Piston.my

GP

Race starts at 3:10 pm in Italy/9:10 pm in Malaysia

The compressed schedule means that just a week has been separating many of the first seven rounds of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship. Last week, the drivers raced at Spa in Belgium and after that, the teams travelled 800 kms southeast to Monza in Italy for this weekend’s 2020 Italian Grand Prix. The eighth round is at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a 98-year old circuit that has hosted F1 rounds 70 times.

Monza – nicknamed ‘The Temple of Speed’ – is all about pace, and some of the highest speeds of each season are reached as the cars race along the long straights and high speeds are possible at many of the 11 corners. The maximum speed cars will reach at Monza is around 336 km/h, the third highest in F1 – behind Paul Ricard (340 km/h) and Mexico City (350 km/h).

Just over 77% of the lap time and 84% of the lap distance are taken at full throttle. Because a large chunk of driving at Monza is spent in eighth gear, very few gear changes take place over the course of the lap compared to other tracks. Despite the focus on outright speed, cornering velocities are also important to getting good lap times. Traction out of the three chicanes is also vital.

Low downforce often features as a talking point every year at Monza and set-ups aim at getting it as low as possible to minimize drag on the straights. For this reason, good mechanical grip is very important.

Scuderia Alphatauri Honda

For this round, Pirelli has brought to Monza a selection from the middle of its range of tyres. The C2 compound will feature as the white-banded hard tyres, while the C3 will be the mediums and C4 will be the red-banded soft tyres.

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

The championship positions
Having won 5 out of the 7 races run so far, Lewis Hamilton has a strong lead which is 47 points ahead of the closest rival, Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas is just 3 points behind Verstappen so expect him to be pushing hard to get past the Dutch Red Bull Racing driver. Sixth place in Belgium has moved Alexander Albon to fourth place, ahead of Charles Leclerc who was the winner of last year’s Italian GP.

Among the Constructors, Mercedes-AMG continues to extend its lead with each round. Its two drivers have already contributed a total of 264 points, comfortably ahead of Reb Bull racing which has 158 points. After that, there’s close contention between the next two constructors – McLaren and BWT Racing Point – with a separation of just 2 points.

On the historical side, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won the most times at Monza, each having 5 wins to his name. Schumacher’s victories were all with Ferrari which is also the team with the most number of victories (19), followed by McLaren and Mercedes.

Since 1996, Mercedes-AMG has supplied the Official F1 Safety Car as well as other cars for official use at each round.

Departure of the Williams family
The Italian Grand Prix will be a sad one for the Williams team and its fans. Having been sold to Dorilton Capital, a private investment firm in the USA, the Williams family will cease to be involved in the team that was established by Sir Frank Williams in 1977. The team has been managed by Williams’ daughter, Claire, since 2013.

The Williams team has had an impressive history with 7 Drivers’ titles and 9 Constructors’ championships. It’s the end of an era for the family-owned team and the decision to sell it off has been a difficult one, but necessary to ensure its survival. Under new ownership, it is expected that the team will have a secure long-term future in the sport.

PISTON.MY

♦ McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. didn’t get to race as exhaust failure while driving for the grid line-up forced him to instead return to the pits just before the start.

♦ Rain was headed towards the circuit but the start of the race was in dry conditions.

♦ The first crash took place during lap 11, bringing out the Safety Car. Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo was starting to spin and Russell (Williams) tried to avoid him but could not and crashed into the wall, with Giovanazzi doing the same a second later.

♦ Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez chose not to head for the pits to get fresh tyres while the rest of the cars came in while the Mercedes-AMG Safety Car was out for about 3 laps. Gasly would only bring his Scuderia Alphatauri Honda in on the 27th lap, the last driver to do so.

♦ Charles Leclerc was required to meet the Stewards after the race as he was seen to be ‘driving unnecessarily slowly’ during the reconnaissance lap.

