In the round-up: Charles Leclerc says rain is his best chance of being competitive on Saturday at the Hungaroring.
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What they say
Obviously it was all about adapting to the conditions which were changing quite a lot. We’ll see tomorrow, hopefully it will rain.
On my side I’m not very happy at the moment in terms of balance of the car so I need to work quite a lot on that. I think wet I was in better shape. Overall I think we are struggling a bit with the downforce level we have. It’s a track where we need a lot of downforce. We knew it would be a difficult track for us so we need to work and try to improve for tomorrow.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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The #GermanGP was the first race @SChecoPerez watched live for a while, but he would rather have been in it… #F1 pic.twitter.com/QTaEWDJvZb
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We're sat opposite the @McLarenF1 garage and I'm so happy right now. #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/TWYQWsrg0e
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Albon crashing right infront of us damn
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Barely raining. If they were out on track they would be cleaning it up and doing dry times.
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There’s something about the paddock at night, especially when it rains. pic.twitter.com/lAPAw0Azsf
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
'I just love driving fast... I try to be as straightforward as I can' (The Telegraph)
Verstappen: "(Hamilton) is undoubtedly one of the best who has ever done it. But really, to say that he’s the best of his generation? I don’t know. Maybe it’s Fernando Alonso. He could have won seven, eight world titles, if he had been at the right team."
Sainz: ‘It’s incredibly annoying going to every race to finish seventh’ (The Guardian)
"I think everyone outside of the top six drivers finds it incredibly annoying."
Pierre Gasly: "I think as expected Mercedes are really fast and we probably didn’t see Ferrari’s true pace so we’ll find out tomorrow what we can fight for, but the battle with Ferrari will be pretty tight."
Alexander Albon: "I made a mistake at the last corner where I dipped a wheel onto the grass. Honestly, it was a silly error and just a misjudgement. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but in some ways, it’s better today than in FP3."
ESPN’s F1 coverage records 19% growth (SportsPro)
"The latest figures also represent a 21 per cent increase on the 561,000 average registered by the Comcast-owned NBC network during the 2017 campaign, before ESPN acquired rights to the championship."
De Vries flies to Budapest pole (F2)
"The ART Grand Prix ace picked up where he left off in pree practice to finish ahead of championship rivals Luca Ghiotto and Nicholas Latifi."
The Evolution of Hybrid Technology in Formula One (Mercedes via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Ben disagrees with Max Verstappen’s claim that Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had “big pressure” from any of his team mates:
People can throw a lot of criticism at Lewis Hamilton, but this one doesn’t stick for me. His team-mate list reads Alonso, Kovalainen, Button, Rosberg, Bottas. Three of those are world champions and the other two are race winners. Granted, Kovalainen didn’t turn out as well as McLaren had hoped, but he was a genuine prospect when he joined in 2008. I’d argue that no driver on the current grid has had such a difficult list of team-mates to beat; with the exception of maybe Raikkonen, (but he didn’t compare too well against Vettel/Alonso) and Ricciardo.
Say what you like about Lewis Hamilton, but I really don’t think he cares who he has to beat in the car next to him.
Ben Needham (@Ben-n)
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Joao (@johnmilk)
3rd August 2019, 0:42
If Ferrari are lacking downforce doesn’t make much sense to ask for rain.
Plus if there is a department that Leclerc needs to improve or show his true abilities is in wet conditions
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
3rd August 2019, 1:09
I believe Leclerc is hoping for rain, because that would increase a possibility for an error from Mercedes and Red Bull. But rain means an increasing possibility for an error from Ferrari too. :) Anyway, Leclerc needs as much practice on wet tracks as possible to become even a better driver, so I can see why Leclerc would love a rain in qualifying – he has more to gain than to lose in those conditions.
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd August 2019, 8:40
Maybe the do have good traction, which also helps in the rain @johnmilk and while at this track downforce is important enough that if you have too little, you are stuck, with rain that good traction (or just Leclerc feeling he can work with the car more confidently compared to others), and, as you say @bulgarian, some mistakes from competitors, that gives chances to do better.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
3rd August 2019, 10:21
@johnmilk
It depends where you get your downforce from. Cars that get most of it from their aero struggle in the rain, because it doesn’t work in the rain (lower speeds, different air flow).
Just look at how Ferrari performed in the wet in the 90s. The car was nowhere in dry conditions, but as soon as it rained they were flying. Barcelona ’96 for example: Schumi had no chance against the Williams in qualifying, but on race day he was over 3(!!!) seconds a lap faster than his nearest competitors and the Williams cars were just sliding around, having no grip at all.
David BR (@david-br)
3rd August 2019, 1:24
Max is starting to sound a little bit obsessed.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
3rd August 2019, 4:01
I think it’s about time for Max to play mind game against Lewis. Honda starting to match Ferrari and he obviously didn’t feel threaten by Seb.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd August 2019, 7:45
@david-br lol, read what Ham said yesterday and you’ll see why.
Terence
3rd August 2019, 3:01
Just the other day Max was saying how Hamilton never had a teammate who put pressure on him… now he’s saying one of those teammates could have won 8 titles.
Ok then…
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
3rd August 2019, 5:53
Alonso was one of my favorite drivers, but if we are talking championships and being the greatest of a generation means you have to make sure you are in the best car at the right time. That is part of the equation and Alonso was one of the worst. Same goes for Max. The clock is ticking.
bob (@riptide)
3rd August 2019, 7:55
And when he was in the best car-McLaren, he screwed up another WDC by letting a rookie get to him. So hardly a good example from Max. Iv’e no idea what game Max and his sugar daddy in theteam are playing; I see RB are being dismissive about Seb now when comparing him to Max, but it’s not coming across as mind games, more a spoilt child being overindulged by doting parents.
Ipsom
3rd August 2019, 8:47
There’s a difference between greatest driver and most successful driver.
SparkyAMG (@)
3rd August 2019, 6:28
I wonder if Max has been advised to try and get under Lewis’ skin now that Red Bull are drawing near, or whether it’s just coming naturally to him.
Either way, a couple of his comments this week have struck me as a bit unnecessary but they’re setting the tone for what could be an amazing rivalry over the next 18 months… one which could ultimately be the difference between Lewis matching Schumacher’s records or not.
AMG44 (@amg44)
3rd August 2019, 7:48
If Max feels Alonso is the best then why not convince your team to take him to replace Gasly. Alonso is looking for a race winning car and would happily accept.
Now Max senses he can be a challenger for the World Championship he has started playing mind games with Lewis.
As for Alonso winning 7 or 8 championships….dont know about that
But Lewis missed out on 2007 championship by 1 point in his rookie season and 2016 by 5 points after suffering lot of mechanical failures. So Lewis easily could have been 7 time world champion right now and going for his record breaking 8th.
To be a fast Redbull driver is great but only till next Redbull super driver comes along. Before it was Vettel then Ric and now Max. Let’s see for how long it continues.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
3rd August 2019, 8:25
Appreciate Andy’s engineering chops. Also impressed how he can make 4 minutes seem like an hour. ;-)
Still… very impressive bat…ers… energy storage. 20 kilos for 200kW is pretty amazing. Put a couple of those packs in a small hot hatch and you’d have a great little beater that only costs a few million to build.
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd August 2019, 8:42
well put @jimmi-cynic, LOL (with full agreement) at both parts of your post.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
3rd August 2019, 10:45
Maybe Max reads the F1Metrics blog, after correcting for car limitations, this mathematical model claims that Alonso happened to be the standout performer way more times (even more than 7-8 until 2014) than the number of titles he earned: https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/a-reconstructed-history-of-formula-1/