In the round-up: George Russell says he doesn’t want to luck-in to a points score despite being the only driver to end last year’s championship without a point.
What they say
Russell’s team mate Robert Kubica scored Williams’ only point at the Hockenheimring:
Obviously, Formula 1 is about scoring points to get on the table. But I think the most important thing is having a stronger car, a car that we can compete [with] more week after week rather than just scoring… I could have scored a point here and there but it would have been out of luck and we don’t want to do that. We need to do it on pure pace.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
.@IndyCar has de-prioritized the prospect of international races under new owner Roger Penske, but 'I don't know that the door is completely closed,' per Penske Entertainment Corp. CEO Mark Miles.
🗨: 'We're very focused on growing our business and fanbase in North America.' pic.twitter.com/oBn0qexNQr
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) January 24, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
ACO and IMSA forge future of endurance racing (FIA WEC)
"The LMDh car will be: Based on a new chassis common to both ACO and IMSA, using elements of the Le Mans Hypercar and LMP2 chassis, and built by the four current LMP2 manufacturers: Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic and Oreca. This chassis will also be used for the new generation LMP2; The car will use a common hybrid KERS system, on the rear axle; Its silhouette and design will be modifiable, developed according to the brand or style of the manufacturer which will provide the engine power for the car."
R-Motorsport to step down from DTM (R-Motorsport)
"The widely noticed debut year of R-Motorsport running four Aston Martin Vantage DTM cars under the exclusive licence of Aston Martin had essentially contributed to the success of DTM during the 2019 season."
'Verbrenner hat noch lange Zukunft' (Auto Motor under Sport - German)
Renault's Remi Taffin believes the four power unit manufacturers are now closely matched with Ferrari slightly ahead of them, Mercedes slightly behind and Honda a further back. He estimates Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes are covered by five to 10 Kilowatts and Honda are 15 to 20 behind that.
Formula One CEO says overhaul deal talks in 'final stages' (BNN Bloomberg)
"We have elements of the future resolved. We’ve had the rules, regulations, the cost cap, those things have been resolved."
Alesi on learning from 'ups and downs' (Formula 2)
Giuliano Alesi: "Together with the team, I think we were both a bit lost to begin with. It definitely wasn’t the best way to start, but we tried to find ourselves, bit by bit, to try and improve and go forward."
ExxonMobil fuel our future (Red Bull)
"We're very pleased to be continuing our successful partnership with ExxonMobil for the upcoming 2020 Formula One season and beyond."
F1’s new-season storylines are tantalising, but pay TV is limiting potential (The Guardian)
"On the plus side F1’s embracing of digital and social media, ignored under Bernie Ecclestone, does appear to be bearing fruit. Their Nielsen assessment of the sport’s fanbase reported that 62% of new fans accumulated in the last two years were under the age of 35. There is clearly potential to inspire an entire new generation. Missing it would be bleak indeed when the long-term numbers are tallied up."
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Comment of the day
Are F1 fans better served by pay-television or free-to-air broadcasts? Finnish F1 coverage disappeared behind a paywall a few years ago:
In the early 2000s we had at best over 1.9 million viewers in Finland. That’s over one-third of the population. Right now we are lucky to get a few hundred thousand.
I don’t see any improvement in quality of broadcast either. I personally find the Finnish broadcast unbearable to watch which wasn’t the case 15 years ago.
@Retardedf1sh
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On this day in F1
- 45 years ago today Jean-Pierre Jarier put his Shadow on pole position for the second race in a row, at Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix
Jere (@jerejj)
25th January 2020, 7:52
More than just a few years ago actually, 13 in fact, but didn’t affect me at the time and never has affected me at any point since, but the relevant point is that I couldn’t disagree more with the ‘unbearable’ claim, LOL. Many have claimed that about the UK Sky-team, and based on the limited amount of occasions I’ve heard them, mainly through the F1 YT highlights-uploads, etc., I don’t find the Crofty/Brundle(/Di Resta)-combination unbearable either.
I agree with Russell about scoring points on pure race rather than through luck, though.
