Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Refuelling is another silver bullet ‘solution’ to Formula 1’s problems which won’t improve the racing, argues Roger:
Refuelling has been considered at least twice already the past decade and rejected by teams and I believe the FIA and FOM because when they studied how it worked before and how it would work now they deemed it hurt the racing.
And as Pat Symonds said a negative is it makes racing more planned and takes more out of the drivers and puts things more in the hands of strategists and computers.
As he said if you have refuelling and put 20 laps of fuel in then you have to pit within one to two laps of that because you can’t save much more to extend. And once you put the first time how much fuel you put in dictates the next stint and when you next stop.
When you don’t have refuelling and it’s just about tyres then it’s less predictable, more varied and your having to react more with not only far more scope to change strategy on the fly but drivers also have more input because they can cause more or less tyre wear which causes strategies to change be it needing to stop earlier or be able to extend.
At Silverstone for example Antonelli came into play because he was able to extend and stop later getting the benefit of fresher rubber. With refueling he wouldn’t have been able to extend by that much. And it was him having that ability to extend which brought some interest to the end of the race before he had the car issue.
Drivers been able to sprint more in grands prix isn’t worth all the negatives refueling would bring to the racing and how it would play out.
@Roger-Ayles
Social media and links
Silverstone anticlimax threatens to send F1 back to the drawing board on rules (The Guardian)
‘Russell’s Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, was right in noting that had the same rules been followed in 2021 the outcome there would have been different. ‘I would have preferred for this to happen in ’21, that was more important,’ he said.’
Filming day il 9 luglio: Madring invita la Ferrari, il budget cap ringrazia (Auto Racer – Italian)
‘Ferrari is to hold a filming day at the Madring ahead of its first race later this year.’
F2 keen to grow American presence after Herta’s blockbuster move (Formula Scout)
Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel: ‘He’s a very talented driver and I have zero doubt about that, but coming into the F2 system directly without having been in Formula 3 before, without having been in the pyramid and arriving on a F1 race weekend on tracks he doesn’t know, it’s a big job.’
McLaren clears Lundgaard to sign a new contract elsewhere for 2027 (Racer)
‘Lundgaard is expected to draw considerable interest from every team with a paying seat to offer, which includes Chip Ganassi Racing (Scott Dixon), Meyer Shank Racing (Felix Rosenqvist), Andretti Global (Marcus Ericsson), and others who rank behind those teams in the standings.’
Leading figures across the Formula 1 paddock unite to tackle online abuse (FIA)
‘Having recently experienced online abuse following the Japanese Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon emphasised the importance of combatting online abuse in sport: ‘If you start accepting that (online abuse), you accept that this is reality, this is normality, and that is not the case.”
RaceFans always endeavours to credit original sources. Want to share a relevant motorsport link with us? Send it in via the contact form.