#Car Tyres Milton Keynes

[rbtyres]

RB Tyres Ltd in Milton Keynes is your trusted source for premium tyres. We provide expert service, competitive prices, and a wide range of options for all vehicles.

[thissying]

Max Verstappen has been in the Red Bull factory regularly in recent weeks to find a solution to the problems with his RB20. How can a driver help his team in the factory? Former Formula 1 test driver Ho-Pin Tung explains.

Red Bull and the 26-year-old Verstappen have been trying to solve the problems with the car for months. The Dutchman has not won a race since the Spanish Grand Prix and has now gone six races without a win. That happened to him for the lat time in 2020, when he failed to win eleven races in a row.

Verstappen said in Monza that he had been in the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes to help his team. He would also visit the English city for the race in Baku. "I read that Verstappen spent hours in the simulator," Ho-Pin Tung told NU.nl. "To find a solution for the balance problems in his car, I think."

The former test driver explains that Formula 1 teams basically work with two different simulators. "One of them is the so-called driver in the loop, which the teams also abbreviate to DIL. In that simulator, a driver sits in a monocoque that is identical to the race car. With that, the driver drives around a virtual circuit."

"That is what Verstappen is referring to when he talks about 'the sim'. You can make adjustments to the setup there, just like you would in a normal race car."

"The other simulator is only software," says Tung. "A certain setup is entered into it and it calculates a certain lap time. However, that simulator does not take into account how easy a car is to drive for a driver. A lap time is produced, purely on static data."

"In that simulation, the car can be very fast, but for a driver, a car with that setup may not be drivable at all in reality. Which is why the difference between the results from the simulator and what actually happens on the asphalt can sometimes be very big."

That is probably why Verstappen has spent so much time in the factory in recent weeks. "In principle, the correlation between the DIL and what actually happens on the asphalt is very good. But in this case, Verstappen will have driven in the DIL with the same set-up as at Monza to see if the feeling was the same as in reality. This is to check the correlation and improve it where necessary."

If the correlation is OK, the findings in the simulator are the same as those on the asphalt. Then the teams can start working on a set-up for the car. Tung: "They also do this with their own simulator drivers. They can imitate Verstappen's driving style to a certain extent, but it is not completely identical. In Formula 1, it sometimes comes down to hundredths or thousandths of a second per lap, those subtleties are important."

"How a car reacts or feels is different for every driver," Tung explains. "A solution that works well for one simulator driver does not necessarily feel good for Verstappen in the car. In addition, certain balance problems in the car can be solved in several ways."

"For example, if you experience understeer halfway through a corner, you can solve that by lowering the ride height at the front. The lower the car is, the less understeer and the more grip you have. You can also choose to make the front a bit softer with the suspension or by setting the differential differently. A combination of all of these is also possible."

"That's the tricky part. Of course, everything works together. And which solution works best without causing the most side effects and creating new problems? The trick is to solve that."

Verstappen can only partially solve these problems during a Grand Prix weekend, because time is limited. "Not only because you have to deal with the time of a session, you are also limited by the number of tyres you are allowed to use," says Tung. "In a simulator, Verstappen can work with multiple constants."

Incidentally, other test drivers of the team also drive in the simulator in the factory during a race weekend. It is not the case that Red Bull is panicking and that is why Verstappen himself does a lot of simulator work.

Tung: "Something like that always happens in preparation for races. It just struck me that Verstappen has been emphasizing in recent weeks that he is very busy with this. He has invested more time in it this time than usual, it seems. Red Bull hopes that this will give him a better idea of ​​the solution in the setup for Verstappen."

[chussyracing]

f1 news, rumours and interesting facts from the last few days

Alpine is parting ways with Director of Racing Expansion Projects Davide Brivio at the end of 2023 despite his contract running into 2024, there are rumours he will join Repsol Honda motogp team as a team boss

Aston Martin got approval for a new research and development facility in Silverstone

Either Andrea Stella is joking or smoking crack because he thinks in equal cars, the three best drivers on the grid would be Max, Lando and Fernando

Jannik Sinner scored a partnership with f1 to attend some races and promote the sport (and then visited Maranello)

Kubica is confirmed for ferrari's third hypercar and Shwartzman said he is interested in the seat as well - but he also tested indycar with Ganassi

Sainz says new ferrari 2024 car (or protect rather than a car at this point) behaves differently in the sim to the 2023 one

Aramco signed 5 year extension with am and they will be named aston martin aramco f1 team

Alfa Romeo is now Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber..... (and alpha tauri added the "RB" to their name which could be racing bulls but also red bull)

Merc is finally leaving the no side pod design to allow more event distribution and less drag

Charles won the overtake of the year with his move on Perez in Las Vegas!!!!

