#giving the team a clear start to the run. Sergio Perez has got a great launch from Charles Leclerc to hold the first place. In Lap 4

[parcferm3]

Like all the youtubers who aren't using AI to write their scripts and are just pumping out regurgitated articles ganked from google, I've had a few hours to process this morning's news and have allowed it to digest past the 'called it' and 'love to see him back, hate to see how it played out' kneejerk reactions, and to be honest, I'm perhaps a bit less WTF than I was at six this morning when I walked into the kitchen and made my partner spit coffee onto the kitchen blind.

So Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo, Daniel.

DRDRDRDRDRhmmmmmm right then.

That was quick. I was definitely in the camp that it would happen over the summer break for a few reasons, not just because of the extremely unsubtle vibes that the Red Bull camp have been throwing out all over their social media, but also because it made sense.

Do I think it's not great that DR's got a drive in an objectively even worse way than he lost his at McLaren seat? Yes. Do I think the way Nyck de Vries has been spoken about publicly by his own team is pretty damn terrible and probably hasn't helped with his confidence? Of course. It was a clear case of buyer's regret that's made everyone look pretty terrible and has probably left poor Nyck de Vries feeling not unlike DR last year.

Do I think it's a good business decision from two not-quite-separate constructors who both exist only as moving billboards, and know a good marketing dynamic when they see it? Uh. Yuh.

Why not Liam Lawson? Well... apart from not having the immediate hype and recognition of DR, I think he's destined for that seat next year. For once, Red Bull isn't going to do what they did with de Vries and almost everybody else (hopefully) and set the guy up to fail. There's a reason he wasn't in the car at the start of the season, they're biding their time until he's ready. Let him finish out the Super Formula season. It makes sense to give him a full pre-season program before putting him in the car, and they've got nothing to lose and potentially a whole lot to gain, by giving the seat to Ricciardo.

Nothing to lose:

Daniel Ricciardo is, if nothing else, a safe bet, and a benchmark for Yuki Tsunoda and for the car itself. Is there a possibility that he tanks? Sure. Maybe the brakes in the AT are even less suited to his driving style than the Mclaren's and all the lockups, prangs, and off-track shenanigans we've seen this year are down to the car more than they are the drivers, however. Even Daniel on a bad day is probably better than Nyck on a good one, and that's not me slating Nyck, that's just experience.

So Alpha Tauri gets an experienced driver who's already on the payroll to compare Yuki against, who at worst won't score points and crash the car on occasion (which is a nett 0 swap) and at best, will score points, demonstrate what the car is capable of, and potentially get them above Alpha Romeo in the constructor's championship by the time the summer break rolls around. Heck, if he does great, maybe even beyond Haas and Williams. The reality is somewhere in between, but at the moment all it would take is for a 6th and a 10th at the Hungaroring for AT to draw level with Alpha Romeo, should AR have another zero points scoring weekend (which is not outside of the realms of possibility, considering AR has only scored in 4/10 of the grands prix actually run this year), and if it's a 6th and an 8th, that pushes them level with Haas and Williams (again, provided neither score points).

A whole lot to gain? Really?

I'm going to say it. I'm gonna. It's coming. Here it comes oh my god what is it what is it?

Sergio Perez is gonna retire at the end of this year.

It's out there. There it is. I said it. Whew.

Why do I think this? IDK folks, it's just the vibes.

Vibes, along with things like Christian Horner's joke about Perez 'making babies' at Silverstone this past weekend, which definitely pushed this theory along a bit. Not necessarily in a 'he's made rumblings about more kids' kind of way (although like, sure, possibly, whatever), but a 'is this a hint that family is on the guy's mind a lot more' kind of way. And Checo himself has said 'as long as I'm enjoying it' which he just... really doesn't seem like he is at the moment.

And the, y'know. It's a loan. Very specific there on your press release, Red Bull.

But then some part of me thinks this was always sort of at least part of the plan right from when DR was announced as third driver in the first place. Nothing set in stone, but paths being laid out and options being put on the table not just for Red Bull as a whole, but also for Perez.

(Sidenote, I actually don't think de Vries was pushed two races out from the summer break, I think he asked to go so he didn't have to endure any more of toll that the RB meat grinder was taking on him. Please set me free, I'll even leave without you paying me out for the rest of the season I just want to get out of here good lord. But that's a whole 'nother story and again, just vibes.)

