Antonio Giovinazzi confirmed to be driving with Kimi next year for Sauber
http://www.fiatpress.com/press/article/antonio-giovinazzi-to-race-for-the-alfa-romeo-sauber-f1-team
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Will be interesting to see what he can do
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And then there was this Tweet:
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Thats almost as bad as your girlfriend shacking up with a new guy and saying " So happy to announce Snowbeast will still be in my life as my bestieeee!!! Brad Pitt + Meeee + Snowbeast = best team evaaaaa!"
Shame Ericson has just hasn’t had a year good enough to keep him in F1
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Pierre Gasly becoming Max’s teammate/bodyguard/keep the other drivers away from me person…interesting
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They’re in an open relationship, clearly Ericsson was not performing where it was needed
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Red Bull set for power unit grid penalties in Russia
Russian Grand Prix – Red Bull Racing look set to be given grid penalties for fitting fresh power unit components on both Daniel Ricciardo’s and Max Verstappen’s cars.
Following teething troubles with the ‘spec C’ Renault power unit, Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the team will use fresh ‘spec B’ power units for the Russian Grand Prix.
With Red Bull having relatively little to lose over the remainder of the season, they’ve been trialling the latest Renault power unit. However, Renault pre-warned that this experimental unit may have reliability issues, as a result, McLaren and the works Renault team have been reluctant to use it.
Red Bull have used the ‘spec C’ unit in Monza and throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, but Verstappen had weekend-long driveability issues.
The need for a strong power unit at the Sochi Autodrom means that Red Bull have chosen to fit fresher, more reliable ‘spec B’ units, which will incur grid penalties, which are handed out for exceeding the power unit component allocation.
“We’ve got the previous specification going in for the next race, so Sochi is going to be a tough weekend for us,” said Horner.
“We accepted the risks when we took this [Spec C] engine. It has delivered a bit more power and it has been a bit rough around the edges.
“I think the [Red Bull mechanics] actually did a good job to tidy it up as best they could on the mapping within their parameters. With more time and more optimisation, it would only be better.”
With Singapore yielding an upturn in competitiveness for Red Bull, Horner added that the team may have one final shot to take a win before the season ends.
“I think realistically this year, Mexico is probably the only shot we’ve got left [of a win] under normal circumstances.”
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fodmltd.f1timing&rdid=com.fodmltd.f1timing
Formula 1 has launched a dedicated live timing app after the criticism it received following the unveiling of its latest mobile app during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
Reviews of the latest upgrade of the official F1 app were very critical due to the limitations on live timing and other issues, and F1 said it was a “priority” to sort the problems in the upcoming releases.
However, while F1 continues work on improving the app, the sport has decided to make the previous live timing app available to F1 fans ahead of the Russian Grand Prix.
“The launch of our new F1 app didn’t quite live up to your expectations, and Live Timing didn’t deliver the great mobile F1 experience you previously enjoyed,” said F1.
"We’ve taken your feedback seriously. And we’re working hard to make the F1 app even better.
“In the meantime, we’re launching a dedicated F1 Live Timing app, to sit alongside our F1 app, so you don’t miss a millisecond.”
The app is already available for Android and iOS users.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-launches-dedicated-live-timing-app-after-criticism/3183745/
Приветствуем поклонников гонок и добро пожаловать на Гран-при Формулы-1 2018 от Сочинского автодрома!
(Privetstvuyem poklonnikov gonok i dobro pozhalovat’ na Gran-pri Formuly-1 2018 ot Sochinskogo avtodroma! - you too can speak Russian now!)
Hello Race Fans and welcome to the 2018 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix from the Sochi Autodrom!
Russian Time (lol, see what I did there?!) is one hour ahead of SA, but I did the hard maths for y’all already… here’s the weekend schedule, in SAST!
