FORMULA 1

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VETTEL: IT WAS MY MISTAKE

Sebastian Vettel will count himself lucky after triggering a first lap melee when he collided with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix, thereafter the German was left to play catch-up and his reward at the end of the day was fifth place.

After making a strong start Vettel tagged the rear of the Mercedes as the field slithered through Turn 1 and Turn 2 complex, which sent it spinning with a puncture while he damaged the front wing on the Ferrari. That incident coupled to another collision in the midpack prompted a safety car phase to clear the debris.

Vettel pitted to replace the front wing, while Bottas limped to the pits to replace his punctured tyre. Stewards had a look at the incident and handed the German a five seconds penalty for causing the collision.

Vettel explained afterwards, “My start was too good and then I ended up with nowhere to go. It was my mistake. I tried to brake early and get out of it but I had no room.

“Valtteri tried to get his position back which is fair enough but then I had nowhere to go. The turn goes left and I tried to slow down but with that little grip, I therefore unfortunately made contact with Valtteri.”

Prior to the race Ferrari were expected to take the race to Mercedes, but with Vettel and Bottas marginalised Lewis Hamilton went on to score a commanding victory on the day, virtually unchallenged.

Vettel lamented, “I think we had good pace. I tried to hammer through the field to recover, and damaged the tyres. I think we had decent pace to go at least with Mercedes.”

Vettel arrived in France leading the championship by a single point over Hamilton, he departed Circuit Paul Ricard in second place, 14 points adrift of top spot.

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VERSTAPPEN: THEY WON’T BE AS BAD ON VETTEL AS THEY WERE ON ME

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen could not resist a stab at his critics after finishing second at the French Grand Prix, surviving a first lap melee instigated by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

The Dutchman faced a barrage of criticism earlier in the season after a spate of incidents cost him and his team dearly, but in the last four races, Verstappen has finished on the podium on three occasions.

Speaking after the race at Le Castellet, Verstappen did not hold back, “I hope when we get to Austria that the journalists ask him if [Vettel] will change his approach because that is what l heard for so many races. It really annoyed me and was stupid to ask. I’m getting annoyed about it.”

Immediately after the race, Vettel was slammed by Mercedes F1 chief Niki Lauda but Verstappen refused to jump on the bandwagon,”Mistakes happen and they happen to the best of us. But it makes me angry because they won’t be as bad on him as they were on me.”

“All the time they came to me on how l should change my approach and these stupid comments. I didn’t change a thing and now everything is going right.”

“I focus on my myself, but all these stupid comments you read on social media and journalists, it’s really stupid. I am not going to hold back on it,” added Verstappen.

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French GP clash 'sums up my season' - Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas says his clash with Sebastian Vettel at the start of the French Grand Prix “sums up my season” as he lost further ground in Formula 1’s title fight.

Bottas was hit by Vettel as the leaders rounded the first corner at Paul Ricard and spun, sustaining a puncture in the process, which dropped him to the back of the field.

Bottas continued with floor damage to his W09 and lost further ground with a slow second pit stop, eventually coming home in seventh position in a race won by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

 “That was a shame because we had a strong car today as Lewis’ result shows,” he said.

“But my race was lost at Turn 1. I was on the outside going into it and I knew that keeping that line would put me on the inside for Turn 2.

“Then suddenly I got a hit from behind, had a puncture and damaged my floor.

“After that it was difficult as the car was quite damaged and I could feel the lack of rear end.

“I was sliding around and had to do a second pit stop which was unfortunately slow so we lost more time there.

“I guess today was just not my day; in a way it sums up my season so far.”

Bottas has now slipped 53 points behind team-mate Hamilton in the fight for the 2018 crown but insists he will stay positive, adamant that his fortunes will change.

“There are some positives – we were strong as a team, although unfortunately we could not turn that into a perfect points result,” he said.

“I also set the fastest lap of the race despite the condition of the car. I'll keep my head down, work hard and hopefully the luck will turn around at some point – I think it's about time.”

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Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon reprimanded for French GP collision

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have both been reprimanded for the accident that eliminated both on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix.

Ocon and Gasly were competing on home soil for the first time in their respective Formula 1 careers but came together through Virage de L’Hotel on the first lap at Paul Ricard.

The pair sustained terminal damage and stewards investigated the clash, before deeming that each had to apportion a share of the blame, resulting in reprimands.

The Stewards reviewed video evidence, heard from the driver of car 10 (Pierre Gasly),

“The driver of car 31 [Ocon] was optimistic in his move from the left of the track across to the apex of the corner,” read the report.

“The driver of car 10 [Gasly] was also overly optimistic in his late braking into the corner.

“The Stewards are of the view that both drivers made errors which contributed to the collision.”

On the collision, Ocon said: “I made a good start and got alongside Romain [Grosjean] down the pit straight before he made contact with me.

“I was on the edge of the track but he moved over and hit me, which caused a lot of damage to the side of my car and the floor.

“After that, Pierre lost it under braking in Turn 3 and hit me from behind, which ended my race completely.”

