he followed Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari at one point, is less convinced than some of his rivals.

"I have been able to follow some cars but I also feel like we have been faster, whether we've been lower fuel, or they have been doing a race sim," the Renault driver reported.

"So I have caught them quicker, and it is not always that representative. I think it will be a little bit better, but I am not going to say it is going to be a massive difference.

"I would like to think that there is a small gain following, but it is hard when you are doing such fast laptimes."

[MIKA27]

Hamilton has little good to say about 2019 F1 tyres

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton does not have “a lot of good things” to say about Pirelli’s 2019 tyres, and thinks the new compound identification system is “confusing”.
Pirelli has modified its rubber for this season, introducing the thinner-gauge tread that was used at three races last year to combat blistering and overheating.

However, Mercedes driver Hamilton said it feels like Pirelli “did something else”, having joked on social media that even his dog Roscoe felt they were “too hard”.

“That is why I said he concurs with me, they are a little bit hard,” said Hamilton, who had posted a video of Roscoe playing with and trying to bite a Pirelli tyre.

“What do you want to know, if the tyres are any good? I don’t really have a lot of good things to say on that, so best I probably don’t say anything.

“As we get into the year, it is going to be a challenge. They are more challenging this year than they were last.

“And we have all these different names of tyres – C5, C4, C3, C2 and C1. Which is for me personally even more confusing than all the colours that we had.”

The codenames of the tyre refer to the compound, with C1 representing the hardest of the range and the tyres increasing in softness, grip and wear up to C5.

This has replaced the ‘rainbow’ colour range of seven compounds from last season.

Hamilton added: “We will get used to it, and it will be the norm.

“Valtteri [Bottas] seems to be enjoying driving the tyres out there and I will get a bit of a better feel for what the tyres are like.

“I’ve been driving on more fuel so it is never a good feeling generally in any year when you have more fuel on board.

“But we are all in the same boat and I will try to understand them the best I can.”

Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola said he would take Hamilton’s feedback on board, as part of a desire from the Italian company to consider the drivers’ opinions more.

He said that the middle compound, the C3, is last year’s soft tyre and therefore the range was broadly the same as last year.

Isola pointed out that the aerodynamic changes for 2019 will have impacted each car’s balance, and teams will need to improve that as well as how their car gets the most out of the tyres.

“The thinner gauge protects you from blistering and overheating, it could generate graining especially in the colder conditions like in the early morning and late afternoon,” Isola admitted.

“It was better in the middle part of the day.

“I need to speak to him to understand better, a bit more in detail, the reason why [he] is not happy.”

[MIKA27]

Kubica only "20 percent" prepared for Australian GP

Williams driver Robert Kubica believes he is only “20 percent” prepared for the first race of the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Kubica is set to make his return to grand prix racing in two weeks' time in Melbourne, having recovered from a major injury that had caused his initial exit from the championship in 2011.

But Williams' preparations for the upcoming campaign have been compromised by its FW42 being delayed, and the Grove-based team ended the pre-season in last place in both laptimes and mileage.

Kubica managed 268 laps – fewer than any other driver on the 2019 grid – in his three days in the car during the Barcelona test.

“That's the situation, I cannot change it,” Kubica said. “I have to make sure we are doing everything what we can, from my side.

“Coming back after eight years, probably I know 20 percent of the things that I should know before going to Australia.

“The rest is unknown. I haven't done longer than 15 laps long run.

“There is a lot of question marks. But that's the reality, we cannot change it.”

Kubica was particularly frustrated by how his Barcelona programme ended as a lack of spare parts held Williams back on the final day.

This came as a disappointment after he'd been boosted by a strong stint on Wednesday, which he described as “one of my best runs in a Williams car”.

“My last real run when I feel the car well was [Wednesday] afternoon, first run, when the car did things which I was surprised [by], a really nice surprise.

“So I get up really a lot of confidence, but since then my confidence disappeared, because the car was not in the right state.”

