Selection box - Bunking off from school to go karting - What the drivers get up to in their downtime
Published by Christine
It's the lull before the storm this week, with the Spanish Grand Prix rapidly disappearing in the rear view mirrow, and the double header of Monaco/Indy 500 approaching full speed ahead. With that in mind, this week's collection of links have time to look back at the race and what came out of it, as well as ponder some of the young drivers around the grid, as well as going behind the scenes in the paddock. Enjoy!
First up, we'll look back to the Spanish Grand Prix with some anonymous insight and some less anonymous reviews.
...Kimi got nudged into Max and off Max went into the kitty litter. It had 'racing incident' written all over it. There's space for two cars on that line, not three – but this is the sort of advanced applied mathematics that racing drivers avoided by bunking off from school to go karting.
Here we will analyse the momentous decisions that dictated the outcome, at how the pendulum swung from one driver to another several times. And we will also look at how the lowly Sauber team managed to score its best result since 2015, with a very bold one-stop strategy, yielding four points for the team, which will prove very valuable.
Sauber's strategy was one of the highlights of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, so here are a few more items on that topic.
Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein was one of the unexpected stars of the Spanish GP as the German used a one-stop strategy to earn eighth place. He actually finished seventh on the road, but lost a spot to Carlos Sainz after receiving a five-second penalty for going the wrong side of the bollard at the pit entry.
Pleasingly, however, in the crucial area as a strategist – the engineer who calls the race tactics – she has had nothing but positive experiences. “I have had zero problems with drivers,” she says, “because all they want is to do the best they can. All the drivers I have worked with I have had a very good relationship with and they have been very responsive."
With Buscombe having joined Sauber following a number of high-profile strategic calls for Haas at the start of last season, Kaltenborn was keen to highlight the strategist's contribution to the result. "That was a super day!" Kaltenborn told RACER. "We had a super strategy. We have a super strategist. It's about super girls in this team!
Next up, some behind the scenes treats including some on board footage to be enjoyed in virtual reality, and a visit with Lewis to the engineering truck.
Ever wondered what it would be like to be strapped to the top of a Formula One car at high speeds through the streets of Budapest? Wonder no more as you join Daniel Ricciardo onboard his RB7 for our recent live demo in Budapest.
Ever wondered what goes on behind closed doors in the top secret Formula One engineering trucks? Time to find out, with the help of our expert tour guide... Lewis Hamilton!
Finally, three posts dedicated to drivers, both experienced and new, and somewhere in between.
F1 drivers answer hundreds of questions at each Grand Prix, but how much do we know about their lives away from the track? GPUpdate.net is on a mission to find out more, starting with Romain Grosjean. Describe your perfect day…
There has been a noticeable shift towards teams hiring younger drivers from the lower categories in the past few years. This year, the average age on the grid (at time of writing) is 26! Some of the ‘old guard’ of recent Formula One seasons are still there; Raikkonen (37), Massa (36) and Alonso (35). Astonshingly, Lewis Hamilton is the 4th oldest at 32, though the mid-thirties is usually the age when drivers start hanging up their helmets.
Sitting down with Sainz Jr. ahead of his home race, he tells me about his relationship with his father and how they have always been very close. He says this as, ironically, Sainz Snr. walks behind us and smiles; “He’s come with me to all the races, from karting to other formula, and now F1. He comes to nearly all of them and I enjoy it because it’s having someone by my side that you can trust. There are very little people you can trust and rely on in the paddock, and he’s one of them.”
