Latest F1 news in brief – Friday

• What Red Bull secrets will Ricciardo bring to Renault?

  Ricciardo information will help Renault – Hulkenberg

• McLaren 'hard at work' on 2019 car – Brown
• Formula E-F1 merger 'would be great' – Vergne
• Verstappen slams F1 'keyboard warriors'
• Brendon Hartley racked up $4m damage bill
• Brown: McLaren must manage Norris expectations in 'cruel F1'
• Formula 1 Teams Push To Eliminate Loopholes

Ricciardo information will help Renault – Hulkenberg

(GMM) Daniel Ricciardo could give Renault a technical boost in 2019.

That is the view of Nico Hulkenberg, the existing driver for the French works outfit who will be former Red Bull driver Ricciardo's teammate this year.

"Us drivers are not engineers and certainly not aerodynamicists," German Hulkenberg told Auto Motor und Sport.

"He cannot tell us how to make the bargeboard. But he could help us by explaining what Red Bull did with various systems or on setting up the car," he added.

Hulkenberg also thinks Ricciardo's arrival at Renault will bring "a breath of fresh air" to a team that is pushing to close the gap to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"He also certainly will have some information from Red Bull for us, like how to set up the car for example. That will be interesting for sure," he said.

Others think 2019 could be real chance for teams like Renault to quickly close the gap to the top three, thanks to the aerodynamic rule changes designed to make overtaking easier.

"With the new front wings no one knows exactly where to go," Hulkenberg said.

"But it's not a full reboot, more of a soft reset. As a factory team, it must be our claim to be much closer to the front.

"In the last races we were missing between one and two seconds to the top teams, and we need to at least try to get rid of half of that," he added.

On the other hand, Hulkenberg said Renault still needs more time to close the gap.

"It also took time for Ferrari and Red Bull to catch Mercedes. We need that same time," he said.

"Today nobody gets into formula one and blows the others away. Everything has just become too complex for that. The first thing is finding the right people. It all takes time."

McLaren 'hard at work' on 2019 car – Brown

Will Brown's McLaren again occupy the back of the grid in 2019?

(GMM) Yet another team has announced a mid February launch date for its 2019 car.

Ferrari, Force India and Renault came first, and now McLaren has scheduled a reveal for its new car in the days immediately prior to winter testing.

"Some cars are red, others are blue, on Valentine's Day, we'll reveal ours to you," the team said on Twitter, revealing its February 14 launch date.

McLaren had another difficult year in 2018 and has now lost Fernando Alonso, but boss Zak Brown said the team has been spending a lot of time restructuring behind the scenes.

"I'm very happy with the progress and the changes that we have made," he said.

"We are where we wanted to be as far as who we've brought in and who we've promoted and we're excited for our future and hard at work on next year's car," Brown added.

Formula E-F1 merger 'would be great' – Vergne

Jean Eric Vergne may be right – when manufacturers are no longer making internal combustion engines, the F1 R&D budgets will dry up and F1 will die a slow painful death

(GMM) Formula E continues to shape up as a major single seater series of the future.

The latest driver to take the all-electric category seriously is Sergey Sirotkin, who will test in Morocco later this month.

"Formula E is now one of the most rapidly developing championships. The competition here is at very high level," the ousted Williams driver said.

Given the involvement by major manufacturers and top drivers, and the direction the car industry and society is heading, series boss Alejandro Agag thinks Formula E is the series of the future.

"We love formula one, we think it's great" he is quoted by Speed Week. "But I think we will be the only motor sport left in 20, 30, 40 years."

Top Formula E driver Jean-Eric Vergne, who also raced in F1, thinks Formula E and formula one will eventually merge.

"In 2030 there will only be electric cars," he said. "Formula one will have completely changed its attitude in terms of electric.

"Today, Formula E is something completely different from formula one, but I sometimes hear that one day the two series could merge, which I think would be great," Vergne added.

"But formula one is the premier class and it will remain that way — in whatever form."

