Lewis Hamilton has claimed his 78th pole position in Formula One, setting a time seven tenths quicker than title rival Sebastian Vettel as rain showers shook things up in Q3 at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Brit now holds the record for the most pole positions claimed at the circuit, beating the previous record of four poles held by Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna.
Ferrari had looked as if they had the edge coming into qualifying, with the Scuderia setting the fastest times in every practice session as well as in Q1 and Q2. However, when the rain started to fall in Q3, the pendulum swung in Mercedes’ favour. Sebastian Vettel managed to significantly improve his lap time in the final runs of Q3 as the track began to dry but it wasn’t enough to overthrow Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timing screens. He will start the race tomorrow in P2.
2018 Großer Preis von Belgien, Samstag – Steve Etherington
Force India, or Racing Point Force India if you want to be pedantic, saw both of their drivers put in superb performances. Esteban Ocon – whose future is uncertain amid rumours of Lance Stroll being drafted into the team as soon as Monza or Singapore – qualified an amazing P3. Team-mate Sergio Perez recovered from a huge moment coming out of Eau Rouge and going into Raidillon to post the fourth quickest time. There must be something in the Force India water at Spa, for this is the circuit where Giancarlo Fisichella claimed pole for them in 2009 and where previous incarnations of the team, notably Jordan Grand Prix, have always run well.
Also putting in a great performance was the Haas of Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman had been surprisingly off the pace all weekend, but he managed to get it together when it mattered and qualified P5.
Kimi Raikkonen had been looking particularly strong all weekend, but Ferrari made the strategic error of only giving him enough fuel for one lap in Q3. This meant the Finn was confined to the garage towards the end of Q3 at precisely the moment when the fastest laps were being set on track. He ended up P6.
The Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will, like Raikkonen, definitely not be satisfied. Thanks to a mix of strategic error and the low-drag trim they had been running, they ended up P7 and P8 respectively and over four seconds away from Hamilton’s pole time.
2018 Großer Preis von Belgien, Samstag – Wolfgang Wilhelm
The other Haas of Kevin Magnussen qualified P9, nearly three seconds behind his team-mate, and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten having failed to set a time in Q3. The Finn came into qualifying carrying engine penalties and knowing that, whatever happened, he would be starting the Grand Prix from the back of the grid.
Outside the top ten, the main surprise came in the form of Renault’s Carlos Sainz being knocked out of Q1 by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.
Not so surprising, however, was the pace of the two McLaren cars. It is turning into a home race to forget for Stoffel Vandoorne – the Belgian had been slowest in FP1, FP2, and FP3, and that trend, unfortunately, continued into Q1. This was McLaren’s worst qualifying of the year so far, with Vandoorne’s team-mate Fernando Alonso also failing to make it out of Q1 and qualifying P17. They will, however, get bumped up a couple of places thanks to the engine penalties given to Valtteri Bottas and also to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Featured image: 2018 Großer Preis von Belgien, Samstag – Steve Etherington
For all you young fans of racing – here is a “What’s up” with the “Girls on Track-Karting Challenge on and off the race track. After two rounds of in-country elimination the jury chose 14 candidates to further train and compete for three slots on the final race challenge at Le Mans in 2019.
The circuits chosen for the elimination races were set to the specifications set by the FIA. The races had a very technical character as the driving skills of the contestants had to be clearly demonstrated and measured by this same standard. Challenges included sharp turns, high speed sections, slaloms and rapid switch-backs. Negotiation of traffic cones set very close to one another and there were penalties for coming in contact with them.
Gosia Rdest, the Ambassador of the program, was there for the Girls during both elimination in Tychy on May 26-27, 2018 and in Rzeszów on August 12-13, 2019. Gosia, who started her own racing career at the Karting track being just 12 years old, fully understands the adrenaline rush, the unmatched feeling of being #1 on the podium both in Karting and now in speed racing. She has and is racing on race tracks all over the world from Daytona to Dubai. She also knows the feeling of despair of a race gone wrong, regardless of whose or what’s fault. She knows what it feels like when your hard work, training, sacrificing time with family and friends, all of it goes down the drain because of a mistake, bad weather, car failure etc. But she, also knows the most important thing. She knows how to get pass all of this, pick herself up, “get it together” and stand up and race and do her level best to race better than she has ever done before. She now that past mistakes are not to dwell on it, but to learn from them and she knows that the only competitor that we truly race against today is ourselves from the day before. So she was there to cheer and support and show that it is possible if you truly want it and are willing to work hard to get it.
But, Gosia also knows, from her own experience, that the iron will, talent and passion are not enough if the knowledge element is missing from the equation. And this is where the training program come in. All fourteen finalists will participate in a three month follow-up training program prepared by Gosia in cooperation with the Polish Motorsport Association (PZM) and a group of dedicated enthusiasts and pros of the motor sport. Participating in four program blocks, offered during a two-day weekend courses spanning over 3 month period, the Girls will learn “what it means and what it takes to be a successful race driver”. But they will learn more than that. as the curriculum includes: “the technical vocabulary of racing”; “Successful teamwork”; “interpersonal communication skills”; “self-perception; self-assessment, self-imaging and planning for success. There also will be a bloc on the Motorsport related professional opportunities, such as Motorsport journalism, personal managers and trainers of race drivers; dietitians and health advisers, technical support staff and more.