Asked to name a realistic target for the Australian Grand Prix, he quipped: “First of all we have to make sure the car stays in one piece.

“Because the reality is, my test ended after the first run in the afternoon [on Wednesday].

“The rest, I have to forget how I drove and what I felt.”

Teammate George Russell reckoned the FW42 had made “a big step” since debuting in Barcelona, but Kubica was not certain about the gains.

“There were some positive things, but it's difficult to say it moved forward when actually you are staying in the garage, or you are running the car which is not in the configuration it should be.”

Asked whether Williams could be forced to treat the first grands prix of 2019 as further test sessions, rather than proper races, Kubica conceded: “Unfortunately, I think yes.”

MIKA: So Kubica is only 20% ready, that's 100% more prepared than the car itself I'd say  

[skalls]

So here's my season predictions.

Williams will be a dumpster fire.  To be fair this isn't a huge assumption to be making.  They looked like this during testing, started 2 1/2 days late and theres no evidence to suggest otherwise.

RBR will surprise some people but still come in 3rd place, but the gap between the top 3 will close considerably.

Split championship this year.  Vettel with the drivers, Merc with the Constructors.

Leclerc will have a ho-hump opening half and begin to show more promise after the summer break.

Merc still have a diva, be dominant in some races but not so in others.

Racing Point will finish 2nd to last in the standings.

[MIKA27]

19 minutes ago, skalls said:

So here's my season predictions.

Williams will be a dumpster fire.  To be fair this isn't a huge assumption to be making.  They looked like this during testing, started 2 1/2 days late and theres no evidence to suggest otherwise.

RBR will surprise some people but still come in 3rd place, but the gap between the top 3 will close considerably.

Split championship this year.  Vettel with the drivers, Merc with the Constructors.

Leclerc will have a ho-hump opening half and begin to show more promise after the summer break.

Merc still have a diva, be dominant in some races but not so in others.

Racing Point will finish 2nd to last in the standings.

That's a mighty tough call all up, NICE! 

I think Racing Point will beat the likes of HAAS but I'm super excited to see how Alfa will go. Alfa look pretty good so far in testing, I'm hoping they end up like Sauber back in 2012 with performance. The down side which i'm worried about is weather they will play support to Ferrari during some races? I'd love to see the likes of Alfa win a podium this season.

Renault could be in the mix for sure with mid-field versus Toro Rosso, a podium through attrition should it ever present as they sometimes do.

Here is hoping Leclerc beats the pants of Vettel.

I for one think Seb is overrated, a deserved Champion for sure, but over rated nonetheless.

Lewis will win WDC and Mercedes to win the Drivers Championship but they are already complaining about tires with their chassis so yep... a diva yet again.

This will be Bottas last season in Mercedes I'm betting. 

I REALLY hope this season is right down to the last race of the season whomever wins the WDC. That will for sure be between Ferrari and Mercedes.

[MIKA27]

ALONSO: MCLAREN ARE HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Fernando Alonso made his first appearance as McLaren ambassador when he visited Circuit de Catalunya to catch up on Formula 1 preseason testing and while there spoke to Spanish media about the season ahead, for the team he departed last year.

The Spaniard’s popularity was evident when he arrived in the paddock and was mobbed by reporters and fans, he ran the gauntlet of questions, signatures and selfies on more than one occasion on the day.

Reporting on progress at McLaren, the double F1 World Champion said, “We are learning a lot, even last week I was in contact with the team, I am aware of the reports and all the little problems we found. I think that this week a clear picture of the car, there are a couple of areas that need to be reviewed.”

“They should continue to develop to improve performance, in some other areas it is surprisingly good, so they are happy with the results and, in general, I think it has been two very positive weeks. It is not perfect yet, but they’re heading in the right direction.”

This year McLaren has an all-new driver line-up with the teams ‘homebred’ rookie Lando Norris stepping up to the top flight, with Spaniard Carlos Sainz replacing his fellow countryman and mentor Alonso.