Fia changed rules about misconduct (and officially changed maximum fine to 1m euros, prohobited the use of flares on grandstands and shortened the right to review from 14 days to 96 hours aka 4 days)

Rbr did a pit stop in dark for some kind of dick measuring contest and got 2.84s which is just faster of ferrari's normal pit stops (if we have all 4 tyres ready)

Button to hypercar with Jota in 2024

Alpine finished the shares selling to us investors (the reynolds guy thingy)

Max went on about how absurd his fee is despite his team saying they will pay for him so... um 🤐

Fia hired more staff for in factory check ups to visit every 2/3 weeks but they wanna start visits with little to no notice where they call the factory and immediately visit in 10/15 mins

Rbr will start making a new wind tunnel in Milton Keynes that should be finished in (or was it by?) 2026

Ferrari confirmed the previously rumoured date of 2024 car presentation for 13th feb (Fred also said the car will be 95% different which supports Carlos saying the car concept is very different in sim and Fred saying they completely skipped two upgrades this year to focus more on 2024, among other stuff Fred also said both drivers will start on equal terms during the new season start)

Audi is rumoured to be keeping tabs on Lawson besides Ocon and Hulkenberg

there is a new ferrari challenge with matt gallagher from shell (someone remind me to watch it along the math challenge when I have time, also shout out to shell because I love the mini playing car from them i got) and the secret santa was posted (it is kinda boring this year ngl)

Also! The head fortuneteller Mika Hakkinen said yesterday that he thinks mclaren will take another step ahead in performance for 2024 and challenge red bull closer that merc or ferrari, but he also said that ferrari are finally on a correct path and Fred is the one team principal under which they will win a championship again "sooner or later"

While I knew f1 drivers are prohobited from doing dangerous stuff (unless you are Charles Leclerc and can make puppy eyes, then you can run half a marathon, wall climb, ice wall climb, scuba dive, ride and water scooter and what not), but I did not know red bull (and probably other drivers) have it specified in their contract they can't even drive a motorbike - which some of them wanted to do at Honda thanks day seeing Marc Marquez on his bike

Ben Sulayem is playing some weird game i do not like taking a dig at jean todt for leaving the fia operating with a loss (completely disregarding that's counting the covid years where motorsports events often couldn't even take place and lawsuit fees for the use of halo) and saying how under him the non profit organisation will get balanced sheet by 2025 (also said how fia must focus on safety and reputation which... hmm)

There are some rumours about the fia and its integrity and governing abilities (I just learned about how they fucked up wtcc and then wtcr after making the championship with close fights and easy rules where more teams could get in too exclusive opening chance for Citroën only to get ready for new rules so they dominated everything and adding huge spoilers which created dirty air and kept overtaking close to zero. Sounds scarily similar to f1 these days?)

[bunnytalksf1]

narratives to look for ahead of Silverstone

It's the British Grand Prix this week! Home race for three (four) drivers on the grid, and a home race for McLaren and Aston Martin, although many other teams have the majority of staff and headquarters in England: Mercedes (Brackley), Red Bull (Milton Keynes) and Alpine (Enstone).

So this is a big one!

Red Bull vs. McLaren:

These two teams are firmly situated at the top of the grid, unless Leclerc or the Mercedes drivers pull off a miracle in qualifying. With Perez's consistent underperformance, Red Bull continue to slip down the order little by little. Both Mercedes and McLaren outscored RBR in Austria on GP day (I'm ignoring the sprint because too many damn things happened). McLaren were INCREDIBLY strong here last year, and RedBull are bringing upgrades. The gap between them is/was small, particularly in the highspeed and in late stages of the race where the McLaren is low on fuel.

