Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Round 9

  • Canada Tyre Allocation

    After a two year absence, Canada is back on the calendar and we have the tyre allocation ready for us.

    Pirelli have chosen the softest tyres in the race, which was the same last time here in 2019, it is also the same as the past two races (Monaco and Azerbaijan.) C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium) and C5 (Soft). In 2019, the winning strategy was a one stopper, starting on mediums and finishing on the hard.

    Montreal has some similar elements of Baku, thanks to its heavy traction and braking demands, on a rapidly-evolving surface but with lower speeds and cooler weather.

    Talking about the weather, it often has been a major feature of the Canadian Grand Prix: the 2011 race is still the longest in F1 history. Which saw six safety car periods and a lengthy interruption that neutralised the action for several hours. It’s never easy to predict the conditions and there’s also a reasonable chance of rain.

    Canada will pose a number of question marks for the teams: the weather is often variable, all previous data is three years old, and we have a completely different range of tyres with new compounds and structures, on a track that is hardly ever used – which will lead to a very high degree of evolution. Compared to their last visit to Montreal, the drivers should find compounds that are more stable with a wider working range, enabling them to push harder throughout each stint with a much lower risk of overheating. One interesting aspect to Montreal is that it has one of the lowest pit lane time loss penalties on the calendar, meaning that a car can be in and out of the pit lane in less than 20 seconds. This could open up a few options in terms of strategy.

    Mario Isla, Motorsport Director.
  • Round 9- Jakarta E-Prix

    Round 9- Jakarta E-Prix

    FP1-

    Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland fired to the top of the timesheets in the first Free Practice ahead of the inaugural Jakarta E-Prix, with a 1m 08.433s. But it wasn’t all glorious, as the drivers had to battle tricky, dusty conditions.

    The circuit has been designed with bumps, banking, camber and all the typical twists of a street circuit, with fast flowing sections where poise and balance are key.

    Rowland’s benchmark came late into the session, with Buemi firing in his lap right a the last minute. Lucas di Grassi had sat atop the timing screens for the latter part of FP1 before those final runs came through but wound up third, although just a tenth of a second back.

    The full top 10 were- P1: Rowland, P2: Buemi, P3: Di Grassi, P4: Dennis, P5: Vergne, P6: Evans, P7: Da Costa, P8: De Vries, P9: Wherelein and P10: Frijns.

    FP2-

    DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne left it late to top the timesheet and when he did he was a huge four tenths of a second clear of his teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa. The Frenchman’s 1m 07.549s lap was almost a second quicker than Oliver Rowland’s in FP1.

    Da Costa set his lap late to pip Jake Dennis to second, with the Brit looking handy and haing been at the sharp end of the times in both practice sessions, as has Mitch Evans who made the top six again.

    The top 10 were- P1: Vergne, P2: Da Costa, P3: Dennis, P4: Evans, P5: Mortara, P6: Ticktum, P7: Turvey, P8: Wehrlein, P9: Giovinazzi and P10: Vandoorne.

    Qualifying-

    Jean Eric Vergne beat his teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa in the Final Duel in qualifying for the first Jakarta E-Prix with a 1m 08.523s, by eight tenths of a second.

    The DS Techteetah duo made it an all black an gold finale in the session – the first time two teammates had squared off against one another in the Final Duel and Vergne’s collected lap was more than enough for his 15th Julius Baer Pole Position – a new record.

    Da Costa’s lap was lost after he dropped a couple of tenths through Turn 3, despite managing to drag the car to the apex of Turn 4. His DS Techteetah looked more of a handful than his teammates.

    The top 10 were- P1: Vergne, P2: Da Costa, P3: Evans, P4: Mortara, P5: Dennis, P6: Wehrelin, P7: Buemi, P8: Vandoorne, P9: Lotterer and P10: De Vries.

    Round 9-

    Mitch Evans fended off the close attentions of Jean-Eric Vergne and Edoardo Mortara to take his third win of the season at the inaugural Jakarta E-Prix.

    The Jaguar driver made a late-race lunge that caught then leader Vergne off-guard at Turn 7 on Lap 31. From there, energy management became increasingly critical for the lead duo as they fought between themselves and against searing track temperatures.

    That allowed Mortara to join the party and look to pick up the pieces as Evans and Vergne squabbled. Evans had five minutes plus added time to hold the pair off, with the race anybody’s heading into the final turn and his rear tyres fading fast. The Kiwi held on though, to head Vergne home with Mortara right with both of them – all three drivers within a second of one another.

    The top 10 are- P1: Evans, P2: Vergne, P3: Mortara, P4: Da Costa, P5: Vandoorne, P6: Dennis, P7: Di Grassi, P8: Wehrelin, P9: Bird and P10: Buemi.

