Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Round 8

  • Azerbaijan tyre allocation

    After a weeks break, we are back racing once again as we have another double header, with our first destination being Azerbaijan this weekend.

    Pirelli have chosen the tyres for this weekend those being the softest tyres in the range, C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium), C5 (Soft). This is the same selection as last year’s Azerbaijan GP.

    Baku’s street circuit has a personality of its own, combining rapid straights with some narrow and technical sections, especially around Turn 9 in the old city centre. As a result, the high downforce setups which the teams used in Monaco won’t be used here, teams prefer to go for a low to medium downforce set up.

    The weather can be warm in Baku, with the track temperature in excess of 50 degrees, but the tight confines of the building around the circuit mean that there are areas around the track with light and shade, varying the track temperature quite a bit around the lap.

    The winning strategy last year was effectively a one-stopper (although the race was red flagged close to the end). The favoured strategy was soft to hard, with the soft tyre being fitted for the last three laps.

    Until Jeddah came along, Baku was the fastest street circuit of the year. But the demands of this city track are still relatively low, as none of the corners take a huge amount of energy out of the tyres due to the low levels of abrasion and contained lateral loads – which means that we can have the same nomination as Monaco. Having said that, the high speeds in Azerbaijan still place a certain demand on the tyres. The main point is all about traction, with finding the right balance between front and rear axles being the key challenge for all the teams: you need to have enough heat in the front tyres to generate grip, despite the long straights that cool them down, but not too much heat at the rear, otherwise it’s easy to overheat them in the traction zones. Track temperature is also inconsistent in Baku, so all in all it’s quite a specific track with a few different technical challenges, which are nonetheless the same for everyone.

    Mario Isla, Motorsport Director.

    Formula 2

    The Medium and Supersoft tyres have been chosen for this weekend in Baku for Formula 2. This is the same nomination as previous years, even though the supersoft is a new compound for 2022. But the same compounds have already been seen this season at Imola.

  • Round 8- Berlin E-Prix

    Round 8- Berlin E-Prix

    FP1-

    Round 7 winner, Edoardo Mortara set the benchmark once again in FP1 as he set a 1m 06.373s at the reverse, clockwise layout of the Tempelhof Airport Circuit. Overnight work was carried out to switch from the traditional track to the anti-clockwise version, giving drivers a whole new circuit to get used to.

    Mortara adapted the quickest, with Porsche’s Andre Lotterer was up there once again on home soil. Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis came home third. Pascal Wehrlein and front row qualifier, Alexander Sims rounded out the top five.

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

    FP2-

    ROKiT Venturi’s pace was still unbeatable in Free Practice 2, as Lucas di Grassi and Edoardo Mortara led the way with the first and second quickest times of the day.

    Di Grassi’s 1m 06.133s was two tenths quicker than his teammate managed in FP1 and 0.150s quicker than Mortara in FP2. The pair then lead Oliver Rowland, who went quickest in the first session ahead of Round 7.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Di Grassi, P2: Mortara, P3: Rowland, P4: Vandoorne, P5: Wehrlein, P6: Dennis, P7: Vergne, P8: Frijns, P9: Turvey and P10: Da Costa.

    Qualifying-

    ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara, held his own in qualifying as he grasped a second consecutive Julius Baer Pole Position in two days, he only had to wait 5 years and two came along at once!!…

    The shock of qualifying for Round 8 was seeing the top 3 in the championship not start higher than 7th… Vandoorne who came into the weekend leading the championship only managed P8, Vergne who is in 2nd in the Championship was behind the leader and the same for Mitch Evans also, who had been on a role until now.

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

    Round 8-

    Mercedes EQ driver and reigning champion Nyck de Vries, powered to a comfortable, managed drive to the race win, where he won the Season 7 title triumph. Mortara following 2.5s back, with Vandoorne making it two Mercedes EQ cars on the podiums and three Mercedes EQ powertrains in the top three. The Belgians third place finish also extended his silverware streak to three races.

    Lucas di Grassi came home fourth to extend that to four Mercedes powered cars in the top four in a dominant outing. Oliver Rowland made good progress from 10th to an eventual seventh. A bit of a weird weekend for DS Techeetah as Jean-Eric Vergne finished 9th…

    We’ve had a bit of a difficult ride the past three races. So, honestly I’m just very pleased to be here and to be back. Obviously it’s a bit of an emotional one for me. It was the perfect way to come back after a difficult day yesterday and the work put in with my engineers to find positives. Edo (Mortara) has been very strong all weekend so we definitely had to keep it clean, but the team managed very well on their side and I executed it, so I’m very pleased.