The training starts in September with a visit to the Polish Motor Championship Race in Poznań. Under Gosia’s supervision the Girls will visit the garages and the “PITS” and observe the work of the technical support staff and the training of the race drivers. The cherry on the cake will be a ride on the track with Gosia being seated on the next to the driver seat. So buckle up Girls and get your adrenaline flowing.
“We want to show to the Girls the “entire scene of the Motorsport” demonstrate to them that it comes as a complete set of tasks, skills, talents and activities. Even the best, most talented, race driver would not be able to race and win without the support of the best talents that work tirelessly behind the scene. Racing is a team-effort and there are plenty of opportunities to find a challenging career within the Motorsport not only as a race driver. For an example great communication and personal skills are needed for fundraising. And everyone knows that racing will not be capable to operate without the financial backing of patrons. We are very proud to have Ravenol as one of the sponsors of this training program. The Company has been involved in supporting women in Motorsport for some time now. Ravenol has sponsored me personally for the two last seasons. I am very thankful that Ravenol has agreed to extend our cooperation to include the Girls on Track-Karting Challenge project. I am keeping my fingers crossed for all the Girls. Yes, only three of the finalists will compete at Le Mans, but all of them will acquire portable skills to carry with them wherever their life may lead them and hopefully make long-lasting friendships built upon true and honest competition and teamwork.”
So yeah, that’s it for now. Keep your fingers crossed for the Girls and stay tuned for more info!
Dla wszystkich młodych fanów motosportu i nie tylko, przedstawiamy krótkie wiadomości „ z ostatniej chwili” na temat „Girls on Track – Karting Challenge”. Po dwóch rundach krajowych eliminacji, jury wybrało 14 finalistek. Wszystkie będą uczestniczyły w programie szkoleniowym. Trzy najlepsze wezmą udział w europejskim finale w Le Mans w 2019 roku.
Tor kartingowy na potrzeby eliminacji został ustawiony zgodnie z wytycznymi FIA. Miał bardzo techniczny charakter, tak by kandydatki mogły w pełni zaprezentować swoje umiejętności i zostać ocenione według tych samych standardów. Nie zabrakło szybkiej sekcji, nawrotu, zawijki, slalomu. Pachołki były rozstawione bardzo ciasno. Za dotknięcie pachołka naliczany był czas karny .
Gosia Rdest, ambasadorka akcji, była obecna podczas obu rund eliminacji – 26-27 maja w Tychach i 12 sierpnia w Rzeszowie. Gosia, która sama rozpoczynała karierę na torze kartingowym w wieku 12 lat, w pełni rozumie emocje towarzyszące wyścigom – przypływ adrenaliny i z niczym nie mogące się równać uczucie, gdy zawodnik staje na pierwszym stopniu podium. Dawniej w kartingu dziś na torach wyścigowych całego świata, od Daytony po Dubaj Gosia często gości na podium. Ale zna także gorzki smak rozczarowania, gdy wyścig się nie udaje, niezależnie z czyjej winy i gdy cała ciężka praca włożona w treningi, przygotowania idzie na marne – w wyniku czy to błędu czy usterki samochodu. Ale wie także rzecz najważniejszą – jak stawić czoła przeciwnościom, podnieść się po upadku i z podniesioną głową iść dalej ku upragnionemu celowi, silniejsza niż poprzednio. Wie, że błędy nie są po to, by je rozpamiętywać, ale po to, by się na nich uczyć, bo tak naprawdę jedyny przeciwnik, z którym dzisiaj walczymy, to nasze ja z dnia poprzedniego. Z tego powodu, była właściwą osobą, by dopingować i wspierać, by udowadniać, że wszystko jest możliwe, gdy tylko tego chcemy i nie boimy się ciężkiej pracy.
Jednak żelazna wola, talent i pasja to nieraz za mało, jeżeli zabraknie w tym równaniu czynnika wiedzy. I właśnie tutaj odpowiedzią jest program szkoleniowy. 14 finalistek weźmie udział w trzymiesięcznym programie treningowym przygotowanym przez Gosię Rdest we współpracy z Polskim Związkiem Motorowym (PZM) oraz grupą ekspertów. Podczas szkolenia, składającego się z czterech bloków tematycznych, realizowanych w weekendy od września do listopada, dziewczęta dowiedzą się, co to znaczy być kierowcą wyścigowym i co potrzebne jest, by osiągnąć sukces na torze. Nauczą się ponadto wiele więcej. W programie znajdą się takie tematy jak: „techniczne słownictwo wyścigowe”, „efektywna praca zespołowa”, „komunikacja interpersonalna”, „samo-postrzeganie; samoocena i planowanie sukcesu”. Jest również blok poświęcony profesjom związanym z wyścigami, a jest ich naprawdę bardzo dużo – od dziennikarzy sportowych, komentatorów, menadżerów i kierowników zespołów, po trenerów i mechaników.
Program szkoleniowy rozpocznie się we wrześniu podczas rundy Wyścigowych Samochodowych Mistrzostw Polski (WSMP). Pod okiem Gosi Rdest, uczestniczki zwiedzą boksy i tor oraz zyskają szansę, by podglądać pracę mechaników i kierowców w akcji. Wisienką na torcie będzie przejazd z Gosią na prawym fotelu wyścigowego samochodu.