Every. Single. Interview. With Daniel Ricciardo, he's made it very clear he intends to be in that Red Bull seat next year. I'm not digging through the bin for all the ticket stubs, you've read them already.

Once DR's got a few races under his belt and has (optomistically) proven that he's capable of getting a few points in what we currently assume is the worst car on the grid, they'll give Checo the green light to chuck it in.

The thing about Ricciardo, is he's a known entity. He's been Max's team mate before and understands the dynamic. He wasn't prepared to be number two last time, but this time rather than a young talented upstart coming in to usurp his position in what's already his team, he's coming in with his eyes wide open, a focus on team results rather than individual. He'll know his job is to be the classic wingman a la Barrichello/Bottas/Webber etc etc because it's obvious and it'd be stupid to think otherwise, because Max really is just that good.

And as much as I root for Yuki, I just don't see him in that second seat right now. They want a solid, steady, reliable presence, who won't collapse under the pressure of being Max Verstappen's teammate, and at the moment, the best person for that job is probably Daniel Ricciardo.

[f1]

Were going to get there Wolff convinced Mercedes' are on now on the right path back to winning ways

Mercedes brought a host of new upgrades for their car to Monaco – and though it’s far from the ideal track to assess their effectiveness, Toto Wolff is convinced his team are now moving in the right direction with the development of the W14. Next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will give the Silver Arrows a much better idea of how their new parts are working and, Wolff hopes, see edge them closer to front-running pace. READ MORE: 'I'm kicking myself to be honest' – Russell left frustrated after 'small mistake' costs him Monaco podium “It’s so difficult because we were in the mix with Aston Martin and with Ferrari I would say. But we really need to be careful, we need to go to Barcelona and collect more data. It’s a new baseline. I don’t expect us to be clearing Aston Martin and Ferrari [there]," he said. “It is more about understanding what does this car do now, how to set it up and we are really good at grinding away. Wolf is convinced Mercedes are working their way back to the top "Even with the old package which wasn’t that great, or was terrible at the start of the season, we managed to win a race in Interlagos [in 2022] in a dominant way so we’re going to get there.” Wolff admitted that the late rain “flattered” his team in Monaco, the timing of their pit stops executed to perfection which jumped them ahead of Ferrari on the road. And he conceded that there is plenty more to learn about the performance of their car given it has so many new parts. READ MORE: ‘We’re just too far away’ says downbeat Leclerc after P6 finish in home race "I think we’ve been better in FP1 and FP2 than the rest of the weekend [this season], the more the track grips in, the less performance we have. It’s really a lot of learning at the moment because everything is new. "We’ve just got to collect the data and set the car up in a good way. Over the last two and a half, three years, we’ve had a really good race car and less so a qualifying car. So Sundays look more positive than it looks on qualifying days." The Mercedes floor was on full view in Monaco One of the highlights of the weekend for many fans was when both Hamilton's W14 and later Sergio Perez's Red Bull were hoisted high over the circuit as the marshals removed them from the track, fully revealing the floor design which is a key component to this generation of ground-effect cars - and something fans don't normally get a glimpse of. READ MORE: Alonso says he ‘didn’t have a chance’ to take Monaco GP win as he praises Verstappen for driving ‘super well’ Wolff did see the funny side of the situation, calling it an "art installation" and "unreal" before joking that more people might copy the Mercedes floor than Red Bull's. But he did concede that while the team hasn't had time to analyse the differences just yet, they will be looking closely at the two designs in the coming weeks. "I think they had more to lose by showing their floor than ours," was his final comment. via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[newssite2525]

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Review: Verstappen beats Leclerc in an Exciting Race

Max Verstapen claimed his first win of the season, winning in front of Charles Leclerc on the Jeddah Cornish circuit on Sunday. How the Race Went With the lights off, Max Verstappen took third place in the first half with Carlos Sanchez, giving the team a clear start to the run. Sergio Perez has got a great launch from Charles Leclerc to hold the first place. In Lap 4, George Russell rose to the…

[wokeinmemphis-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[redroses879-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,��� he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[arcadeparade-blog1]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[asanusta-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[pooki-chu-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[sophistikatedblogger-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[quebrando-promesas-blog1]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[crashinthefastlane-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[f1]

It would have been risky Binotto explains why Ferrari opted against Sainz/Leclerc swap in Brazil

