In the round-up: Pirelli’s Mario Isola says that the company were not informed about the work done to the Shanghai International Circuit before Formula 1’s return.
In brief
Pirelli “not informed” of track modifications
Pirelli’s head of motorsport, Mario Isola, says the tyre manufacturer were unaware that Shanghai International Circuit management had approved an application of liquid treatment on the circuit’s asphalt prior to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
“What’s new is this layer of bitumen they put on top of the track,” Isola said in Friday’s team principals press conference. “There was no resurface, no changes, a few changes to the kerbs but not to the track.
“As usual, we measure the track roughness and the level of grip with our system and we found some, let’s say, inconsistencies in the grip around the circuit. I believe that also drivers highlighted this. The most important information is that I believe the track is going to change quite a lot during the weekend, because this layer of bitumen is disappearing, especially on the race line, and not on the other lines.
“When they run over this layer, the level of grip is good. So I’m expecting that on the race line it will be a bit worse compared to the other parts of the track. But it’s just an assumption, because we were not informed of this kind of work on the track. So, we are trying to understand ourselves what is going to happen, but a lot of track evolution is expected.”
Ocon relieved he can change set-up
Esteban Ocon intends to take advantage of the opportunity to change his car’s set-up after today’s sprint race having not got the most out of his upgraded Alpine so far.“I feel like we didn’t maximise the potential of the car today, unfortunately,” he told the official F1 channel. “That’s probably the first time this year that this is the case.
“I think there was probably more in it today. With only one session unfortunately we didn’t put everything together. Some performance left on the side, which is a good thing that the parc ferme opens again so we can change for the next qualifying.
“So we’ll try and race tomorrow like this early in the morning and after that try again with a different set-up in the car and see what we get”
Ferrari fastest in WEC practice
Ferrari set the pace ahead of Porsche Penske in the first day of practice for this weekend’s Six Hours of Imola.
The number 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen was fastest at the end of Friday’s second practice session ahead of the number six Porsche Penske of Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre. The number 83 Ferrari of Robert Shwartzman, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye was third ahead of the number eight Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa fourth.
The number six Porsche Penske team lead the championship after their victory in the opening round of the season in Qatar, ahead of the number 12 Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott, Will Stevens and Norman Nato.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'I understand that the Red Bull saga will enter its next stage once the Chinese Grand Prix is over, this Sunday. The woman who is alleging Christian Horner harassed her is due to give evidence in the days that follow the race. The Red Bull employee is challenging the initial finding that exonerated Horner of wrongdoing.'
‘I don’t deserve F1 seat if I keep getting whooped’, admits Ricciardo (Independent)
''However, I have to earn my spot. I don’t want these results to continue for a year, and for me to say: ‘well I should be here because it is on paper’. I am not going to be happy with that. At the end of the day, if I am getting my arse whooped I don’t deserve to be here.''
Moto GP/F1 double header possible not probable, says COTA boss (Reuters)
''They do both bring different sponsors and different activations and manufacturers. We would be bulging at the seams from that standpoint. And also you'd have to do a lot of changeover of track signage. It's possible, I don't know that it's probable.''
Javier Sagrera wins Eurocup-3’s chaotic season opener at Spa (Formula Scout)
'Four hours on from race one, Eurocup-3 is yet to provide updates on the conditions of the drivers involved in crashes.'
Mike on... the Chinese Grand Prix (Aston Martin)
'Extending Fernando’s contract is a great boost to the team, and it's been our target pretty much from his first day at Silverstone. We are very happy, Fernando's a top driver. One of the highlights of this for us is that Fernando sticks to his word. He told us that he needed to think seriously about his desire to continue and that if he did want to continue, he would talk to us first. He did exactly that. Usually, in contract negotiations, there is a tactical element: references to teams with vacant seats or drivers on the market. We didn't have any of that. The process was open, transparent and fair.'
Team Torque | Ep 5 - Chinese GP (Williams via YouTube)
Williams drivers Albon and Sargeant welcome McLaren's Piastri to their podcast and answer questions from fans.
FIA Insights - WEC Safety Car Rules (FIA via YouTube)
'In the latest episode of FIA Insights we break down the different options available to the race control in terms of neutralising an FIA World Endurance Championship race. We also explain what the differences in procedures between a standard round of the series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans are.'
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
YES, team! 👊#ChineseGP 🇨🇳 #F1Sprint pic.twitter.com/qJuV65uCIq
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) April 19, 2024
Young Seb 🥹 Marking 15 years since our first @F1 win#F1 || #ChineseGP 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/8nb8cx1riq
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 19, 2024
⏰ 60 Seconds With @Anto_Giovinazzi, @FIAWEC Hypercar driver for @FerrariHypercar! pic.twitter.com/FOYjH8zUza
— FIA (@fia) April 19, 2024
"The world is changing!" 💪
We chatted with @fia CEO Natalie Robyn about the work being done to get more women and girls involved in motorsport.#GirlsOnTrackFE pic.twitter.com/bBS6Vl9upp
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) April 19, 2024
Mercedes have added this small aerodynamic detail to their Halo this weekend.
The team say it "generates small vortices, which help control the flow out of the cockpit, and in doing so improve flow to the rear wing assembly." #F1 #ChineseGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/hJpgrt0Ut3
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) April 19, 2024
#IndyCar: F2 champion @TPourchaire says Sauber first contacted him telling him Arrow McLaren was asking for him to do TWO races. I clarified with him if he’s down for Barber next week and he said combo of how Long Beach goes and Malukas healing.