    We are back in just under a month for Round 10, where we will be going to Marrakesh on the 2nd of July!

  • A look into Jakarta

    Round 9 is here and we are in Jakarta, Indonesia, home to 273 million people and its the first taste of the leading electric racing series and a return to motorsport’s world stage.

    It’s uncharted territory for all the drivers and teams, just 16 points split the top three drivers as we are just over the halfway mark of the season – with only one victory up for grabs this weekend who could possibly take it?

    Eight rounds, and five different winners could we possibly see that number going to 6? Or will a previous driver take that win. Nyck de Vries won Round 8, and Edoardo Mortara Round 7, that Mercedes engine looks very powerful, will we see them take to the podium?

    The Circuit-

    With the Jakarta International E-Prix Circuit making its debut, the drivers will be facing a challenging 18 turn circuit with the back drop of Jakarta Bay.

    The circuit is a purpose built track pulling together all the best elements of street racing to the Ancol Beach City resort. The 2.37km circuit kicks off with a long run into the tight opening sector into a following series of turns and banked corners which then lead up to a tight complex to round out the lap with a long run down the fast start/finish straight.

    Jakarta

    Formula E has been a regular in Asia since the championship’s first campaign, with 16 races at five locations so far in the region. The circuit’s development is aimed at leaving a lasting legacy in the city.

    Timings-

    Saturday 4th June-

    • Free Practice 1- 01:15am – 01:45am (BST)
    • Free Practice 2- 03:00am – 03:30am
    • Qualifying- 04:40am – 05:55am
    • Round 9- 09:04am

  • Le Castellet added to F2 Calendar

    Formula 2 has announced that they will be racing at the French Grand Prix alongside F1, following the cancellation of the Sochi round.

    Yesterday, Formula 1 confirmed that they will not be replacing the cancelled Russian Grand Prix on its schedule, F2 had also been set to race at Sochi until the September event was cancelled in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However Formula 2 had indicated it intended to replace its lost round.

    The French Grand Prix had been the only European round where no Formula 2 or Formula 3 races were billed, but F2 will now join W Series as the support categories.

    With the new round added, it means F2 will have four double header rounds in the space of five weeks. Starting off with Silverstone from 1st to 3rd July, the Spielberg round from 8th to 10th, Le Castellet then two weeks later on the 22nd to 24th and the Budapest from the 29th to 31st.

    The last time F2 was at Circuit Paul Ricard was in 2019. The feature race was won by that years eventual champion and now Formula E Champion and driver, Nyck de Vries. The sprint victory was taken by French driver, Anthoine Hubert, his final win before the Spa crash.

    Since it was announced that we would drop one event, we have been working on finding a venue to replace it, keeping in mind the costs. Le Castellet came out as the best option, and we are really pleased to return to the Circuit Paul Ricard. With this added round, we go back to fourteen events as announced before the start of the season. This means that the 2022 season calendar is the most sizeable one we have had since the start of the FIA F2 back in 2017. It will be a very busy month of July for the teams and the drivers, but a very exciting one for the fans and everyone involved in F2.

    Bruno Michel, FIA Formula 2 CEO on the latest round.

  • Round 9- Austria Race

    WHAT A RACE!!! Wow just wow, so many overtakes and battles on track with lots of penalties too…

    P1 goes to Verstappen again! Then we had Valtteri Bottas joining him on the second step with Mr Lando Norris adding another podium to his collection in P3!! The rest of the top 10 are: P4- Hamilton, P5- Sainz, P6- Perez, P7- Ricciardo, P8- Leclerc, P9- Gasly and P10- Alonso. With also the fastest lap point going to Verstappen aswell

    Honestly wow! Norris is on fire this year! After having an unfair penalty at the beginning of the race his managed to get on the podium! He also grabbed driver of the day!

    Absolutely gutting for the other two Brits on the grid, Hamilton picked up damage and couldn’t excel as well as we know he could! And for Russell he missed out on the points today towards the end, but he drove an absolute wonderful drive after loosing places at the beginning then running in the points and battling Alonso toward the end, his time will come!

    Ricciardo drove beautiful today his definitely got the pace there so now he just needs to work on the qualifying and hopefully soon he will be fighting for podiums!

    We had 19 finishers today, with Esteban Ocon out due to having contact with Giovanzzi on lap 1!

