Month: June 2021

Mercedes struggled to comprehend after Sunday’s French Grand Prix how its calculation model had underestimated Max Verstappen’s ability to undercut Lewis Hamilton early on in the race.

Hamilton had seized the lead from Verstappen on the opening lap after the Red Bull driver had briefly left the track at the second corner.

Verstappen was among the first drivers to pit for a medium to hard tyre swap. Hamilton, who pressed on as the Dutchman stopped to build a gap, followed suit a lap later.

But much to the Mercedes camp’s surprise, the Briton rejoined the track behind the Red Bull driver.

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While Verstappen had executed a near perfect out lap on the hard rubber, Mercedes still believed that it had just the right time in hand to allow Hamilton to remain ahead. But ultimately, its numbers didn’t add up.

“We thought when we had just over three seconds to Max, we were safe from the undercut, and that wasn’t the case,” explained Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin.

“Even now, we don’t fully understand why our models were telling us that we would have been OK. So clearly there’s something we need to go off and understand there.”

Even considering Verstappen’s impressive out lap, there remained half a second of lost time that Mercedes could not account for.

“The hard tyre was good, and it was it was good out of the box,” Shovlin added. “But that’s the bit we still need to go through because we haven’t yet understood quite why we lost the position.

“We can account for about two and a half seconds of the three seconds. But it’s something that we need to dig into the fine detail to understand how we were undercut from so far back because we weren’t expecting that.”

Read also: Wolff ‘loved’ that Bottas spoke his mind in French GP

Although Mercedes had pitted Valtteri Bottas early – on lap 17 – due to a tyre vibration issue, it declined to bring in Hamilton a lap later, fearing the early stop would jeopardize the latter’s ability to run to the end on the hard tyre.

“It was uncomfortably early to go to the end, which, I think as the race played out, you saw that that was the case,” Shovlin said. “And also the concern on Valtteri’s car was that he was getting an increasing vibration that was getting worse and worse every lap, that was starting to get to levels where we will box the car for reliability concerns.

“So really, the focus was on making sure that we didn’t have an issue on track with him, so that was why we did it.

“In reality, Valtteri’s stop triggered, the pit stops at the front of the grid. And that was what drove us to having to do a very long, long stint with Lewis.”

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Lewis Hamilton says he has plans to organize a “good night out” with his fellow F1 colleagues once current Covid restrictions are lifted.

Teams and drivers have been living in their respective bubbles since the onslaught of the global pandemic over a year ago.

While restrictions and sanitary mesures are slowly being lifted, members of the F1 community remain cautious, with Covid-19 testing continuing to be widespread.

Like many, Hamilton has toned down his social life in the past year, spending most of his time on his own or with his inner circle, be they family members of those who work alongside the seven-time world champion.

But the Briton would like to enjoy a night out with his fellow F1 drivers, just for the sake of having a good time.

“I think at some stage when things get back to normal, I’m sure there’ll be a moment where we we meet somewhere,” said the Mercedes driver on Thursday.

“There’ll be something fun that we end up doing. I definitely think it’s good for the drivers to get together and put away the competition and just have a good night out together. At some stage, we’ll probably all do that.”

Sitting alongside championship rival Max Verstappen in Thursday’s press conference, Hamilton was asked if he ever had any contact with the Dutchman when they find themselves at home in Monaco.

“Well, me personally, I’m never really out and about,” Hamilton told reporters in the FIA drivers’ press conference.

“We live on the opposite sides of town so therefore we don’t really see each other.

“We’ve messaged each other on DM before, right? We’ve messaged after races but I guess we’ve never really had a lot of time to spend together.”

Read also: Hamilton ‘honestly hopes’ he won’t be racing at 40

Verstappen admitted that he devotes most of his time to family and close friends during his down time.

“It’s difficult to wave at each other. Monaco is like a rock,” he joked.

“We are away so much that once you get home, you also want to spend time with family and friends.

“With so many races, that is priority number on, because they also would love to spend time with you. And when the opportunity arises, it’s very easy to meet up nowadays with social media and stuff.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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William Regal closed tonight’s NXT TakeOver: In Your House by saying that it was time for a change.

At the end of the show, McKenzie Mitchell walked up to Regal and asked him what he thought about the events of tonight’s show. Regal said he had been General Manager for seven years, and he had never seen such bedlam. He closed the show by saying that “I think it’s time for a change.”

The last few weeks have seen a number of brawls, most of which have aired first on WWE’s social media accounts. Kyle O’Reilly and Johnny Gargano brawled before the start of tonight’s show, while a brawl between Pete Dunne and Karrion Kross took place prior to the main event. Shotzi Blackheart was also held back while attempting to attack Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai.

Regal has been General Manager of NXT since July of 2014. Other General Managers of NXT in the past have included John Bradshaw Layfield and Dusty Rhodes.