The driver combo has remarkable similarities to Alonso’s first tenure when he was teamed up with Woking bred Lewis Hamilton in 2007, also an all-new driver pairing in the team for that season. And we know how that turned out…

Norris is the young gun stepping up to partner, and take on, the more experienced Sainz, although far from the double F1 World Champion was at the time. Nevertheless, the contest between the two will be intriguing.

Like McLaren, Alonso believes in the new pairing, “I think it’s a good combination of drivers and a good option for the team too, because a lot of the team is new and young, and they come from different teams.”

“Carlos has more experience than Lando, Norris has a natural talent that needs to be refined. Both are well prepared and it is key that they are well understood by the engineers.”

“Sometimes drivers speak a different language than to, sometimes they see data suggesting changes that drivers are not asking for, helping in that facet is perhaps the most important input that I can have, since both are new to the team.”

McLaren team chief, and Alonso’s number one fan, Zak Brown has suggested that their recently appointed ambassador might well test the MCL34 at some point in the season, in conjunction with his Indy 500 campaign and commitment to Toyota Gazoo Racing in his quest for the World Endurance Championship (WEC) title.

The Spaniard, who won the Daytona 24 Hours in January, will next race at the 1,000 miles of Sebring (WEC) on 15 March, while the 2019 F1 season kicks off two days later with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne – he won’t be there for the first time since 2001…

[MIKA27]

THE HAAS PROJECT

Since joining the sport in 2016, Haas F1 Team have been an outfit on the rise, whose legacy lays claim to becoming the first U.S.-based constructor to race and score points in Formula One since Haas-Lola in 1986. Speaking with Mobil 1 The Grid, drivers Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, and Team Principal Guenther Steiner, explain their hopes for the season ahead, as well as sharing their thoughts on the Haas F1 project overall.

[MIKA27]

KUBICA: WE DID OUR MAXIMUM FROM WHAT WE HAD BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH

PKN Orlen will be forgiven for being nervous ahead of their first season in Formula 1 with the Williams team, the giant Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer forking out substantial money to get the country’s favourite racer back on the grid after a near-decade absence.

Robert Kubica’s remarkable story is well told, that he is back in Formula 1 is a near miracle, but Williams’ state of unreadiness and disarray ahead of the new F1 season threatens to turn the fairytale comeback into a very sad story.

After his final day of 90 laps testing in the FW42 at Circuit de Catalunya last week, Kubica told reporters reported, “We had some issues. Unfortunately, the car was not representative to what it should be.”

“This had a big impact on our test, our running programme today. All the information was misleading and some way [it was] also difficult to get some information, any information for Australia.”

“There were some positive things, but as I said it’s difficult to say [if] it moved forward when actually you are staying in the garage or you are running in the car which is not in the configuration it should be. It’s difficult to get any valid information, any valid feedback.”

Williams under the technical direction of Paddy Lowe has been a disaster, with last year’s terrible car his first offering and now his second effort woefully late and apparently way off the pace of their rivals, exacerbated by three missed days of testing.

Kubica, 34, remains level headed amid the crisis engulfing the Grove outfit, and added, “First of all we have to solve our issues. I think there is no point us talking about upgrades if we have to still recover our problems.”

“Anyway when the car was in proper configuration, let’s say, which unfortunately it wasn’t, the feeling was not bad. But I think performance-wise first you have to solve the issues, then think about performance otherwise it’s confusing.”

“Some of the issues were as a consequence of being in a rush. If you struggle to have a car for the week before, you struggle to have spare parts. And unfortunately [on Friday] it was required to have bits to replace, and we couldn’t replace them.”

“We did maximum from what we have, but this maximum is not enough because in the end, the car was from optimal,” revealed the Pole.

His backers PKN Orlen are said to have forked out $15-million to Williams for Kubica’s place on the grid in 2019, beginning at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 17 March in Melbourne.

Last season, both Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin paid for their drives with the team, but after a forgettable season the Stroll’s packed their bags and bought another team while SMP Racing told all and sundry that another season for their driver with Williams would be a waste of money.