Gosia mówi: „ Chcemy pokazać dziewczynkom zaplecze wyścigów i pokazać, że motorsport to cały zestaw umiejętności, talentów, zajęć i aktywności. Nawet najbardziej utalentowany kierowca nic nie wskóra bez całego zespołu ludzi, którzy pracują na sukces za kulisami. Wyścigi to praca zespołowa i w związku z tym jest mnóstwo możliwości rozwijania kariery w ich obrębie, nie tylko w charakterze kierowcy. Na przykład umiejętności interpersonalne są niezbędne w procesie pozyskiwania funduszy. A jak wszyscy wiedzą, ściganie nie jest możliwe bez finansowego wsparcia sponsorów. Bardzo się cieszę, że jednym z głównych sponsorów naszego programu szkoleniowego dla dziewcząt została firma Ravenol. Ravenol już od jakiegoś czasu jest zaangażowany w promowanie kobiet w motorsporcie. Od dwóch sezonów jest to mój personalny partner. Jestem bardzo szczęśliwa i wdzięczna, że firma zdecydowała się rozszerzyć współpracę na projekt „Girls on Track-Karting Challenge”, który jest wyjątkowo bliski mojemu sercu. Trzymam kciuki za dziewczyny. Tak, tylko trzy z nich pojadą do Le Mans, ale wszystkie zdobędą przydatne umiejętności, które zostaną z nimi, gdziekolwiek je życie poprowadzi i mam nadzieję, że zyskają coś równie ważnego – długotrwałe przyjaźnie, zbudowane na pracy zespołowej i uczciwym współzawodnictwie”.
Trzymajcie kciuki za dziewczyny i bądźcie na bieżąco – będziemy informować o przebiegu programu.
Sunday’s race at Pocono witnessed one of the scariest crashes in recent IndyCar memory. Robert Wickens was trying for an overtake on Ryan Hunter-Reay when the two collided, causing Wickens to spin and be launched into the catch-fence surrounding the track before being violently thrown around and eventually coming to a rest at the bottom of the track.
Quite frankly, it’s a wonder Wickens’ wasn’t killed in that crash, it was a monster and very similar, too similar, in fact, to that of Dan Wheldon’s in 2011 – the only difference is that Wickens’ car stayed upright and Wheldon’s did not. The general rule for motorsport is that a devastating ‘freak’ accident can just about happen once, then the necessary changes have to be made to make sure that it can’t have the same, similar or worse consequences again. Twice, however, is unacceptable. Twice is not a ‘freak’ accident, twice is fundamental problems.
It was only earlier this month that I was writing about how not as much was learnt from Wheldon’s crash as it should’ve been, and now look – that’s been proven in the worst way possible.
Sure, Wickens’ has survived but not without two broken legs, a broken arm, a bruised lung, spinal fractures and a spinal cord injury of ‘indeterminate severity’. That last part is the most worrying and no-one is yet willing to say what the prognosis looks like for Wickens – but, with racing put to one side, something that Sebastien Bourdais said is very true… “at least he’s alive”.
I’m normally one to support IndyCar when it comes under criticism from the rest of the motorsport world but it’s much harder this time round… there’s a lot of anger from a lot of people as to how this crash could’ve happened again.
One of the biggest problems is the catch-fence that surrounds every oval race track. Its primary function is to keep the race cars inside the race track and prevent any debris from finding its way into the crowd, and, on the whole, its very good at that. However, it also has a tendency to rip cars up in wrecks, causing them to rotate and causing a lot of damage to the car, and often the driver. If a car gets into the fence you know two things: 1) it was a very big crash and 2) the driver will be very lucky to walk away from it unscathed.
Wickens’ saving grace is that he stayed upright and didn’t come into contact with any of the fence posts, especially on a vulnerable part of his body – such as his head. That’s what did it for Wheldon, but the fact that you could have something as potential dangerous as a fence post lining a race track seems ludicrous in itself.
However, it’s all well and good criticising the catch-fences but what could they be replaced with? A replacement would have to be able to withstand the full force of an IndyCar without breaking while not having exposed reinforcements (i.e. fence posts), be able to catch any potential flying debris and not be so expensive that it can’t be rolled out at all ovals, all while not overly inhibiting the view of the spectators at the track. When you put it like that, you see just how big the problem that IndyCar faces is.
Surely, now that it’s been bluntly brought to the management’s attention twice in a fairly short period of time, they’ll be forced into taking action. There are enough questions of IndyCar this time round, when the accident was not fatal – it would be a hundred times worse a third time round, and there’s no saying what the next outcome could be.
That crash could be career ending for Wickens, or he might be able to return, depending on the severity of the spinal cord injury, but at least it was not life ending.
Wickens is not, however, the only scary reality to have come out of that crash.
Ryan Hunter-Reay is one very, very lucky driver to have no injuries from Pocono and be able look ahead to Gateway. Wickens’ spinning, aerial car came within inches of Hunter-Reay’s head, taking out the roll hoop just above him in alarming fashion. IndyCar have massively dodged a bullet with just that aspect of the crash… let alone the rest of it.