Verstappen v. Norris:

Norris is P2 in the drivers' championship, but after Austria, Verstappen is eighty one points clear. Leclerc is only six points behind in P3. It's not a mathematically unbridgeable distance, and the championship isn't over until it's over, but this is crunch time. Norris needs to outscore Verstappen in this round to keep the battle alive, and also partially to save his reputation. His overtaking attempts were clumsy divebombs. Under pressure in the sprint, he fumbled the attempt too. He has a win under his belt, but it was lucky. He needs to show what he's truly capable of, and he needs to do it under pressure. McLaren are fast, and he can win this GP, but it will be a tall order.

There's also the matter of mindset, and seperating on-track and off-track, something which Norris has shown he is incredibly bad at doing with his comments to the press. The social media storm is only going to get worse this week!

Ferrari's struggles:

Their upgrades haven't worked as simulated. Tyre management and getting their tyres into the right window is a huge struggle, leading to a VERY tempremental car. That being said the pitwall strategy, particularly during qualifying, has been shocking in the last few races (since Canada). With Leclerc's quali pace compromised at a track he is historically successful at, it will be interesting to see how they manage this and conduct damage control. Most of their struggles are in qualifying. If they can pull a miracle, they can fight at the front, although I would say this is, obviously, unlikely.

(Potentially they also have the dregs of their upgrade package coming here, although we won't find out until Thursday/Friday)

Mercedes:

It's a home GP for both their drivers, and Silverstone is one of Hamilton's strongest tracks. If either of them can pull a miracle in quali, they'll be in the mix for a podium: their race pace is NOT bad. They've been slightly under the radar with the McLarens and RedBulls gouging each other's eyes out, and with the amount of media attention on Norris, Verstappen and Ferrari right now, but they're quietly improving.

Contract Talk (!!):

Sainz is still acting as a stopper for any real advances being made in terms of finalising contracts, but there's a couple of things emerging:

Bearman is rumoured to have signed for Haas, and he's driving this weekend in F2, at his home race.

Lawson is rumoured to be released from his RBR contract in September. He's been linked to Audi, outside of RBR, and his future is looking incredibly precarious right now. He'll be in the garage this weekend, likely, and has been providing a lot of insight as a sim driver.

There's also rumours of Newey to Aston Martin nearly being finalised, and Mattia Binotto linked to Alpine. Just things to keep an eye on.

Have a good race weekend guys! I for sure won't!

[f1]

Ricciardo credits former Red Bull race engineer for helping him rediscover his best form

Daniel Ricciardo has credited his former Red Bull race engineer Simon Rennie for helping him rediscover his form. The Australian made an impressive comeback to the F1 grid with AlphaTauri prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, after spending half a season on the sidelines acting as reserve driver for Red Bull. His off-season return to his former team had materialised after an early end to his career at McLaren, where Ricciardo had failed to reach the heights he’d previously showcased in F1 despite winning the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. READ MORE: Horner admits championship challenge likely 'out of reach' for Perez in 2023 Last month the Australian was offered a chance to compete again as he replaced Nyck de Vries in the AlphaTauri line-up, following that up with P13 and P16 finishes in Hungary and Belgium respectively. Part of reason behind his call-up was the form he had been showing in the sim and also while driving the Red Bull R19 in the Pirelli tyre test after the British Grand Prix. Ricciardo secured P16 at the Belgian Grand Prix, his second outing for AlphaTauri this season Speaking prior to Hungary, Ricciardo was full of praise for Rennie, his former race engineer at Red Bull, who now runs the Milton Keynes simulator – and explained how he helped him rediscover his self-belief. “When I first drove the sim, I could see it now that a bit of time had passed,” Ricciardo said. “I haven't been in a race seat for a few months. I could kind of see myself last year, as an example, that I was lacking. I knew it at the time, but you know, you see things a bit more clearly, probably, with hindsight as well. BARRETTO: Ricciardo is falling back in love with F1 and is ready to go again – this is going to be fun to watch “I was kind of lacking a little bit of that confidence and going out there and just driving, in simple terms. You get other thoughts that creep into your mind, and also going back into Red Bull, it was exciting for me, but I was also, for sure, a little bit nervously excited.” He continued: “It took a little bit to shake a few things out and try to find my old self again. I think what helped a lot was working with Simon – so Simon Rennie, my engineer at Red Bull back when I was racing there. He's been running the sim. Ricciardo worked with Rennie during his initial spell with Red Bull “I think that as well – getting a bit of familiarity, working with him – kind of quickly got my confidence back. “Obviously you look at the data and try to learn from Max [Verstappen] and Checo [Perez] who are very familiar with that car. But I think the really nice thing was that, once I shook off the cobwebs, although the car is different to five years ago or so, it still felt, for me, like a Red Bull car.” READ MORE: Tsunoda says his car was ‘flying’ at Spa as he returns AlphaTauri to the points Ricciardo will now be looking to score his first points of the season following the summer break after getting through two races and earning valuable experience in the AlphaTauri car. "Many are now looking forward to a well-deserved holiday, but the situation is slightly different for me as the break is a good chance for me to keep working behind the scenes,” he said following the Belgian Grand Prix. “After a few days off, I’ll spend time in the gym and use my days training, to be able to further improve on my race fitness.” This feature is currently not available because you need to provide consent to functional cookies. Please update your cookie preferences ‘I’d love to keep going!’ – Ricciardo itching to keep racing as F1 goes into summer break via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[maranello]