Gasly explained: “It was tough to finish the race after just three corners. In Turn 3 I went on the inside and I thought Esteban had seen me, when I saw he closed the door I couldn’t avoid the collision.

“It’s a shame to have this incident – especially at the French GP with two French drivers. It’s very difficult to take, I really wanted to do well this weekend and it’s definitely not wanted from my home race.”

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Fernando Alonso: France 'by far' McLaren's worst 2018 performance

Fernando Alonso labelled the French Grand Prix as “by far McLaren’s worst performance” of the 2018 season, as he again failed to reach the chequered flag.

Alonso, having dropped out in Q1, spent much of the race towards the back of the field, his slim points prospects wrecked when he spun through Turn 3 while running side-by-side with Sebastian Vettel at the restart.

Alonso fitted fresh tyres in an attempt to claim the fastest lap late on but suffered a suspension failure and pulled into the pits.

It marked the third successive retirement for Alonso, while team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne also failed to add to McLaren’s tally, classifying 12th.

“This was by far the worst performance of the year,” said Alonso. “So, I really hope it is a one off and not the normality.

“We are two drivers doing the best job in the world and we were not competitive today or this weekend.

“As I said yesterday, we are very bad but we are seventh [sic] in the world championship. So something good maybe is happening.”

Alonso also expressed frustration at the first lap antics, believing several rivals gained an advantage by utilising some of Paul Ricard’s extensive run-off areas.

“It was all the race on the back foot, and from the start we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us,” he said.

“People seemed to shortcut the circuit and nothing happened. We stay on the circuit and we came last just doing that.

“But it was not our race, and after we had a suspension problem at the end.

“We could not even see the chequered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us.

“But in five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us.”

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Daniel Ricciardo: Front wing damage wrecked podium prospects

Daniel Ricciardo says his chance of a podium result at the French Grand Prix was wrecked by front wing damage sustained shortly before his sole pit stop.

Ricciardo moved up to fourth on a chaotic opening lap and quickly dispatched Carlos Sainz Jr. to hold a comfortable third, a few seconds behind team-mate Max Verstappen.

Ricciardo came out of the pits still poised for a podium – having passed out-of-sequence Sebastian Vettel – but was reeled in by Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen comfortably overhauled Ricciardo along the Mistral Straight to grab the final podium position with six laps remaining, and the Australian rued damage to his RB14.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “We had pretty good pace towards the end of that first stint. It seemed that we were catching Max and pulling away from Kimi.

“When I pitted, the boys said the front left part of the wing was damaged. They think it happened about two laps before the pit stop because I started to all of a sudden get quite a lot of understeer.

“I don’t know if it was a failure or we hit some debris. That broke.

“So then already with the Soft tyres we were struggling when we left the pits. And then a few laps later the team said the right part [of the front wing] broke.

“So both parts identically seemed to break. Whether there was a failure or debris I don’t know yet. 

“But it happened and we were slow. Obviously because of that we had a lot less downforce and understeering.

“So Kimi was always going to catch us with that pace, but the blue flags – that was really bad. But we were a wounded car from just before the first pit stop.”

Ricciardo nonetheless moved up to third in the Drivers’ Championship, but is now 49 points behind title leader Lewis Hamilton.

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Leclerc: ‘Little bit disappointed’ despite P10

Charles Leclerc finished in the points for a fourth time in his last five outings, but said he was a ‘little bit disappointed’ with himself.

The Monegasque driver had started from a career-high P8 on Sunday afternoon, and managed to avoid all the carnage on the opening lap.

He was running as high as P6 at one point, but marked himself down for a small mistake at Turn 2 which saw him lose a place to Nico Hulkenberg.

“At one point I was catching Kevin [Magnussen], we were in the DRS zone,” Leclerc said. “I really wanted to do the best first sector I could to be as close as possible to try and overtake him, but I lost the car in Turn 2 and then we lost the position to Nico [Hulkenberg].”

“I am happy, but I am always hard on myself and I am a little bit disappointed with myself,” the Sauber man told Sky Sports F1. “Sometimes it happens and I will try to learn from it and come back stronger.”

The Sauber C37 has improve greatly from last year to this year, and can now be classed as a midfield runner in 2018.

However, Leclerc has admitted that he cannot compare it to other cars, but said the progress has been good.

“It is difficult to say, I haven’t driver any other cars but we are definitely rebuilding the team. They are coming back from two very hard years,” Leclerc continued. “I think there is quite a lot of jobs to do, but today we managed to hit our balance in the perfect way and that has helped to have such a performance.”

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Sainz says VSC saved points finish after MGU-K failure

Carlos Sainz believes the virtual safety car spell at the end of the French Grand Prix rescued a points finish for him after his Renault Formula 1 car's MGU-K failed.
The Spaniard was on course to finish sixth at Paul Ricard, having run as high as third early on after avoiding the incidents in the opening few corners.

But he fell to eighth after complaining of "no power" on the radio, and only avoided slipping further back because the next few laps were completed under virtual safety car conditions following Lance Stroll's tyre blowout at Signes.