Ferrari had two key reasons for not asking Carlos Sainz to let Charles Leclerc past to help the Monegasque's points tally in the closing stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, according to team boss Mattia Binotto. Sainz and Leclerc were running third and fourth respectively when a Safety Car was sent out to cover Lando Norris’ stoppage – Leclerc impressively bouncing back from a trip to the barriers after an early-race clash with the McLaren driver. READ MORE: 5 Winners and 5 Losers from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Leclerc jumped on the radio to ask Ferrari to consider his battle with Red Bull rival Sergio Perez for P2 in the drivers’ standings, but the team brushed the request aside – Binotto later explaining that they were concerned by the lingering Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen, and Sainz being investigated for passing Yuki Tsunoda during the final Safety Car period. It means Leclerc and Perez are now locked on the same tally, each with 290 points going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi – after Perez's team mate Max Verstappen refused to let the Mexican through on the last lap. Speaking after the race, Binotto said: “First, swapping the two cars on the last straight was certainly tricky, because Charles had Fernando and Max just behind, so it would have been tricky and somehow dangerous. Sainz: ‘I had to give it all – I was pushing flat out, no mistakes and in the end we got a well deserved podium’ “But more than that, we knew that we were under investigation for what happened behind the Safety Car with Tsunoda. "We were cleared up by Race Control at the time, so we were quite – let me say – comfortable, but without having a conclusion on that matter... it would have been risky, because a five-second penalty, for example, would mean that then Carlos would have been losing more than one position. So for the constructors’ championship, it was certainly better to stick with the positions and the gaps on track.” While Sainz went on to complete the podium – without picking up a penalty – and Leclerc claimed fourth, Ferrari’s advantage over Mercedes in the constructors’ standings has been cut to 19 points after the Silver Arrows scored an emphatic one-two finish. READ MORE: Sainz pleased with ‘great fightback’ to podium as Leclerc explains team orders request in Brazil Nonetheless, it marked a recovery of sorts for the Scuderia after their inauspicious start to the Interlagos weekend, which saw Leclerc sent out on track in Q3 as the only driver on intermediate tyres – while the rest of his rivals banked a lap on softs before further rain arrived. Leclerc explains his view on Norris collision after fightback to P4 in Brazil Leclerc was audibly unimpressed with the tyre call, making his feelings clear over team radio, but Binotto said: “Obviously, when you’ve got such weather conditions, it’s always a lottery. I think the fact that Kevin [Mangussen] was on the pole, or [Lewis] Hamilton eighth on the grid, and [Sergio] Perez ninth, it’s a lottery, no? “We made it wrong, because certainly we are the only one on intermediate at the time, and not on slicks. Now, those types of mistakes, I think in such a lottery situation, they always happen, and those mistakes can turn into the right decision as well, no? F1 NATION: Does Mercedes’ sensational Sao Paulo 1-2 mean they’re back in business? “It’s only weather changing that, maybe a minute after, was simply happening. But what I’m looking at, together with the team, was the process that brought us to such a decision, which I think is more important rather than the decision itself. Was it right or wrong? Why are we doing that when maybe the others didn’t?” via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

[theeblacksheep-blog1]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

Cancel Culture: Has it gone too far?

Video Games: The industries problem with inclusion

The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[ourclassycollectionpainter-blog]

Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

The Russian Grand Prix is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 12:00 BST

Lewis Hamilton starts the race in which he could equal the all-time record for grand prix victories from pole position on Sunday – but that 91st win is very far from the near certainty it might be in other circumstances.

After a dramatic qualifying session at the Russian Grand Prix, in which the Mercedes driver nearly ended up 15th after a combination of mistakes and bad luck, Hamilton has two major concerns going into the race – the tyres he is on, and the fact pole might be more of a handicap than an advantage.

First, track position. Pole gives Hamilton a seven-metre advantage over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place. But the run from the grid down to the first corner at Sochi is the longest on the calendar and the slipstream effect is huge.

In 2017, Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas used this from his third place on the grid to tow past the two Ferraris in front of him and into a lead he was never to lose on the way to his maiden victory.

Last year, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Ferrari used team tactics to ensure Leclerc allowed his team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, who started third – to tow past him into the lead, so they ran one and two ahead of Hamilton. That led to a big falling out at Ferrari, but that’s another story.

Inevitably, then, Hamilton is worried about being passed down the straight after the start by at least one of Verstappen and Bottas, who is third on the grid.