FORMU1A.UNO | Ferrari turned up the engine power in Australia while in Imola

by Giuliano Duchessa & Piergiuseppe Donadoni

Charles Leclerc celebrated his second win of the season in Melbourne today. Max Verstappen retired due to an engine failure. Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel also retired.

After his second position in Saudi Arabia, Charles Leclerc drove a flawless race at Albert Park, starting from pole position. After holding his position at the start, his F1-75 immediately pulled away from the rest of the pack, crossing the finish line an impressive 20.5 seconds ahead of Checo Perez.

Entering the weekend, Ferrari expected Red Bull favorite

Leclerc showed how to take the F1-75 to a different level. Although in qualifying the fight with the Red Bulls was very close (read more), at least until the penultimate attempt, in the race the Ferrari was absolutely uncatchable. The umpteenth family breakdown between the Milton Keynes and Faenza teams, rather worrying in terms of reliability, hid the real gap that would have been over 25 seconds, without the safety car and the retirement.

Charles Leclerc and the Maranello car, in projection, would have given an average gap of 6 tenths and a half per lap to Max and his RB18. Hardly predictable on the eve of the race, at least in these terms. A perfect pairing. "We were all surprised by our pace," admitted the Monegasque at the end of the race, who expected at least "on paper" going into the weekend to be behind Red Bull. "So it was a nice surprise," he then concluded.

But at Maranello they developed the car well in view of the race. What was missing in Arabia. The weekend started rather well, thanks to good work done at the simulator in Maranello. Ferrari started with a set-up that would mainly protect the rear tyres, then the FP2 long runs showed a possible graining on the front tyres, more accentuated on the Medium ones.

Ferrari: for Australia, a deliberate increase in engine performance estimated at 5 bhp

For this reason, two fundamental things were decided between Friday and Saturday. The first was to increase the front load in order to limit the onset of graining. The most loaded front wing of the two brought to Australia was chosen, the one with the last upper flap straight and not slightly cut. The Albert Park track was not only revised in terms of its layout but also in terms of its surface; Pirelli itself, through the mouth of boss Mario Isola, had warned since Friday that the sliding, despite the increase in grip, could have continued during the race, given the lack of high-pressure treatment of the asphalt to eliminate excess bitumen. In fact, the bituminous alloy continues to re-emerge in the newly laid asphalts, taking away grip from the cars, the 2022s, which intrinsically already suffer from understeer that needs to be adequately compensated for. Ferrari has played the card of increased downforce, despite the fact that on Friday it was already set up with a less efficient aerodynamic configuration than Red Bull.

The second is a technical consequence of the first choice, made possible by the results - so far positive - in terms of Power Unit reliability in the first two events. A small power increase of 5 HP has been deliberated in order to counter the better efficiency of Red Bull in Australia, which thus manages to generate more speed in the straights. It is not a foregone conclusion that this small gain will also be used at Imola, as Ferrari is also working hard on reliability with the first unit. "We are more interested in finishing the data collection program on reliability, at least until race 5 [Miami]" they had in fact let us know, before introducing a more aggressive and especially durable use of the Italian engine.

The small increase in performance, assessable around a little more than a tenth of a second, allowed to fight for Pole position with a better chance, as well as to generate more important speeds to defend themselves, in case, from Verstappen in the race. Moreover, indirectly it could have helped Carlos Sainz in his comeback, through a strategy that would have certainly paid off without the Spaniard's mistake.