While the race briefly went back to green flag conditions just before the finish, Sainz was able to hang on without losing more ground, despite missing what he believes was 160 horsepower.

When asked about the virtual safety car, Sainz told TV crews: "I owe that… it saved us the points finish.

"It's very difficult to digest, this P8. It's a good result, but when you are the whole race running P6, easily, comfortably, then suddenly five laps to the end this happens, I feel bad for the team, and for myself.

"It's a shame, because it was the perfect weekend. A sixth place after a perfect qualy, a perfect start, very good pace all race.

"Then finding yourself with this problem, knowing how hard it is to score points, is a shame.

"It's a shame for the team as well because we deserved this sixth place at home."

Sainz's MGU-K was on its final race, so was due to be replaced by Renault for the next grand prix in Austria anyway.

The Red Bull loanee enjoyed his brief spell among the leaders, even if it was inevitable he would fall back.

"It happened last time in Barcelona 2016 that I got a really good start and got into the podium places," he said.

"It was a while since I was last in those places. I enjoyed it. It didn't last very long, but I tried my best."

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HAMILTON: WE´RE OUT THERE PUTTING OUR LIVES ON THE LINE

Formula 1 world champion and championship leader Lewis Hamilton has defended title rival Sebastian Vettel against charges of being prone to costly mistakes, particularly on the opening lap of races.

The Ferrari driver collided with the Briton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas at the start of the French Grand Prix, an error that handed the championship lead to eventual race winner Hamilton.

Vettel’s 2017 title bid collapsed due to mistakes and misfortune, and Hamilton was asked whether he was surprised his fellow four times world champion was still making them at such a level.

“I´m not really going to get into that,” said the Briton, now 14 points clear at the top and with the races coming in quick succession.

“I know what you´re saying but it is really a racing incident in turn one, and those things can happen. We´re all going into that first corner at great speeds.

“I don´t feel that he´s particularly made more mistakes,” added Hamilton, who won from pole position without putting a wheel wrong.

The Briton has now gone a record 33 successive races in the points, “We´re all on the edge, we´re fighting for the world championships, we´re not pootling around, we´re out there putting our lives on the line.”

“We´re out there putting the cars as far beyond the edge as we can in the safest manner. It´s not like a train track, you don´t just stay on the rails. Sometimes you can go off. We´re only human.”

Hamilton, who still felt Vettel should have been given more than a five-second penalty, and his rival have been full of mutual respect since their rivalry took off in earnest last season.

They have also had their spats, notably in Azerbaijan last year when they collided in a ‘road rage’ incident and Vettel accused the Mercedes driver of ‘brake testing’ him — allegations he quickly withdrew and apologised for.

The German also jumped to Hamilton’s defence in Bahrain last April when the Briton was caught insulting Dutch youngster Max Verstappen in the drivers’ room before the podium celebrations.

“I don’t know what Lewis did, but we’ve all been in that situation. We fight someone and sometimes we go wheel-to-wheel and it’s close — and we have a lot of adrenaline going,” Vettel said at the time.

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ALONSO: NO BRAKES, NO TYRES, OUT OF THE POINTS… I DON’T CARE

Fernando Alonso had a rant at his team during the French Grand Prix where he toiled all afternoon at the wrong end of proceedings, he finished way out of the points last of the cars running until in the end the car expired with a suspension issue.

Alonso explained how his race was compromised from the start, “I started this race on the back-foot, losing positions at the start as I avoided a lot of accidents around me. Too many cars ahead of me took a short-cut, but I stayed on track and ended up last.”

“I was still last after the Safety Car period, had a problem with overheating brakes, then used one set of tyres while running in traffic for nearly the whole race. Then, at the end, I had to retire with a suspension problem,” lamented the Spaniard after his third DNF in a row.

From the pitwall, race engineer Will Joseph gave Alonso information about possible rain and also that he could be in for a battle for sixth place. At the time #14 was in 12th and dropping down the order as rivals with fresher tyres powered past the McLaren.

At that point Alonso let rip over the radio, “Mate we have no brakes, we have no tyres, we’re out of the points… I try to do whatever but I don’t care too much.”

Asked afterwards about the tense tete-a-tete, Alonso explained, “On the radio the team was definitely overexcited, telling me the gaps with the fifth guy, the sixth guy.”

“I was last after the safety car and I had a problem with the brakes overheating, I had one set of tyres for the whole race because we stopped on lap one to fit the yellow tyres so I think it was a defensive race.”

Asked if it was frustration that prompted the radio rant, Alonso replied, “It was not frustration but we know that this weekend we’ve been quite uncompetitive. From the start, we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us.”

“People seemed to shortcut the circuit and nothing happened. We stayed on the circuit and we became last doing that.”

During the race, Alonso was sent spinning by hard-charging Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel when, shortly after the early safety car period, the pair got side-by-side through Turn 4 and clattered into one another with the orange car spinning in the process.

Alonso said of the incident, “It worked out well for [Vettel] this time, but other times it won’t work out so well.”

