In the round-up: After making a clear step forward with its new power unit for the 2021 F1 season, Mattia Binotto says Ferrari aim to close the gap to their rivals next year, when engines will be frozen.
In brief
Binotto: Ferrari’s power unit closer to rivals
Binotto says that after a frustrating 2020 season and despite development limitations this year, their power unit is progressing well against the benchmark of their rivals.
“I think we are still lacking on the engine, less than before, certainly, so the gap has closed and I think we are converging,” said Binotto following Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
“Hopefully by next year when we will have again a new power unit, we may catch up on our benchmark for the others.”
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
Grosjean crash prompts medical team changes at Paul Ricard
The Paul Ricard circuit, which will host the French Grand Prix in June, has used the Covid-19 downtime to improve its fire and safety protocols, in response to Romain Grosjean’s fiery crash at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
The team, which is present at championships which do not supply their own medical service as F1 does, will consist of three members: A doctor, a nurse and a trained firefighter. The presence of the latter allows the others to attend an injured driver while the firefighter douses any flames. They aim to have safety personnel on the scene of any fire within 90 seconds.
Paul Ricard is the first circuit in France to implement such a protocol and to use the specialised Rosenbauer foam extinguisher the fire fighter will be equipped with, which has eight times the capacity of a standard extinguisher.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Valtteri Bottas becomes a significant shareholder of Pelicans Lahti (Pelicans Lahti)
“Nastola (part of Lahti) born F1 star Valtteri Bottas has bought a 10% share of ownership of Finnish hockey organisation Lahden Pelicans Oy. Bottas is now the organisation’s third biggest owner.”
“Carlin is proud to confirm that 2020 British F3 Champion Kaylen Frederick will stay with the team as he moves up to the Formula 3 Championship. The American will contest his third season with the British team as he makes the step up to the highly competitive championship on the Formula 1 support package.”
Hadjar ends pre-season FREC testing on top at Paul Ricard (Formula Scout)
“R-ace GP’s Isack Hadjar went fastest on the final day of Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine pre-season testing at Paul Ricard. The Frenchman had gone joint fastest with ART’s Gregoire Saucy on the first day at the circuit, but on day two he claimed first place for himself by a tiny 0.011 seconds.”
Audi Sport is awarded three-star environmental accreditation (Audi)
“In addition to the accreditation of the Neuburg site, motorsport obviously includes testing and races around the world that Audi also factors in. In the Formula E World Championship, a carefully elaborated and jointly implemented logistics concept reduces the environmental footprint, among other things.”
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