Wednesday, October 23, 2024

#F1 - "Latest news" Max Verstappen criticises McLaren, COTA's gigantic fine, Liam Lawson, and more: The Inside Line

23 October 2024

Verstappen questions McLaren
Spectator invasion at COTA
Red Bull gets device heat
Lawson knew he’d return
McLaren peak not achieved
Colapinto misses anonymous past
Button says Ricciardo OK
Crawford takes on Houston
Bonus point to be scrapped
Vettel & Schumi set for ROC
Ferrari launches superglam F80

Watch the video, and tell us what you think in the comments…

webmaster John Nichols @itcracing @Linkedin

#F1 - ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: 2024 #MexicoGP Preview: The Inside Line

23 October 2024

Formula One’s trip to Mexico’s capital may be a week too early this year for the sport to take part in its world famous Day of the Dead festivities. But, F1’s arrival cues its own celebrations throughout Mexico City, for the modern race’s ninth edition, and 24th World Championship Grand Prix to be held in Mexico since 1963.

Watch the video, and tell us what you think in the comments…

Last weekend

2024 #USGP Wrap

webmaster John Nichols @itcracing @Linkedin

F1 - Mexico City Grand Prix - Preview Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Press Information
23 October 2024

F1: Race Preview

2024 Mexico City Grand Prix - Preview

The second leg of the triple-header takes place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

Toto Talks Mexico
Fact File: Mexico City Grand Prix
Stat Sheet: Mexico City Grand Prix

Toto Talks Mexico City

After a difficult weekend in Austin, we have the opportunity to bounce back immediately in Mexico. Our performance in Texas showed that there is inherent performance in the car. Our challenge is extracting this consistently. That is not the result of one specific challenge, but the interaction of the car across both aero and mechanical factors. We have five more races to work on this before the end of the season. It is important that we do so, not only for our immediate performance but to also set ourselves up well for 2025.

With its high altitude, Mexico presents a unique challenge. The power unit has to work harder and, to counteract the thin air, we run at maximum downforce. It will provide another opportunity to evaluate our recent update package. Kimi will also be in the car for his second FP1 session and we look forward to him continuing his development on track.

Fact File: Mexico City Grand Prix

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is the third-shortest circuit on the 2024 F1 calendar, at just 4.304 km (behind only Zandvoort and Monaco).
The track has the longest run from pole position to the first braking zone of any on the 2024 F1 calendar (767m) and almost 10 seconds of the 1.2-kilometre-long straight are taken at full throttle.
Because of the high altitude and the low air density in Mexico City, the air is incredibly thin (meaning there are less molecules around) and transports less energy away from hot systems like the Power Unit and brakes.
The nature of the circuit means drivers make only 35 gear changes per lap, the lowest number of the season.
The ambient pressure is the lowest of the season by far. At 780mb, the oxygen levels are 78% of what they are at sea level, and this has a big impact on different areas of a Formula One car, such as Power Unit performance and downforce.
Because you can run a Monaco wing level but experience Monza levels of downforce, top speeds in Mexico are some of the highest of the season, where the cars can achieve 346 km/h (or more with a tow). Only Vegas is higher.
The Power Unit is one of the most affected systems on the car by the high altitude, with a decent drop in engine power due to the thin air. The turbocharger makes up for some of the power loss, but has to work much harder than it would in normal conditions.
The team has three wins at the track - two with Lewis (2016 & 2019) and 2015 with Nico. The latter's win came on F1's return to the track for the first time since 1992.
Lewis clinched his fourth (2017) and fifth (2018) World Drivers' Championship at the circuit.
Junior driver and 2025 Mercedes F1 racer Kimi Antonelli will take part in his second FP1 session of the season, as part of F1's rules around rookie drivers competing in FP1. The Italian will drive Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes W15.

webmaster John Nichols @itcracing @Linkedin

#FF1600 #livestream (sun) - BRSCC GERRIT VAN KOUWEN ANNIVERSARY FORMULA FORD FESTIVAL | Sunday 20 October 2024

Formula Ford 1600 España y Portugal

Anonymous participant
is in Mexico City, Mexico.

¡ BIENVENIDOS !!!

Stat Sheet: Mexico City Grand Prix

2024 Mexico City Grand Prix

Session	Local Time (CST)	*Brackley (BST / GMT)**	*Stuttgart (CEST / CET)**
Practice 1 (Friday)	12:30 - 13:30	19:30 - 20:30	20:30 - 21:30
Practice 2 (Friday)	16:00 - 17:00	23:00 - 00:00	00:00 - 01:00
Practice 3 (Saturday)	11:30 - 12:30	18:30 - 19:30	19:30 - 20:30
Qualifying (Saturday)	15:00 - 16:00	22:00 - 23:00	23:00 - 00:00
Race (Sunday)	14:00	20:00*	21:00*

Race Records - Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team in Mexico City

	Starts	Wins	Podium Places	Poles	Front Row	Fastest Laps	DNF
Mercedes	8	3	10	3	7	5	0
Hamilton	8	2	6	1	3	1	0
Russell	4	0	0	0	1	1	0
MB Power	8	3	11	3	7	5	5

Technical Stats - Season to Date (Pre-season Testing to Present)

	Laps Completed	Distance Covered (km)	Corners Taken	Gear Changes	PETRONAS Fuel Injections
Mercedes	5,662	29,075.526	96,178	283,230	226,760,000
Hamilton	2,798	14,388.357	47,419	139,492	112,200,000
Russell	2,859	14,658.204	48,704	143,558	114,360,000
MB Power	21,653	111,222.195	366,080	1,081,431	865,160,000

Mercedes-Benz in Formula One

	Starts	Wins	Podium Places	Poles	Front Row	Fastest Laps	1-2 Wins	Front Row Lockouts
Mercedes (All Time)	312	128	296	139	262	109	59	84
Mercedes (Since 2010)	300	119	279	131	242	100	54	80
Hamilton	351	105	201	104	176	67	N/A	N/A
Russell	123	2	14	3	11	8	N/A	N/A
MB Power	582	221	611	230	467	219	94	123

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

#F1 - LECLERC STEALS THE SHOW: 2024 #USGP Wrap: The Inside Line

22 October 2024

The battle for the drivers’ title was in full focus as Formula One arrived at Austin, Texas’ freshly resurfaced Circuit of the Americas for the 12th time. But, Ferrari stole the “stars and stripes” showdown, with Charles Leclerc leading home his teammate Carlos Sainz for the Scuderia’s first one-two on US-soil since 2006.