Verstappen slams F1 'keyboard warriors'

Verstappen biased British media that controls F1

(GMM) Max Verstappen thinks "keyboard warriors" get too much attention in formula one.

The Dutchman ended 2018 as one of the strongest drivers overall, but early on he faced a barrage of criticism for a series of mistakes.

"I have absolutely become more mature," Verstappen told De Telegraaf newspaper, "but over the years that's just logical.

"Yes it didn't work out at the beginning of 2018, and I learned from that. Suddenly everyone was against me. But I will keep the same approach that I have now."

The Red Bull driver thinks the critics are given too much oxygen in formula one.

"Things are often said and written that I do not agree with," said Verstappen.

"It has nothing to do with people empathizing with drivers because they've never experienced it themselves. If you drive on the limit, you sometimes make mistakes.

"I can also give my opinion about football, but in the end I don't know anything about it — even if sometimes when I'm sitting in front of the television I think I do," he added.

"But who cares what I think about football? The manager is not going to start thinking 'Max said this, so I'm going to change that'!

"Especially with social media it's so easy to give an opinion about someone without knowing them at all. And usually they wouldn't care to say the same thing to your face. Keyboard warriors, that's what I call them," said Verstappen.

Brendon Hartley racked up $4m damage bill

Brendon Hartley in Canada – he tore up a boat load of equipment

New front wing, fix the suspension, add a rear light….should come to around NZ$3.91m.

Brendon Hartley and former teammate Pierre Gasly racked up €2.3 million worth of damage during the 2018 season, team boss Franz Tost revealed to autobahn.eu.

"We have had a lot of serious crashes, and we spent just over €2.3 million (NZ$3.91m) this year as a result of those crashes," Tost said.

Hartley's most serious crash came at the Canadian Grand Prix when he was squeezed out by the local driver Lance Stroll shortly after the start on the outside of a right-hand corner.

He made heavy contact with the wall and his car nearly flipped over before coming to a rest.

Tost showed some support for the Kiwi saying he wasn't to blame for his incidents during the season.

"For example, we had the crash of Hartley with Stroll in Canada and his heavy blow during the free practice at Silverstone due to a suspension problem, and in Monza he was still hit by Stoffel Vandoorne and Marcus Ericsson, which was not really good."

Gasly's biggest crash came at the Spanish Grand Prix when his car was taken out by Romain Grosjean.

The team finished ninth in the constructors championship with 33 points across the 21 races, which included 10 retirements.

One low for the team came at the Chinese Grand Prix when Gasly crashed into the Kiwi, damaging Hartley's front wing.

"I think the accident with Pierre was down to a miscommunication," Hartley said at the time.

Hartley was dropped for Toro Rosso for next season, replaced by Thai driver Alexander Albon. He has reportedly been linked to racing for Porsche in Formula E.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking last month, Hartley suggested there was more to his sacking than on-track performance.

"I would love to tell the story one day," he told Mike Hosking.

"The politics I don't enjoy. It took me some time to get used to the extra media attention. What I will say is Formula One is very complicated, there's a lot of money involved, politics and some of the reasons why drivers stay or leave isn't always in your control or of reasons for pure performance.

"In any case, I left the paddock with my head held high. I knew I'd given it my best shot this year. I knew that I'd stepped up to the plate when I needed to."

Brown: McLaren must manage Norris expectations in 'cruel F1'

After getting his clock cleaned by George Russell in F2, it's clear Lando Norris is not that good. But Zak Brown manages his career so he's his 'pet' driver of sorts.

McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown says it is important for his team to manage expectations with its young driver line-up during the upcoming 2019 season.

F1: Brown: McLaren must manage Norris expectations in 'cruel F1'

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says his team must manage expectations with Lando Norris during his rookie season in the “cruel environment" of Formula 1.

Norris will make the step up to F1 this year after finishing runner-up to George Russell in the 2018 Formula 2 Championship. He will partner Carlos Sainz to form McLaren’s new-look line-up following the departures of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.

