Метка: Formula-1

Ricciardo felt «rapid» before Stroll F1 clash in China

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Under a mid-race safety car, Aston Martin driver Stroll clattered into the back of Ricciardo at the hairpin, which forced the Australian to retire with car damage.

Ricciardo was furious with Stroll’s refusal to take blame for the incident, while the Canadian labelled his penalty a «joke».

But amid a tough a thus far point-less start to the 2024 season, which has dented Ricciardo’s hopes of landing the coveted second Red Bull seat in 2025, China was a much-improved weekend for him until the Stroll clash.

Ricciardo qualified ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda for both the sprint and the grand prix, and was in the hunt for points in both races.

Describing his «yo-yo race», Ricciardo said. «Everyone pitted early, so we went longer.

«As soon as we put on the second medium, we were very good. I know we were only out there for five or six laps, but it felt rapid.

«The tyres still being pretty good, we chose to stay out for track position.

«Then we were going to fit a soft at the end. We would have been in a very good place.

Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team

Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

«Obviously, immediate disappointment and frustration, but in 48 hours time we look back and reflect on the weekend. It’s definitely a good weekend.

«As a team, we feel like we took a blow to the stomach now. But probably deeper than that, we have some positives.»

Ricciardo had asked RB for a chassis change ahead of the Shanghai event. While there is no word of whether there was any actual issue with his old tub, or whether it is a placebo effect, the 34-year-old said at least «something» changed to make him feel more at ease.

«From the get-go it just felt like we’re in a better place and everything came a bit more seamlessly,» he explained.

«We did change chassis. I don’t want to jump on that and be like: «It’s definitely that’.

«But something didn’t make me feel right with the previous chassis I was racing.

«I would love to kind of be here in five races’ time and say that, because then it means the season has definitely turned around and I get that monkey off our back.

«We’ll see in Miami, and Imola and maybe the next few [races] if it continues.»

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble

Watch: Who Are The Key Players In The F1 2025 Driver Market



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Ferrari «made too many mistakes» for podium fight at F1 Chinese GP

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Ferrari has been the 2024 season’s second-best team so far, but didn’t live up to those expectations at last weekend’s Shanghai event.

Having had at least one driver on the podium across the first four races, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified sixth and seventh respectively, six-tenths off Max Verstappen.

The pair managed to move ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Aston Martin man Fernando Alonso to finish fourth and fifth, but still fell well short of challenging McLaren’s Lando Norris, who convincingly grabbed second.

Team principal Vasseur said his team «made too many mistakes» trying to optimise its package for the tricky Shanghai circuit and its unusual tarmac coating, which led to being behind the curve in qualifying.

«I think it’s really a matter of putting everything together,» Vasseur explained. «We didn’t have a clean weekend on our side, but we made collectively too many mistakes.

«In this group, if you don’t do the perfect job you won’t be in front. We have a pack with six or seven cars in one-tenth in qualifying. That means that due to details you can move from hero to zero.»

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Ferrari

Both Ferraris initially lost positions to Russell — and briefly Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg — at the start as they struggled for grip, which made their recovery harder than it needed to be.

A mid-race safety car further complicated matters for Sainz as he had already made his one pitstop for hard tyres, giving him a tyre-life disadvantage against the cars around him.

But Vasseur pointed out both Ferraris struggled more on the hard compound than on the mediums they had started the race on, which is an area to investigate.

«I think if we lost something, it’s more on the last stint. Carlos was a bit unlucky with the timing of the pitstop, because he pitted three or four laps before the safety car,» the Frenchman said.

«He was a bit scared to do a very long stint with the last set of hard and he was a bit conservative at the beginning, but he did very well to manage the long stint.

«We were a bit less performant on the hard than on the medium. We were in a good position at the end of the stint of medium, but we lost ground on the hard.»

Shanghai’s tricky surface condition, paired with the sprint format’s limited practice time, may have tripped Ferrari up, but Vasseur didn’t want to call in excuses.

«It’s more a matter of extracting the best of what we have, and we didn’t do the job on this,» he admitted.

«It was very difficult to understand the tarmac, also due to the format. This can make a difference in the end because we are speaking about one-tenth, we are not speaking about half a second.

«But this cannot be an excuse. It’s the same for everybody and some teams managed it better than others. We have to understand if we can do a better job with the preparation.»



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McLaren «surprised» by China F1 race pace after sprint struggles

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McLaren’s Lando Norris started on pole for Saturday morning’s 19-lap sprint race but after going off at the start he fell down to seventh. That became sixth at the chequered flag due to Fernando Alonso’s retirement, finishing in front of team-mate Oscar Piastri but behind both Ferraris.

Its race pace relative to the Scuderia seemed in line with the Woking team’s muted expectations for the weekend, but that picture completely changed on Sunday when Norris split the Red Bulls to finish second, while Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc failed to finish in the top-five.

