In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto plays down the likely impact of the team’s upgrade package for this weekend’s race.
What they say
Binotto indicated Ferrari’s updates for its SF1000 this weekend will be minor:
There will be small upgrades but this will not change the big picture.
I think we are at the moment out of pace in the race and we are somehow wearing the tyres too much. So the upgrades will not be the ones that address it.
We need to review projects with the view to 2021. I think it will take some more time to do it.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Latest diary entry 📔 pic.twitter.com/m7Am16EQzM
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) September 18, 2020
Given crammed (motor & other) sporting calendars each June, why not permanently move @24hoursoflemans to mid-Sept, after @F1 Euro season is over? Less clash, more challenge for drivers fm equinox
— Fritz-Dieter Rencken (@RacingLines) September 20, 2020
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
'It feels like grieving' – Claire Williams opens up on her family leaving F1 for good (F1)
"A lot of people probably don’t knew the instrumental role my mum played in Williams. If it wasn’t for her money in the beginning, my dad would never have achieved his dream and this team wouldn’t have gone on to achieve what it did."
Barrichello: 'I feel young again in Super TC2000' (Touring Car Times)
"What I like here is the very experienced rivals I race against, it motivates me a lot."
24 Heures du Mans 2020 - Full race highlights (24 Heures du Mans via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Does the lack of manufacturer competition Toyota have faced at Le Mans in the last three years detract from their achievement of winning it?
Before the Ford GT40 sweep in ’66, Ferrari didn’t have much competition that decade and the GT40s weren’t exactly fighting tooth and nail for that sweep. Porsche didn’t have much “real opposition” ’81-’88. And until Peugeot and Porsche returned to winning ways, Audi ran pretty much unopposed in the 2000s.
It’s not like Toyota are the only team to have won Le Mans when the competition wasn’t exactly fierce.
Aldoid
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Steven Robertson (@emu55)
21st September 2020, 1:00
With Nakajima winning the last 3 Le Mans and Sato winning the Indy 500, it would be nice to have a Japanese driver in F1 again. Especially since Honda are a race winning engine.
MacLeod (@macleod)
21st September 2020, 7:56
I think next year you see a japanse driver at Alpha Tauri….. From what i see in F2 very promising driver.
anon
21st September 2020, 12:02
@macleod if you are referring to Yuki Tsunoda, I wouldn’t necessarily bank on him appearing in Formula 1 in 2021.
In order to secure a superlicence, he needs to finish at least 5th in the championship in Formula 2 this year – whilst he was on track earlier in the year, he’s slipped back to 6th and risks falling to 7th given Louis Delétraz is only a single point behind him. Tsunoda has had a spell of multiple races now where he’s not scored points – if it persists for much longer, it’s quite plausible that he’ll fail to meet the superlicence requirements at the end of the year.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
21st September 2020, 1:29
I’ve always felt that Nakajima was decent driver, for whatever reason, his stint in F1 didn’t work out. His career since then has been very good.
H67
21st September 2020, 5:03
Good results for F1 drivers at Lemans today. Brandon Hartley and Paul de Resta
also won.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st September 2020, 7:37
In a normal season, the F1 Euro phase might be over by mid-September, but there are still events with which there’d be a direct timing clash, and those are the Singapore and Russian GPs unless the Japanese GP would take place before these two, or maybe some other place featuring a great-ish time difference to Le Mans. There’s never a direct clash with the Canadian GP due to the time difference between Montreal and Le Mans, so no problem as long as it’s this specific F1 event with which the 24H of Le Mans would share a weekend in its traditional month.