And the problems don’t end there. Wickens’ teammate James Hinchcliffe, having already cheated death once, was also caught up in the crash and suffered injuries to his hands. Luckily, nothing was broken, just some cuts and bruises but that too could’ve been a whole lot worse. A fairly sizeable piece of debris entered Hinchcliffe’s cockpit when Pietro Fittipaldi, left with no where else to go, made contact with him and, again, just a few inches different and this too could be a wholly different story.
With not overly different margins, that crash could’ve resulted in three badly injured, or worse, drivers, as opposed to just one. The fact that Wickens’ is the only one of those drivers not to be heading to Gateway is down to luck… not safety innovations.
Two things desperately need to be learnt from the Pocono crash: 1) the catch-fence, and especially fence posts, needs looking at and a safer alternative really needs to be found and 2) the introduction of driver head protection should be paramount with as little delay as is possible.
If those two warnings are not heeded, we could easily have the same supposedly ‘freak’ accident for a third time, and IndyCar’s luck is fast running out.
There are just three races left in the 2018 IndyCar season and the paddock are in the middle of three back-to-back races, however, a shadow hangs over the entirety of the series following Robert Wickens’ crash at Pocono.
Wickens remains in hospital having had surgery on his spine and due for more on his arm and legs in the coming days. He also has some sort of spinal cord injury but the severity of it is as of yet unknown – that is what could stop a potential return to racing, but only time will tell. Schmidt Peterson have withdrawn the #6 car from Gateway out of respect, although teammate James Hinchcliffe, who was minorly injured in the wreck, will participate in the race.
All the IndyCar drivers have expressed their support for Wickens, with many saying that they are struggling following the accident – they all know, full well, that it could’ve been them. The #GetWellWickens hashtag is trending on Twitter and there’s a campaign going around for fans to wear red on Saturday in support of Wickens. It’s a tough time for the whole close-nit paddock, but we’ve been here before… it’s not the first time a driver’s been badly injured, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.
Away from the wreck and its repercussions, Alexander Rossi was the one to win the eventually restarted race at Pocono, fending off late challenges from Will Power to take his third win of the season and cut his championship deficit down 29 points. The swing in points between Rossi and championship leader Scott Dixon could’ve been a lot more had the latter not been able to recover from thirteenth to third, or had he been caught up in the wreck he only narrowly missed.
Josef Newgarden, driver of the #2 PPG Automotive Finishes Team Penske IndyCar Chevrolet V6, takes the checkered flag Sunday, August 26, 2017, winning the Verizon IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. This is Newgarden’s fourth win of the season. He retains the lead in the drivers championship with two races to go. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/LAT for Chevy Racing)
Looking ahead to Gateway, it was Josef Newgarden and Penske who dominated the race last year. Between all four Penske cars, they led all but three laps of the race with the lions share of those leading laps going to eventual race winner Newgarden. Gateway itself is a short oval which is raced as a night race under the floodlights. It’s a demanding track and often causes amateur-looking spins that can easily collect cars – as Power, Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter found out last year.
Gateway was the scene of a very controversial overtake for the lead in 2017. Newgarden was trailing teammate Simon Pagenaud in the closing laps of the race when he dived down the inside, making light contact but getting through otherwise cleanly. Pagenaud was clearly disgruntled after the race, in which he finished third, but it wasn’t long before the pair settled their differences, leading to the start to their rather amusing relationship which culminated in the ‘autograph battle’ earlier this season.
There aren’t many driver changes for Gateway. Gabby Chaves is back in the #88 Harding after being replaced by Conor Daly for the previous three rounds while Wickens quite clearly won’t be present and there will be, as previously mentioned, no replacement.
All the title contenders need good weekends to stay in touch but, with the crash at Pocono, Ryan Hunter-Reay has dropped out of realistic contention, 119 points back, leaving it down to just Dixon, Rossi, Newgarden and Power. At this point, everyone’s out there racing with Wickens in their minds and it would be amazing if Hinchcliffe could bring back a good result for the SPM team after all they’ve been through.
IndyCar are joined by both Indy Lights and Pro Mazda at Gateway as all the seasons near their conclusions. All Indy Lights and Pro Mazda sessions are available to stream, along with IndyCar practice while qualifying unfortunately isn’t streaming again. The race is being shown on BT Sport/ESPN but, I’ll warn you now, some of the times aren’t very UK friendly! Those times are as follows:
Friday
Practice 1 – 6:15pm
Qualifying – 10:15pm
Saturday
Final Practice – 2:00am
Sunday
Race – 1:30am
(All times BST)
Featured image courtesy of Perry Nelson/LAT for Chevy Racing
This weekend, the Moto2 World Championship rolls into Silverstone, one of the fastest tracks of the year, for the British Grand Prix, and Francesco Bagnaia is leading the title race from Miguel Oliveira by three points after the pair’s stunning battle last time out in Austria, a fight which lasted half the race and went down to the very final corner.