The 20-year-old is tipped by many to be the future of British motorsport after a stellar junior career, though Brown is keen to keep expectations grounded, particularly after Vandoorne’s short-lived spell at the team despite his promising talent.

“Lando clearly is extremely talented," Brown said.

“We’ve seen him in our race car a good amount now and what we need to do is nurture him, manage expectations internally and externally, and give him the equipment to show his talent.

“We know Carlos is an extremely quick and experienced race car driver so your first measure is against your team mate.

“We expect them to race each other hard, race each other cleanly, and for sure, they need to get the measure of each other from time to time.

“He recognizes he's going to make some rookie mistakes, we recognize he's going to have some race tracks he's never been to before. And we're in a rebuilding process.

“So it's one thing to jump into a team that is rebuilding compared to jumping into the championship caliber car. He's got a difficult team and we are going to be patient with him."

Norris joins a McLaren team currently rebuilding after falling down the pecking order following a disastrous engine partnership with Honda. McLaren hoped a switch to Renault power units for 2018 would see it return to the front of the grid but a disappointing car design limited the Woking squad to sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

Brown acknowledged the scale of the task facing Norris and drew comparisons with how new Ferrari recruit Charles Leclerc bounced back from a difficult start to his career with Sauber, highlighting the importance of giving rookies time to find their feet.

“I do think Formula 1 can be a pretty cruel environment," he explained.

“If you look at Leclerc, I remember there was commentary after the first two or three races of whether he should still be in Formula 1.

“And now he’s driving for Ferrari. So I think what we need to do is manage expectations, not after three races pass judgement, which we as a sport are always pretty quick to do."

Brown said McLaren takes “some of the responsibility" for Vandoorne’s struggles that ultimately led to his exit from the team but stressed he does not fear a repeat for Norris, who will receive support from sporting director Gil de Ferran in his rookie campaign.

“We recognize that someone like Stoffel is an extremely good race car driver, and for whatever reason it didn’t work out," he added.

“We don’t want to replicate that where we may have got that wrong or contributed to that lack of success.

“One of the things that we recognized is I think we need some additional racers in the McLaren family.

“One of Gil’s primary roles is to make sure that everyone gels, including the driver.

“So he’ll be spending time both with Lando and Carlos making sure that we give them the best environment to work in." Crash

Formula 1 Teams Push To Eliminate Loopholes

Back of the grid designer, Paddy Lowe

Williams Formula 1 Technical Head Paddy Lowe said that F1 teams have "made a concerted effort" to ensure the '19 aerodynamic rules "do not leave any loopholes that can be exploited," according to Cooper & Beer of AUTOSPORT.

As a "first push" in Liberty Media's bid to increase the amount of overtaking in F1, this year's cars "will feature a number of changes designed to make them less aerodynamically sensitive when following each other."

Previous rules shake-ups have "allowed some teams to gain an advantage by pouncing on ambiguities."

Lowe feels it is "unlikely there will be a repeat of that scenario 10 years on." He said, "The teams have been quite ready and open, at least some of them, to put stuff on the table that's then been heavily constrained. The regulations are very restrictive" AUTOSPORT.

'BROKEN MODEL': MOTORSPORT's Jonathan Noble reported owners are "pushing ahead" with an overhaul of F1 from '21. But "not all teams are yet convinced by Liberty’s vision," with the big manufacturers like Ferrari and Mercedes skeptical about some of the proposals.

McLaren F1 Exec Dir Zak Brown, who has been involved in the discussions with Liberty, thinks it is essential that the sport's bosses "do not back away from making what he thinks are essential changes."

Brown said, "We know change in F1 is difficult, and we also know F1 today is a broken model, both as a business and as an on-track product, that is going to need to be changed. Those that are winning today will obviously feel the compromise about what is happening, and those that are not winning today are going to like the plan" MOTORSPORT.