“It’s not a good place to start at all,” he said. “And this year our cars are more draggy and there is more tow than we have seen in other years. I genuinely expect one of these two to come flying by at some point.”

Hamilton takes Russian GP pole after time cut drama

How the qualifying for the Russian GP unfolded

Hamilton has some defence against this because he is starting on the soft tyres, which give the best grip off the line, while Verstappen and Bottas have the mediums.

Whether that is enough to offset the effect of the tow remains to be seen, but even if it is, Hamilton’s problems will be far from over, because the soft tyre is very much not the best on which to start the race. It wears too quickly.

Even if he maintains the lead at the start, Hamilton will have to fend off Bottas and Verstappen as long as he can – not easy with such a long straight.

“I am on the worst tyre,” Hamilton said. “It is a good tyre to do an actual start, but it has the biggest degradation – 10 times more than any other tyre, I think it is – so that’s going to be a struggle.

“I don’t know if that puts me on to a two-stop [strategy]. Unlikely, because the pit lane is too slow so I am just going to have to nurse those tyres as far as I can.”

If he can hang on, and Mercedes’ strategists can find a window of clear air into which he can exit after his pit stop, he might still be OK. But the team do not sound that optimistic.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said: “It is not the optimum strategy because after some laps the soft is clearly going to suffer and that means it compromises your whole race because you probably need to pit into traffic and that is not a great situation.

“But Lewis is the best overtaker in the field and I hope he can make his way back because he was the quickest driver on track today.”

How did Hamilton get in this position?

Hamilton described the session as “one of the worst qualifyings – it was horrible, heart in mouth the whole way”

The quickest driver Hamilton certainly was – he took pole by more than 0.5 seconds and Bottas was 0.652secs adrift, and admitted he did not know why. But the session was anything but smooth sailing for Hamilton. In fact, there were dramas from the off.

In the first knockout session, Hamilton ran wide on his first lap at Turn Two – the de facto first corner – and failed to comply with guidelines about how to rejoin the track.

That meant he had to do a second lap to make it into the next session – and led to a stewards’ inquiry, though no further action was taken.

Then, in the second session, which defines the start tyres, Hamilton went out on the favoured mediums and set a blistering first lap, 0.4secs quicker than Bottas. However, that time was deleted because he had run too wide out of the last corner and exceeded track limits.

He wanted to do another lap straight away and had an argument with the team when they called him in to the pits instead. Wolff said they had no choice – he did not have enough fuel in the car to stay out.

There was still plenty of time for another lap on the medium tyres at the end of the session, and Hamilton was about three corners from the end of one that would have put him fastest when Vettel crashed at Turn Four and brought out the red flag.

Now, there was jeopardy.

There were only two minutes 15 seconds left in the session. In theory, there was still time to do an out lap and start a flying lap before the chequered flag ended the session, but now Hamilton had another problem.

Time was tight, so there was going to be a rush to get out. Other cars lined up at the end of the pit lane and waited in a queue, with their engines switched off. Hamilton could not do that because the Mercedes engine cannot be restarted by the driver using electrical energy from the hybrid system, whereas those of the other three manufacturers can.

So Mercedes sent him out only when they knew there was sufficiently little time left before the restart for him to sit in a queue with the engine idling without damaging it.

But that still meant waiting a couple of minutes – and that meant the engineers insisted he switched to the soft tyres. Hamilton wanted the mediums again, but they overruled him because they were concerned the harder mediums would lose too much heat while he waited in the queue and that he would never be able to warm them up again.

Even on the softs, he still nearly lost it at the first corner before gathering it up again after driving through the run-off area. The out lap that followed was a tense one.

Knowing he was tight on time, Hamilton asked halfway around it how he was doing for time and was told he was 20 seconds behind schedule.

He picked up the pace and forced his way past Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz before the last two corners. He was then blocked by a Renault into the final turn.

As Hamilton backed off to give himself some space, engineer Peter Bonnington came over the radio, his voice urgent: “Need to go, need to go, need to go.” Hamilton floored it and crossed the line with a second to spare.

Can he do it?

The omens look good as Hamilton has won four out of the six races held in Sochi since 2014

Hamilton spent the eight-minute break between the sessions clearing his mind of the stress and composing himself again.

“Just having to calm myself down and find my centre, you know, calm my heart down and wanting to deliver in Q3,” he said.