Norris said there was «nothing pointing» to the team’s better-than-expected competitiveness on Sunday, but team boss Stella suggested the cooler conditions provided a possible explanation.

«In fairness, in the sprint, we didn’t see that we had race pace that would have allowed us to finish ahead of Ferrari. It was in line somehow with what we expected before coming here,» Stella said.

«So it’s a bit of a surprise, especially in terms of race pace. We know that we are strong when we have new soft rubber, we can do a good job for a single lap, but when we put laps one after the other, we tend to lose some performance.

«But I think somehow the track conditions and the cold conditions, the fact that there was no sunshine, helped keep the rear tyres under control. And therefore we could use the strengths of the car, like we saw in qualifying.

«The rear axle especially was not overheating. While if we look at the sprint, I think we had a bit of overheating and Ferrari seemed to be more comfortable.»

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Piastri finished eighth after sustaining damage in the safety car collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll, with Ricciardo’s RB tagging his diffuser that Stella says cost him up to fourth-tenths per lap.

«It was a big loss,» Stella explained. «Oscar had damage on the diffuser, he lost a significant amount of rear downforce, equivalent to four-tenths of a second, something like that.

«When we heard the numbers, I wasn’t very optimistic that we could have held positions like Oscar has been able to do.

«His result is less noticeable than Lando’s, but I think he did a good job in trying to understand how to drive the car when he lost so much rear downforce. The car was very oversteery.

«He managed to make some adaptations and keep [Lewis] Hamilton behind, so that’s also a strong result.»



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Ferrari announces Miami F1 livery change to mark US anniversary

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The Scuderia is set to unveil a one-off look for the Miami Grand Prix which will make reference to the heritage of the manufacturer in a contemporary manner, with two shades of blue being brought back from the pages of history — Azzurro La Plata and Azzurro Dino.

The change will be made to honour Ferrari’s historical place in the US motorsport environment, marking the manufacturer’s 70th anniversary in the American marketplace.

In 1964, this breakthrough was marked with a special US white and blue livery, which featured in the final two races of that season. The cars ran in the North American Racing Team colours as part of a protest, by order of Enzo Ferrari.

The former colour, Azzurro La Plata, is a light shade of blue and is the national racing colour of Argentina. It is also a similar shade to that worn by two-time champion Alberto Ascari, with the Italian often wearing a jersey in the colour as well as a matching helmet.

Further Ferrari connections to this colour comes through the racing overalls of the 1960s, with the likes of John Surtees and Chris Amon racing in blue, as did Niki Lauda in his maiden season with the team.

Azzurro Dino is a darker shade, which was worn last in 1974, most recently by Clay Regazzoni before the iconic red colouring became the norm for race suits.

Photo by: Ferrari

It has so far been confirmed that the special livery will be revealed directly in Florida. Although a date has not been confirmed for this launch, there is an extensive array of events celebrating the Prancing Horse starting on 28 April which will come to a climax at the Miami Grand Prix, with a pair of blue 296 GTSs set to lead a parade of Ferrari machinery around the track.

Last year, Ferrari ran a special livery for the Italian Grand Prix, featuring yellow, with the design paying tribute to the Le Mans 24 Hours winning 499P. The team also ran a burgundy look to celebrate its 1000th race at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.



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Sargeant baffled about not being told of illegal F1 safety car overtake

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During the caution period to remove Valtteri Bottas’s stricken Sauber, Sargeant was running down the start-finish straight towards Turn 1 as his Haas rival emerged from the pits following a change of tyres.

But while Hulkenberg reached the critical safety car line that determines the running order a split second in front, Sargeant’s speed offset and momentum left him thinking he had got there first so he slotted in ahead.

Then, with no feedback from his pit wall or the FIA over needing to give the position back, Sargeant was handed a 10-second penalty after the racing resumed for what was ruled an illegal overtake.

Asked how hard the situation had been to read as he charged down to the first corner, Sargeant said: “There’s a bit of elevation there as well and I guess it just makes things hard to see when cars are split by quite a big distance.

 “To my side, I thought I was way ahead. I didn’t think it was even close so, to me, it was no discussion. So, to hear about that at the end of the race was a bit strange. I don’t know if there’s any way the FIA could maybe give us some feedback.

“We were under safety car for ages, I don’t know why they didn’t just tell me to give the position back. Obviously, I would’ve done so, had they said, but to my knowledge, I thought I was way ahead.”

Sargeant’s subsequent 10-second penalty dropped him to 17th in the final classification, and came at the end of a weekend where he struggled to find consistent performance from his Williams – having complained in qualifying the car felt “disconnected”.

A major set-up change for the race prompted a pitlane start and, while there was some encouraging early pace, he thinks circumstances worked against him with the timing of the safety car.