For McLaren, the return of the French Grand Prix will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Apart from the dismal display in the race, Stoffel Vandoorne was 12th, the whole weekend they have faced questions regarding dissent within the ranks at Woking which was triggered by former team chief Martin Whitmarsh who in an interview called for heads to roll.

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PROST: BAD TO SEE THE FRENCH DRIVERS CLASH

Much was expected of the three French drivers on the grid for the return of the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday, but the trio did themselves and their fans no favours on an afternoon of disappointment for the local heroes.

Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso), Esteban Ocon (Force Idia) and Romain Grosjean (Haas) were central to a first lap melee triggered when Grosjean clattered into Ocon, the latter recovered but diving into the first right chicane Gasly was over ambitious on the brakes and crashed into the Force India.

The pair were out within half a kilometre of their home race. It got worse for the pair after the race as stewards reprimanded the pair for their shenanigans.

During the race, Grosjean was given a five-second penalty for his clash with Ocon and soldiered on to finish 11th, his championship points scoresheet at zero after eight rounds.

Ocon was not happy with Grosjean afterwards, “I am especially upset with Romain. I made a good start and got alongside him down the pit straight before he made contact with me. I was on the edge of the track but he moved over and hit me, which caused a lot of damage to the side of my car and the floor.”

“After that, Pierre [Gasly] lost it under braking in turn three and hit me from behind, which ended my race completely. I feel very sad right now because I have been looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd for such a long time and it only lasted three corners,” lamented the 21-year-old.

His more experienced countryman, Grosjean, fobbed off the accusations, “If he looks to my right, there is Leclerc. Where can I go? Let him learn before he speaks.”

Gasly gave his side of the story, “In Turn 3 I went on the inside and I thought Esteban had seen me when I saw he closed the door I couldn’t avoid the collision. It’s a shame to have this incident, especially at the French Grand Prix with two French drivers.

Formula 1 legend Alain Prost regretted the ‘civil war’ among the French contingent on the occasion of France’s return to the F1 championship calendar.

“You’re never alone in the first few corners of a race,” Prost told Canal+. “There are positions to gain, with speed differences depending on tyre choices and other factors. Therefore one must exert a bit of caution even if it’s easier said than done.”

“It’s just too bad to see the French drivers clash, followed by a war of words, including Romain, given that they will often be racing against each other in the tight midfield.”

“They must put this behind them because it’s just not great!” declared the driver known as ‘The Professor’ in his heyday.

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Marcus Ericsson sure he can match Charles Leclerc given clean weekend

Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson believes he can match team-mate Charles Leclerc, given a clean weekend, after a crash which curtailed his running during Friday practice ultimately thwarted his hopes of a points finish at the French Grand Prix.

Ericsson spun through Beausset during Friday’s opening session at Paul Ricard and a fire that ignited after he hit the wall caused substantial damage, ruling him out of second practice.

Heavy rain that fell denied drivers dry running for all bar the opening moments of the third session, and while Ericsson made it into Q2, he reckoned the lack of laps in practice cost him during the first stint of the race.

“I think the crash in FP1 hurt my weekend quite a lot,” he said, having finished 13th.

“I bring quite a lot of positives anyway as in my qualifying was probably my best qualifying of the year with zero preparation almost. I think I had eight push laps going into the session.

“To put it into Q2 was really a good effort. In Q2 I was one tenth off Charles after the first run but on the second run I just did a mistake.

“Then the race, first part of the race I think maybe hurt me a bit I didn’t have many laps [experience], I was struggling a bit in the first stint.

“I didn’t really get the tyres to work after the Safety Car so I lost [Stoffel] Vandoorne and Brendon [Hartley] in the first stint.”

Ericsson’s team-mate Leclerc is currently enjoying a strong run of form, having scored points in four of the last five Grands Prix, including in France, where the Ferrari-backed youngster qualified eighth and raced to 10th.

Ericsson, though, remains adamant he can match Leclerc going forward.

“The biggest problem with the weekend was the crash in FP1 so that puts you on the backfoot and you’re always playing catch-up,” he stressed.

“Also FP1 was going well, I was on the pace, so that was a step forward as well, it felt like I was on the same level as Charles during FP1 before the crash whereas the last few weekends he’s been a bit stronger.

“I think the changes we did prior to the weekend with set-up, system settings and stuff seemed to be in the right direction for me so I think we’ve learned some stuff there that we can bring with us to Spielberg.

“If we can have a clean weekend there without any crashes and other problems it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up with Charles because he’s obviously extremely strong at the moment and doing a really good job with the car we have.

“With a clean weekend I hope I can be at the same level.”

MIKA: "If we have a clean weekend and there are no other cars on the grid, then I might grab some points..." 

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FIA explains penalty for 'violent' Romain Grosjean swipe

Formula 1 Race Director Charlie Whiting has explained that a “violent move” from Romain Grosjean was behind the decision of the stewards to sanction the Haas driver in France.