“I was adamant. I had no choice. I had to deliver on those two laps. Valtteri had been doing great all weekend. Nothing new in that respect, but I knew I needed to have a perfect lap, particularly on the first run, to get the pole.

“Obviously pole position is not great here; it never has been. Still, going for pole is what we do.

“The first lap was really great. I thought it was going to be very difficult to improve on it, but I think I managed to improve just a tiny bit, I think, on the second lap.

“I’m super grateful to everyone for just about keeping their cool. And it could be a lot, lot worse. I could be out of the top 10, so I’m really grateful I got to compete.”

Having dragged himself out of a hole partly of his own making on Saturday, Hamilton now somehow has to find a way to do it again in the race.

“I am just going to focus on my race and try to run the fastest race I can,” Hamilton said.

“If these guys get by they are going to be pulling away, so I am going to sit down and work out if there is a different kind of race I can do to keep my position.”

The record he will not be bothered about, not of itself anyway. As he has so often said, he is not one for numbers, and as he pointed out on Thursday: “It will happen at some stage. I’m not quitting any time soon.”

But he still wants the win, for the sake of it – because that’s why he’s there and because it would be another giant step on the way to equalling another Schumacher record: seven World Championships.

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The article was originally published here! Lewis Hamilton has a job on to equal Michael Schumacher’s record in Russia

[junker-town]

Full schedule, changes and preview for Formula One 2019

The 2019 Formula One season is almost here and we have all you need to know to get ready for what promises to be an exciting year of racing.

Another season of Formula One racing is here, and the gap continues to close between Mercedes and the rest of the top teams, at least as far as preseason testing indicates. It promises to be an exciting season, with some serious driver changes, including the young Charles Leclerc now driving for Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel.

The biggest change, other than the numerous team and engine differences, is the addition of a point being awarded to the driver and constructor who manage to set the fastest lap in each race and finish in the top 10 while doing so.

From Lewis Hamilton all the way on down to the return of Robert Kubica, we have all you need to know going into the 2019 Formula One season, which gets underway on Sunday, March 17 with the Australian Open.

What happened last season?

Mercedes once again had the best car, but there were times when others shined. Ferrari was their top challenger, while Red Bull was occasionally in the mix on the tracks where their cornering-centric aero helped them take it to the top two teams. Mercedes didn’t run away with every race, but, by and large, when they didn’t have a Lap 1 incident and they had pole, they went on to win it.

Lewis Hamilton wasn’t challenged by Valtteri Bottas, his teammate, but by Sebastian Vettel, and at points was trailing Vettel in the Drivers’ Championship. That said, down the stretch, it was clear Hamilton was going to win it, even if Vettel wasn’t mathematically eliminated until the final two races.

Throughout the rest of the grid, it was more a story of incremental improvements and some regressions. Force India, now Racing Point, regressed, as did the Williams team. Renault picked up some steam here and there when the track suited their car, and battled with Red Bull occasionally. McLaren wasn’t a factor, and Fernando Alonso retired from the sport after the team failed to make meaningful improvements to the car.

Mercedes won 11 races in 2018, with Ferrari taking six of them and Red Bull winning four. Only Hamilton, Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen won races last season.

Who can challenge Mercedes in 2019?

It might not even be about challenging Mercedes — it might be about challenging Ferrari. Throughout preseason testing, Ferrari has been consistently faster than Mercedes, and Hamilton has admitted already that this season could be Mercedes’ toughest in a long time. Of course, we thought Ferrari was close last season, and Mercedes found enough pace to routinely stay ahead of them. But if the gap is further narrowed, as it seems to be, then Vettel could certainly be pushing for a title.

It will also be interesting to see if Bottas, after a disappointing 2018, can challenge Hamilton, and if Vettel is at all challenged by the young Charles Leclerc. Both of the top drivers may get challenged more than they’re used to.

Red Bull hopes to be in the mix, but the Honda engines have a lot to prove after the company returned to the sport and fell well short of expectations. Toro Rosso performed well with the Honda power units a season ago — or better than expected — which is at least a good sign.

And the rest of the teams?

One of the bigger risers may be Haas, the only American-owned team on the grid. The team was fairly steady as a middle-of-the-pack player last year, and preseason tests have shown them to be gaining on and even surpassing their 2018 competition, namely teams like Racing Point and Williams. Haas finished last season fourth, behind only the big three, and their car looks to be much-improved from last year.