    There was some lovely battles on track and good over taking too, however there were a couple of penalties given out which some I think some were unfair like Norris’ but Perez got two five second penalties for pushing Charles Leclerc twice…

    Tsunoda also got two five second penalties for going over the Pit Lane entrance line on two separate occasions…

    Now, we have a two week break until Silverstone and I’m happy to say I will be there at Silverstone this year, so I’m looking forward to giving you all pictures and updates as i’m there on my blog and blogs social media too!

  • Round 9- Austria Quali

    And what a qualifying that was! No Mercedes on the the front row and no Red Bull 1-2 either!

    Max Verstappen adds another pole to his collection with Lando Norris joining him on the front row for the first time ever. The rest of the top 10 are: P3- Perez, P4- Hamilton, P5- Bottas, P6- Gasly, P7- Tsunoda, P8- Vettel, P9- Russell and P10 to Stroll

    I am very impressed with George! Finally made an appearance in Q3 and what a man! Big well done to Williams and George for getting the car into a very good position.

    I can imagine that Norris is very happy with P2! I did not expect that this weekend and it’s very nice to see him getting the praise he should, every weekend he delivers for the team and it’s being recognised, unfortunately his team mate starts P13

    Both Alpha Tauri drivers in the top 10 and starting P6 and P7 which is very good for the team! I did think they would of got higher but tomorrow is where it counts

    Both Ferrari drivers missed out on the top 10 with Sainz starting P11 and Leclerc P12, they are both very good in the race here in Austria so it will be interesting to see what strategies they have

    Very shocked for Alonso, he didn’t manage top 10 due to an issue with Sebastian Vettel on his flying lap but his starting P14, Alonso will be another to watch tomorrow!

    My Predictions-

    My top 5 predictions are: P1- Hamilton, P2- Norris, P3- Bottas, P4- Perez and P5- Gasly. I think fastest lap might go to Bottas!

    I would love to see George in the points tomorrow, we saw how well he done last week until he had to retire, so I’m hoping he does well tomorrow!

    Ricciardo as-well I would like to see in the points, it’s so important for the constructors but the Ferrari are very strong in the race…

    Times for tomorrow are: 14.00 (BST) and 15.00pm (CEST)

  • Austrian GP

    So we are back at the Red Bull Ring and unfortunately it’s our last race out of our first triple header! For some reason I feel like there has been a massive break in between the second and third race but the weekend is finally here!

    Will Red Bull be victorious again and at their home grand prix? Or will Mercedes pull something out of the bag and surprise us? Can McLaren score a podium? This weekend could be very different to last weekends so it may play into some drivers and teams favours.

    Who needs a good weekend?

    Daniel Ricciardo needs a good weekend, I feel having two races back to back at the same track will benefit him a lot, I’m hoping him and the team have sorted out what went wrong last week and hoping for a good weekend but most importantly a good race!

    Esteban Ocon, last weekend he finished 14th where as his teammate finished in P9. I’m not to sure whats gone on with him recently, maybe his had a confidence knock since his home Grand Prix? I’m just guessing here but it’s a shame his not finishing in the points, but hopefully the team and him have fixed it.

    Track Limits-

    The track limits haven’t changed since last week they are the following:

    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 go to Hamilton, P2: Bottas, P3: Verstappen, P4: Perez and P5: Vettel

    I’m hoping again that Russell will get into Q3, as he was so close last week and we all know his got the pace there to manage it! I’d like to see either of the Alfa Romeo driver’s near the top 10 so either P11 or P12 or even get into a Q3 session!

    I think Tsunoda will be near the middle of the top 10 so around P6, we saw last week he had pace and he did qualify in top 10 but unfortunately he had his three gird place penalty, so lets hope he can improve on that!

    Times for Saturday sessions are: FP3: 11.00am (BST), 12.00pm (CEST), Qualifying: 14.00pm (BST), 15.00pm (CEST)

  • Tyres for Austria

    This week we have got a different set of tyres for the Red Bull Ring, Pirelli done similar to this at last years double header at Silverstone.

    Pirelli have designated the softest compound and they are C3 (Hard), C4 ( Medium) and C5 (Soft).

    The circuit isn’t very demanding on tyre wear, which then makes it possible for the softest tyres in the range to be used. The softest compound being used this weekend could push the teams for a two-stop strategy on Sunday, unlike last week where it was just a one-stop.

    Pirelli are also testing a new rear construction of tyre in free practice, Pirelli say the decision has been taken “in addition to the recently issued Technical Directive and the latest starting parameters” they prescribed, following the tyre blowouts for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in Baku.

    It is to be believed that this latest move by Pirelli is to build an extra margin on tyres used by the whole of the F1 grid.

    Each driver will have two sets of the new tyres available for use in either of the practice sessions on Friday, if the test is successful then the new rear specification will be introduced from the next race, Silverstone onwards.