Debris was seen flying from the midfield group on the run to the first corner at Paul Ricard, before two separate clashes involving Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, and Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Around 30 laps into the race Grosjean was placed under investigation, and shortly after was hit with a five-second time penalty that he served at his stop, hindering his chance of points.

Whiting explained that Grosjean moved across on Ocon on the run to the Verrerie S, commenting: “We had a raft of things to look at after the first lap.

“That one came on a bit later from the teams so we had a closer look at that and he appeared to move over and move over and move over and push Esteban to make him go two wheels off the track.

“Then it appeared Romain moved that way and made contact.

“You can see damage on the side of the Haas car and as the car is going through Turn 2 you can see damage on Esteban’s car too or something rubbing on the ground I suspect it was the front wing but I am not sure.

“We’ll never know as [Ocon] he crashed at the next corner. That’s the reason for it, Romain moved left suddenly. He was easing him left and then made a sudden and violent move to hit him.”

Grosjean classified in 11th position, meaning he has still yet to score a point in 2018.

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Romain Grosjean: My stretch of bad luck is 'painful'

Romain Grosjean is willing his stretch of bad luck to come to an end after describing it as "painful" following yet another pointless race for the Haas driver.

Grosjean is one of only two drivers yet to score a point this season along with Williams' Sergey Sirotkin, whilst his Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen has already chalked up 27 points putting him tenth in the standings.

The Frenchman made contact with follow countryman Esteban Ocon at the start of his home race at the weekend and suffered slight damage to his car, which impacted his performance. Meanwhile the stewards handed him a five-second time penalty for that collision, although Grosjean eventually finished more than half a minute off tenth-placed Charles Leclerc.

"We pushed as hard as we could, but we had some damage on the car from the first lap, and that was difficult because it removed some aero balance," said Grosjean. "I came back as hard as I could, but we were just too far back."

Grosjean has suffered several mishaps this season including a qualifying crash on Saturday which meant he started tenth after failing to set a time in Q3. The 32-year-old is willing his bad luck to eventually come to an end, knowing Haas have a car capable of regular top ten finishes.

"The car is superfast and Kevin did a great job today, so I’m happy with that, but I want my turn to come because this stretch of bad luck is becoming a bit painful."

Magnussen meanwhile praised his own race which saw him finish sixth to take his fourth points finish in 2018.

"It was a good race and we had a good car. We got everything right," added the Dane. "It was a good race for us, and very happy to come back from the disappointment of yesterday.

"We knew we were still standing in a position of where we could probably do something good in the race, and it was our day today."

MIKA: This guy doesn't belong in F1. HAAS need to drop this guy.

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Williams was 'optimistic' over tyre strategy – Lance Stroll

Williams' Lance Stroll felt it was 'optimistic' in their attempts to try and go to the end of the French Grand Prix on the yellow-marked Soft tyre after stopping in the early safety car period.

With the Grove-based outfit struggling for pace, Williams opted to try a different strategy to the rest of the field in an attempt to try and recover some positions after a poor qualifying session.

In the latter stages of the race, the teenager locked up heavily into the Turn 8 chicane, this caused a deep flat spot on the front left tyre but he continued on to try and make it to the chequered flag.

With just a few laps remaining, Stroll turned into very fast Signes corner and the front left tyre exploded under the heavy loading, forcing the Canadian to park the FW41 on the outside of the circuit, leaving a huge trail of debris which brought out the Virtual Safety Car.

"At the beginning, the pace wasn't too bad and I had a good start," said Stroll.

"With about 20 laps to go, I felt a massive vibration on the car and it was just big wear on the front-left tyre. I had a flat spot on that tyre and then with Vandoorne when he overtook me it was already so bad that I couldn't turn right, as I had no support on the left tyre, then with a few laps to go the vibration was so bad the tyre just blew and that was it.

"It was optimistic to go the whole race on one set of tyres, and I think we were the only ones trying to go the whole way. We tried to do something, but it just didn't work. It was certainly not the race we were hoping for."

Williams remains 10th in the Constructors' Championship with just four points, thanks to Stroll's eighth-place finish in Baku.

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F1 set to release definitive 2021 engine regs this week

The FIA is set to meet its self-imposed deadline of finalising the 2021 Formula 1 power unit regulations by the end of June, as it aims to issue a definitive document to the manufacturers at the end of this week.
While the basic concepts were announced jointly by the FIA and F1 as long ago as October, refining the detail in conjunction with the four current suppliers and potential new entrant Porsche has taken months of discussion.

The process was also deliberately relaxed because the FIA had an eye on costs, believing that had full details been issued too early the manufacturers would simply have pumped more resources into development.

“It's very complicated,” said FIA F1 race director Charlie Whiting. “There's meeting after meeting after meeting going on these things, and the reports I get on this appear to be very detailed, so they are going into fine detail.

“So I'm fairly confident that it's getting to the end of that process, and at the end of that process, we'll have a far more detailed idea of what the power units will be in 2021.”

Whiting said the end of June deadline was not chosen to facilitate discussion by the team bosses at the next Strategy Group meeting on July 4th.