There will be a lot of hope for Renault after they went out and got Daniel Ricciardo, regarded as one of the better drivers currently in the sport. They are making big moves, but the car may not be ready to take it to the big three.

Toro Rosso is looking to build on a better-than-expected 2018 with an improved Honda engine, but their ceiling is still an unknown as Red Bull itself has a lot to prove.

Alfa Romeo, formerly Sauber, went out and signed stable veteran Kimi Raikkonen, and for that reason, they shouldn’t be written off as contenders in the mid-field.

Racing Point seems to be falling, and falling fast. Formerly Force India, Racing Point looked like they were well on their way to a fourth-place finish in the standings just a couple years ago, but they’ve looked slow and uncertain in testing.

Finally, Williams — one of the more storied teams yet one that has looked downright bad in testing. The Robert Kubica comeback story is a great one, but it’s hard to imagine him or anybody leading the Williams cars to significant points in 2019.

Notable team and engine changes

Sauber, building off an Alfa Romeo sponsorship from last season, has fully removed Sauber from their name and now race as Alfa Romeo Racing, with a Ferrari 064 power unit. Force India is gone, completing their transition to SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, using a Mercedes power unit.

The most notable change, though, is Red Bull Racing moving on from Renault, ending a 12-year partnership to make the switch to Honda engines, which have been particularly terrible since Honda rejoined Formula One, though not for lack of effort.

Notable driver changes

There was a ton of shuffling near the end of the 2018 season and throughout this past offseason. There are a bunch of new drivers and we’re going to run down the changes. The biggest saw Ricciardo of Red Bull move on to Renault, replacing Carlos Sainz Jr., who will race for McLaren in 2019, taking the spot of former champion Fernando Alonso, who left the sport. He’ll be partnered with Lando Norris, 2017 European Formula 3 champion.

To replace Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly was promoted from Toro Rosso. Daniil Kvyat rejoined Toro Rosso after racing for the team in 2017. Alexander Albon, a former Formula 2 driver, will pair with Kvyat, and in doing so will become only the second Thai driver to race in Formula One, and the first 65 years.

The other big change is Leclerc moving up from Sauber to Ferrari, taking Kimi Raikkonen’s spot. Raikkonen, not yet ready to retire, moved over to Sauber (now Alfa Romeo), where he started his career in 2001. He’ll be partnered with Antonio Giovinazzi, who has made emergency starts in the past. Lance Stroll of Williams moved over to Force India (now Racing Point), where he’ll race alongside Sergio Perez.

Finally, reigning Formula 2 champion George Russell will join Williams, and he’ll be racing alongside Robert Kubica, who is making his return to Formula One after an eight-year absence brought on by a near-fatal rally car crash in 2011.

2019 F1 Entrants, Drivers and Cars

A look at each team’s 2019 car

Here are the sporting and technical changes

Once again, Formula One is changing up how the tires are viewed and presented to the audience. All of the types of compound return for 2019, but instead will simply referred to, on race day, as soft, medium, and hard. So what were called the yellow soft tires in 2018 could be considered the hard compound on race day if last year’s supersoft and hypersoft tires are among the three available compounds that Pirelli designates for each race.

For the first time since 1959, Formula One will give a bonus point in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships for those who set the fastest race lap, but only if the driver finishes the race in the top 10.

There were some changes to bodywork regulations. A series of aerodynamic changes were agreed upon for the front and rear wings to increase the potential for overtaking. The front wing endplates were reshaped, while the rear wing slot was widened, giving a boost to DRS performance. Some other changes were made to the bargeboards and rear wing to add further space for sponsorships. The maximum fuel levels were also raised from 105 kg to 110 kg, giving the drivers some breathing room when it comes to conserving fuel (and making themselves dangerously skinny to offset the heavier engines of today’s Formula One).

This is a behind-the-scenes change, but the FIA recently introduced a new standard for driver helmets with stricter safety testing, and plan to implement those standards through all of their racing events, not just Formula One.

How can I watch F1 in the United States in 2019?

Starting last season, ESPN acquired the broadcast rights for Formula One. The first broadcast included commercials and was a disaster as it used the Sky Sports F1 feed, which is commercial-free. Fortunately, ESPN chose to broadcast the rest of the season commercial-free, and plans to do the same in 2019, thanks to a sponsorship with Mother’s Polish.