The engineers agreed with the drivers to produce more porpoising.

As an engineer confirmed, the bouncing, as well as creating physical discomfort, creates an imbalance that can tend to generate greater degradation of the rear tires, reducing the stint. In this sense, Ferrari's decision to leave itself two sets of medium tires is clear, unlike Red Bull. If the degradation had been higher, Leclerc would have done two qualifying runs, however this was not the case.

"I don't know why, but I'm not very sensitive to porpoising," Leclerc said after his win. "If you look at it from the outside, it looks bad. However, in the car it doesn't bother me too much in terms of performance. Only on the entry to Turn 9," he continued, also stating that he couldn't have gone any faster without the bounce. "Of course, it's definitely something we want to eliminate, to avoid bouncing in the corners which can be a problem" concluded the Monegasque.

The F1-75 also went beyond expectations when it came to compound usage. "We were stronger than we expected," said Leclerc in the post race, who then continued, "We were extremely strong on the medium especially towards the end of the stint." The pace was "very strong" and there was very little graining. A phenomenon that had repeatedly slowed down the Ferrari of last season, unable to generate the right grip on the front.

It is quite evident that the aerodynamics of the F1-75 protects and never heats up the tires too much, especially the rear ones, in short, it has a wider window of use when it brings them to the right temperature. On the other hand, there is more difficulty in getting temperature into the tyres compared to the RB18, something we have seen with the double lap preparation in qualifying and restarts after the safety car.

Speaking in general, the tires offered a fascinating consistency. One stop, two or three has no importance in the economy of the race when there are competitive cars between them, indeed the mandatory stop could be eliminated if the prescriptions allowed it. Albon, in a Williams more than acceptable even after 57 laps on Hard, would have deserved P7.

[rangertyres]

If you want to change your car tyres then car tyres Milton Keynes are given the best quality of offrable price. If you live in Milton Keynes city then you can visit our garage.Moreover, we also provide convenient services of mobile tyre fitting Milton Keynes. If you’re struggling to find time to visit our facility for tyre installation, don’t fret as we’re just a call away.Our team is exporting any problem in car service and will provide you with the most efficient solutions.

[formulatrash]

I’ve always been slightly confused over what a development driver actually does? (And very embarrassed over not being able to figure it out) but yeah - what is that and also what do the drivers actually do to help develop the car in fe?

Hmm well, the reason you’re confused is probably because it’s a confusing role that means a lot of things - and sometimes basically nothing. 

So “development driver” or “test driver” are quite vague titles that don’t, like many things in motorsport, have any formal codification. Actually to be fair that’s true of a lot of industries - ‘communications manager’ for instance has a lot of meetings across different companies.

Anyway, so: development drivers. In theory, the role is to do everything annoying and behind the scenes that the main drivers wouldn’t do. In the case of Formula One and Formula E, that’s tonnes of sim work that they main drivers wouldn’t have time to do in between aggressive race schedules and other work. 

It also covers work in F1′s case on race weekend simulation - so for instance Oliver Turvey has been McLaren’s development and test driver for ages. He’s done a few tyre tests for them, too because he’s a very reliable driver to shove in your F1 car but he’s obviously not a junior, not likely to ever make his way to a race seat - he’s the same age as me, after all. 

But when he’s in the sim, he’s not learning how to drive the car he’s running programming simulations to try and fix things that have been spotted by the drivers during a practice session. So if, say, Carlos or Lando say there’s, idk, an issue with the way the car’s using electrical energy in lower gears (it would almost certainly be something much more granular and specific than that but like, trying to keep this comprehensible without an engineering degree) then they load up the software that’s in the cars on track into the sim and the data from the session and run it until they think they have a fix, with Oliver driving it. He’d be in there from the first data package return of FP1 until the last updates they can send before FP3/quali/the race. 

So it’s an intense role, for a technical driver. It can also be work that’s given to a young driver - for instance, Pierre Gasly during his year between GP2 and F1. He was in and out of the Red Bull simulator so much he was nearly late for the Formula E weekend he did in New York, in for Sebastien Buemi, because he was running F1 work in the Milton Keynes simulator. Needless to say, not a huge amount of Formula E preparation had been slotted into his schedule.

