Wolff: If it remains the biggest misstep…
Head of Mercedes Motorsport Toto Wolff is surprised by the new rule of the new Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich. According to him, the successor to the controversial Michael Masi was “respectful, solid and error-free” in the first races, Wolff told the Press Association news agency.
“But is that a fight he has to fight at this point?” he wonders. “However, if it turns out to be the biggest unfortunate misstep by a race director, I would take it a thousand times over.”
Binotto: Ferrari is working on porpoising
“We are working on it and know that the situation is not yet fully understood,” says Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto about the problem. “It’s not something that’s obvious and can be easily fixed.”
But the Scuderia is still trying to get the problem under control – possibly as early as the upcoming race in Imola. “But we know it’s not completely solved yet. It’s just difficult to get under control. And there are circuits where we have bigger problems than the others.”
Leclerc: I don’t mind porpoising
Porposiing affects almost all teams in Formula 1, even the Ferrari team, which has been quite dominant up to now. World Cup leader Charles Leclerc was pretty shaken up when he won in Melbourne, but doesn’t see that as a problem: “I don’t know why, but I’m not particularly sensitive to it,” he says.
“Onboard it looks pretty extreme. Of course I notice it, but it doesn’t bother me in terms of performance,” said the Monegasque. Of course, Ferrari has to work on this issue, “but I wouldn’t have driven faster if it hadn’t been there.”
Calendar changes since 2000
In our photo gallery you can see how much the calendar has changed since 2000 and which races were added and when.
In 2020 we stopped because the calendar got mixed up in a pretty chaotic way due to Corona.
The best thing to do would be to take the originally planned 2020 calendar and see how it compares to the current 2022 one. There we see two races that were dropped: Vietnam and China, plus Russia, which was actually planned for 2022.
In comparison, Saudi Arabia, Imola and Miami are new.
Photo gallery: The changes in the Formula 1 calendar over the past 20 years
Stopover in Malaysia
The Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell made a stopover in Malaysia on their return journey from Australia to attend a few PR appointments for main sponsor Petronas.
Since Malaysia has not been part of the Formula 1 calendar since 2018, a stopover on another trip is currently the only opportunity to present yourself in the country of the main sponsor.
Vasseur: Qualifying result masked great race pace
Frederic Vasseur says Alfa Romeo was as strong in Australia as in previous races. However, the bad qualifying meant that you couldn’t really show the pace. Bottas had failed to make Q3 for the first time in 103 races, blaming a smaller rear wing.
“It was a step backwards in qualifying, I think we messed up Q2,” Vasseur told Motorsport-Total.com. “But Q1 was very good. We were P6 and the race pace was great. The problem is that we’re mostly behind [Lance] Stroll lost too much track time.”
awarding of certificates
Our traditional Melbourne notes were also released yesterday. The clear winner was of course Charles Leclerc, who, after his Grand Slam, took first place in our ranking for the third time in a row. The clear loser was Sebastian Vettel, who received a 6 from the editors and expert Marc Surer.
There was a real surprise in second place. You can tell who that was read here.
As always, our photo series also contains the editors’ grades with justification.
Photo gallery: Melbourne: The driving grades of the editors
The Masi saga is not over yet
Toto Wolff had already made a name for himself yesterday with his next words towards Michael Masi. In an interview with the Press Association, he called the ex-race director a liability, a know-it-all and disrespectful in dealing with the drivers.
I know that many of you are annoyed by this topic by now, but sorry, not our fault 😉
Jewelry ban: Hamilton doesn’t care
Over the weekend, a controversial new rule became an issue. The notes before the Australian event suddenly stated that drivers are not allowed to wear jewelry for safety reasons. This led to heated discussions among the drivers on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton disregarded the new commandment and continued to drive with the jewelry anyway – and will continue to do so. “I have no intention of removing them,” he insists. “I think there are personal things. You should be able to be who you are.”
He also has jewelry – for example in the right ear – which cannot be easily removed. “I’d have to cut it off or something. So it’s going to stay,” he clarifies. The consequences of violation? Still unclear.
© Motorsport Images
Good Morning
A sunny Tuesday morning and we’re back at the start for a new ticker day. We have brought a colorful program from Australia and will work on a little more.
Do that at this point today Norman Fisher, who warmly welcomes you at this point. Do you have any questions or comments? Then use the contact form or the hashtag #FragMST on Twitter.