Sainz “not happy at all” with his Singapore GP pace
Carlos Sainz Jnr admitted he lacked confidence during the Singapore Grand Prix and was unhappy with his pace.
F1 ‘definitely has to take budget cap seriously’ says Hamilton ahead of FIA ruling
Lewis Hamilton has given his backing to the FIA as it prepares to reveal its assessment of Formula 1 teams’ finances for the first time.
Mercedes discover how to bring “a big chunk of performance” to 2023 car
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the team has identified how to gain a significant amount of the performance which is missing from its 2022 car.
It’s “game over” if F1 fails first “vital test” of budget cap rules – Ferrari
Formula 1 faces “huge” implications if it fails to enforce its budget cap, Ferrari have said, as the paddock awaits a decision on whether teams complied with the spending limit last year.
F1 teams back race control’s decisions on delayed start and DRS activation
The FIA’s decision to postpone the start of the Singapore Grand Prix and its delayed call to activate DRS in the rain-hit race were supported by paddock figures.
@zia1288
Leclerc dropped so far back after trying to chase Perez and making a mistake, here is the Autosport Text Commentary extracts for how he lost it:
19:52 Leclerc went too deep into Turn 14 on the previous lap and sheds a second to Perez - so he's got to crack back on with it to address the arrears. It's lap 49 now, with about 16 minutes on the clock.
19:55 Safety car incident involving Perez will be investigated after the race. An odd decision, but we move.
19:58 The battle at the front has rather petered out a bit as Leclerc's struggled to recover his momentum. Norris, too, sits about 3s behind Sainz - but he's well ahead of team-mate Ricciardo in fifth.
20:00 "Let's disappear," Hugh Bird tells Perez, just in case a penalty is coming. He does a 1m48.841s to duly oblige.
20:07 Leclerc's dropped to 4.2s behind Perez, which is good news for the Red Bull driver - just in case a safety car-related penalty comes his way.
20:09 Make that over five seconds as Leclerc's had a bit of a poor lap. Perez looks to have one more lap to do this.
20:10 It's the final lap now, and Perez is 7.3s up the road from Leclerc.
So you could easily see that in the end it was another of those Ferrari Strategy blunders that are keep coming this season from their strategy team. At 19:55, when it was noted that Perez Safety car incidents will be investigated after the race, Ferrari should have asked Leclerc to maintain the gap and not try anything stupid as a penalty for Perez could help him take the win without a problem but they were sleeping and don't do anything at all.
Also, the track was not dried apart from the racing line, as Hamilton's find out in the last laps when trying to overtake Vettel and instead end up losing a place to Verstappen.
20:08 Hamilton looks at a move up the inside on Vettel but moves on to the damp stuff and gets it all wrong, allowing Verstappen the easiest overtake of his evening.
Here is the Timing Schedule for this weekend's Japanese GP:
Japanese GP
Friday
Practice Session 1 08:00 To 09:00
Practice Session 2 11:00 To 12:00
Saturday
Practice Session 3 08:00 To 09:00
Qualifying Session 11:00 To 12:00
Sunday
Race 10:00 To 12:00