Sometimes, it’s a much more hollow or vanity role that happens to hold the same title. So what was Carmen Jorda doing at Lotus? Err, being someone to greet VIPs, let’s be real. So sometimes it’s more of a ‘here is a driver allowed to wear our uniform who we get to do some PR for us’ - and often more of a role you pay for than get paid for. 

The line between, say, Sebastien Buemi’s role at Red Bull (he’s still the reserve driver and one of the best-paid drivers in motorsport because good god, imagine having Seb’s experience to shove in your sim and on a tyre test for goodness sake) and Sean Gelael’s role at Toro Rosso is going to be pretty big. Not cus Sean’s pointless but because he’ll be undertaking test and FP1 work for the team, not endless hours of very fiddly simulator stuff that they need a guaranteed pair of hands for. 

In terms of what drivers do to develop the car in Formula E, the answer is: a lot. If you’re a manufacturer team (and they nearly all are) then there’s 14 days of testing that you can do before pre-season testing starts and the cars are finalised, tech speaking. So that’s a lot of actual track time and working on the car. 

Beyond that, they obviously have to be able to drive in a way that maximises the energy usage and efficiency - but that goes without saying. There’s no live telemetry in Formula E, so the drivers know more about what’s going on with the car than the pit wall does and have more data, which is why you hear a lot of back-and-forth. A driver who can identify what is limiting that and ways to improve it is completely crucial - you have to work out what direction you’re going to work in for next year’s tech halfway through the previous season, at the very latest, so you need someone who can deliver on working out what would improve results.

Development during a season is done via simulator work. The programming in FE cars is equivalent to aero on F1 cars in terms of changing system management - so you’ll have eg: a programming setup for dealing with the heat in Santiago (and really hope you’ve got it right) and a different one for trying to cope with the a high-power track like Rome. Then lots of tweaks to that, to try to maximise what can be done. 

Simulation in FE is more often involving the “real” drivers than F1 because they have to learn loads and loads and loads of codes and scenarios to use each race because they’ve very much got to solve their own strategic problems with efficiency, battery temps, etc. So there’s a higher element of the driver always needing to learn a track/setup/etc even if they’re very experienced and in theory wouldn’t need to use the sim for learning. 

Hope that makes sense/answers what you wanted!

[hotlinetyres]

If a tyre bursts suddenly while driving, most drivers will panic and don’t know what to do. When a puncture happens, many solutions are all harmful to no benefit such as turning the steering wheel suddenly and braking too hard, especially at high speeds, which will be more dangerous.

[rbtyres]

Don't let a faulty battery slow you down - opt for RB Tyres Ltd in Milton Keynes for professional car battery replacement services. Drive with confidence and power.

[scraptyrecollectionuk]

Scrap tyre recycling Milton keynes is best recycling centre in UK, in UK we dispose of 40 billion tires each year. This creates around 450,000 tonnes of rubber that could damage if they are not disposed of in a safe and responsible way. We can take any of your car, truck, agricultural or bike tyres and given a new lease of your life. Your scrap tyres could become carpet underlay, road surfacing, and cement kilned fuel or in recreational projects such as play areas.

[f1]

