Stuck trusts Aston Martin “good results”.
We’re staying with Aston Martin because some even believe Sebastian Vettel’s former team can win this year. Ex-Formula 1 driver Hans-Joachim Stuck doesn’t go that far. “They are on a promising path,” he says opposite ‘Eurosport’.
You have “developed in the right direction over the winter” and can “hope for a few good results,” said “Strietzel”. However, it will be “difficult” to get to Red Bull’s level, because the Bulls’ lead in Bahrain was huge.
Nevertheless, Aston Martin has “a strong team” and Mike Krack is “the right man at the top,” believes Stuck, who also adds: “Alonso is anything but old. You can see how important experience is. “
Incidentally, he does not believe that Sebastian Vettel now regrets his resignation. “In his place, I would be more happy for Aston Martin – because it’s his job, among other things, that they’re now driving at the front,” said the 72-year-old.
Szafnauer: Mercedes wind tunnel not a disadvantage for Aston Martin
Aston Martin is currently building its own wind tunnel, while Mercedes is currently using it. Otmar Szafnauer himself was team boss at the former Force India team for many years and does not believe that Aston Martin will benefit from the new wind tunnel excessively.
“The Mercedes wind tunnel is very good,” he emphasizes and makes it clear: “If sharing were a disadvantage, nobody would do it.” Having your own wind tunnel will therefore not be a “significant difference”. And that’s how Aston Martin made the leap forward this year.
“Aston has made great improvements,” praises Szafnauer, whose goal now is to catch up with his former team – wind tunnel or not.
All the best!
Congratulations go out to Tatiana Calderon, who is celebrating her 30th birthday today. The Colombian was a test and development driver at Sauber from 2018 to 2021 and also competed in Formula 2 during this period.
On October 30, 2018, she was even allowed to test Formula 1 for the first time. In Mexico City, she completed a day for Sauber in a C37, the car in which a certain Charles Leclerc contested his first season in the premier class of motorsport.
If you want to know a little more about her and her career, I recommend this great interview that Christian Nimmervoll conducted with her last year!
© Sutton
Where does Alpine stand?
It’s not just at Williams that you don’t want to overestimate the first race weekend of the year. While this went surprisingly well for the traditional team, the exact opposite was the case for Alpine.
“We still don’t know the true pace because a few things happened operationally in the race,” says team boss Otmar Szafnauer, referring above all to the series of penalties against Esteban Ocon.
Team colleague Pierre Gasly also had to start the race from last place after a messed up qualifying session. That’s why Szafnauer can’t say for sure after Bahrain where you stand “relatively” compared to the other teams.
Because neither of his two pilots had a representative weekend. “I think we’re not far away,” says the team boss optimistically. Let’s wait and see Saudi Arabia next week.
Williams: 2023 will remain a transitional year
Team boss James Vowles made that clear again after the surprising point win in Bahrain. Although you could fight with other teams there, nothing has changed in the development plan for this year.
“Our program is the same as before the race weekend,” he emphasizes, explaining that the focus is on getting the team well positioned this year “to be competitive in 2024 and 2025,” said Vowles.
That’s why you have to find a balance between the further development of the FW45 and investments in the future. Or to put it another way: 2023 is simply a transition year for Williams under the new team boss.
“But we want to take every point with us on this journey,” he announces. However, the focus in Grove is clearly on the future.
Is Ferrari lying to itself?
It’s very exciting: while at Mercedes you don’t beat around the bush, at Ferrari you have the feeling that you don’t really want to admit your own problems. Christian Nimmervoll already described this in his column on Monday.
We have in this video asked Ralf Schumacher how he sees it. And the Sky expert believes that Ferrari will have no chance of winning the world title in 2023…
Is Ferrari lying to itself, Ralf Schumacher?
Reliability, wear and tear, self-assessment: Because of these problems, Ferrari has no chance of becoming world champion, believes Ralf Schumacher. More Formula 1 videos
Shovlin: At least the morale is right
The Mercedes operations manager at the race track also emphasized this in this context. “It’s a very difficult start to the year and obviously after the season we had in 2022 we weren’t hoping for such a challenging start,” he admits.
“But everyone was quick to admit the problem. We know it’s a tough journey ahead of us,” Shovlin said. Everyone is willing to make the car better and get back to the front. Incidentally, this also applies to the drivers.
“They have worked very well together to help us continue to develop and improve the car,” said Shovlin, who stressed that everyone on the team is “very honest” about the current challenges.
You know that the current car is “not good enough”.
Ist “Drive to Survive” unfair?
“You can’t buy talent”, Gene Haas said about Mick Schumacher and called him “dead man walking”. In our new video, we asked Ralf Schumacher what he thought of the hotly debated Netflix episode.
He also talks about Nico Hülkenberg and the tensions between team boss Günther Steiner and his nephew, which lasted through the 2022 season and ultimately led to the separation.
Ist “Drive to Survive” unfair, Ralf Schumacher?
“You can’t buy talent”, Gene Haas said about Mick and called him “dead man walking”. Now we asked Ralf Schumacher. More Formula 1 videos
The career of Sanchez
David Sanchez may not be as well known outside the paddock as some of his peers, but his influence at Maranello should not be underestimated, having worked for Scuderia since October 2012.
At that time he switched from McLaren to Ferrari, initially as an aerodynamics specialist, then from mid-2016 as chief aerodynamics specialist. In this role, he played a large part in Sebastian Vettel’s vice world titles in 2017 and 2018.
In 2019 he took over the entire aerodynamics department in Maranello before being promoted to the position of “Head of Vehicle Concept” under the then team boss Mattia Binotto in early 2021, which he held until the end.
In this he was responsible, among other things, for the F1-75, with which Ferrari won two of the first three races of the season in 2022 and in the end again became vice world champion with Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari loses important employees
The next bad news for the Scuderia: David Sanchez leaves the Scuderia after more than ten years! He was most recently employed as “Head of Vehicle Concept” and thus effectively responsible for the design of last year’s and current cars.
This is particularly problematic because Sanchez would actually have been responsible for the further development of the SF-23. It is still unclear who will take on his role in the future.
However, it will probably result in an internal solution, because there are not many external options for Ferrari – or at least not quickly. Sanchez himself is rumored to be working for a British racing team in the future.
However, this is not yet official and it will probably be several months before Sanchez is allowed to sign on with a rival.
Off to the weekend!
Hello and welcome to a new edition of our Formula 1 news ticker. The (race-free) weekend is just around the corner, but before that we’ll do it again here in the ticker in the coming hours!
We’re bringing you the well-known mix of news, entertainment and rumors from the world of the premier class today, before we send you into your well-deserved weekend.
Ruben Zimmermann accompanies you through the day at this point. If you have any questions, suggestions or complaints, you can use our contact form. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and if you have any questions, you can also use our Twitter hashtag #FragMST. Here we go!
Here you can read our ticker from yesterday!