    Nyck de Vries on winning Round 8.

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

    We now have just under 3 weeks until we are back for Round 9, for the Jakarta E-Prix on the 4th June!

  • A look into Berlin

    We are back for Formula E this weekend with a double header in Berlin for Round 7 and 8, which marks our halfway point of Season 8.

    Formula E’s 11 teams and 22 drivers return to the German capital – a fixture which has been on the calendar since 2014/15 to tackle an anti-clockwise and clockwise variation of the circuit.

    With Vandoorne currently leading the Championship, will he be victorious in Berlin? His teammate definitely needs a good weekend, de Vries currently sits in 8th on 39 points, he needs another win to kick start to defend his Championship title.

    What can Mitch do? His came off the back of two very good weekends, so he will be raring to go once again and get on that podium.

    The Circuit-

    Back for the eight year, the race takes place on the giant apron section of the historic Berlin Tempelhof Airport. The drivers can expect a challenge with two circuits over two days, as the Sundays race will see the return of the reversed NILREB circuit for Round 8.

    Drivers should also be aware of the challenge of the concrete being high grip which can take its toll on energy levels and race strategies. Saturday will see the driver tackle the circuit traditionally in anti clockwise, where as Sunday is clockwise.

    Mitch Evans currently holds the Berlin Lap Record with a 1:08.350 (2020). Lucas di Grassi holds the NILREB Lap Record with a 1:08.305 (2021).

    Timings-

    Saturday 14th May

    • Free Practice 1- 06:15am – 06:45am (BST)
    • Free Practice 2 – 08:00am – 08:45am (BST)
    • Qualifying – 09:40am – 11:00am (BST)
    • Round 7 – 14:00pm (BST)

    Sunday 15th May

    • Free Practice 1 – 06:15am – 06:45am (BST)
    • Free Practice 2 – 08:00am – 08:45am (BST)
    • Qualifying – 09:40am – 11:00am (BST)
    • Round 8 – 14:00pm (BST)

  • Round 8- Styrian Race

    That is now the 8th race done out of 23! It wasn’t the most excitng race I’ve seen this year but it had some good overtakes!

    Max Verstappen charges to victory again with Hamilton and Bottas joining him on the podium which is a great amount of points for Mercedes for the Constructors! The rest of the top 10 are: P4- Perez, P5- Norris, P6- Sainz, P7- Leclerc, P8- Stroll, P9- Alonso and P10- Tsunoda. Hamilton also brought home an extra point for fastest lap!

    There was a couple of tangles in the opening lap, it saw Gasly having to pit and retire the car after he had contact with Leclerc, the Ferrari driver managed to continue in the race after having to pit with some front wing damage.

    I feel absolutely gutted for Russell, I really thought he was going to score some points, before he made his first pitstop he was running in P8 and defending from Tsunoda, however it all went downhill after his pitstop, he ended up having a power unit problem and had to retire from the race.

    Ferrari clearly sorted their strategy out this weekend for Carlos Sainz, he ended up finishing P6 after starting P12, as well for his team mate, he done really well to get back up to P7 where he qualified!

    I’m not to sure what happened to Ricciardo, I know he lots a few positions during the race as he had no power but to finish P13 on a track that McLaren are good at is unfortunate for them! Hopefully they can work on a few things during the week and then next week will be a different story!

    Now the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton is only 18 points! The gap between Perez and Norris is only 10 points and Norris and Bottas is only 12 points! Whereas the team its now only 40 points between Red Bull and Mercedes. With Ferrari closing in on McLaren making the gap only 12 points! It will be interesting to see who comes out on top next weekend!

    We are back next week at the Red Bull Ring but for the Austrian Grand Prix! Come back for the latest news throughout the week.

  • Round 8- Styrian Quali

    That is another qualifying session down! And a very exciting one at that…

    Another pole position goes to Verstappen! Which is Red Bulls first ever pole at their home grand prix. P2 was Bottas but because of his three grid place penalty from FP2 its now Hamiltons, and P3 goes to Lando Norris… The updated top 10 are: P4- Perez, P5- Bottas, P6- Gasly, P7- Leclerc, P8- Alonso, P9-Stroll and P10- Russell.