Plus, an inability to get the hard tyre switched on, left him enduring what he said was one of the most “painful” stints he has experienced in F1.

“There were good moments, bad moments,” he said. “I think the start of the race on the softs was strong and when we put on the medium tyre, we were in a really good place.

“But we probably could’ve done without that safety car because we would’ve gone medium, medium and that would’ve suited us much better.

“We put the hard tyre on, and I couldn’t even get it to switch on, and immediately destroyed the fronts.

“From that point on, it was a massive, massive struggle. Bit confused about that last stint and probably one of the most painful ones I’ve had. We will see if we can do better going forward.”



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Leclerc start battle cost Ferrari in F1 China GP

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Leclerc and Sainz lined up sixth and seventh respectively, but both lost positions to Mercedes driver George Russell and Haas man Nico Hulkenberg as they crossed paths in Shanghai’s first corner complex.

Sainz was pushed wide in Turn 2 by an understeering Leclerc, who visibly struggled to get his tyres up to temperature, further illustrated by a huge moment for the Monegasque in the second sector.

While Hulkenberg was easy prey for both, Russell proved a tougher nut to crack. Leclerc finally passed him on lap 9, while Sainz had to wait for the Briton to pit before being released into clear air until the mid-race safety car.

«It was a bit of a crazy race. What we did at the start cost both Charles and I one or two positions and that cost us a lot in the race,» Sainz said about the intra-team battle to Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

«Then we tried to follow the Mercedes, we tried to overtake him but he stopped and then we stopped, we put the hard tyres on very early.

«In the last stint, I had to go very long, but we still managed to hang on for fifth, which I think was the maximum we could do.»

Ferrari was tipped to do well in Shanghai, but that didn’t prove to be the case as it struggled for pace on the harder Pirelli compound.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

«Honestly, we weren’t very fast this weekend, when you qualify sixth and seventh there’s not a lot of pace in the car,» said Sainz.

«In the race, we expected to be better but we weren’t, so clearly this is the circuit where we suffered the most.

«We need to check if we’ve done everything we could with the set-up and if not, it’s time to work on the car because this type of circuit didn’t go well for us.»

«I just focused on getting to the end and making sure Russell didn’t pass me on new tyres, and we managed to do that.»

Earlier in the weekend Leclerc felt Sainz «went a bit over the limit» defending his position to his team-mate in the sprint race, before declaring the matter was cleared up internally.

Sainz is F1’s highest-profile free agent on the 2025 driver market, as he is set to leave Ferrari at the end of the season following the Scuderia’s signing of Lewis Hamilton.



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F1’s new points system looks on course to get support it needs

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As exclusively revealed by Autosport ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, F1’s teams are due to discuss with the FIA and FOM the idea of revising the points system for 2025 to offer rewards down to 12th place.

Amid concerns that the effective current lock-out of the top ten positions by the leading five teams is unduly impacting the midfield battle, as there are so few opportunities to score, a proposal will be put to a meeting of the F1 Commission this week to change the points system.

The current allocation of points for the top seven positions will remain unchanged if the change is made (see table at bottom of story), but things will shuffle around from eighth and below.

The points shake-up has been framed in a way that it should not impact the leading teams from a competitive viewpoint, plus will not mean they score more, which could increase the points-based entry fee they must pay to the FIA each year.

For the proposal to go ahead and get implemented for the 2025 season, it will need to earn a simple majority support from the teams – so requires five outfits to approve it as well as being supported by the FIA and FOM.

And while it is not impossible for teams to say one thing in public and act another way when it comes to a vote, the indications are that even top outfits are not minded to move to block the change.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: “I’m not against. And coming from Alfa Romeo, I perfectly understand sometimes the frustration that you are doing a mega weekend, but if there is no DNF in front of you then you finish P11 and the reward is zero.

Zhou Guanyu, Kick Sauber C44, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Zhou Guanyu, Kick Sauber C44, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“[At the moment] you can finish P11 or P 20 and it is the same, so I can understand the frustration for this.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: “It feels like there are two groups in Formula 1 at the moment, and the teams from six to 10 are in as hard a fight as one to five.

“I think it’s one of those things where you’ve just got to run the numbers and look at the analytics and say: what would it actually change? So I’m impartial to it.”

Those teams that are locked in that midfield battle for the minor points positions are especially eager to see the change.

RB team principal Laurent Mekies told Autosport that he saw no negatives to the new system – which he felt would deliver an improvement for F1 as a whole.

“Of course, I will support that,” he said. “There are no backmarkers any more. There are six OEMs in F1, plus Red Bull Racing, so it’s like seven top teams.

“Even the bottom five teams are large organisations now and it’s very difficult to explain to the outside world, to our partners, and to our fans, that we battle for a P11 that actually grants zero points.

