Haas recruitment drive key to 2017 progress

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In the round-up: Recruiting staff from rival teams has helped Has sustain their momentum into 2017, the team reveals.

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Will Sochi really be a ‘Mercedes track’?

I wonder if there’s really such a thing as a ‘Ferrari track’ or ‘Mercedes track’ this year.

Mercedes has been nearly unbeatable in Melbourne, Shanghai and Sochi ever since the start of the hybrid era. Yet Ferrari has shown they can beat them at Melbourne and without a real Safety Car at Shanghai as well.

Equally Mercedes could’ve won Bahrain, had there not been so many gremlins throughout the race (and even before the start), when everyone said hot temperatures would favour the prancing horse.

I think (and I hope this is true for the whole of the season) we’re in for a 2007/08-style ding-dong battle between Mercedes and Ferrari where marginal shifts in performance and the smallest of errors can have massive effects on the outcome of the race result.
@Wallbreaker

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49 comments on “Haas recruitment drive key to 2017 progress”

  1. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. It gets old real fast.

  2. A night race in NYC? That will be a TV disaster. Who in Europe wants to watch a GP at 1 or 2 am on what is technically a Monday morning?

    1. It could be staged just after midnight on Sunday, maybe around 1 a.m. This would translate to early morning in Europe.

      1. Still, unless you were unemployed, no one would watch it on a monday morning.

      2. Sure, everyone in North America wants to attend an F1 race that starts after midnight, just so Europeans will not be inconvenienced. You guys are joking right?

        1. It’s even worse @ferrox-glideh. THat time would not only be bonkers for the US (Working people surely wouldn’t spend half of their night at the race, and international visitors would be in trouble with their stays and travel too) but it is just as stupid for European viewers, because it will be quite a small portion of the fans who will get up in the middle of the night before having to go to work on Monday morning either.

          I can see the race starting maybe at around 17:00 local time (for a start time of not too long after midnight in most of western Europe), depending on the time of year, it would see the lights start to go on, or even start shortly after that. Or they would have to make sure it somehow falls on weekend where the monday is off (Easter races in New York? not sure that would work!) for all the potential viewers/visitors.

          1. It would still be daylight at that time, even at the end of the race.

      3. I think @maroonjack meant to schedule it for Saturday night (i.e Sunday morning) rather than Sunday night (i.e. Monday morning). Still, @ferrox-glideh makes a good point; there’s a limit as to how late you could reasonably start the race and still have a good audience.

        You could perhaps have a “watch all night, sleep all day” attitude to the whole thing, but I think that would work better for a rural race where there isn’t much to do in the area during the day, rather than an urban race (especially New York!), where there are more distractions than there would be racegoers.

      4. Sooooo, let me get this straight, it’s ok to seriously inconvenience all of Canada, the United States, and Mexico so that Europeans can get a good night’s sleep? Wow.
        Get a freakin DVR like the rest of us.

        And you people call Americans arrogant.

    2. Fikri Harish (@)
      27th April 2017, 14:47

      Oh boo-frickin’-hoo.
      The Canadian GP traditionally starts at 1 am on Monday morning here in Indonesia. In 2011, I stayed up until 5 or so to watch the Podium ceremony.

      I still attended the usual office weekly meeting at 10 that same morning.

    3. We find a way to watch the Euro races… some of which can be a true challenge… figure it out Europeans…

      The down side to formula1 becoming more of a world-centric race series, is it’s not 100% about you guys in the UK anymore…

  3. Living in New York, I can’t see how a night race can happen here. Unlike other American cities, the streets in Manhattan are rather small and uninteresting, because the whole city is divided into grids. So unless we want to have a race only of 90 degree turns, this is not the place for an F1 race. The street quality here is also very low, and New Yorkers don’t really care that much about F1 and probably would oppose spending city money on an F1 race and closing off streets in the weekend.

    One option is to hold the race in Brooklyn or Jersey City, then you would still have the New York City skyline and statue of liberty in the background. But Brooklyn is still under the jurisdiction of the city of New York, which, again, would probably oppose such a deal, and a race in New Jersey has been planned and collapsed.

    1. There is a real possibility that would be brought back. Quite honestly there is no better place in the NYC area than that to stage a GP. I also read an article in Autoweek that John Malone and Leo Hindery are buddies.

    2. If they really want to race in New York so badly, why not do it in Watkin Glen Raceway. It is still in New York state.

      1. Watkins Glen lacks safety for F1 and has not been used for a GP since 1980. It is still one of the great circuits of the world but IndyCar currently use it and IndyCar and F1 would never run on the same configured track.

    3. I cannot wait for the day that the New Jersey/Weehawken circuit is resurrected. I have not given up hope! The pit building is there ready and waiting (a muilti-story car park that was built for that specific dual purpose), the designs and plans all are ready – they just need to be tweaked a bit now that some of the empty plots of land either side of the car park have since been built on. It would a stunning circuit, Spa mixed with Monaco. Pleeeeease Liberty make it happen :)

    4. How about Staten Island? There’s plenty of options around Latourette Park, CUNY College, High Rock, Deere Park and Todt Hill (Come on. Todt? Hill? This place is made for F1). I think it would be viable. I can see some nice layouts with elevation changes aroud there. Plenty of space for grandstands too. The quality of roads isn’t a problem, as they replace the tarmac and widen the streets anyway when a street circuit is created.