Watch the video, and tell us what you think in the comments…

webmaster John Nichols @itcracing @Linkedin

Monday, October 21, 2024

#F1 - 2024 United States Grand Prix - Sunday "Fightback for George but disappointment for Lewis" Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Press Information
20 October 2024

F1: Session Report

2024 United States Grand Prix - Sunday

Fightback for George but disappointment for Lewis

George Russell finished sixth whilst Lewis Hamilton retired from Sunday's United States Grand Prix.
Lewis lined up P17 on the grid with George starting from the pit lane, after the team had to work through the night to repair his car following Saturday's Qualifying crash.
Lewis made a strong start and gained five positions into turn one. Unfortunately, his race came to an early end as a gust of wind at turn 19 caught him out and left him beached in the gravel.
George meanwhile showed strong pace on the Hard tyre and cycled through the field as he extended his first stint to lap 40.
After boxing for the Medium compound and serving a five-second time penalty for forcing another driver off track, he used his fresher rubber to close on Sergio Perez for P6.
On the penultimate lap, he passed the Red Bull into turn 12 to cap a solid recovery drive.

Driver	Grid	Result	Fastest Lap
George Russell	PIT	P6	1:37.656
Lewis Hamilton	P17	DNF	1:48.064

Strategy	Start	Stop 1	Stop 2
No.63	Hard	Medium (L40)
No.44	Hard

George Russell
I was pleased with how today went from my side. We didn't know what the race would bring in terms of opportunities but going from the pit lane to P6, and finishing ahead of Red Bull, meant that we made the best of a difficult situation. We had good pace throughout, in particular on the Hard compound tyre. We were able to extend that first stint and give ourselves fresher rubber with which to attack in the closing laps.

We will work hard in the coming days to analyse the weekend as a whole. The car can still be tricky at times; Lewis doesn't end races in the gravel as we saw today. When we find its sweet spot, it is capable of strong performances but that is difficult to deliver consistently. I think the car had the potential to fight for the podium this weekend, but we need to widen its operating window. We will therefore be looking to bounce back next weekend in Mexico.

Lewis Hamilton
I had a great start, and I thought we were in for a positive race. I was just bringing the tyres in when I had the accident, which was a really strange moment. I wasn't pushing too hard but the car bounced a little into turn 19, I lost the back end and that was that. We measured a large gust of wind, up to 40 kph, as I turned in which likely didn't help. George had a similar spin to me yesterday so we will work hard to analyse both incidents and see what we can learn from them.

I am sorry to the whole team who have worked so hard to bring these updates but onwards and upwards from here. Hopefully we can get the car in a better place for next week in Mexico. We will all be working incredibly hard to do so.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO
It has been a tough weekend overall here in Austin. We see that there is pace in the car, as was shown on Friday and with George in the race today, but we are still dealing with its inconsistency. That is not something unique to us though. Different teams have come into and out of form throughout the season, but it is something we will be working hard to improve over the final five races of the season.

The positive from today was that George was quick throughout and produced a good fightback from his pit lane start. The team in the garage worked hard last night to get the car ready for the race, with a large workload to get through as we had to revert on specification. George drove a strong race and was particularly quick on the Hard compound. That enabled us to extend his first stint and ultimately claim P6 in the final few laps. Unfortunately, it was a disappointing day for Lewis. He wasn't pushing at all but a gust of wind, combined with the dirty air from the car ahead, and he lost the car. We need to look at that, and what happened with George yesterday, to understand why the car reacted like that. Lewis Hamilton is not a driver that loses a car like that on lap two of a race, so there is something there that we need to understand.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
Given that we had one car starting at the back and one in the pit lane, we had realistic expectations as to what could be achieved today. Lewis made a good start and was quickly up to P12. Unfortunately, that didn't last long as he lost the rear in turn 19. We're still investigating what caused that, but in any case, his race was over.

George was making steady progress through the field in his first stint, but it still took him until the halfway point to get any clear air to judge pace. Encouragingly, the car was hanging on to its tyres well and that was allowing us to extend. P6 was the best he could have achieved today, and he drove a good race to get there.

As a team we have underachieved across the weekend and are under no illusions that we need to do better. The update kit has shown some promise, but we've not had a single clean session, and we'll leave here not knowing what we could have done if we'd started near the front with a car in our latest aero specification. We will look to answer that question next weekend in Mexico.

FF1600 Festival Brands Hatch Livestream Saturday - Sunday

Race Highlights | 2024 United States Grand Prix

Drivers React After The Race | 2024 United States Grand Prix

Mercedes F1 Team CEO Toto Wolff on the business of F1, success in the U.S. and growth outlook: CNBC

Sunday, October 20, 2024

#F1 - Mercedes F1 Team CEO Toto Wolff on the business of F1, success in the U.S. and growth outlook: CNBC

18 October 2024

Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team principal and CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the business of F1, success of F1 in the US, partnership with LVMH and other brands, long-term growth outlook, and more.

webmaster John Nichols @itcracing @Linkedin