“Not necessarily. It was just a date that we felt that was necessary to get it done by. It might get talked about, but it's not connected with the Strategy Group.

"The manufacturers are involved in it, that's why it's taking quite a long time, because they are toing and froing on everything.”

However, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said that next week’s Strategy Group meeting would indeed discuss power units and ways of controlling costs, with some having suggested a freeze on development of current engines for 2019-2020.

“The engine, it needs a lot of lead time, therefore the earlier the better it is,” he said. “The solution that we need to find is how can we avoid parallel costs of developing two power units.

"Obviously our fight with our friends from Honda, Renault and Ferrari will continue until the very last race of 2020.

“And at the same time, the moment the rules are ratified, everybody needs to work on the other power unit. So this is I think one of the key points we need to discuss from July 4."

 

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Third DRS zone added for Austrian GP

The Red Bull Ring will feature a third DRS zone for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, the FIA has revealed.
Motor racing chiefs have been experimenting with the number of DRS zones this year amid concerns about the difficulties drivers are facing in overtaking other cars.

For this weekend, an extra DRS zone has been added after Turn 1 which should allow cars to run closer to each other ahead of the heavy braking zone in to Turn 3.

F1 race director Charlie Whiting said: “We have added one DRS zone in Austria. We have three detection points, three activation points, and the new one is between Turns 1 and 3.”

The Red Bull Ring previously had two DRS zones – one which was after Turn 3, with the other on the start-finish straight.

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Renault to bring long-awaited new MGU-K to Austria

Renault is to introduce a long-promised new specification of MGU-K at this weekend’s Austrian GP, but its Formula 1 customer teams Red Bull Racing and McLaren are not obliged to use it.
The new MGU-K, which was once scheduled for introduction for as early as the start of the 2017 season before numerous delays, has finally been signed off for use on a race weekend by all three teams.

However, Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says that at least one the customers has preferred to stick with the old spec, at least for Austria.

One of the complications is that under the 2018 regulations drivers can use only two MGU-Ks per season, before penalties result.

McLaren and Red Bull may thus be loathe to make a switch until the new spec has been proven by the works team in race weekend conditions.

“It’s available for all the cars that want it,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com. “It happens that not all teams have elected to go to the new spec.

“It’s one that we’ve been long awaiting, but it’s a bit of a problem that some teams have elected not to use it, which means that they will continue to use the MGU-K of a previous technical definition, with a higher reliability risk.

"But that’s our philosophy, to accept the teams’ choice, having all the information.”

The change comes immediately after works driver Carlos Sainz suffered a failure with the old spec MGU-K in the closing laps of the French GP.

“It’s a part that we know was fragile, it’s a part that we deliberately decided to extend the life of, because we knew that there was a new definition, a new spec coming up, with better performance, better packaging and with a better reliability level.

“It’s coming next weekend, but it’s two laps too late for that particular MGU-K!

"Having said that it’s not that bad, because it’s really showing that we are pushing to the limit and we are accepting to take risks.”

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MALLYA: I HAVE BECOME THE POSTER BOY OF BANK DEFAULT

Force India owner and tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is being pursued by Indian authorities over unpaid loans tied to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, said on Tuesday he was trying to sell assets worth about 139 billion rupees ($2.04 billion) to repay creditors.

India has asked Britain to extradite Mallya to face trial after the liquor and aviation tycoon fled there in March 2016.

The businessman said in a statement he and his UB Holdings Ltd filed an application on June 22 before a regional high court in India seeking permission to sell the assets that are under judicial supervision.

Indian government’s Enforcement Directorate, which fights financial crimes, also filed an application on the same day seeking to declare Mallya a “fugitive economic offender” and sought to confiscate 125 billion rupees worth of his assets.

Mallya, who denies the charges against him, said any objection by the Enforcement Directorate or Central Bureau of Investigation to his proposals to sell assets “will clearly demonstrate that there is an agenda against me beyond recovery of dues to Public Sector Banks.”

“All my efforts are either ignored or misunderstood,” Mallya said in a statement.

The Karnataka High Court in Southern India has yet to give a verdict on Mallya’s request to sell assets.

Kingfisher, which stopped flying in October 2012, owed banks about 90 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) when Mallya left India more than two years ago.

Since then, the Indian financial authorities have increased their crackdown on record levels of bad loans at lenders, especially at state-run banks which account for the bulk of the soured assets.

Lawyers for Mallya, who co-owns the Force India Formula 1 team, have opposed his extradition to India saying the case against him was politically motivated.

“I have become the ‘Poster Boy’ of bank default and a lightning rod of public anger,” Mallya said in his statement.

India has dismissed claims that its pursuit of Mallya is driven by politics, with its lawyer at an extradition hearing at a London court accusing the Force India owner of never intending to repay the money borrowed by Kingfisher.

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UNDER FIRE VETTEL SLAMMED BY ITALIAN MEDIA

The Italian media roundly criticised Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel after a first lap collision cost the driver and his team a shot at French Grand Prix victory.

After the race, Vettel was quick to put up his hand and declare mea culpa but that has done little to pacify the media disdain that has prevailed in the aftermath of the race at Circuit Paul Ricard.