♦ At the halfway mark, Lewis Hamilton had a 3-second lead over team mater Valtteri Bottas, and was about 7.5 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. The top three were essentially on their own as the gap after the Dutch Red Bull driver was about 16 seconds to Daniel Ricciardo.

♦ On lap 28, Hamilton’s car was spotted having a damaged wing and at the same time, the team sent a message to Bottas which suggested he was to push as hard as he could.At that point, Hamilton was still 3.7 seconds ahead.

♦ In the last few laps of the race, Hamilton expressed concerns about the front tyres, fearing a repeat of Silverstone – which wasn’t good at a track with such a long lap. But he managed the tyres as best as he could and crossed the finish line for his fourth win at Spa.

PISTON.MY

l

 

Race starts at 3:10 pm in Belgium/9:10 pm in Malaysia

After one weekend break, the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship begins its second three-in-a-row rounds with Round 7 at the historical Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgium Grand Prix. The event is the 65th F1 World Championship round hosted by Belgium and is one of the original races from the 1950s season. However, the F1 races were not always held at Spa-Francorchamps and on 11 occasions, they were held at two other circuits.

The 7-km track with 19 turns is therefore familiar to the drivers and teams, with its outstanding features and characteristics leading to some interesting set-up decisions. The two long full-throttle sections of the first and third sectors require low drag – but the longer intricate middle sector, where much of the lap time is made or lost, makes for a complicated choice of downforce levels. If too high, the car cannot attack or defend on the long straights; too low and too much time is lost in the middle of the lap. Each team will therefore have different strategies and it is always interesting see which one proves suitable.

2020 F1 Belgium Grand Prix

Spa-Francorchamps is F1’s longest track with a lap distance of 7.004 kilometres. This tops the second circuit on the list, Baku (6.003 kms), by just over one kilometre. Because of its long lap distance, the Belgium GP has the lowest number of race laps in F1 with only 44 – making for a race distance of 308.05 kms. Also at this track, the drivers experience up to 5.2g (at Turn 10), which is the highest lateral g-force of the season.

2020 F1 Belgium Grand Prix - Red Bull Racing

Longest lap, few gear changes
Interestingly, despite having the longest lap in F1, the drivers only change gear 38 times for each circulation of Spa, one of the lowest figures in F1. This is particularly low when compared to the busy laps of Monaco where drivers will change gears around 50 times per lap – and that street track is less than half the length of Spa.

The main reason for the relatively low number of gear changes per lap is that a large portion of the lap at Spa is covered in top gear. Additionally, most of the corners that require gear changes come in groups – for example, Turn 5 to Turn 7. Over the length of the entire 7.004 kilometres of lap distance, there are only 6 sets of gear changes required.

2020 F1 Belgium Grand Prix

Prompted by a 2019 race in which no driver used the C1 tyre and seven of the ten points-scoring cars ran a one-stop strategy, Pirelli has brought a compound one notch down for this weekend’s racing, with the C2, C3 and C4 available to the teams.

Fresh engines installed
Another potential factor at this race is the use of fresh engines. The announcement of an extended calendar earlier this week takes the projected number of races up to 17 (originally 22) which is above the threshold that allowed competitors to use a third ICE, TC or MGU-H. Spa has traditionally been a race where teams install a new power unit anyway, and so this weekend may see a slight shift in running, especially in the ultra-tight midfield.

2020 F1 Belgium Grand Prix - Ferrari

2020 F1 Belgium Grand Prix - Williams

The championship positions
Lewis Hamilton continues to enjoy a commanding lead at the top of the Driver’ Championship table with 132 points. Behind him is Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who has 95 points after having taken 5 5 consecutive podium finishes. He is ahead of Valtteri Bottas who started the season well but now finds himself slipping and has so far collected only 89 points.

Once again, Mercedes-AMG is in a strong leading position in the Constructors’ Championship with 221 points. That’s 86 points ahead of Red Bull Racing. The teams to watch are Racing Point, McLaren and Ferrari: Racing Point has 63 points, just one point ahead of McLaren and two ahead of Ferrari.