[MIKA27]

ALESI: THE PLAN IS VETTEL WINS AND LECLERC FINISHES SECOND

Jean Alesi was one of Ferrari’s favourite drivers and this status gives him access to inside information regarding the goings-on at Maranello, thus it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the new driver dynamic at his former team ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship season.

This year Charles Leclerc will join Sebastian Vettel in the world’s most famous race team, ripping up an old age tradition the team had of hiring proven Grand Prix winners to drive their car.

Vettel is fresh from a spell with Kimi Raikkonen as his teammate, the German clearly the number one during their stint at Maranello, with the veteran Finn a couple of tenths slower than Vettel in most instances.

Leclerc arrives to do his best for the Scuderia, after all, his future hinges on how the next chapter of his stellar career evolves and beating Vettel is the target, and in doing so he will invariably force the four-time F1 World Champion.

In an interview with Radio Sportiva, Alesi – who often rubs shoulders with the Italian team’s bigwigs – gave his thoughts on the current status quo in the wake of the final F1 preseason tests in Barcelona last week.

Of the Leclerc-Vettel partnership, he said, “I think the fact that they have opted for a young driver like Leclerc is an incentive for Vettel who was lost for reasons that nobody understood in the latter half of last year.”

“Leclerc grew up at Ferrari, he knows the environment well and does not have too much pressure because Binotto has ordained that he must follow the team’s orders and help Vettel.”

“He won’t challenge the number one role of Vettel but they will certainly be very close: the plan is that Vettel wins and Leclerc finishes second, the season is very long and 21 races are many.”

Although Leclerc is wise enough not to rattle the cage of polemics that constantly gravitate over the Scuderia, all he has to do is put foot the metal and simply outdrive his teammate, not only in qualifying but also in the race.

Ahead of a season primed and loaded with similar stories up and down the F1 pitlane, time will tell how this intriguing sideshow will evolve.

Meanwhile, eight days of testing revealed that both Ferrari and Mercedes have good cars, the SF90 perhaps a tad better out-of-the-box than the W10.

So much so that it was good enough for Vettel to set the fastest lap of testing on his final day in the cockpit. And the mileage was extremely good with 997 laps added to the new car by their two drivers.

While Ferrari were not shy to strut their stuff, Mercedes were typically subdued and refusing to rise to the bait of fast lap times until the final day when they unleashed Hamilton who, in turn, popped up to second on the timing screens – 0.003 of a second shy of Vettel’s best effort – in other words: as close as it gets.

Noticed by all was the fact that the W10 that broke cover for the first four days of F1 preseason testing last month was a very different animal that took to the track for the second stanza of testing a week later – a proper W10-B. Also notable is that the ‘two cars’ covered a massive 1,126 laps at the Spanish Grand Prix venue.

Alesi said of the looming Ferrari versus Mercedes battle, “At Montmelò (Circuit de Catalunya) we saw a competitive Ferrari from the first lap and this is worth gold. For sure Mercedes will be very strong, but Ferrari seems to be more competitive to what it was last year.”

“Mercedes showed up at the two tests in Barcelona with two very different cars which was not a good sign, it means their initial project did not deliver what they had hoped for on paper, while Ferrari showed up with a very fast car and then worked to develop it further.”

“Vettel has everything to win the world title, now let’s see what happens. In Melbourne, which is a very particular track, we will understand almost immediately where they are…”

As for the other teams?

“I think Red Bull with Honda power will be very competitive, Renault has done some good things with Ricciardo and then there is the Alfa Romeo that finished well last season and with Giovinazzi and Raikkonen will be able to perform well.”

On a personal note, the one time Grand Prix winner added, “Ferrari is everything for me. At the Alesi home, Ferrari is part of our lives. It is a dream for me to see both Schumacher’s son and my son in the Ferrari Driver Academy. Seeing them together in Formula 1 would be great. I miss Michael a lot.”

