Silly Season -2021

Alpine already in talks with Ocon over new F1 contract
By: Luke Smith
May 20, 2021, 9:28 AM
Alpine has already opened talks with Esteban Ocon’s management to keep him beyond 2021, and is not currently considering any other drivers for its Formula 1 team next year.

 

Ocon's chance to ever drive for Mercedes may be evaporating.

 

If I were Ocon I'd hitch my star to Renault and make a fortune from French endorsements and retire super rich and be happy at
how much fun I enjoyed.

 

Yes, not too many options now: Ferrari is happy with their drivers, big line of RedBull drivers queueing and Mercedes just shut down the possibility of an
opening. Keep fighting and being faster than Alonso for now. He is pushing to get new steering in the Alpine so he may start improving at faster rate.

 

Ocon to leave talks with Alpine over new F1 contract to management
By: Luke Smith
May 31, 2021, 8:05 AM
Esteban Ocon says he is leaving talks with Alpine over a new Formula 1 contract to his management, but is flattered the team is eager to keep him beyond 2021.

 

Red Bull won’t open contract talks with Perez before summer break
By: Luke Smith
Co-author: Christian Nimmervoll
May 31, 2021, 4:19 AM
Red Bull will not begin talks with Sergio Perez over a new contract with the team until Formula 1’s summer break at the earliest, according to Helmut Marko.

 

Either Perez isn't as fast as many of us gave him credit for, or something else is wrong. He should be fighting for 2nd or 3rd on the grid at every race now.

 

The new car for him is very different from the Clone. He has new team, operation procedures, new PU, rake on chassis etc etc. Very little testing.

I am not surprised he takes time to adapt. Sainz, of all the drivers who have new car and team is the most situated so far. Possibly Vettel now makes more progress as well.

 

It must be noted that many believe here that the Red Bull is pretty equal with the Mercedes which is inaccurate.
Perez is an excellent driver like Gasly is .
The raw truth is that Verstappen is something different compared to them as was Schumacher in 1995 with Johnny Herbert if you want a valid comparison.

 

It should also be noted that RB has been putting all their eggs in Verstappen's basket for a while now, so the car is optimally developed and suited to his driving style. Red Bull driver #2 just has to learn how to drive this car, with a lot less room for adaptation. Also, I think Perez has always been a decent, mediocre driver, but Drive to Survive and the underdog-position at RP seemed to lift him above his qualities for some, it seems.

 

Red Bull doesn't give enough time for its #2 to settle, IMO.

It happened to Kvyat, Gasly, and Albon, quicky demoted over the season.

Perez can count himself lucky if his contract is renewed.

 

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Ferrari ushers in a turnaround The plan back to success

Ferrari had a car capable of winning in Monte Carlo. You shouldn't expect that in Baku. Nevertheless, the upward trend at Ferrari is unmistakable. Third place is not a utopia. But how did this turnaround succeed? We have analyzed the most important success factors.

The announcement by Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto at the Christmas speech sounded bold: "Ferrari must be able to fight for third place again." In 2020, the oldest Formula 1 racing team was 79 points away and on average half a second per lap. And the possibilities to change something on the car were limited due to the homologation regulations and the reduced wind tunnel time.

But after five races this season, one can say. Ferrari is well on the way to delivering on its promise. Last year's World Cup sixth cut the gap to the top in half and, together with McLaren, set himself apart from the rest of the midfield.


The two traditional teams will make third place among themselves. The last trend speaks for Ferrari. The Reds have been catching up on McLaren since the Spanish GP. Which is also due to the fact that Daniel Ricciardo is not really getting going. Now only two points are missing from the final podium.

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Old team, new structures
In Monte Carlo, Ferrari even had a car capable of winning. But that was due to the racetrack. Mercedes engineers already recognized in the first four races from the GPS measurements that Ferrari had the fastest car on average in the corners. Especially in the slow ones. The deficit of 20 hp on Mercedes and Honda did not hurt with only 56 percent full load share in Monte Carlo.


It was not yet a permanent resurrection, but a powerful sign of life from the fallen giant. The foundation for the trend reversal was already laid in the darkest hours of the 2020 season. When it was clear that Ferrari would not win a flowerpot, team boss Mattia Binotto swept through the hallowed halls in Maranello with the iron broom. Surely also to save your own head.

A team like Ferrari must not sink into mediocrity in the long run. Binotto's top boss John Elkann had demanded: "Ferrari's claim must be to win races." His recipe: old team, new structures. A middle ground between the carrot and the stick.

The distribution of responsibility over many shoulders. Setting priorities and relentless error analysis. Back to the mentality that every detail is important. Problems are addressed and not hushed up. You could say it is a copy of the Mercedes success system.

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Ferrari can rely on data again
The important decisions were all made in summer 2020. Ferrari built a completely new drive unit. While last year they were still clearly behind Mercedes, Honda and Renault, they have now caught up with Renault, maintaining the gap to Honda and reducing the gap to Mercedes.