Bagnaia leading Oliveira at the Redbull Ring 2018. Image courtesy of HondaProRacing
Bagnaia came out on top in that battle, and will be hoping to do so again this weekend, at a circuit which he beat Oliveira last season by three positions and 0.9 seconds (Bagnaia coming home in fifth, whilst Oliveira crossed the line in eighth). Bagnaia was also very strong at Silverstone in Moto3, when riding for Mahindra, finishing second to eventual World Champion Brad Binder back in 2016. This race could prove crucial in the World Championship fight, with some good tracks – on paper – for the KTM coming up, and of course there will always be the memory in the back of the mind of Bagnaia that Oliveira and KTM won the final three races of last year back-to-back.
With that in mind, maybe this weekend is not so crucial for Miguel Oliveira. However, if he could go into the next races, which should be stronger for him and KTM, with a points lead, he would become the overwhelming championship favourite, and it would start to look extremely difficult for Bagnaia to overcome the Portuguese. However, Oliveira has never had a podium at Silverstone, having a best result of 4th back in 2014 when he was in the factory Mahindra team. He was, however, ‘best of the rest’, also on Mahindra, back in 2013, when he finished 20 seconds off the win for fifth place behind the dominant Spaniards of 2013 and their unbeatable KTMs. It could be an interesting fight this weekend between the two championship combatants.
Only Mattia Pasini will rock up on the Moto2 grid in Silverstone this weekend having stood on the podium last year at the British Grand Prix – he finished second, 0.724 seconds behind winner Takaaki Nakagami, who has since, of course, moved on to MotoGP. Pasini took his best result since his win in Argentina last time out in Austria and – for perhaps the first time in his career – erred on the side of caution when fighting for the podium with Alex Marquez and Luca Marini, and decided to not get involved in the battle so as to ensure his solid fourth-placed finish. Pasini will be hoping that Austria is a sign of things to come, and a return to form now would be well-timed, as the rumour recently has been that the Italian is contemplating retirement.
Luca Marini’s form over the past three race weekends has been exceptional, and entirely unexpected. Last time out in Austria, the lanky Italian took his third consecutive podium, and will be likely in the fight for the rostrum again this weekend. For Forward Racing last year, it was only 11th spot for the number 10, however Marini has proven on many occasions in the last weeks that his form from previous years is not necessarily indicative of what his potential is in 2018. His first win is surely not far away, and maybe it is even only a few days away.
Luca Marini and Jorge Navarro at the Redbull Ring 2018. Image courtesy of Honda Pro Racing
One man who will be aiming to make Marini wait a couple more weeks at least is Sam Lowes, who will be determined to win his home Grand Prix for the first time this weekend. Realistically, he should have won in 2016, but an incident with Johann Zarco in Brooklands left the Brit on the floor, and the Frenchman with a penalty to drop him out of the points. In fact, Lowes seems to have something of a curse in Silverstone when it comes to battles in the World Championship against his most fierce rivals; also in 2013 – year of his World Supersport championship triumph – he had a collision with Kenan Sofuoglu in The Loop, which also left Sam on the floor, denying him the victory. It has been a tough year so far for the number 22, but just a few days after he was confirmed to be heading back to the Gresini Moto2 team for 2019 – the very same team with which he fought for the Silverstone victory, and world title, in 2016 – maybe he can make amends for this difficult first eleven races of 2018 by standing on the top step.
Of course, Lowes is no the only British rider on the Moto2 grid. Danny Kent will of course be riding for Speed Up, and also hoping to make up for a difficult first half of the season as he looks for a 2019 ride.
But, also, Josh Owens is in attendance this weekend. It has not been easy for the British Supersport GP2 rider to get there, needing to raise £15,000 in the build up to the weekend to be able to afford the entry fee and equipment. Having had half a year’s experience on the Kalex in the British championship – in which he won the first British Supersport race in Thruxton – he should be somewhat comfortable with the bike, and the pace of the World Championship riders should only serve as a huge learning opportunity for the youngster.
Also, keep an eye out for Stefano Manzi this weekend. A quick flashback to the 2016 Moto3 race will remind you that Manzi came from 32nd on the grid to finish fourth on the Mahindra, and looking to last year you will find that he finished the race in 7th spot, ten seconds off the win. Typically this year, Manzi has been either on the floor, or doing something else reasonably spectacular, and this weekend could provide something of a shock result for the VR46 Academy rider.
Austria was one of those rare occasions, something you don’t often see. In this case, it was a lights-to-flag victory for Marco Bezzecchi, the second of his career, and his second of the season.
Bezzecchi capitalised on Jorge Martin’s broken radius well to be able to extend hi championship advantage to 12 points, and with eight rounds to go he is still right there in the championship fight, despite his low number of wins. The key to Bezzecchi’s success has been consistency. Admittedly, his consistency has been relative to him finishing compared with the three DNFs. However, when Bezzecchi has finished – that’s eight times so far this season – he has finished on the podium on all but one occasion, and the one time he failed to make the podium in those eight races was in Brno, where he recovered from a poor weekend to come home sixth on the Sunday. Like Luca Marini in Moto2, Bezzecchi this year has erased the importance of previous years’ form in tracks. For example, his best finish last year was fourteenth, bar a podium in Japan. On that basis, it might not be reading too much into his 19th place at the British Grand Prix last year, but maybe this will be the weekend which we look back on and determine as the point where Bezzecchi lost the 2018 Moto3 World Championship.