Past winners
Michael Schumacher has had the most number of wins at the Belgium GP -2 with Benetton and 4 with Ferrari. The Ferrari team has had the most victories, 18 in all, which is 4 ahead of McLaren.

PISTON.MY

2020 Spanish GP Results

♦ With temperatures already at 30 degrees C. when the race started, managing the tyres was a major part of the race strategy for the Mercedes-AMG drivers. It was evident from the beginning laps as they moderated lap times.

♦ Unlike his advantageous situation at Silverstone in the previous round, Max Verstappen found his tyres (especially the rear ones) to be less than satisfactory at Catalunya.

♦ After 22 laps, the drivers were struggling with the tyres and heading for the pits to get fresh sets. 3 of them held out till over 30 laps.

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

Empty stands, as it has been in the other five rounds this year.

♦ At the halfway mark, while Hamilton kept a 5.5-second gap from Verstappen, the action was closer in the midfield between drivers like Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc and Land Norris.

♦ The engine of Leclerc’s Ferrari cut suddenly on lap 40, causing a spin and stall. He managed to get it restarted and limped to the pits, his race over.

♦ It may have been blistering hot but as 20 laps remained, the possibility of rain grew stronger. That was something unexpected since it had not rained at a Spanish GP in 21 years.

♦ With 13 laps left to go, the Ferrari team decided – and Vettel agreed – that he would not change tyres and aim to finish on the very old set he had. But he found it hard to hold off other cars and slipped from fifth to seventh.

♦ With 4 laps remaining, Hamilton had a comfortable 17-second gap from Verstappen, who had to watch out for Valtteri Bottas making a bid to end with a Mercedes-AMG 1-2.

♦ With one lap remaining, Bottas changed his tyres with the aim of going for the fastest lap and managed to pick up an extra point.

COVID-19 Facemask

PISTON.MY

♦ A spin in Turn 1 for Sebastian Vettel saw the 4-time World Champion drop from 11th to last in the pack as the cars headed away.

♦ After 10 laps, tyre issues began to start as temperatures rose and the cars came in for tyre changes.  Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel stayed out up to 23 laps but Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen chose to hang for 27 laps before pitting and giving up his leading position momentarily.

♦ Tyre management became increasingly critical for the two Mercedes-AMG cars as the hard compounds blistered.

♦ With 15 laps to go, Hamilton captured the lead but was very concerned about his tyre condition and the blistering.

♦ Understanding that the Mercedes-AMG driver could only do so much with his well worn tyres, Verstappen was told to put the pressure on and close the gap which was about 11 seconds.

♦ With 10 laps to go, Hamilton came in to get fresh tyres and Verstappen took over the lead, with Bottas 4 seconds behind. Charging confidently ahead and setting a new lap record, he got past Charles Leclerc and closed in on Bottas.

♦ In the closing laps, Hamilton got past his team mate but ran out of time to close in on Verstappen who was 9 seconds ahead.

♦ The win today at Silverstone makes it 9 for the Red Bull Racing DutchmanThe 25 points don’t advance his position in the standings but narrow the gap with Bottas.

Red Bull Racing

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Scuderia Alpha Tauri

Alfa Romeo Orlen

BWT Racing Point

Ferrari

Haas F1

COVID-19 Facemask

PISTON.MY

Race starts at 2:10 pm British time/9:10 pm Malaysian time

Following the British Grand Prix a week ago, F1 extends its stay at Silverstone this weekend with Round 5 of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship – the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. The event has been named in celebration of the inaugural World Championship, the first event of which was the British (and honorary European) Grand Prix which took place at Silverstone on May 13th, 1950.