    5. Having spent over 35 years in New York, I had always thought about where could a F1 race actually go. One idea was around The World’s Fairground in Flushing Meadows, but it’s too small. Another was to race around Prospect Park, since it’s a bit hilly, but in reality, there aren’t many places to put a race. Watkins Glen (although roughly +4 hours away) makes the most sense. Pocono Raceway is actually closer.

  4. And if there is going to be a Vegas GP, having a race at 11 pm (7 am UK/Ireland time, 8 am continential western Europe time) on a Saturday night might not be such a bad idea. The only time Vegas is worth looking at is at night. During the day it looks and feels like a dead ghost town and a graveyard. But since the last GP run on a Saturday was Kyalami ’85, that might be hard to do.

    Also, there is a potential scheduling issue with the LV GP. They can’t schedule that race in early March before Australia- because the NASCAR event at the LV speedway north of the city itself is held at that time. And you can’t hold a GP there between late April and mid October because the weather is too hot, and although it can be paired with Austin and Mexico City I don’t think that’s as good an idea. Any potenrial US rounds should be seperated from each other by at least 10 weeks. Maybe NASCAR will move its LV round to late October or November…

    1. ”Any potenrial US rounds should be seperated from each other by at least 10 weeks.”
      – I couldn’t disagree more with this claim. That wouldn’t make any sense at all from the logistical point of view as it would just cause unnecessary and needlessly exhausting and expensive continent hopping. Yes, the Canadian GP is run many months apart from the other North American races, but there’s a very valid reason for that which is called climate, but since a race in LV couldn’t be paired with the Canadian GP for obvious climatic reasons the only reasonable time of year for it would be the same time of year as the current US GP venue and Mexico. Yes, it could be part of the early-season flyaway phase as well, but like I stated it would just cause unnecessary continent hopping as the current early-season venues locate in the far east and the Europe/Asia border. All races on the same continent should be grouped for reducing logistical costs as long as the climates of the places allow enough flexibility in choosing the time of year for a race to be run.

      1. New York could be paired with Canada, and Texas (or a southern replacement like Las Vegas) could remain paired with Mexico. That would solve the problem.

        1. It could, actually. You could have Canada (at the latest) 2 weeks after Italy, then NYC, then Mexico, then Austin, then Vegas.

          1. *then Austin, then Brazil, then Vegas. A round in Argentina would also be nice…

      2. That’s what I was saying. You could start with Vegas or Austin then the teams could travel to Australia afterwards; and then the other two American rounds could be paired with Canada and Mexico each.

  5. In response to the Cotd. Yes there’s a Mercedes track and Ferrari track. Mercedes was and still is at it’s strongest on power circuits. Mercedes was to blame for Melbourne. Ferrari were unlucky in China. Mercedes made mistakes in Bahrain. All in all it’s true that neither Ferrari or Mercedes won on the layout that suited their car the best but I think this factor is undeniable in Sochi. Sochi is too much of a Merc track for anything but a Mercedes to even lead a single lap.

    1. Actually, I kind of agree with COTD. Let’s face it, over the past 3 seasons every track has been a Mercedes track, and their advantage was extended at certain power circuits. This year, the power deficit between Ferrari and Mercedes is almost negligible, and Ferrari have the added benefit of slightly better race pace and tyre management, which completely throws Mercedes off their game.

      In 2017, it is a different era of chassis and a definite performance convergence between the Ferrari and Merc PU, so so I do feel that not everything over the past 3 seasons can get taken as written in stone.

      1. @todfod Thing is, we’re not saying it’s a Mercedes track based on past evidence. We’re saying so based on the evidence from testing and the first three races, and arriving at this conclusion through logic.

  6. That picture between Sainz and Kvyat is absolutely begging for a caption: http://en.f1i.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/C-U1KMhXoAAwdzG-725×500.jpg

    1. These are the only kind of team orders present in Toro Rosso.

  7. I have just known yesterday that Lewis lost hist pole due to DRS issues, so his bad luck continues this year, amazing really.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      27th April 2017, 9:11

      @abdelilah
      I actually doubt this affected him. Hamilton would have been aware if he had an issue and surely would have mentioned it afterwards if it affected him. He looked really happy for Bottas and congrajulated him for getting his first pole. If he’d had issues that had lost him the chance of beating Bottas, then why did he say “Bottas clearly did the better job today” ??

      1. Gavin Campbell
        27th April 2017, 9:18

        He’s smart in terms of his media (and social media) presence – more so than any other driver. He feels he has heeps in hand over Valteri and so far its proven to be the case. So there is little to be gained in doing anything other than sounding gracious and congratulating him.

        Secondly as it stands now he is in a fight with Vettel – it doesn’t matter where they are in the field on each given weekend you’ve simply got to beat the other guy. Im sure Bottas, Raikkonen or the Bulls will steal a win – either strategy or mixed conditions etc. It doesn’t matter for the title – what matters is scalping Vettel week in week out.