Races will primarily be broadcast by ESPN2, though there are a handful that will appear on ESPN proper and ABC. Last season, races in many European countries were pushed back an hour to make the sport more convenient to watch for those on the other side of the Pacific.

Live streaming of ESPN’s coverage, including practices and qualifying, can be had via WatchESPN.

Remember these calendar changes

The only notable calendar change is the swapping of the United States and Mexico Grands Prix. The Mexican Grand Prix will take place Oct. 27, while the United States Grand Prix will take place Nov. 3.

Here is the 2019 race calendar, including US viewing information.

Note: full broadcast schedule has yet to be announced by ESPN, only confirming channels and times through the Monaco Grand Prix.

We are using the networks from last year’s schedule on the other races, and will update when they’re confirmed, if necessary.

[torentialtribute]

Premier League Fans’ Verdicts: Bernardo Silva should win Player of the Year

The Premier League continued this weekend with Liverpool beating Cardiff to stay ahead of Manchester City, who were victorious about Tottenham.

Elsewhere Manchester United and Arsenal's hopes of finishing in the top four were hit by defeats.

Here, Sportsmail gets the fans' verdicts following the latest round of action …

Liverpool fans were informed as their team beat Cardiff to return to the top of the table

MANCHESTER CITY

Steven Allweis (View From A Blue)

All the talk has been around Sterling competing with Van Dijk to be named Player Of The Year.

In my eyes at least, Bernardo Silva should win the award. Against Spurs, he was as sensational as has been all season. He worked tirelessly, twisted Spurs' defense all over the place, ran with the ball as if it were attached to his foot and created the winning goal with a delightful jinx inside and cross in the box.

He is simply a joy to watch and has defined matches consistently for us this campaign. It's about time he receives the praise he so richly deserves.

Star man: Bernardo Silva

TOTTENHAM

Barnaby Slater (barnabyslater.com)

To be fair, Spurs put up a lot more or a fight than I fear we may be able to after our historic Champions League victory.

We could easily have had three in the first half, but equally it never felt like we deserved to get a result from the game.

Star man: Juan Foyth

[Idon'tcareforthatmuchthoughasamstillbasinginthefeelingfromWednesdayandecstaticaboutourupcomingsemi-final Bernardo Silva put in another fine display as Manchester City got the better of Tottenham

BOURNEMOUTH

Peter Bell (Cherry Chimes)

Bournemouth might have been confident. They expected the goal to come and found themselves in a real contest for possession. Chances went early on and Fulham took full advantage. Even with three strikers on the pitch, Bournemouth couldn't unlock the door.

Fulham fans were happy singing "1-0 to the Championship". Eddie Howe is still looking for consistency.

Star man: Jefferson Lerma

FULHAM

Russ Goldman (Cottage Talk)

Scott Parker wanted the team to play with pride and reconnect with supporters. Now hey is getting results, too. It is unfortunate that this has come too late to keep us in the Premier League but we are seeing building blocks for next season. The way Fulham played suggested a new beginning.

Star man: Sergio Rico

HUDDERSFIELD

Harry Greenwood (Better Than Klopp)

Another defeat along our embarrassing relegation road. Siewert switched things up yet again as he assesses the squad ahead of a huge summer. Although we had chances in this one we were toothless yet again.

Watford capitalized with a second before Karlan Grant – one of our very few shining lights – score a consolation. With Liverpool and Manchester United to come, things look bleak.

Star man: Juninho Bacuna

WATFORD

David Anderson (Golden Pages Fanzine)

What a season this is turning out to be! FA Cup dreams aside, it was nice to get back to winning ways in the league and take the lead in the race for seventh place and potentially Europe.

It was reassuring to see us manage without Troy Deeney and we did so capably thanks to the magic of Gerard Deulofeu. He was quick off the mark to give us an early lead and it meant the rest of the afternoon could be enjoyed rather than endured.

Star man: Gerard Deulofeu

Watford fans celebrate during their side's victory over Huddersfield on Saturday

WEST HAM

Graeme Howlett (KUMB.com)

For the second successive week, West Ham were denied a goal and two points by a mystifyingly bad call from the match officials. These things just yourself out over the course of a season, it has been said. Which may be true for some clubs, but certainly not West Ham United, for whom such things are becoming something of a regular occurrence.