The four times F1 world champion admitted immediately after the race, “It was my mistake. I tried to brake early and get out of it but I had no room.”

Ferrari F1 chief Maurizio Arrivabene did not criticise his driver after the race but rued the missed opportunity, “It was a shame about the accident at the start, which meant we couldn’t show what we could really do.”

On Monday the heavy hitters of the Italian media were not impressed:

La Gazzetta dello Sport: “Vettel committed amateur errors and this time the consequences were serious. Despite an excellent car, this is a wasted opportunity for Ferrari.”

La Repubblica: “Vettel makes mistakes which he cannot afford if he wants to win another world championship title.”

La Stampa: “It was a great catch-up drive but his impulsiveness cost him ten points.”

Autosprint: “It was a mistake by Vettel no question. The mistake was in the incorrect handling of the pressure on the brake at the time of steering.”

Corriere dello Sport quote Emerson Fittipaldi saying: “It was a very nervous grand prix start for Vettel from the start he was too aggressive trying to pass Bottas. You cannot win a grand prix at the first corner, but you can lose it at the first corner.”

More toned down was Ferrari insider Leo Turrini who explained the impact of the error, “He made a mistake at the start and paid for it dearly.”

“It annoys me a lot but we will never know, thanks to this own goal, to what extent the Ferrari would have compared with Mercedes who were in possession of the new engine. Also how the tyre strategies would have panned out,” added Turrini.

Vettel is no stranger to first lap incidents, he is often involved in the big ones – last year’s Singapore Grand Prix start fiasco springs to mind among several others since then – a suggestion which was put to race winner Lewis Hamilton who went on the defensive on behalf of his rival.

Even Max Verstappen refused to criticise the Ferrari driver and, despite taking a dig at his own critics, the Dutchman put it down to a mistake which all drivers make.

Vettel was given a five seconds stop and go penalty for causing the incident which he served during his pit stop, thereafter he drove a strong race and recovered to finish fifth, but he lost the one point championship lead he enjoyed before the race in France and now trails by 14 points as the circus heads to Austria.

Mercedes F1 chairman Niki Lauda had a rant after the race, questioning the leniency of the penalty which also compromised Valtteri Bottas who was tagged by the Ferrari of Vettel. The Finn suffered a puncture and limped back to the pits, his race compromised.

For Vettel, it is a blow for his title chances because Mercedes took a big step forward with their updated package and the German’s shenanigans cost them a sure podium if not a victory.

Every slip up will be severely punished when they tally the points at the end of the season, Vettel may look back on France with great regret.

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BOULLIER: ONLY WORKS TEAM STATUS CAN WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Less than a year since his team ditched Honda power to become Renault customer, McLaren sporting director Eric Boullier now claims that only works team status can win Formula 1 World Championships

Boullier told ESPN in France, “I think Red Bull is showing that you can win races as a customer, but I think winning a championship is another level, you need to have a works team status.”

A statement that goes against the highly publicised decision to divorce Honda and shack up with Renault. In the wake of three years of Honda misery, much was expected from the combo but the ‘clever’ guys at Woking delivered a dud of a car.

Additionally, McLaren were receiving a financial injection from Honda as part of the partnership deal. Now they pay for their power unit supply.

Boullier nevertheless justified the change, “It’s true that this time last year we had no points at all, so obviously we are now in the fight for fourth with Renault and once again, we would prefer to be comfortably fourth, which was one of the targets we had assigned to ourselves.”

“The car this year is obviously not working exactly like how we expect to be but we are still using this as an experimental experience.”

“We want to learn from this car and learn as well working with Renault because it’s a different partner from last year who we worked with for some years. We have something new to learn; some of the technical options we have not explored yet,” added Boullier.

The current works team in Formula 1 are Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Toro Rosso in partnership with Honda, which next year will extend to include Red Bull.

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Honda switch a 'very good move' for Red Bull/Mobil – Adrian Newey

Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey believes the decision to switch from Renault to Honda for the 2019 season will be a major boost for both the team and its fuel and oil supplier Mobil 1.

The energy drinks team has a deal to use Mobil 1's lubricants in its engines, whereas supplier Renault and its other customer team McLaren use BP/Castrol, which means they benefit from a performance advantage through customised oil and fuel.

Switching to Honda will effectively see Red Bull become a manufacturer team and that means Mobil 1 will be able to work with Honda to develop not only its own products, but also impact the engine development side which Newey believes will be very beneficial.

"Over the last few years Renault did a superb job in the V8 era," he said. "They were very open to developing things such as the blown-exhaust, which helped us tremendously, so we had a very good partnership with them.

"More recently in the hybrid era we have become their customer so they’re very much focusing on their own team, so the opportunity to work with a manufacturer rather than take what we’re given is very appealing.

"Honda have a tremendous record in Formula 1, very innovative engineers, and for us it's a real positive and something we’re very much looking forward to."