Dozzy Cooper (@dozzy)
25th January 2020, 9:43
Croft is utterly unbearable, he makes my flesh creep. Brundle is OK, just, but gets more fatuous every race. Best thing they’ve got is Ted. The others on Sky are an irrelevant irritation. C4 do a much better job.
GongTong (@gongtong)
25th January 2020, 18:06
While we’re all disagreeing with one another, I find C4 unbearable and the whole Sky team to be great. Ted is the highlight I agree.
Still won’t pay for it though. On principle I don’t pay to watch advertising and that’s what sport is.
GeeMac (@geemac)
27th January 2020, 9:45
@dozzy For Channel 4 you could have applied your Brundle comment to DC, he used to be great but he’s getting more and more annoying as each race goes by. I think the reason we all like Ted is because he remembers that the people watching are massive F1 fans and that he is lucky to be involved in F1…so he is enthusiastic about everything. The others could learn from that.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
26th January 2020, 5:53
My problem with sky is that f1 journalism was never this unprofessional, 0 values. As bias as can be.
grat
27th January 2020, 14:22
Any combination with David Croft yelling incoherently at me is undesirable. He’s obviously from the school where the guiding principles are:
* Never let there be a moment when someone isn’t talking
* Yelling makes it more exciting
* Accuracy is irrelevant. JUST BE LOUD!!!!!
* No speculation is unreasonable AS LONG AS YOU’RE YELLING!!!
I miss Bob Varsha (and hope he wins his fight against cancer soon).
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
25th January 2020, 9:31
Here we are then, again at the end(s) of era(s).
IMSA is running the smallest grid in years this weekend, is missing some major manufacturers but is looking absolutely positive going forward with the convergence.
F1 is running the last season with the current formula, so not much innovation is expected. Nor much changes from the past seasons. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong but I’m expecting a repeat in many ways.
Penskes announcement regarding the international races is disappointing to say the least. And with grandfathering the DW-12 into the new hybrid engine for 2022-2023, pushing a new chassis introduction as late as 2025, It just feels less is less. Oh well, the racing is no doubt going to be as good as ever.
The Roaring Twenties (pun intented) season starts today with the Rolex24from Daytona, I urge all racefans to tune in!
Let’s go racing !
anon
25th January 2020, 10:03
@uneedafinn2win, there are some points that are not entirely clear about the proposed convergence between the Daytona Prototype (or LMDh) class and the Le Mans Hypercar class though.
Firstly, there is a suggestion that the Daytona Prototypes will now have a hybrid element to them, potentially a 50bhp standard specification rear axle hybrid motor – however, currently IMSA have not yet opened up the bidding process to deliver that hybrid element.
There is also confusion about whether the “grandfathering” mechanism, where privateer teams could use older LMP1 or DPi cars for a short period (typically a couple of years) after the introduction of a new rule set to reduce costs for them, will be retained. That could be quite important for the privateer efforts, but so far that problem seems to have been kicked down the road by both IMSA and the ACO.
The more significant confusion is over interoperability – whilst the ACO has announced that there will be Balance of Performance mechanisms to allow a Daytona Prototype car to compete in their series, and particularly at Le Mans, what is not clear is whether a Le Mans Hypercar will be allowed to compete in the IMSA’s series.
There is also the question of what knock on effect this decision might have on the lower categories, and in particular the GTE category. That category had been enjoying a relatively high amount of manufacturer interest because it was a cheaper way to compete at Le Mans, but that might now go into decline if the ACO and IMSA push the DPi/Hypercar classes instead – great for them, but arguably not so great for the privateer teams that compete in those categories.
DAllein (@)
25th January 2020, 10:28
Branded F3-like series staying in US?
Good.
Daytona-class based on absolutely different hypercar cars?
Yeah! Sure! This will work! *fattest sarcasm ever*
F1 overhaul complete?
I consider 2020 the Last year of F1, and totally expect it to be unwatchable show running on blood-covered (not drivers’, but of stoned or smashed slaves, women and LGBT members) tracks starting In 2021-2022.
And car-parks around each Mall in the world!
Andrew
28th January 2020, 11:10
No Kubica no points. Remember my Words.