That said, the KTM should suit the fast Silverstone layout quite well. Should its pilots be able to negotiate the eighteen corners adequately, the power of the Austrian 250cc single should be able to keep them in the game down the long straights: Hangar and Wellington. Furthermore, with Jorge Martin still recovering from his broken radius from Brno, this could even prove to be another prime opportunity for Bezzecchi to take advantage in the championship.
Silverstone could even prove to be quite the disaster for Martin, with the bumps – supposedly made worse by the resurfacing which took place over the winter – perhaps bringing Martin’s injury renewed problems. That said, the softer Honda chassis you would expect to deal with the bumps better than the stiffer KTM frame. A softer frame might not help Martin directly, at least not with his radius, but the more rigid KTM could be significantly hindered by the surface condition, which could make Bezzecchi, not Martin, the one on a damage limitation job.
Jorge Martin with his injured left hand. Image courtesy of Honda Pro Racing
Regardless of whether any of the above proves true, Bezzecchi could be on the defensive anyway, such was Martin’s pace in Austria. The Spaniard should have recovered more since the previous race, and as such could once more be the speed benchmark this weekend. Also, unlike Bezzecchi, Martin had a great result in Silverstone last year, when he finished third, a tenth off the win. A couple of places better this year could just put the “J” of Jorge on the championship trophy.
It was Aron Canet who took the win last year, in an Estrella Galicia 1-2 as Enea Bastianini finished second. The pair will still be considering themselves in the mix for the championship, but right now they are very much minor ingredients, sitting 40 and 41 points off the championship lead respectively, and with a lot of work to do to get properly back in the fight. Canet, for a start, could do with picking up where he left off last year in Silverstone, as he is still without a win in 2018, and had a very disappointing race in Austria to boot.
Bastianini faces a different issue, that of finding speed in the first laps. Bastianini’s recovery in Austria was quite spectacular, arriving with his teammate, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, in the final two laps to fight for the podium, and eventually finishing second despite a poor start. If he can find some speed in the early stages and if things go his way, Bastianini can definitely still fight for the title, it’s just that those are two fairly large ‘ifs’.
Fabio Di Giannantonio had a nightmare in Austria, seemingly with no pace at all. He was reasonably fast in the middle of the race, but struggled a lot at the end, and a late dive on John McPhee for seventh punted the pair of them out of the top ten. It was not the way the Italian would have liked to respond to his debut Grand Prix victory, and now at a 38-point deficit to Bezzecchi, he too has work to do in the championship, and Silverstone could prove a critical round for the #21.
Marco Bezzecchi, Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin on the Podium, Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 2018. Image courtesy of Philip Platzer/KTM
John McPhee, having been taken out of the top ten by Diggia in Austria following a brilliant fight back through the pack from stone last on the grid to eighth. McPhee is coming into this weekend with perhaps his best ever chance to win his home Grand Prix and after the disappointment of that Austrian race, he will be intent on returning to his pre-summer break form, when he was regularly contending for the podium between Mugello and Germany.
McPhee is not alone in riding his home Grand Prix this weekend in the lightweight class, as Tom Booth-Amos and Jake Archer are both wildcarding. Booth-Amos has had a tricky year, stepping up to the Moto3 Junior World Championship. He has had good speed, but crashes and injuries have hampered his season massively. On the positive side, he is riding this weekend as a third Leopard Racing entry, in the reigning World Champion team – it simply could not get any better for the Brit this weekend.
Archer, on the other hand, is riding his RS Racing City Lifting KTM which he races in the British Motostar Championship, which he is currently leading.
152 kilometres outside the Belgian capital of Brussels in the middle of the Ardennes Forest sits one of the most beautiful and historic circuits in Formula One: Spa-Francorchamps.
Spa has been home to the Belgian Grand Prix since 1925 and it is the longest track on the calendar at just over seven kilometres. For this reason, the race is only 44 laps long.
Though the track has changed considerably over the years – there were a lot more high-speed and adrenaline-filled corners before – one thing which has always been there is the brilliant Eau Rouge.
Stats and tyre selection for spa. Image courtesy of Pirelli Media
Spa did not appear on the calendar in 2006 due to radical changes to both the circuit and surrounding infrastructure, including a change to turn one and the addition of the bus-stop chicane.
The area’s unpredictable weather has given us some fantastic races over the years, most notably in 2010, 2008, and of course the crazy race in 1998, which saw an almighty multi-car pile-up at the start, and a crash between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard which led to a heated confrontation in the pits afterwards.
Speaking of Schumacher, he is the most successful driver at Spa with six wins, and Ferrari are the most successful team. That being said, Mercedes have won the last three races at Spa, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton in 2015 and 2017, and Nico Rosberg in 2016.
What’s happened in the summer break? Quite a lot, really. First of all, Daniel Ricciardo announced he is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season and joining Renault for 2019. The biggest news of the summer, however, came from Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard announced that he will be leaving F1 at the end of the season after a frustrating three-and-a-half years with McLaren. His compatriot Carlos Sainz, currently at Renault, will take his seat after being displaced at the French manufacturer by the inbound Ricciardo.
The favourites for Spa? Well, that is a tough one. Ferrari and Mercedes will be very well matched, with the power gains Ferrari have made this season coupled with the tight middle sector being more suited to Mercedes making this a seemingly very competitive weekend.