FP1: Verstappen leads Perez and Albon as British GP weekend begins

Max Verstappen set the pace during first practice for the British Grand Prix, topping the timesheets from Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and the high-flying Williams of Alex Albon as Friday’s track action kicked off. After a rain-hit weekend in Austria, it was a glorious start to proceedings at the historic Silverstone Circuit, with clear blue skies covering a track lined with grandstands and grass banks full of passionate fans. PADDOCK INSIDER: Can Ferrari vie with Red Bull for Silverstone supremacy this weekend? It was a particularly busy hour of running for the drivers and teams as they not only got back up to speed with the fast, flowing layout after a year away, but also sampled Pirelli’s new tyre construction for all dry compounds which is aimed at increasing the products’ strength. As the various runs played out on the hard, medium and soft tyres, it was reigning double world champion Verstappen who came out on top, working his way down to a time of 1m 28.600s on the red-marked rubber. 1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing 1:28.600 2 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing +0.448s 3 Alexander Albon ALB Williams +0.489s 4 Fernando Alonso ALO Aston Martin +0.668s 5 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari +0.680s After stopping his three-race run without a podium finish last time out at the Red Bull Ring, Perez backed up team mate Verstappen to give the Milton Keynes outfit a one-two result, albeit finishing some half a second adrift. While Red Bull’s upgrades are relatively limited this weekend, and Ferrari have not reported any changes, a host of rivals – including Mercedes and Aston Martin – rolled out bigger packages, as the push to catch the reigning world champions continues. READ MORE: Norris backing himself to be ‘Best of the Brits’ at Silverstone Williams, sporting more new parts of their own, started their weekend in fine style with a run to third position, Alex Albon displaying impressive straight-line speed to slot ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Alpine also showed some encouraging early pace, with Esteban Ocon ending up between Leclerc and the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, while Lando Norris kept McLaren in the top 10 mix after his strong Austria showing. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – also running the upgrades Norris debuted at the last Grand Prix – rounded out the top 10 positions, which did not feature Mercedes after they opted against any soft-tyre runs. However, there were issues for Piastri at the tail-end, as McLaren reported a hydraulic leak on his chome-liveried MCL60. Lewis Hamilton took 12th after his runs on medium and hards tyres, just behind the lead AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries, with George Russell back in 14th, behind the other Alpine of Pierre Gasly. SILVERSTONE 2008: ‘He was determined to be the best that day’ – Hamilton’s mesmerising first home win remembered by team mate Kovalainen Valtteri Bottas put his Alfa Romeo 15th, from Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant in the second of the AlphaTauri and Williams machines, as team mate Zhou Guanyu and the Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg brought up the rear. F1 drivers and teams will now regroup in the paddock and analyse the data from first practice before Friday’s second session gets under way at 1600 local time. via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[desunk]

12/02/2017 – Ola from the Sierra Nevada!

Hello folks. Hope all is well in your worlds.

It’s been a big gap since the last post, which is usually a sign of how content we are with our day-to-day. We forget to even do the blog with so little in the way of responsibilities apart from the basics (shopping, washing, bog emptying etc). We’re now in one of my most anticipated destinations in Spain, the Sierra Nevada! The drive in was another interesting one, though nowhere near as bad as the run into the Pyrenees when we first got to Spain. Tight bends, narrow roads, huge drops off the side of the road and very steep hills! When we finally pulled into our campsite, just above a lovely little village called Laroles, we were at a dizzying 3900 feet (ish). With the altitude comes the most fantastic view and because no one comes up here this time of year, we got the pick of pitches. We went for the one closest to the edge and pulled up side on so our “patio” is overlooking the valley below. On top of the scenery, the lovely little campsite and the local mountain biking, it’s also much warmer than I’d expected. In the last post, I said I was expecting cold and that no one else could believe we were coming up this far. As it turns out it’s 15 degrees most days and because you’re so high up, the sun feels much warmer. Perfect! We like it so much that instead of the staying 1 week as planned, we’ve now negotiated a good price for the month and are probably staying till the end of February!

So, let’s get down to business. Mountain biking (everyone sighs). The mountain biking is very good but these Spanish boys are sadistic fuckers! They have BTT routes here in the Sierra Nevada, some of which pass right through Laroles. I think I mentioned these before as they had them in the Pyrenees and the Costa Brava. They’re basically cross country routes but are pretty variable. They can have good downhill sections, massive climbs, be very extreme, be very boring and vary from 5 miles to 50. Here at part way up the Sierra Nevada mountain range the climbing is just mental – as you’d expect I guess. On Friday I spent over 2 hours (a good bit of that resting!) riding 10 miles up a hill climbing 3100 feet in total and reaching a highest altitude of 6121 feet. For most people this is misery, as Erin reminded me, but I don’t mind it. I don’t try and break any records when climbing, for me it’s just a means to get fit and get to the good downhill bits. For the local riders, they just seem to want to ride up these ridiculous hills as fast as they can, causing themselves as much pain as possible! They literally get up these hills 2 or 3 times faster than I can and I know it must hurt. I just don’t know how they push themselves on like that!

I read somewhere the other day, that climbing on the bike doesn’t get easier, you just get faster. Same with running I guess. It does get a bit easier I reckon, but once you get half fit you push on harder which makes it hard as nails again. What goes through these guy’s minds when they’re climbing up gravel tracks that make Furry Way in Helston look like a gentle slope, I do not know. For me it was a bit of a slog but good fun. I pushed a few sections where I literally couldn’t keep the front wheel on the ground but rode most of it, then I reaped the rewards of my hard work with some wicked downhill. No falling off and no flat tyres. Just me, my bike, a long gravel track, some trees, some goats and even a bit of snow. Bleddy hansom!