Star man: Lucas Perez

LEICESTER

Phil Simms (LCFC World)

A lively end to a match, for long periods, bore all the hallmarks or an end-of-season run-out in the sunshine. The players were on the beach. Harvey Barnes' injury time goal at least sent the Foxes faithful home with a smile.

Star man: Jamie Vardy

WOLVES

Ben Husband (Wolves Fancast)

The sun was out and it felt very much like pre-season fare as a pedestrian Wolev's struggled to break down Brighton. The Seagulls came to the Black Country without any ambition but left with a point. Antoerh example of Wolves failing to get the job done against the lowly sides. Nuno's men now have four games to ensure the season doesn't fizzle out.

Star man: Ruben Vinagre

BRIGHTON

Simon Cox (Brighton Fans)

Not often does a 0-0 feel so satisfying! I wanted to be last on MOTD! After our recent farces this mundane, but disciplined, bore-draw was a breath of fresh air! Team selection was Chris showing fans the dressing-room divide, and that at least £ 50million has clearly been wasted.

We red our luck, but we certainly earned our point. Kayal was a patient, professional and should start at Spurs.

Star man: Beram Kayal

Brighton fans watch on their sides with Wolves at Molineux on Saturday

NEWCASTLE

Tom Bore (Read Newcastle)

What a day for Ayoze Perez. Silencing his critics in the most emphatic way – a hat trick at St James’s Park to all-but-confirm survival. His movement and build-up play has been superb in recent weeks and he was rewarded in full against Southampton.

It feels unlikely with three games to go that Newcastle will make the necessary steps required to equal last season's 10th place finish, but with 41 points already on the board, the feeling among the fans is positive nonetheless.

Star man: Ayoze Perez

SOUTHAMPTON

Jack West (Fresh Saints)

Newcastle capitalized on a dismal first half that proved pivotal in dictating the result. The second half was the complete opposite and we arguably deserved to take something from the game. Hassenhuttl's tactical changes were spot on.

Star man: Mario Lemina

EVERTON

Joel Parker (Toffee Analysis)

Everton absolutely dominated a dreadful Man United team, and for one of the first times this season were clinical. Silva's system is always better against teams that want to retain possession, but we struggle to create great chances.

Today was different, we started off quickly and had total control for long periods of the game. The goals were absolutely incredible and Everton thoroughly deserved the victory.

Star man: Gylfi Sigurdsson

MANCHESTER UNITED

Sam Peoples (The Peoples Person)

When will United rebuild the club properly? We're a shambles from top to bottom. So many of those players should be sold. There is no way this can all be done in one summer. Sir Alex retired.

Star man: The Away End

Manchester United's players look after a conceding fourth goal to Everton

ARSENAL

Peter Wood (Le Grove)

Unai Emery spluttered at a critical part of the season, arrogantly underestimating Palace. Mustafi in defense, Jenkinson anywhere near the team, Guendouzi and Elneny in midfield … it was always going to fail and it did.

Arsenal have blown a huge opportunity and it looks like the manager has it all on the Europa League. A very dangerous gamble.

Star man: The Final Whistle

CRYSTAL PALACE

Jay Crame (The Eagles Beak)

Roy got this one spot on and the players pulled off a big result against the Gunners, and fully deserved it with the hosts finding the pace and speed on the break hard to deal with.

Benteke has had his critics but we play so much better with him as the lone striker, he just hasn't been able to match that with goals. Today was a very good all round performance from the Belgian. Big call from Roy to drop by Aanholt but it worked.

Star man: Christian Benteke

CARDIFF

Callum Ellis (Inside Wales Sport)

Competed well in the first half but it was always going to be difficult once they took the lead. It looked like a penalty on Salah for me – and one of our fans would have been furious with that child or decision did not go our way. If we keep playing like this, we'll stay up.

Star man: Bruno Ecuele Manga

LIVERPOOL

Chances were wasted and Cardiff survived until half-time, but the Reds eventually become them down in the South Wales sunshine. Wijnaldum's strike was a thing of beauty and Milner has balls of steel.

No doubt the Salah diving agenda will rear it's head once again, but it's all nonsense that was a clear a foul as you'll ever see . Many Kopites are hoping for a favor from arch rivals United this week. Not me.

United don't even have a snowball chance in hell or stopping City. My fading hopes are with Sean Dyche and the Burnley bash brothers, Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood. Or Brendan. Imagine that.

Star man: Georginio Wijnaldum

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