Experts estimate Ferrari's deficit in the combustion engine to be 15 to 20 hp. On the other hand, Ferrari is already ahead in terms of electric drive. The charging mode is activated later on the straights than with the competition.


Ferrari also bet on the right horse when it came to renovating the car. Contrary to the trend, the engineers developed until late in the season in 2020 to see whether the errors of the SF1000 had been correctly interpreted, whether the countermeasures were bearing fruit and whether the correlation between the racetrack and wind tunnel was better than in the past. "It was important to me that we could rely on our data again," explains Binotto.

So Ferrari was able to work through its weak points from the previous year step by step: The high air resistance of the car, the lack of aerodynamic stability, which robbed the drivers of confidence in the car, the heavy tire wear. "Leclerc praises:" The new car is much easier to drive than the old one. "

Better the stern than the nose
On the chassis side, Ferrari chose the right token. "A slimmer rear brought us more than a slimmer nose," reveals a Ferrari man. Thanks to the new gearbox, the rear axle could also be steered as high as Mercedes and Red Bull do. This improves the flow on the roof of the diffuser.

In general, the engineers have again concentrated more on aerodynamic efficiency and stability. The SF21 produces much less "dirty" downforce than its predecessor. He no longer has the luxury of engine power in abundance.

Ferrari also upgraded in all other areas. The pit stops have become more constant and faster. The racing strategy is more conservative and therefore less prone to errors. The team of tire engineers was enlarged, the digital tire models improved, the drivers were trained in long meetings with the engineers to read their tires more precisely, to prepare them more precisely for the decisive qualifying lap and to conserve them better in the race.

If the tires do overheat, as in Bahrain, or the drivers approach the stints too aggressively, as in Portugal, more efficient analysis tools are now available to identify and correct errors. In Barcelona and Monte Carlo, no team kept their tires in the window as well, lit them as quickly without ruining them in the endurance run as Ferrari.

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Better prepared for the racetrack
Maranello also put a lot of work into the simulations over the winter. It quickly became clear that one hour less training time meant less data from the track. Today in the second training session there is only time for one long run per driver. And that is usually shorter than in previous years.

So a lot depends on how well prepared the engineers travel to the track and how they organize the weekend. That also paid off in Monte Carlo. "We had confidence in our car from the first lap and hardly changed it afterwards. That was the key," said Leclerc and Sainz. The team said: "We were no better than usual in Monte Carlo. The others were worse prepared."

This trend could already be observed on new routes in 2020. Ferrari did better in Mugello, Portimao, Imola and Istanbul relative to other circuits. It wasn't because of the car, but because of better planning.

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The focus is already on the 2022 car
Despite the bloody nose that Maranello got during the trickery with the engine, the engineers continue to push the rules to the limit of what is allowed. Ferrari is one of the teams that have to restore the rear wing because it bends too much. According to Ferrari, however, with minimal consequences. Among the benders, one obviously belonged to the less radical faction. Binotto doesn't understand the excitement. "Motorsport means going to the limit everywhere."

With Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Ferrari relies on young drivers who can still show the experience of 186 GP starts. Long-term contracts with the pilots guarantee continuity. The mood is no longer as charged as between Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, where one wanted to drive away the top dog and the other saw a threat in the young colleague. Which sometimes led to disobedience in the stable management.

Binotto is satisfied that things are heading in the right direction. "More important than the results is to show that we have improved in all areas. We are able to recognize our weaknesses and remedy them. Nothing happens overnight, but we are on the right way back to the top. "

Most of the engineering office is already working on the car for 2022, which will be so different in its foundations that practically nothing can be taken over. There is no longer a fixed plan for the development steps on the SF21. The next parts are already in the production loop. And if the engineers can think of anything else that is worthwhile, they just do it.


https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/ferrari-trendwende-analyse/&prev=search&pto=aue

 

+1 agree

 

Let's hope for the best for Ferrari in 2022.

They definitely look on the way up this year.

 

That was a good article, but forgot what I think is probably the biggest thing Ferrari has going for it: two very talented young drivers.

 

I only see one...and a half

 

In the last 2 years Leclerc proved to be a solid asset at Ferrari, and Sainz is now delivering above expectation, for me.

It's a pleasure to see that after years of the Vettel-Kimi duo that went well beyond its sell-by-date at Ferrari.

 

Esteban Ocon signs new Alpine F1 deal until 2024
By: Filip Cleeren
Jun 16, 2021, 11:04 AM
Esteban Ocon has signed a new three-year deal with the Alpine Formula 1 team, keeping the Frenchman at the Enstone outfit until the 2024 season.
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One more closed door for Gasly, then...

Rgds

 

With the budget cap,i wonder if alpha tauri/Gasly will not become serious contender next year ..

 

Happy to see RedBull struggle against the 'Junior Team' LOL

 

They could dump ricardo and bring in Gasly and have a 100% french team.

 

Because Lando Norris's mother is Belgian?

 

That would be nice; I think Gasly has matured well now and deserves a really good seat for at least one season. If he doesn't succeed, fine by me, at least he would have had his opportunity. But this is F1; so many drivers who deserve the right occasion, so few of these...

Rgds