Tyre Selection upto Japan. Image courtesy of Pirelli Media
That is exactly what Sebastian Vettel will need. the German lost the win at his home race in Germany after crashing on a damp track, while champion Lewis Hamilton, who started fourteenth, took the win along with the championship lead. Hamilton’s win in Hungary gave him a 24-point lead in the championship coming into the last nine races, which means Vettel needs to hit the ground running upon F1’s return.
This will be the home race of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, and expect plenty of Dutch support for Max Verstappen of Red Bull as well, who retired from last year’s race with an engine issue.
Fernando Alonso is well acquainted with the track in 2018 already, having won there for Toyota in WEC earlier on in the year, although it’s safe to say a win is not quite on the cards for him this weekend.
What is also safe to say is that we are all very happy to see the return of Formula One after a four week break that has felt like an age, as the championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastan Vettel resumes.
Featured image courtesy of Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Check out the latest Mobil 1 The Grid feature, in which Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo look ahead to the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, and highlight their special connections with both events.
The Austrian Grand Prix weekend was a complete disaster for Yamaha, there is no other word. Both on the track and off it, Yamaha’s weekend at the last Grand Prix was nothing short of embarrassing. Hampered by a mechanical in the only dry free practice, FP1, Valentino Rossi failed to make Q2 directly from free practice, and could only manage fourteenth on the grid, complaining that the soft tyre was too soft for the Yamaha. Meanwhile, Maverick Vinales was only eleventh on the grid, suffering with sensor problems. This Saturday slump led the MotoGP project leader, Kouji Tsuya, to apologise to both the manufacturer’s factory riders for the poor performance of the bike, promising improvements are on the way in two upcoming tests.
One of those tests – in Misano – has already been and gone. We will only find out whether there was any progress on Friday, but for the sake of the manufacturer, you would hope that there have been some positive findings.
So, we know the situation, some have described this as “rock bottom” for Yamaha. They sit second in the riders championship with Valentino Rossi, third in the manufacturers’ standings, 53 points from the Honda at the top; and third in the teams’ championship with twelve points between the Movistar team and the Repsol Honda outfit. The numbers don’t seem so bad, and that is because the M1, despite many contrary opinions, has improved in some areas this year, and this has allowed it to be strong in some circuits. However, the neglection of the core issue with the bike means that in the places where the M1 was weak last year, it is weaker this year, because everyone else has moved on. So, whilst the balance of the bike has improved compared to last year, and the M1 is back to being the smooth, high-corner-speed bike we know it as, the electronics have not progressed – or not progressed enough – which in this era of MotoGP is the most critical part.
Rossi on the 2018 YZR-M1. Image courtesy of Yamaha Motor Racing
As Rossi mentioned before Austria, the Red Bull Ring is the M1’s worst circuit, the slow speed corners followed by long straights is the worst combination for it, because it can’t use its corner speed, and its acceleration issues are emphasised. So it is likely that in the coming weekends the M1 will seem in a good way again, but that won’t mean that the issues are solved, just that they are masked by the circuit layout.
But where did this start? We know the situation Yamaha are in at the moment – their worst moment since 1998 – but where did this path start? Why are they in this hole?
It’s possible to trace the root of their issues back to 2015. The M1 was the best bike in 2015, no doubt about it. The bike was the best out of the box in Qatar for the first race, and the developments Yamaha brought to the bike throughout the year almost always worked. But there was one issue, a familiar one: rear tyre wear. Yamaha were able to get around this three years ago because they had the luxury of factory electronics, designed specifically for the M1, and understood perfectly by the engineers in Iwata.
With the introduction of the universal, spec ECU in 2016, though, Yamaha became complacent. They heard “controlled electronics” and took that as gospel, putting less effort than their competitors – notably Honda and Ducati – into developing and understanding the Magneti Marelli software. Whilst their two biggest rivals went out and poached engineers from Marelli themselves, and the likes of Suzuki sent their own engineers to Italy to learn the functions of the controlled software, Yamaha didn’t act, and worked on the new system themselves, with no external assistance.
Instead of focusing on electronics, Yamaha looked at the chassis, the motor and the aerodynamics of the M1. The first item they introduced to combat the tyre wear issues was a new chassis, at the post-race Valencia test at the end of 2015. It didn’t work, neither Jorge Lorenzo nor Valentino Rossi liked the update, which had the fuel tank mounted further back in the bike, with the fuel going into the bike in the tail section, behind the seat. So, the 2016 chassis was essentially the 2015 chassis, with some slightly bigger wings on the front. However, the 2015 chassis was by far the best on the grid in 2015, meaning that in the first half of 2016, the Yamaha was still the best machine out there, and was only missing the championship lead through reliability (Rossi’s blow up in the Mugello race – and Lorenzo’s in warm up the same day – were supposedly due to a mapping problem on the electronics which allowed the bike to over-rev over the crest, with disastrous consequences) and rider error.
From the halfway point of the 2016 season, though, when Honda and Ducati started to see the fruits of their labour with regards to the electronics, Yamaha started to fall back, unable to make the tyre last the distance. The first time it really became apparent was in Aragon, where Rossi led the early stages, but was hunted down by Marquez with ease once the tyres started to drop slightly. This set the tone for the rest of the season, with Yamaha not winning until Valencia of that year, and even then Lorenzo was closed down hand over fist by Marc Marquez in the final laps of the race.