He added: "I think also for our partner Mobil it will be a very good move. Mobil with Renault have done a great job, but they’ve been somewhat restricted in their access to dynos and to develop an oil which is suitable for an engine that has been developed for different manufacturers fuel and oil.

"By going to Honda I think it will allow Mobil much more freedom to work with the manufacturer where they can actually influence the design of the engine, not simply to develop a product for an already existing specification."

 

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Miami circuit set for layout change after objection

Formula 1's proposed Miami street circuit looks set to change following a successful objection to the layout by Audrey Edmonson, commissioner for District 3 of the Miami-Dade county.

Whilst the race itself received approval following a vote earlier this year, the layout has yet to be finalised though a provisional version was released as part of the original plans seeking approval.

This ran around the American Airlines Arena which sits on the waterfront, however a small piece of land known as 'Parcel B' (highlighted in yellow) has been developed into a public park. Whilst the route itself doesn't run through the park, it would block the only two points of entry, therefore focing its closure for the duration of the race.

Edmonson successfully objected to the proposal and therefore a change of layout will be required to ensure the circuit meets the minimum length as mandated by the FIA whilst also avoiding this area, which cuts out a substantial part of the proposed track.

To do so, it's likely the route will simply bypass the arena by connecting Biscayne Boulevard directly with the Port Boulevard bridge. There are additional roads that can be used in the Miamarina Bayfront Park (see green route) which would provide the necessary extension required, whilst also including a run along the waterfront, which Liberty Media and the city are keen to include.

With Liberty keen to see the race on the calendar in 2019, firming up the layout will be necessary in the coming weeks, though the project could face more delays after a lawyer representing a group of residents issued a cease and desist against the race and other major events due to noise concerns.

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FIA open to removing Paul Ricard chicane

The FIA is receptive to the idea of using Paul Ricard’s full Mistral Straight at future French Grands Prix, should a convincing enough argument be made.

Formula 1 returned to France after a decade-long absence, with Paul Ricard selected as the venue, the first time the circuit had been used by the championship since 1990.

The 5.8km circuit features an array of potential layouts, and Formula 1 opted to use the 5.8km venue, with the North Chicane adopted to break up the lengthy Mistral Straight.

Drivers had suggested during the build-up to the event that the chicane scuppered overtaking opportunities, though several were able to either out-brake opponents or use DRS to make a move.

Formula 1 Race Director Charlie Whiting commented that “if there is a strong enough argument” then the full Mistral Straight could be used in future years, and explained why the current layout was applied.

“It was a joint decision that was proposed by the circuit and we saw no reason to use anything different,” he said.

“We wanted to have two long DRS zones which I think appeared to work quite well on the back straight.

“I know there appears to be a school of thought that we could have done without it but all the teams and drivers have known about it for a long time and tested on that track so I was a little surprised to hear that come out of the blue on Friday.

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Catching Renault now "very difficult" - Force India

Force India has admitted its hopes of beating Renault to fourth place in the Formula 1 standings are all but over after suffering its first double retirement in almost two years in the French Grand Prix.
Renault put both cars in the points for the third successive race in France, and the Enstone-based outfit has now pulled away in fourth place in the constructors' standings on 62 points, leaving McLaren on 40, Force India on 28, and Haas catching up on 27.

Local star Esteban Ocon was eliminated at Paul Ricard after he was involved in separate first lap incidents with countrymen Romain Grosjean and Pierre Gasly, while Sergio Perez was called into the pits after engine supplier Mercedes noticed a drop in water pressure.

That was subsequently traced to a water pump leak, but there was no damage to the actual power unit as the car was stopped in time.

“Realistically the battle now is for fifth place,” deputy team principal Bob Fernley told Motorsport.com.

“I think it will be very difficult for any of the midfield teams to overtake Renault at this point. Nothing’s impossible, but they are very strong.

“Fundamentally they are doing what we were doing last year, when everyone else was taking points off each other. We had a good first half of the season with a car that probably didn’t deserve to be in the points, but was in the points on a regular basis.”

The last occasion when both Force Indias failed to finish was Austria 2016, although Perez and then teammate Nico Hulkenberg had completed sufficient laps to be classified 17th and 19th.

Prior to that the last time both cars officially retired was Hungary 2015.

“It’s disappointing really,” said Fernley. “We didn’t have a particularly good Friday, with Esteban’s spin in FP1 we lost quite a bit of track time in terms of our long run programme, and then the incident with Checo [Perez]’s lost wheel in FP2 meant both cars had to sit it out until we knew what it was.

"In FP3 it was wet, and we couldn’t get the set-up we wanted for qualifying. And then the race went from bad to worse.

"It was a little bit beyond bad luck I think. Esteban was hit by Grosjean, and then Gasly. All three Frenchmen!

"Grosjean just drove straight into him on the pit straight, and did a lot of damage to the side. It was a big hit and it was expensive in terms that we’ve lost a lot of points.

“Checo was losing water pressure, so we couldn’t take a chance. Once we knew that it was dropping it was pointless continuing, because the last thing we need to lose is an engine. It’s definitely not damaged, it’s fine.”