The circuit is noted for its fast, flowing corners but the intricacies of the lower-speed ‘Arena’ section between Abbey and the Wellington Straight are often where time is to be gained or lost. Silverstone is a difficult circuit on which to overtake and qualifying position is frequently paramount: thus, these sections receive just as much attention in set-up discussions as the famed high-speed turns at Copse, Stowe and the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex.

Formula 1

Silverstone

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

Silverstone

Formula 1

Whereas last weekend’s British Grand Prix used the three hardest compounds in Pirelli’s range, a change in allocation this weekend alters the complexion of the race. For the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, the allocation moves a step softer with C2, C3 and C4 tyres available.

While every team converged on a one-stop strategy last Sunday, the use of softer tyres on a fast, high-energy circuit makes a similar plan inherently risky this weekend. With a two-stop race more likely, greater strategic options come into play on the fast Silverstone layout.

“This weekend at Silverstone will be a real challenge with higher temperatures and softer compounds. The hotter conditions brought the field closer together last week and the softer tyres will mean more pit stops and more variability with strategy, so we can expect a good fight,” said Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG team boss.

After 4 rounds, Mercedes-AMG driver Lewis Hamilton already has a commanding lead of 30 points in the race for the Drivers’ Championship. His closest rival is team-mate Valtteri Bottas, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a further 6 points back.

Drivers Championship after 4 rounds

Ferrari F1

Formula 1

Formula 1

With the contribution made by Hamilton’s victories, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS team has an equally daunting advantage in the Constructors’ Championship table, enjoying a 68-point lead. The controversy over the brake ducts on the BWT Racing Point car, which were the subject of a protect by the Renault team, reached a conclusion yesterday as the FIA decided to deduct 15 championship points from the team’s current standing. They have also been fined €400,000 (about RM1.97 million).

BWT Racing Point

BWT Racing Point will be appealing but Ferrari, McLaren and Renault have also issued statement that declare an intention to appeal against that decision. There are other issues which have come to light which the teams now want the FIA to clarify.

Constructors Championship after 4 rounds
*: BWT Racing Point had a 15-point deduction for a technical issue.

COVID-19

PISTON.MY

RESULTS OF 2020 Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton

♦ 25 minutes before the race was to start, Max Verstappen slid into a barrier at the tricky Turn 12! The RB16’s nose cone and front wing were damaged and he rushed back to the pits for repairs, which were completed in time for the race start.

♦ As the track seemed to be drying out after earlier rain, the two Haas cars rushed to their pits as the race started to switch to medium tyres. It was the right move as they would move up to fourth and fifth places by the seventh lap.

♦ On lap 4, Verstappen (who had started from seventh on the grid) took the lead from Lewis Hamilton who had come into the pits to switch to slicks. But it was only a 1-lap lead as he too had to pit to get off the intermediate tyres and Hamilton slotted back to the front.

♦ Bad luck for Williams’ Nicholas Latifi who spun in the first turn and then had a puncture a few laps later, forcing him to limp back to the pits. And after replacing the tyre, his release from the pits was considered unsafe by the Stewards and he got a 5-second penalty.

♦ If it wasn’t already bad enough that Kimi Raikkonen qualified in last position on the starting grid, he would be slapped with a 7-second penalty for his car being out of position on the grid.

♦ Pierre Gasly got a new Honda unit for his car but wasn’t penalised as he is still within his limit for the season. However, by lap 16, he had to pull out of the race as the engine started smoking. During practice, he had reported a burning smell which was why the engine was replaced.

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

♦ Charles Leclerc was the last to get off the soft tyres he had started with when it seemed like the rain expected by lap 23 might not arrive. He went on hard tyres which he hoped would take his Ferrari to the end.

♦ Sebastian Vettel, wanting to move ahead as much as possible, pitted on lap 30 to change to hard tyres. It was a risky move with most forecasters saying rain was due within the next few laps.

F1 tyres
Tyre changes were required a few times during the race as the weather alternated between dry and possible rain and then no rain.

