FORMULA 1 ARAMCO MAGYAR NAGYDIJ 2020-->PRACTICE 1/2/3 ▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▀▄▀▄

I am sure Ferrari is working on solving the engine power issue and I believe they can. I do not know all the detailed rules but say for example Ferrari solves with PU issue can they use a new improved PU this year?

 

Any positive news is acceptable. It was wet, but he also was ahead of the Merc and RBR/Max. Maybe there’s hope for quali if it rains?

(Yes, I know he set his time before conditions worsened again....so there’s not much to read into but you take the headlines where you can get them this season. Oh, and Charles is still in the top-5!)

 

Well, at least we got the cars on track and P1 in practice 2 as good as you could hope for.

 

Looks like it's time for the 4 liter engine.

 

So, Charles Leclerc is finding himself contracted for 4 more years to a team that's hitting rock bottom ?

I thought it was a mistake to sign for so long.

At least Vettel can retire ...

 

Retire to Aston Martin/Racing Point....

 

Leclerc tied up with a non-performing Ferrari will be another Berger-Alesi saga.

 

Based on Hamilton's qualifying last weekend in the rain, I would say that is a wish too far.

 

No - lets specify a capable mostly error free driver in a car capable of winning lol

 

On a positive note; it’s good to see Williams starting to mix it up, even if it’s with the other back markets (non cheating Ferrari supplies engine teams!)

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/150641/f1-reports-two-positive-covid-test-results-in-hungary

Formula 1 has confirmed there have been two positive results for COVID-19 in the latest round of testing ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

F1 has been conducting regular tests for COVID-19 on all personnel attending the "closed event" grands prix at the start of the 2020 season, which commenced with back-to-back races in Austria earlier this month.

A report has been issued each Friday confirming the testing numbers, with more than 8,000 tests resulting in no positive cases over the Austria weekends.

But F1 has now confirmed there have been two positive COVID-19 test results in Hungary following nearly 5,000 tests over the last week.

"The FIA and Formula 1 can today confirm that between Friday 10th July and Thursday 16th July, 4,997 tests for COVID-19 have been performed on drivers, teams and personnel," a statement reads.

"Of these, two people have tested positive. The individuals were not present in Austria, with the affected people removed from operations and isolated.

"Tracing of close contacts completed and isolated. The FIA and Formula 1 are providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency.

"No specific details as to teams or individuals will be provided by the FIA or Formula 1 and results will be made public every 7 days."

 

There is still some room for improvement, with tokens, etc... I also think that McLaren and Racing Point are not so out of reach. Both were beaten in the first race; in the second it was an early DNF and the wet qualifying mixed things uo, so it´s not conclusive. I think a 3rd place in Constructors is not easy, but doable.

And now for something completely different, I´ve just learned that Honda was allowed to work in their engine during the quarantine shutdown imposed by the FIA. Supposedly, it was to compensate for the fact that Japanese laws don´t allow to work in August, when everybody should have been working to compensate for the time lost in the shutdown. But as the engines got frozen later, the August holidays are not going to affect them anyway, so they got one engine evolution "for free". I don´t know why the rest of manufacturers agreed with this.

 

For sure any improvement this year would be a miracle.

What I don’t understand is why he says the other manufacturers had a chance to improve their power unit and not them - is this because they shut down the factory in Italy because of high number of COVID cases before the FIA-mandated shut-down? Why did they agree to this then?

Also, there is no development allowed in-season but will be between seasons for 2021, as Binotto himself says (in Autosport):

"I don't think it was only the case of Ferrari, I think looking at the power output of this season I think most of the other manufacturers had to adapt themselves.

"Certainly as Ferrari we had to adapt, and as a simple output of that we lost some of the performance we had.

"I think that now we've got a clearer situation in some areas of the regulations, hopefully that will continue if required for the future."

Binotto said that the FIA's factory shutdown, which was applied to power units for the first time, hampered Ferrari's chances of improving the engine within 2020.

"Engine or power unit development is an ongoing process that we never stopped since 2012, which was probably when we started developing those engines," he said.

"Now it's been a long time that we were developing them.

"We were doing developments as well for this season we will not be able to introduce during this season itself, because we had the long shutdown period before the start of the season, which has not been the case for all the power unit manufacturers.

"We'll try to develop as much as we can by the start of next season.

 

Not rambling at all. All accurate observations. A rare thing in this forum.

 

Don't bring that one into play. Ferrari's budget is unlimited as well. If not even bigger.

 

Maybe they should have stayed with Barnard's plans in the early nineties.

 

Exactly, while Italy dug in an did what was needed the country where most F1 teams are dithered until even it's leader Mr BoJo caught the virus by ineptitude...so in an ideal world Italian teams should get a one second bonus in qualifying...

 

So how did they get railroaded into accepting a further lockdown on the same terms as the other teams who kept working and knowing they were already behind.

Even Honda were surprised at the amount of work Mercedes did while supposedly in lockdown.