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) April 19, 2024
— Fanatec (@fanatec) April 19, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
After the first sprint qualifying session of the season produced an upset result as Lando Norris had his pole time reinstated following confusion over track limits, bernasaurus would like to see F1 take its rules to a different kind of extreme…
The amount of time and effort devoted to track limits and arguing and stewards and technology and rules and then arguing again… Since F1 is open to trialing new stuff these days, why not have a race without limit violations at all? Maybe a small marker so nobody tries to just rallycross their way straight through Maggotts and Becketts.
It was noticeable that the exit of Spoon at Suzuka – which I think was meant to be policed – clearly wasn’t during the grand prix and soon everyone took advantage of it. I wasn’t sure why Max Verstappen was going metres over when he’s miles ahead and risking the stewards issuing 47 retrospective violations on the penultimate lap.
I’m not saying this to defend Lando, rules are rules regardless of whether he gained an advantage or not. I just wouldn’t mind seeing what happens if we try it without rules.
bernasaurus
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jacob and Apoorvb Bajpai!
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RandomMallard
20th April 2024, 0:49
That Eurocup 3 article lead me to look up the race, and what I saw I thought honestly was a bit disgraceful. It’s been less than 12 months since a young single seater racer was killed just a few hundred metres away in very wet conditions in a junior formula race. And for something like this to happen just months later is ridiculous.
I love Spa (and Eau Rouge) and I love wet racing as much as anyone here, but the dangers of these conditions at this part of the circuit are well known, and as much as I believe drivers should have to try to negotiate the conditions, we cannot be putting lives at a significantly greater risk.
RandomMallard
20th April 2024, 0:50
I should add – of course – I hope everyone is safe and alright.
PeterG
20th April 2024, 1:05
I think this was a bit different to what happened last year as conditions were wet but ultimately raceable when the race was started but deteriorated extremely quickly with a localised very heavy downpour just as cars were starting the last lap.
Reminded me a bit of a GP3 race at Spa in maybe 2010 where it was completely dry and then suddenly as they got to the end of lap there was suddenly monsoon levels of rain out of nowhere that flooded the track only in that bit of track.
Was crazy as you went from a camera shot at blanchmont that was totally dry to a shot from the bus stop where it was raining so hard you could barely see the cars.
PeterG
20th April 2024, 1:06
That gp3 race.
https://youtu.be/ggQAsO_wNgw?si=vG7wdSi9XhXE8lkb
RandomMallard
20th April 2024, 11:15
Oh I definitely agree that the conditions were raceable at the restart, and I praise them for the restart, but when it got to the final lap it was pretty clear that the conditions were no longer suitable, and I think the race should have been stopped or neutralised earlier than it was.
Nothing wrong with the initial decision to restart though.
Jonathan Parkin
20th April 2024, 5:08
I did think when the second fatal accident happened, maybe we should restrict the categories who race there.
Spa is a dangerous track, the issue was in recent past, the drivers knew it was dangerous so they respected the danger. Now with increased safety and the fact that Eau Rouge and Radillion are easy flat, that respect has seemingly gone
PeterG
20th April 2024, 0:51
The issue with ignoring track limits is that your get into a situation where the runoff is no longer suitable because there’s effectively less of it.
I recall at Indycar race at COTA where there was no track limits and everyone was using all of the runoff at turn 19.
Result was cars were traveling faster than if they were staying on the track and reducing the size of the runoff. It was noted that the barrier setup was not designed for that so may not have been as effective had someone crashed there.
As such in subsequent visits Indycar enforced track limits.
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
20th April 2024, 2:06
Yes, I was going to comment that that IndyCar race (as well as most other US motorsport) shows us precisely what will happen — and I was all for it. I loved watching the drivers exploit the paved surface to the limit. I don’t know that IndyCar changed their mind because they felt it was necessary on driver safety grounds — after all, they steam into Turn 1 at Indianapolis at 380 kph with zero runoff — more that they just didn’t want unnecessary crashes and disruptions.
Also, T19 at COTA is a rather extreme example where the runoff geometry creates a pretty sharp pinch point as cars merge back onto the track proper. There are plenty of other situations where the runoff may not be necessary to meet FIA Grade 1 standards and is there mainly to save amateurs from repair bills on track days.
I know it was generally unpopular around these parts, but I appreciated Michael Masi’s more flexible approach to track limits, allowing kerbs and some runoff to be used on a race-by-race, corner-by-corner basis. I think of several corners at Imola and the Lesmos at Monza as places where the runoff is so limited and the gravel already so close that there’s not really a need to police the white line on safety grounds. Pundits and commentators often complained that the inconsistency was confusing, but I felt it was a more natural approach and reduced the amount of energy I needed to expend thinking about rules and regulations as opposed to simply enjoying the sheer pleasure of watching cars on the limit.
Jere (@jerejj)
20th April 2024, 3:17
Good guest appearance by Piastri & as for the COTD, since I already replied to it, I’ll go shorter here:
That wasn’t really the case with Spoon, though, as lap time invalidations still happened there.
Nick T.
20th April 2024, 4:38
OMG, F1 was forced to run on a billiard smooth track with acres of runoff, but not with every last track surface detail?! How will they ever survive.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
20th April 2024, 5:19
So, the racing line will end up with less grip than off-line?
That’s… very interesting.
S
20th April 2024, 10:40
Would be great for overtaking, in a real racing series.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
20th April 2024, 5:38
too many balls being dropped. Not enough pro-activity, probably points to systemic corruption, in a lot of places.