In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says Charles Leclerc’s laps in damp conditions during first practice for the British Grand Prix helped him get on top of the problems he’s had with the car in wet weather.
In brief
Leclerc’s wet laps in Silverstone cured struggles in damp conditions – Vasseur
Leclerc got to the bottom of the difficulties he’d experienced handling Ferrari’s SF-23 in damp conditions by running laps on slick tyres during the rain-hit first practice session at Silverstone, said Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.
Vasseur said Leclerc’s performance at Spa-Francorchamps showed his struggles in mixed conditions were “behind us”, thanks to the confidence he gained from that run at Silverstone.
“He had two difficult races in a row,” Vasseur said. “He had Barcelona – the quali – and then Spielberg, or Canada, but in mixed conditions.
“He wanted to do some laps with slicks in Silverstone on the wet also to have a good feeling without pressure, without lap time, and I think he did it and he did perfectly.”
Vasseur said he always expected Leclerc would get to the bottom of the problems he’d had. “I was not worried at all because I’ve known him for ages, and he was always performing in these kind of conditions.
“I think he had a poor session in Barcelona, that didn’t go pretty well, but I think the conditions were more than tricky, and he was a bit surprised with this. But it’s behind us. He showed that in these tricky conditions, he was able to be consistently in the front of the pack and he did a good job.”
Wolff suffers arm injury while mountain biking
Toto Wolff has suffered an apparent arm injury in a biking accident during the first week of the summer break.
A photograph of the Mercedes team principal, posted by his wife Susie on social media, showed him with his left arm in a cast. She said this picture “shows how the downhill mountain biking ended for Toto…”
It is the second time Wolff has been injured while cycling during F1’s summer break, having broken his arm in another accident in August 2014.
Bottas hopeful Alfa Romeo can make step forward after break
Valtteri Bottas is hopeful that Alfa Romeo’s upgrades coming after the summer break will give them a step forward as they pursue Williams and Haas ahead in the constructors’ championship.
Bottas and team mate Zhou Guanyu took their best qualifying results of the season in Hungary but failed to convert it into points, with the pair also just missing out on points in 12th and 13th, respectively, in Spa.
“I think we need to analyse and reset over the break and then come fresh to the second half,” Bottas said.
“Also with the upgrade we have after the break, we’re hoping that’s going to give us a step. But now, just need to reset a little bit.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Barrichello on Schumacher, Ferrari, the Brawn adventure – and his racing exploits after F1 (F1)
”In South Africa, at the first race, I was sat in the car in the garage, with the TV and the times in front of me. Then I saw on TV that Ayrton Senna left his pit box, then for a couple of seconds I didn’t know if I was watching with my eyes or if I watched the TV! I remember watching one eye on the TV to make sure I was still a fan, then with my proper eyes Senna going through my pit box with his car. It was a dream, but it was also something I’d dreamed all my life to be there.”
Inside Red Bull’s F1 driver programme as young racers fight to keep their places (Mirror)
Enzo Fittipaldi: ”At the end of the day, all six of us, the Red Bull drivers who are in Formula 2, we all have the same dream and goal. It’s very competitive, but competitive is good. It pushes me personally to work harder and to try to improve myself every single day. It’s healthy to have this type of competition.”
The Parts It Takes To Make The RB19 Formula 1 Car (Red Bull via YouTube)
‘Step inside the Machine Shop at Red Bull Racing to find out what it takes to get parts designed, manufactured and onto the RB19 at the race track. This operation runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and without these men and women, there would be no F1 car on the track.’
Java with James / Christian Lundgaard (IndyCar via YouTube)
James Hinchcliffe sits down for a discussion with RLL driver Christian Lundgaard.
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