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2021: A first look at concepts for F1's future


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Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen topped the second Formula 1 free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was fastest early on using ultrasoft Pirellis, setting a best time of 1m40.510s to outpace Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.030s.

During the early running, Lewis Hamilton went off up the Turn 14 escape road after a near miss with Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton was closing rapidly on the Ferrari when he locked up into the right-hander, narrowly avoiding hitting the Ferrari.

When drivers switched to hypersofts for their qualifying simulations, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas briefly went fastest before being deposed by team-mate Lewis Hamilton's 1m38.710s lap.

Raikkonen then claimed top spot with 53 minutes of the session remaining, setting a lap of 1m38.699s to beat Hamilton by 0.011s.

Sebastian Vettel was on a lap that could have challenged the top two when he hit the wall with the right-hand side of his car exiting the Turn 21 left-hander late in the lap.

He was able to recover to the pits, but reported he suspected he had sustained damage, with evidence of a leak as his car was dragged into the garage.

Vettel did not return to the track, ending up ninth based on his pace on ultrasofts earlier in the session - lapping 1.934s off the pace.

Red Bull's promising early pace did not carry over to its qualifying simulations, with Verstappen 0.522s off the pace in third, just under a tenth faster than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Later in the session, Verstappen reported he had a problem coming out of Turn 7 with a "misfire or something" - later telling the team that the problem was recurring.

The pace of the Red Bulls meant Bottas was shuffled down to fifth, 0.669s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz Jr was best of the 'Class B' runners for Renault, lapping 0.906s off Bottas and three-tenths faster than Haas driver Romain Grosjean.

McLaren driver Fernando Alonso was eighth fastest, just under two-tenths faster than Vettel with Renault's Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10.

Force India ran a major upgrade on both cars, with Sergio Perez 11th and Esteban Ocon 13th - split by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who had a spin late in the session.

Charles Leclerc recovered from his first-session error, when he struck the wall and damaged his front-right suspension, to end up 14thfastest.

Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 15 for Haas, 2.455s off Raikkonen's time and just 0.010s faster than McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne.

With Toro Rosso pairing Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly 17th and 18th respectively, Williams drivers Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin brought up the rear, both almost 3.5s off the pace.

Stroll suffered a right-rear brake fire during the session, but was able to get it under control by slowing down to cool the brakes and return to the pits.

FP2 times

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m38.699s - 35 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m38.710s 0.011s 20 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m39.221s 0.522s 28 4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m39.309s 0.610s 33 5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m39.368s 0.669s 33 6 Carlos Sainz Renault 1m40.274s 1.575s 36 7 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m40.384s 1.685s 33 8 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 1m40.459s 1.760s 31 9 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m40.633s 1.934s 12 10 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m40.668s 1.969s 35 11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m40.774s 2.075s 30 12 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m40.812s 2.113s 37 13 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m40.870s 2.171s 33 14 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m41.062s 2.363s 37 15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m41.154s 2.455s 32 16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1m41.164s 2.465s 32 17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1m41.542s 2.843s 38 18 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 1m41.615s 2.916s 36 19 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m42.141s 3.442s 17 20 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1m42.181s 3.482s 36




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Style and substance. F1 has been working with the FIA and the teams to create a Formula 1 car for 2021 that delivers better racing and has the looks to match. The design will continue to evolve over the next year but here’s a first look at the concepts that will shape F1’s future…

Ferrari have taken the fight to Mercedes this year, with Red Bull getting involved and fighting for top honours, too. And F1 is working on a design for a future car that will increase the chances of great fights, all the way down the field, every year.

High on the agenda, then, is a solution to allow cars to follow each other more easily, which in turn should increase the opportunities to overtake. But there is also a desire to have cars that look so good, kids want to have posters of them on their walls.

“When we started looking at the 2021 car, the primary objective was to enable the cars to race well together,” says Formula 1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn. “What we established early on in our research is the cars we have now are very bad in following each other.

“Once the cars get within a few car lengths of each other, they lose 50% of their downforce. That’s a substantial amount of performance lost. So we set about understanding why that was and how we can improve it. I’m pleased to say we’re at about 80%.

“As time has gone on, another of the primary objectives was to make great looking cars. We want cars that look better than what you see in a video game, cars that kids want to have up on their walls. At each stage, as we have been evolving the car, we’ve had someone we are working with create a graphic representation artist to give us a feel of what the car could look like.

“That is not to control the development, because it’s critical this development achieves its objectives, but why shouldn’t we have great looking cars as we’re evolving the cars? We want a car that is inspiring. F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and the car should look sensational.”

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