Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Round 3

  • Australian Grand Prix

    We are back in Australia after a long awaited return! Round 3 and it is Danny Ric’s home Grand Prix, but since we was last here in 2019, the track has changed quite a bit with it now having four DRS zones…

    Will it be a good weekend for the home hero? Can Mick finally get those all important points his been waiting for? Seb is back, what can he now do in the Aston? So many unanswered questions, and I can’t wait till we get some answers for them!

    The newbies who have come into F1 will be racing in Australia for the first ever time! Those being, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu.

    Who needs a good weekend?

    I would say the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll needs a good weekend, he has finished outside of the points in both races this year and it seems like the Aston has better race pace, rather than one lap pace. With Sebastian being back its now Stroll’s time to shine, but the question is, can he?

    Yuki needs a good weekend, after not even being able to race last time out, he will want to do the best he can, even more so because of the track, he has a fresh start here as none of the drivers have drove on this track with the new cars and since its changed.

    Perez, will be wanting to be on that podium this weekend, first race was a DNF, and finishing 4th in Saudi Arabia was a good comeback but with Ferrari having both drivers on the podium in the first two rounds, and with the Mexican having a good car underneath him, he knows he can get on their, its just a matter of if he can.

    Predictions for qualifying-

    My top 5 are: Pole- Leclerc, P2: Verstappen, P3: Carlos, P4: Perez, P5: Hamilton. If Red Bull have brought upgrades to Aus, then I could see them running away with it all this weekend.

    It would be nice to see if McLaren can get at least one car in the top 10 for qualifying. Someone else who will be hoping to get into the top 10, is Mr Mick Schumacher, he has seen what this car can do, finishing in the points in both races for his teammate, so the German will be wanting to qualify in that top 10, to hopefully get those points!

    Times for the weekend-

    Friday 8th-

    Free Practice 1: 04:00am – 05:00am (BST), Free Practice 2: 07:00am – 08:00am (BST).

    Saturday 9th-

    Free Practice 3: 04:00am – 05:00am (BST), Qualifying: 07:00am – 08:00am (BST).

    Sunday 10th-

    Australian Grand Prix: 06:00am (BST).

  • Australia tyre allocation

    It’s race week once again which means looking at the tyres for the third round of the 2022 season.

    The nomination for the tyres is rather unusual for Melbourne’s track, with a bigger than normal between the medium and softest compounds. C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), C5 (Soft). This will be the race, the softest tyre debuts in 2022 Pirelli range, marking a change from the aborted 2020 race and the 2019 Australian Grand Prix when the C2, C3 and C4 tyres were selected.

    As a temporary facility, Albert Park used to be quite bumpy but the new asphalt may reduce this. The new surface should offer low grip and reasonably contained levels of asphalt abrasion, which is set to result in moderate wear.

    The track-

    The track underwent significant modifications for the first time since 1996 when it made its championship debut.

    Seven corners have been modified with two removed entirely, bringing the total of turns down to just 14 and shortening the track by 28 metres. The most significant modification is the removal of the Turn 9-10 chicane, which is been replaced by a long sweeping bend.

    Turns 1 and 3 have been widened on the inside as has Turn 6, which is now significantly faster. Later in the lap, what was Turn 13 (now turn 11) has been realigned to tighten the angle. The penultimate corner (now Turn 13) is another to have been widened and also one of several to have its camber adjusted to allow for different lines to be taken.

    Compared to previous occasions, and with the drivers not having raced there for two seasons, this year there are a few unknowns to the Australian Grand Prix: first of all the circuit layout has been heavily revised to improve overtaking and, as a result, there’s also new asphalt that should be quite smooth. This means the track is likely to offer very low levels of grip at the start, with a high degree of evolution expected over the weekend and an extremely slippery surface if it rains. We will also head to Melbourne a couple of weeks later compared to previous seasons, when autumn has already started in the southern hemisphere, so conditions could be more variable. Last but not least, there is a completely new generation of cars and tyres that the drivers are still trying to learn about. All these factors mean that there will be a lot of work to do for teams and drivers in the free practice sessions. We decided to opt for the step in the compound nominations because we noticed that there was a relatively small performance gap between the C3 and C4 compounds during development testing, and we believe that Albert Park – with its new asphalt and layout – is a good place to try out this option.

    Mario Isla, Head of Pirelli Motorsport.
  • Vettel back for Australia

    Vettel back for Australia

    Sebastian Vettel will return to the grid for the third round of the season in Australia after Covid-19 saw him miss the first two rounds.

    Whilst the four time world champion was recovering at home, Aston Martin brought in their super-sub Nico Hulkenberg to fill the spot for Bahrain, and then waited round until confirmation came through that Seb wasn’t racing in Saudi Arabia either.

    “TEAM UPDATE: We are pleased to confirm that Sebastian Vettel is now fit to race and will therefore line up alongside @lance_stroll in Melbourne to kick off his 2022 @F1 season at the @ausgrandprix,” tweeted Aston Martin on Thursday after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

    The team are still awaiting a points finish along with Williams- Could the Australian Grand Prix be the one?

    Ahead of Sebastian’s positive covid result- which came after Official Pre-Season Testing- Vettel spoke about the AMR22 and driving it: “The car wants to be driven in a different way. I am playing with driving styles and what I can do. Equally we are playing with the car, we are trying to sort some problems that we have, some of the challenges that we’ve faced, find solutions.here is still a lot to do, everybody is flat-out and there is still a very, very steep and high mountain to climb… but it’s fun, I think the challenge is fun and the belief is there that one day we will reach that peak.”