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“If you look at the level of competitiveness of the top five teams and the reliability level of the cars, it means that most of the race you’re battling theoretically for zero points, and we don’t think this is right.

“We also think it’s more meritocratic because, if you score points up until P12, you will avoid the effect where if something completely stunning happens and somebody scores a P5 or P4 in the rain, it means the other guys can stay home for 10 races.

“We think it’s ticking all the boxes with virtually no downside, so hopefully it will go through.”

Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu added: “What’s the downside? Currently, we have three teams with zero points and I don’t think that’s good for sport.

“If somebody was awarded points for P11, P12, there will be less people with zero points. So, I think it’s clearer for the fans and for the motivation of everybody working in a team as well. It’s much better to come out with P12 with one point, P11 with two points — it’s a reward.”

The new F1 points structure proposal 

Finishing position

Current points

Proposed points

1

25

25

2

18

18

3

15

15

4

12

12

5

10

10

6

8

8

7

6

6

8

4

5

9

2

4

10

1

3

11

0

2

12

0

1

Fastest lap

1  (top 10 finishers only)

1  (top 12 finishers only)

Additional quotes from Oleg Karpov and Erwin Jaeggi



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Stroll penalty «very harsh» after F1 China «chain reaction»

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Stroll hit Ricciardo under the safety car as the field bunched up in the penultimate corner for a lap 27 restart.

The stewards wholly blamed Stroll for not taking more care to avoid the contact and handed him a 10-second penalty and two penalty points, which Stroll felt was «a joke».

His team boss Krack backed the Canadian and questioned why such a snap verdict was issued soon after the incident.

«A very, very quick verdict without really understanding… I thought it was very, very fast and very harsh, very quick decision,» Krack said when Autosport quizzed him about the punishment.

«I think it was a chain reaction at the end of the day. You saw Fernando [Alonso] locking and another car behind and I think everybody was a little bit caught out there.

«I would have liked that this would have been looked at in a little bit more detailed way. We tried to discuss it, but the verdict was very quickly that Lance was to blame. And he got a 10-second penalty, additional to the front wing damage.»

Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team

Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Ricciardo was particularly frustrated with Stroll ducking responsibility for the clash despite pointing out the Aston driver was looking at the apex of Turn 14 rather than what was happening ahead of him.

«These situations are created in the front,» Krack responded. «Now, you can always say, you need to be more careful.

«But, on the other hand, if you’re too careful, and you have the restart and you lose more than one car length — everybody says ‘are you asleep?’

«Things like that happen at different tracks. You remember the incident we had in Mugello [at the 2020 Tuscan GP], where there were a lot of cars involved.

«This is always the erratic movement that happens on a safety car restart. And we have some of these every year and will continue to.»



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Stroll explains why F1 China penalty for Ricciardo contact felt like «a joke»

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With the field bunching up before the hairpin as the race was restarted on Lap 27, Stroll went into the back of Ricciardo, lifting the RB car up in the air and causing terminal damage to the Australian’s car.
Ricciardo was pushed into McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who also sustained damage that compromised the rest of his race.

The stewards swiftly exacted judgment on the incident, fully attributing blame to Stroll. The Canadian received a 10-second penalty and two penalty points, bringing his tally up to seven for the past 12 months.

«We determined that Car 18 ought to have anticipated the pace of the cars in front, particularly Car 3 and should have prepared to brake accordingly,» the FIA race stewards judged.

«Had it done that, it would have avoided the collision. Hence Car 18 was predominantly to blame for the collision that ultimately led to Car 3 having to retire from the race.»

Stroll’s actions were also slammed by Ricciardo, who said the Canadian’s lack of responsibility «made my blood boil».

But Stroll said he felt the stewards should have taken into account that the field bunched up very quickly, which ended up being caused by his team-mate Fernando Alonso locking up his front tyres.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

«I think it’s just because of the fact that I hit the guy,» Stroll said when asked by Autosport why he said the penalty was a joke on his team radio.

«I got a penalty because of the end result that I hit Ricciardo, but it’s not like everything was normal and I just slammed into the back of him.

«There was a really odd concertina effect that I would have liked to see the stewards take into consideration maybe a little bit more.

«Someone braked at the front of the pack and then everyone stops. The car in front of me just stopped from like 60 to zero. It was one of those stupid incidents.

«I was in his gearbox and ready for the restart, and just very unlucky. We were having a good race so then so it’s a shame.»

Stroll said he was otherwise on for a decent result as Aston is still finding it hard to compete with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Alonso finished seventh after trying to make a three-stop work, but his progress through the field in the final stint halted when he got up to seventh.

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

«We were on for eighth or ninth, so pretty normal for where the car is,» Stroll said.

«We’re not bad, we’re making progress. We seem to bit stronger on a Saturday than a Sunday.

«We have to keep bringing upgrades and trying to get a little bit quicker every weekend, but we can fight.»



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