    George Russell was only 8 thousandths away from being in Q3!! However, there may be a chance for Russell to start top 10 as there was an incident on track with Tsunoda and Bottas, which could mean Tsunoda gets a 3 grid place penalty, Russell will be able to have a free choice of tyres to start on too! *Update as of 17:05pm (BST) Tsunoda gets a 3 grid place penalty, meaning Alonso, Stroll and Russell will move up a place* For more information click the link below https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.tsunoda-hit-by-three-place-grid-drop-for-impeding-bottas-in-qualifying.4zBSUhPPvTvmoZ4wms2msU.html

    Norris should be very happy with P3, he really put it together in qualifying and thats where it counts (apart from the race), it is a shame that Ricciardo couldn’t join him in the top 10 but the points are scored tomorrow and with this track its easy to overtake and gain some places.

    A very good qualifying for Gasly and Tsunoda, both cars up in the top 10, it will be interesting to see how they finish tomorrow and what type of strategy Alpha Tauri will have.

    A not so good qualifying for Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, he only managed to qualify P17. It doesn’t seem like his having very good luck at the minute where as his team mate is, it seems that they have switched and taking it in turns, one to do good and one not to do good!

    Predictions-

    My top 5 predictions for tomorrow are P1- Hamilton, P2- Perez, P3- Norris, P4- Gasly and P5- Bottas. I think fastest lap will go to Hamilton as well. I am hoping we have some rain tomorrow and I think some of the drivers are too!

    I’d like to see Russel finish in the top 10, he was so close today and he does deserve it! I’d also like to see Ricciardo finish in the top 10 too.

    Times for tomorrow are 14.00pm (BST) and 15.00pm (CEST). Come back for all the action tomorrow!

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CQlhtTFivii/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

  • Styrian GP

    We are now onto our second race out of our triple header and we are at the Red Bull Ring, the home Grand Prix of Red Bull.

    We have 71 laps on the Red Bull ring on Sunday, with ten corners and not one, not two but three DRS zones….

    Will Max Verstappen win at his teams race weekend? Or will Hamilton win on his rivals home race? Will Norris be able to get another podium like last year or will it be his team mate? It’s all to play for this weekend and I am very much so looking forward to it!

    Who needs a good weekend?

    I feel like I mention this driver every time we have a race weekend but Valtteri Bottas needs a good weekend. The weekend hasn’t barley started and his already got a 3 grid place penalty for spinning in the pit lane during free practice two… As well he needs to be there to support Mercedes and I personally just don’t think his there which is a shame but his the only one to blame!

    I think both Ferrari drivers need a good weekend, after what happened in France they both need a comeback! Also as they’ve lost a place in the Constructors to McLaren they will be itching to score some good points on Sunday.

    Track Limits-

    The track limits here always catch a lot of drivers out, meaning times will get deleted. Turn 9 will be monitored, any driver that sets a lap time by running out past the red and white kerb will have their lap time deleted. The same rule will apply to turn 10 with the same punishment.

    There has been a small change to the circuit at Turn 6 exit, the kerb has been reduced in width by half, meaning that the gravel is closer to the circuit.

    Predictions for Qualifying-

    Pole I think will be Verstappen, P2: Hamilton, P3: Ricciardo, P4: Perez and P5: Norris.

    I’m hoping we get to see Russell in Q3 this weekend! I just have a feeling about it, Russell’s highest qualifying position this year has been P11 so fingers crossed for the Brit!

    I’d like to see Tsunoda qualify top 10, I feel like now he should start being more in the top 10 as he hasn’t exactly got a bad car! But I do keep in mind when I say this that he is new to F1 so he will make some mistakes! I’d like to see Vettel qualify top 10 too, I feel like he is being more consistent now and should be a regular sight in the top 10.

    Times for Saturday sessions are: FP3: 11:00am (BST), 12:00pm (CEST). Qualifying: 14:00pm (BST) and 15:00pm (CEST)

  • Tyres for Styrian GP

    We are back racing this weekend and its our second race out of our triple header, and we are returning to the Red Bull Ring.

    Pirelli have announced their tyres for this weekend, they will be using the same as what they used a week earlier in France and they are: C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium) and C4 (Soft) compounds, which are the tyres in the middle of Pirelli’s range.

    It will be interesting to see what strategy the teams use for tyres, the winning strategy last year was softs to hards.

    After having two tyre blowouts in Azerbaijan, Pirelli have upped the minimum pressure on which teams could run their tyres in France by 2psi, in order to eliminate similar problems arising.

    However, Pirelli have now lowered their minimum running pressure in Austria compared to the races in 2020 by 3psi. This will increase the contact surface of the tyre on the track, which should lead to a higher grip levels.