Laroles is a lovely little place. Everything happens at a snail’s pace (apart from the driving!) and I like it! The shop has everything you need but without the choice overload. It’s not the best idea to try and do a full week’s shop in one hit. The secret is to go 2 or 3 times a week as they have different meats and veg in the shop of varying freshness on any given day, but I like that too! We’ve been trying to get to the village markets without much success, as this is where to get your veg. We were about to leave to a market on Sunday last week, but just before we were about to leave the wind got up. Before we knew it, we were packing away everything outside, battening down the hatches and riding out 30 – 40 mph winds! That was an interesting day! Then I headed out to a village on Monday but it was tiny. A few hundred people for a guess so there wasn’t much there. Next attempt was on Thursday and it was much better!

Orgiva is a town just over an hour’s drive to the west of us. It’s famous for the hippy community that resides in the area, so we had to have a look. The drive over was fun because ‘Sally Satnav’ took us on a diversion over the top of a bleddy mountain, but at least the views were good. It’s strange looking down at the sea from 4000 or 5000 feet because the horizon is so much higher up. On a hazy day, it’s hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins! We pulled into the car park near the market and got the only space left. There were cars everywhere. The market was exactly what we’d hoped for! I left Erin in the car with the dogs and went on the hunt for food as we hadn’t eaten breakfast. I came back with exactly what I was looking for, a rotisserie chicken and portion of chips which is my favourite part of these markets. The chicken is so delicious! After that, we took Bear (and left Charlie because he hates dogs and busy places) and wondered around the market for an hour. It was so much fun. There were; veg stalls, spices, clothes, aromatherapy oils, handmade crafty stuff, sweets, and much much more. We stocked up on veg and got some goodies while soaking up the lovely relaxing atmosphere. It really was relaxing too. The hippies were exactly how hippies should be. Chilled to the core! There was a woman meditating on a car boot lid, hippies sat about chatting (and smoking!), some hippies dancing a tango in the town square to no music and I even got chatting to an English chap from Milton Keynes, who when it came to say goodbye, told me to “enjoy my journey”. Not trip, or travels, but journey! I liked that too! A good day was had by all, even Charlie, who chilled out in the shaded car without Bear pissing him off for an hour! I like to think he sat and read his book as I fancy Charlie as a bit of a book worm.

I also soaked up a little of the Spanish hospitality yesterday while Erin took an afternoon snooze. Some folks that stayed here last weekend from Almeria came back this weekend to collect their van. Like us, they have a manual car but unlike me, the guy can’t tow with a manual car. The hill out of here is pretty steep and instead of just getting the clutch out and powering up the hill, he made the fatal mistake of riding the clutch. There was soon a very clutchy odour and lots of people stood around the car with the bonnet up. Anyway, they came back to get the van this weekend and stopped one night. Before they left yesterday they did a big Paella for another couple and Tino (the campsite manager) and his wife on the communal BBQ. While they were cooking, they sent over their daughter to invite us “to eat paella with us”, which was lovely given we hadn’t even spoke to them before that. I left Erin in the van snoozing with the dogs and headed over to eat their food and even had half a glass of the local red! It was great having a natter with them, talking food and sampling the paella, blood sausage, rabbit and tapas for an hour before announcing my departure. Before I could leave, the wife of the guy who cooked the paella shot off and told me to wait. When she came back, she was carrying two massive Chinese takeaway containers which the husband loaded up with all the remaining paella. He handed both over to me, giving me instructions on how to microwave it for our evening meal! Like I said, Spanish hospitality, it was quite lovely.

Not much else to tell I don’t think. Will add all the pictures from the market, bike rides etc below. We’re here for another couple of weeks probably, depending on how the weather goes. We had a bit of rain yesterday and the forecast is starting to look a little worse. If we head back to the coast and towards Malaga, we’ll be in 20 degrees enjoying the sun every day. It is getting tempting as nice as it is in the mountains.

Thats all folks.

TTFN!!!

PS - Can’t get photos to upload. will try again later