    Great to see that Seb will be back! He can finally start his 2022 season.

  • Round 3- Mexico

    Round 3- Mexico

    Round 3 is here for Formula E and we are in Mexico City, lets take a look and see how the day went!

    FP1-

    Twenty of the twenty-two drivers were within a second on the time-sheets, with Lotterer’s benchmark set inside the final five minutes of the session. He and Wehrlein had set the early pace, as the circuit continued to clean and come to the drivers.

    Buemi’s late lap split the Stuttgart team on the timing screens, with Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns wrestling through the stadium section and around the Peraltada to go 4th fastest.

    The top 10 are: P1: Lotterer, P2: Buemi, P3: Wehrlein, P4: Frijns, P5: Da Costa, P6: Guenther, P7: De Vries, P8: Cassidy, P9: Dennis and P10: Vergne.

    FP2-

    Antonio Felix da Costa ended Free Practice 2 on top of the time-sheets, with a late full power run. Shoving Lotterer into 2nd place, with da Costa’s teammate Jean-Eric Vergne finishing third- the top 3 being split by just 0.052 seconds.

    Several drivers struggled to get the balance right, with grip and the front and rear of the car not yet fully in sync.

    The top 10 are: P1: Da Costa, P2: Lotterer, P3: Vergne, P4: Buemi, P5: Cassidy, P6: Evans, P7: Wehrlein, P8: Rowland, P9: Bird and P10: Di Grassi.

    Qualifying-

    Pascal Wehrlein took the Julius Baer Pole Position ahead of Round 3 in Mexico City. The driver kept his cool as the temperatures rose in Mexico City to post a 1m 07.100s while Edoardo Mortara crossed the line sideways, loosing his early Finals advantage to slip to P2 by 0.273 seconds.

    Both Mercedes, ended up being out in the quarter finals- the pace just not being there as they scrapped through the group stages. Jake Dennis aswell, not even making the quarter finals. The Porsche’s were just on fire so far today, having pace throughout all free practices and qualifying too.

    The top 10 are: P1: Wehrlein, P2: Mortara, P3: Lotterer, P4: Vergne, P5: Da Costa, P6: De Vries, P7: Frijns, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Cassidy, P10: Guenther.

    Race-

    WHAT A RACE!! Pascal Wehrlein has FINALLY got rid of his bad luck in Mexico! He turnt his pole position into the race win, with his team-mate coming home in second making it a 1-2 for the Porsche team. Jean Eric Vergne comes home in 3rd position!

    No safety car was needed for this race, we had two retirements one being Sims where he stopped on track early on in the race, the other being Antonio Giovinazzi, he had to pit once then went in again to retire.

    The top 10 are: P1: Wehrlein, P2: Lotterer, P3: Vergne, P4: Da Costa, P5: Mortara, P6: De Vries, P7: Frijns, P8: Di Grassi, P9: Buemi and P10: Guenther.

    Now onto, the championship, Mortara still leads with 43 points, with Nyck de Vries still keeping his position in 2nd with 37 points. But Wehrlein moves up to P3 with 30 points, Lotterer moves up to P4 with 30 points. Di Grassi and Vandoorne drop down to P5 and P6.

    We have a long wait now until the next race, which is on the 9th and 10th of April where we have round 4 & 5 for the Rome E-Prix.

  • A look into Mexico City

    A look into Mexico City

    Round 3 of the 2022 season is just a few days away, and we are in Mexico! We are returning to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit after a brief visit to Puebla last season.

    Last time we was here, we saw Mitch Evans take the win after starting 2nd, Antonio Felix da Costa finishing 2nd and Sebastian Buemi taking the last podium place, 3rd.

    But looking at the past two rounds, can Edoardo Mortara extend the lead in Championship or will both of the Mercedes be wanting to see if they can grab it of Mortara. Or maybe even Jake Dennis, he may be able to grab a few points and move up a spot or two…

    Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit-

    The arrival of Formula E came in 2016, where the street course makes use of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, with race-ready surface and long corners. Mexico city is not only one of the fastest tracks on the Formula E calendar, as well as this its the highest too at 2,250m above sea level.

    The track layout for the E-Prix, features a mixture of long and fast straights and a technical infield section through the legendary Foro Sol stadium. Starting with the traditional start/finish straight, the Formula E grid will be go down into turn one, where its home to some late-breaking.

    After a long and fast Turn 2, the pack will make their way around Turn 3, which then breaks off left into a four turn sequence. Looping back around a hairpin, Turn 6 and 7 get technical with a straight and sharp right-hand bend (Turn 8) leading into the stadium section (Turns 9-13). The drivers then leave the stadium area, in which they will jostle for position out of the Peraltada curve in the run up to the finish line.

    Picture from Formula E website: https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/race-calendar/2021-2022/mexico-city/race-info

    Times-

    Saturday 12th-

    Free Practice 1: 08:00am to 08:30am (local time), 14:00pm to 14:30pm (GMT). Free Practice 2: 09:50am to 10:20am (local time), 15:50pm to 16:20pm (GMT).

    Qualifying: 11:40am to 12:55pm (local time), 17:40pm to 18:55pm (GMT). Race: 16:04pm (local time), 22:04pm (GMT).