Maverick Vinales. Image courtesy of Yamaha Motor Racing
The degradation issues with the rear that the M1 was suffering with in the second half of 2016 prompted Yamaha to go full revolution – in MotoGP terms – with the 2017 bike. Initially, it looked like they had got it right. Rossi was struggling a lot through free practices, but was able to find something for Sunday, whilst Vinales looked almost unbeatable in the first portion of the season – only denied a sweep of the first three races by a crash in Texas, and even that handed Rossi the championship lead. Everything looked good for Yamaha as the championship entered the European season, but it was in Jerez, where Vinales finished sixth and Rossi only tenth, that it started to decline for the Movistar team. Another poor result in Barcelona (Rossi 8th, Vinales 10th) showed the extent of Yamaha’s misdirection, especially as Rossi had won in both Jerez and Barcelona the previous year, and there had been no changes to either circuits.
New chassis’ arrived for the pair to test in the post-race test in Montmelo 2017, supposedly the 2017 chassis with some 2016 bits (stiffness ratios, for example) and Rossi felt that one in particular was an improvement. Supposedly Vinales preferred the original 2017 design, but he was forced into using the one that Rossi had chosen, a decision which haunted Vinales’ mind for the rest of the season.
Rossi won the next race, and it seemed all was well once again, but wet weather nightmares, and poor dry pace regardless, in Sachsenring proved otherwise. Another string of poor results in the second half of 2017, and a terrible weekend in Valencia, sent the team to do what they had been avoiding for half a season, and they switched overnight to the 2016 chassis. No setup time meant that they had no pace in the race, and it was another disastrous result for the factory team, made no better by the fact that Johann Zarco on the Tech 3 Yamaha was fighting for the victory against Dani Pedrosa.
The post-race Valencia test in 2017 saw all manner of different combinations in both the factory Yamaha garage, and the Tech 3 pit, as they tried to find a direction for 2018. Ultimately, they reverted to the 2016 design for their base, but once more over the winter there was a lack of investment in the electronic side, and from the first tests of the 2018 preseason, it was clear that the M1 was still a way off being able to win a race.
Now, though, it is clear that the problem lies not only in the electronic side of the Yamaha, but in other areas too.
A new engine was introduced over the winter, liked by both riders and thus homologated. Furthermore, it is believed both Honda and Ducati has had continued development over the last months, whilst Yamaha has remained stagnant in this area.
The engine, though, is perhaps the most immediate issue. Fundamentally, Yamaha messed up with the design of this year’s engine, and the crankshaft is too light, meaning the engine is too aggressive. It is the same thing which caused Honda so many problems in 2015 and ’16, and the most critical problem Suzuki faced last year. The biggest problem for Yamaha is that they cannot change the engine until the winter, for now they have to make do with what they have, and what they have is not good enough.
On the organisational side, this could prove just as fatal as any mechanical or electronic issue with the M1. A full overhaul of the management and inner workings of the Iwata manufacturer could produce instability lasting for months and even years, putting them out of contention for titles for as long as that instability lasts. Without stability and progressive evolution inside the team, or the whole Yamaha MotoGP department, it becomes difficult to work correctly and make progress with the bike, because the new people have to fit together in the new system, and that takes time, especially when it is a reactionary move – and in this case, it would be most certainly reactionary on Yamaha’s part. That said, staying as they are resigns them to stagnation; to progress, they have to change the way they work, and just like with the engine, they have no choice.
A third issue appeared after Brno. A Ducati engineer explained that the key to the Michelin tyres is to use the drive grip, the centre of the tyre. They said that one of the reasons Yamaha are struggling at the moment, could be that they spend so much time on the side of the tyre. This is because the style of the Yamaha is to run a lot of corner speed, and to utilise the edge grip of the tyre. The problem is that this increases wheelspin, and thus tyre wear. This is especially worrying for Yamaha, because it means that they could face redesigning the entire motorcycle, completely changing their philosophy to comply with the demands of the Michelin.
Whilst this would be one of a number of things that stand between Yamaha and wining again, personally I hope this is not one that will be fleshed out. One of the biggest appeals of motorcycle racing is the diversity and variety, both in riding styles and design philosophies. If Yamaha were to go away from their traditional ‘corner speed’ bikes for the sake of tyres, it would be a shame, because it would essentially mean that to win, there is only one way, and that is not MotoGP, it is not MotoGP to me, anyway.
Neglecting the latest point, Yamaha still have a lot of work to do before they arrive at a Grand Prix in a state where they can win again. Starting with the engine, of which a 2019 spec should be in their final test day of 2018 in Aragon, after Silverstone, there are many aspects on which the engineers back in Japan have to work upon, and really it is doubtful that they will even be able to win consistently, if at all, next year. However, the (belated) announcement of a Yamaha European test team for next year shows they are on the right track, and are intent on solving their issues in the longer term.
For now, though; I tweeted on the day of the French Grand Prix that “If it (a Yamaha win) won’t happen today then it won’ t happen at all in 2018”, and right now that prediction seems fairly on the money.