♦ The first drops of rain came down at the halfway point of the race (35 laps). By then, Hamilton was comfortably ahead with a 20-second lead. Behind him was Verstappen and then Valtteri Bottas 5 seconds away.

♦ 20 laps before the end, Bottas came in for a change to hard tyres to give him more speed in the duel with Verstappen.

♦ 5 laps from the end, the Mercedes-AMG team debated whether to switch Hamilton’s tyres to hard but the driver wanted softs. His choice was followed and when he rejoined the race, he had 3 laps to go for a fastest lap as he headed to the finish line. He did that and was in line to collect the extra virtual point.

♦ Today’s win puts Hamilton equal with Michael Schumacher of having the most wins at a race. It is eighth win in Hungary, and the third year in a row.

Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel finished 6th to collect 8 points for Ferrari but Leclerc managed only 11th. Not exactly a great race for the team again.
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
Despite crashing even before the raced started, Max Verstappen finished the race in second place, 8 seconds behind Hamilton.

Scuderia Alpha Tauri HondaPierre Gasly had engine problems all week and, during the race, had to retire when smoke started to come out of the engine.

Nicholas Latifi Williams
A bad day for Nicholas Latifi with two spins and a 5-second penalty as well. When the race ended, he was 5 laps behind Hamilton.

2020 F1 Calendar

Social distance

PISTON.MY

2020 Styrian GP Results

♦ Prior to the race starting, three drivers received penalties that changed their positions on the starting grid. Charles Leclerc for obstructing another driver, Lando Norris for overtaking under yellow flags and Antonio Giovinazzi for a gearbox change to his Alfa Romeo. Romain Grosjean had to start from the pit lane as his car was worked on while under parc ferme.

♦ If things weren’t bad enough for Leclerc, he collided with team mate Sebastian Vettel as the cars entered Turn 3 after leaving the starting line! Vettel’s Ferrari had rear wing damage and that was the end of his race but Leclerc was able to continue for 5 laps before also having to retire.

♦ Racing Point’s Sergio Perez started in 17th place on the grid and by the 49th lap, he had risen 12 places through the pack, an impressive performance with very fast lap times.

♦ A last lap push by Lando Norris got the McLaren driver past Perez and Stroll to grab 5th place.

♦ Four laps before the end, Valtteri Bottas finally got past Max Verstappen to give Mercedes-AMG a 1-2 finish, as Lewis Hamilton led the way.

♦ Charles Leclerc also got a warning from the FIA about breaching the rule regarding interactions with people outside the team’s ‘bubble’. The rules require all team members to not interact with outsiders but Leclerc was spotted with his friends in Monaco earlier in the week when he returned home after the first round. Understanding that these are new and unusual conditions, he has only received a warning but has been warned that breaking the rules again could have him (or any other member) barred from attending the race.

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

Unchallenged, Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory 14 seconds ahead of team mate Bottas.
BWT Racing Point driver, Sergio Perez put in very fast laps to move up the field from 17th on the starting grid.
A collision with teammate Charles Leclerc in Turn 3 of the very first lap forced Sebastian Vettel to retire as his Ferrari was damaged.
With both its cars finishing in the top 5, Red Bull Racing picked up its first points to catapult past Ferrari in the Constructors Championship.

2020 F1 Calendar

COVID-19

PISTON.MY

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

               Race starts at 3:10 pm in Austria | 9:10 pm in Malaysia

Just last weekend, the opening round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship was run at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and this Sunday, the second round takes place at the same circuit. It’s unusual to have two consecutive rounds at the same location but this is due to the postponement/cancellation of earlier rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the organizers have to compress the schedule for this season as they try to get up to 18 races run by the end of the year. Ten have already been confirmed to date.

The FIA says that this is the first time that a region’s name has been used for a F1 round but then again, there is the European GP and Europe is also a region, isn’t it? The event also has the name of 2020 Formula 1 Pirelli Styrian Grand Prix, only the 43rd time that a round has had an individual tile. Styria is the region in Austria which the Red Bull Ring is located.