      2. @thegianthogweed Q3 laps are really competitive, it is related to small details, I guess a malfunctioning DRS would have lost him the pole, losing two tenths as he stated is enough if you look back at the slim margin Bottas won the pole with.

        1. @abdelilah Hamilton’s last lap was more than 2 tenths off Bottas’ time, so no, Hamilton didn’t deserve pole.

          1. @mashiat In my reasoning I said he lost the pole due to a malfunctioning DRS, I didn’t say he deserved the pole or not, I was just pointing simple facts :)

          2. @abdelilah Based on Hamilton saying he lost 2 tenths due to the loss of DRS, he shouldn’t have gotten pole, and would have maybe still gotten 2nd.

      3. Tony Mansell
        27th April 2017, 9:37

        So are you saying he’s lying now ? Would seem when LH is being a good sport in the moment it still comes back to bite him from the LH hateboys. Either his DRS did deploy or it didn’t. If it didn’t it would have cost him time. That’s pretty obvious no?

      4. agree on this.
        1. Looking back at Q3, Hamilton’s first lap was used in the end, and his second flying lap was actually slower for the first sector. With that in mind even if DRS had ‘engaged’ and he hadn’t lost time on last corner, he may still have struggled.

        2. time lost on last corner is own fault.

        3. failure to engage and failure to open are two different things.

        Think LH was quite gracious in his acceptance that he didn’t get full potential in that Q3.

        1. “3. failure to engage and failure to open are two different things”

          What?!…. If it didn’t engage it meant it did not open thus not giving the benefit it was meant to. So there’s no grey area there to be analysed.

          His second lap was 0.213 slower than Bottas, he said he lost 2/10th due to the malfunction. So had it worked in S2, then the likehood would’ve been, he’d be able to carrry that speed & time gained throughout the rest of the lap.

          1. What I meant was, it could have been open but did not have the desired effects.

            time diff: think it was 0.243s… so would have been close, if the DRS ‘issue’ hadn’t happened.

            either way, like i said, LH agreed that Bottas did a better job. Can we not just accept that, instead of constantly finding excuses for the man, even when he’s not looking for any himself?

    2. So without these technical issues the #1 car would be leading the championship ;)

      (note: yes I know!)

  8. I always thought Mag deserved another chance in Mclaren. Then again, I doubt he’s complaining considering McLarens current state.

    1. I don’t understand why people keep rating Magnussen so highly. He was good in his debut race and has pretty much gone downhill from there. He was paired up against arguably the weakest teammate possible last year, which made him look better than he was. This year, Grosjean should have the better of him.

    2. i disagree, Magnussen is nothing to write home about. If there’s anyone who deserved a second chance in the McLaren then that’s Perez, but TBH it kind of turned out better for him.

    3. The chance to drive a McLaren? The last Mercedes-McLaren wasn’t good, and it went downhill, very fast from there… If it were my car being so bad, I would save the last two liters of fuel to drench it and make a bonfire. Maybe roasting some Honda executive coudl happen too :)

  9. Regarding the Auto Motor und Sport article about the 2018 F1 race calendar: From what I can understand from the article is, for example, that the intention of the new (current) owners is to avoid weekend clashes with other sports events such as the Indy 500, Nurburgring 24hrs, Wimbledon, etc. Well, good luck with that because it won’t be easy to circle everything as there are only 52/53 weekends in a year. For example, avoiding a weekend clash with the Wimbledon finals would be easier if they (Wimbledon organizers) wouldn’t change their date regularly. It seems to be their intention to have the finals on the same weekend as the British GP as last year the British GP race day was the 9th of July, this year the race will take place further into the month and yet there will still be a weekend clash with these two events, same in 2015 despite the race day being an early day (5th) of the month and even in 2013 when it was run in late June these events clashed, so no matter how late or how early in July the British GP is run or even if it’s run in June there always seems to be a weekend clash, so I’d blame the Wimbledon organizers for the clashes rather than the FIA. Furthermore, I don’t understand the fuss about the Australian GP being run when the local football season is in progress as, for example, the US GP is run when the NHL (National Hockey League) regular season is in progress, and the Canadian GP always takes place during the Stanley Cup (NHL) finals, so if those aren’t a problem then why is the Australian GP taking place after the football season there has started a problem?

    1. Wimbledon has consistent dates, two weeks from late June into July, it has always been this way. It’s the fault of F1 if the British Grand Prix is on the same day as the gentlemen’s singles final.

      1. ”It’s the fault of F1 if the British Grand Prix is on the same day as the gentlemen’s singles final.”
        – Wrong, it isn’t F1’s or in this case rather the FIA’s fault if the date of the men’s finals keeps changing instead of being consistent (which seems to be the case as I stated above despite the British GP being held in different parts of July or even in June it seems to clash with the ‘gentlemen’s singles final’ specifically). The date of the men’s final being consistent would make circling it easier for the people who are responsible for the f1 schedule.

        1. Not putting blame on anyone, but the ATP schedule for 2018 is already out, and wimbledon’s dates already confirmed. Looks like they plan more than a year in advance. There are opportunities to get it to not clash.

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