The 18 turns, 2 DRS zones and 5.8kms (it’s the 4th longest circuit on the present calendar) of the Sochi Autodrom circuit play host to their 5th F1 Grand Prix. Here’s what it looks like for this year:
And here is local lad Sergey Sirotkin’s virtual lap of the circuit (had to go with this crappy replacement video because I know DGH is really busy):
With its’ low stress and low abrasion ratings, the soft rubber of the Pirelli tyres should see another race where the one-stop strategy is taken by pretty much everyone:
Overcast skies and temperatures in the mid-20s should mean a comfortable race for all:
See what the drivers and team principals think about the Russian Grand Prix (and all the other scuttlebut doing the rounds!) in the pre-race press conferences:
-
Thursday, September 27, 1500 hours local time (1200 UTC)
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Charles Leclerc (Sauber), Sergey Sirotkin (Williams) -
Friday, September 28, 1300 hours local time (1000 UTC)
Cyril Abiteboul (Renault), Mario Isola (Pirelli), Otmar Szafnauer (Racing Point Force India), Toto Wolff (Mercedes)
And finally… holy stats and info Batman, it’s the Russian Grand Prix!
- Sochi is the third Olympic venue to have been used to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix, the other two being Canada’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve (Montreal, 1976) and Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Barcelona, 1992).
- As a company, Mercedes-Benz really do have a 100% win record at the Russian Grand Prix. At the 1913 and 1914 races, both the winners drove Benz cars (Mercedes-Benz only became a thing following Benz’s merger with Daimler in 1926).
- History suggests that a one-stop strategy is the way to go in Sochi, with no-one having ever finished in the top four at the Russian Grand Prix after doing two or more pit stops.
- In qualifying for the 2017 race, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas were all separated by just 0.095s.
- Drivers need to beware on Lap 1. In the entire history of F1 at the Sochi Autodrom, 50% of retirements have come on the opening lap. You can see a fair old few of those in the video below, from the chaotic 2016 start…
- In the first 68 years of the Formula 1 World Championship from 1950 to 2017, there was never a Grand Prix where the top six in qualifying finished in that order in the race. In 2018, however, it’s now happened twice, in Monaco and Singapore.
- The pole position in qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix will be Pirelli’s 200th. Goodyear, the only other tyre manufacturer to hit the double century mark, netted their 200th pole at the 1988 French Grand Prix, eventually going on to take 358 by the time they bowed out of F1 at the end of 1998.
- Since the summer break, Valtteri Bottas has failed to come within 0.362s of Lewis Hamilton in the Q3 segment of qualifying. That’s a similar scenario to 2017, when Bottas failed to get within 0.332s of Hamilton in Q3 for six races after the summer break.
- The next lap that Lewis Hamilton leads in 2018 (assuming he does lead one more) will be his 300th for the season.
- Despite having always driven for Red Bull at the Russian Grand Prix (as opposed to the lower-performing Toro Rosso and HRT teams he drove for previously), Daniel Ricciardo has never finished in the top six in Sochi – the Aussie’s worst performance record for any track on the calendar. In fact, while Red Bull have never managed a podium finish in Russia, both Force India and Williams have.
Наслаждайтесь гонкой!
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Damn, I wanted to record the video last night, but I couldn’t get the damn Xbox to record anything other than 4K. Which meant I could only do 30 second clips because I don’t have an external to write to and bla bla bla. But I’ll try and record my lap.
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It’s official: Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean will race on for Haas in 2019.
This year has seen one of the wildest and most unpredictable driver markets in recent years, but though rumours have swirled over the summer – particularly regarding Romain Grosjean’s future at the team - the American squad have opted to retain their driver line-up for what will be their fourth year in the premier category of motorsport.
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Can’t say I’m particularly excited about that.
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I can’t wait for the lovely nap I’m going to take during today’s race.
Going to be such a boring race.
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RIP Ferrari. Try again next year. Ouch, Bottas continues to be number 2 even at this stage
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I missed it the race, from what I hear just catching highlights will be enough. I did figure out that the Ferrari’s stood no chance
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@Wyvern don’t read further then.
If I was Toto I would have done the same thing.
Protect Lewis from attacks on those tires then make sure I have the points buffer in the bag.
Lewis was surprisingly humble. Valteri took it as well as anybody would have and Max is a beast.
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If I was Toto, I would… Hold the line.
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