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

RED BULL RING - AUSTRIA

To recap on the previous round, the race was certainly a chaotic one and by the time the chequered flag came out, just 13 cars (of the 20 that started the race) were classified as finishers. It was the lowest number since the 2017 Australian GP when the same number completed the race.

Although the Red Bull Ring is familiar to the teams and drivers, the gap of just a week has meant that there has been limited time to analyze performance and address issue and concerns. It seemed that there were some reliability issues as certain systems in some cars had problems.

The positions of Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi were changed after they received grid penalties for various offences.
McLaren
The view from Lando Norris’ McLaren.
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) crashed during practices but still made it for the qualifying session.

For the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, the free practice sessions were used to check whether those reliability concerns were fixed. “The team is still looking into that, but I think we have made some progress. We made some good set-up tweaks and I tried to use the learnings from last weekend, in terms of one-lap pace and driving style over a race distance,” said the winner of the first round, Valtteri Bottas.

Official F1 Medical Car
The Official F1 Medical Car assessing track conditions during the heavy rain that delayed qualifying.

Heavy rain forced the final practice session to be cancelled and today’s qualifying sessions could not start on time due to the same climatic issue. Eventually, the cars went out on wet tyres after a 45-minute wait.

Ferrari

2020 constructors champipnship after 1 round

In the Constructors’ battle, Bottas’ win and Lewis Hamilton’s fourth place last weekend put Mercedes-AMG in the familiar position at the top. They have an 11-point lead over McLaren which was the combination of points for the third place of Lando Norris and fifth place of Carlos Sainz, Jr. Ferrari struggled but still collected 19 points with the second placing of Charles Leclerc, plus 1 point from Vettel.

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso will rejoin the Renault team!

F1: Results & Highlights of the 2020 Rolex F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Social distancingSocial distance

PISTON.MY

BHPetrol RON95 Euro4M

Following the announcement in June confirming the delayed commencement of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship with 8 rounds, starting from July 5, the FIA has now announced another 2 rounds. The two rounds will be at Sochi Autodrom in Russia (September 27), which has been a regular F1 venue for some years, and for the first time, at the Mugello Circuit in Italy on September 13.

This brings the current number of confirmed races to 10, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. The organisers still expect that the revised 2020 calendar, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, will have between 15 and 18 races by the end of the year.

Mugello – owned by Scuderia Ferrari
The Mugello Circuit is located in Tuscany, central Italy. One lap is 5.345 kms and it has 14 turns. The original circuit between the 1920s and 1970 was a public road circuit and the current circuit was opened in 1974.

Mugello Circuit
The Mugello Circuit will be new to many of the F1 drivers as there has never been a round of the championship run there.

While Formula 1 has never been held at Mugello, other events have been run over the years, including Formula 3000. The track belongs to Scuderia Ferrari which uses it for Formula One testing.

The official name of the event –  Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix of Tuscany Ferrari 1000 – is a tribute to the land that will host this event and also  to a historic anniversary for Scuderia Ferrari. The race will be the 1,000th F1 race by the Italian team which is the only team that has participated in all the 70 editions of the Formula 1 championship.

Ferrari 312B 1970
Scuderia Ferrari is the only team that had raced in every Formula 1 championship.

Sochi Autodrom
The Sochi Autodrom is located next to the Sochi Olympic Park in western Russia. 5.85 kms in length, the circuit hosted the first F1 race in Russia in 2014. The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team has won every race since the first one, with Lewis Hamilton winning four (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) and Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas winning in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Sochi Autodrom
The Sochi Autodrom is adjacent to the Sochi Olympic Park (Google Earth View shown below) which was built for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Sochi Autodrom Google Earth

F1: Results & Highlights of the 2020 Rolex F1 Austrian Grand Prix

PISTON.MY

Archive

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on YouTube