The 2019 Formula 1 World Championship begins with Round 1, the Australian Grand Prix, at Albert Park in Melbourne on the weekend of 15 to 17 March.

[MIKA27]

Ferrari quickest, McLaren at the back according to Helmut Marko

Red Bull's Helmut Marko has made a bold prediction following the conclusion of Formula 1 testing. The Austrian believes what many predict, that Ferrari are quickest heading to the first race in Australia, but reckons Red Bull slot in behind, ahead of reigning champions Mercedes.

The common prediction is that Ferrari and Mercedes are evenly matched, with the Italian marque possibly holding a small advantage, with Red Bull and Renault holding third and fourth, but Marko reckons Red Bull have moved ahead of Mercedes in the pecking order.

"Ferrari is ahead, then we come in front of Mercedes," he told Austrian publication SpeedWeek.

Red Bull has made the jump to Honda power for the 2019 season, a move which many predict could actually see the team fall back into the grasps of Renault, though Marko doesn't believe that will be the case after enjoying "absolute reliability" with the new Honda power unit, predicting "at least five victories".

Looking further back, the Austrian doesn't expect much to change at the back with McLaren and Williams bringing up the rear, despite McLaren's stronger showing over the course of the eight days.

"Then there is the big midfield, where it will be very tight [with] McLaren and Williams at the back," he added.

His prediction for champion is an even bolder claim, simply responding "Max Verstappen".

[MIKA27]

Zandvoort deemed only viable Dutch Grand Prix option for F1

The Netherlands Sports Council has urged businesses to back the idea of a Dutch Grand Prix, claiming that Formula 1 has made it clear Zandvoort is the only option.

Formula 1 has not raced in The Netherlands since 1985 though the prospect of a return to the country has risen in recent years due to the emergence of Max Verstappen.

Ex-F1 track Zandvoort and current MotoGP host Assen are the only permanent circuits in the country.

An open letter published by the independent Netherlands Sports Council (NLSportraad) on Monday confirmed that Zandvoort Circuit signed a letter of intent with Formula One Management in mid-December.

Last month the Dutch government confirmed that it would like to “facilitate the organisation of Formula 1 events in terms of infrastructure, security, licenses etc” but made it clear that “it would not subsidise these races.”

Following this decision NLsportraad “decided to collect further information” in line with approaches it has taken regarding advice for other sporting events.

According to NLsportraad Zandvoort Circuit is “trying its best to find large sponsor partners” by the end-of-March deadline set by Formula One Management.

Zandvoort Circuit explained that “there are sponsor parties that are interested but their confidence in the business case of Zandvoort might have decreased because the central government chose to only facilitate the plans and not provide subsidy.” The body added that “the confidence of companies increases when the central government is willing to facilitate and invest. Sport events flourish with public-private partnerships.”

It was also noted that Zandvoort Circuit needs to make improvements and “has not received much support from the surrounding cities and the Province of Noord-Holland.”

NLsportraad also revealed that Assen confirmed its business case is complete partly thanks to “a foreign investor who is prepared to vouch for the costs for the [race] fee. In addition Assen has support from the province of Drenthe and the city of Assen.”

NLsportraad stressed it was “not in a position to judge which of the very different business cases is best for the Formula 1 event, the region or Dutch society as a whole”.

But those conclusions were ultimately deemed irrelevant as it claims Formula One Management has “made it clear that Zandvoort is the only candidate in the Netherlands suitable to organise a Formula 1 race.”

It cites Zandvoort’s history and close proximity of big cities and airports as justification for that approach.

NLsportraad’s letter concludes with an appeal to private businesses, commenting “co-operation is crucial: between private and public parties, within the public sector, and between government departments.”

NLsportraad’s open letter was addressed to the Minister of Sport, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs, Parliament, the Provinces of Noord-Holland and Drenthe, the Cities of Zandvoort and Assen, the Circuits of Zandvoort and Assen, and Formula One Management.