Tag: Baku GP

Leclerc sees silver lining in sprint defeat

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc. Leclerc held off a charging …

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc held off a charging Sergio Perez at the start of the sprint, but his defense of the lead lasted only until DRS was enabled following an early safety car intervention.

The SF-23’s strong form through the technical middle sector wasn’t enough to generate a buffer, and the Mexican breezed past down the front straight and onwards to a comfortable victory.

“It confirmed a little bit what we thought,” Leclerc said. “Red Bull still has the upper hand in the race.

“As I said, if winning is not possible, we just need to take the maximum points, and today there wasn’t anything more. I’m happy with second place.”

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Leclerc also revealed that he was struggling with tire wear in the final 10 minutes or so despite the sprint lasting only 17 laps — a potentially foreboding sign ahead of the 51-lap grand prix.

“I didn’t fight Checo too much, because I just wanted to keep my tires. I knew that was our weak point,” he explained. “We were losing a little bit too much at the end with the degradation.

“I tried to stay in the DRS of Checo so he could pull me on the straights, but that wasn’t enough.”

But there were signs of silver lining in Leclerc’s defeat. The Monegasque was able to hold off Max Verstappen to prevent a Red Bull Racing one-two finish, and Ferrari was clearly the second-quickest car in race trim for the first time this season. Notwithstanding that Verstappen’s progress was slowed by damage picked up in a skirmish with George Russell on the first lap, that all amounted to a considerable and heartening improvement for Ferrari.

“We must not forget how far behind we were on race pace two races ago,” Leclerc said. “We did a step forward, but we are still not where we want to be. I’ll try to go for the win tomorrow even though the Red Bull seems slightly quicker. Let’s see what’s possible to improve tomorrow and we’ll give it all.”

The opportunities have been narrow for Carlos Sainz thus far at Baku. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s relative optimism contrasted with a downcast teammate Carlos Sainz, who qualified and finished fifth after never looking in contention for a podium.

The Spaniard said his issues this weekend stemmed from a setup mistake made during the sole practice session on Friday, after which parc ferme conditions have prevented him from reverting to a friendlier configuration.

“I’m not surprised [I’m struggling],” he said. “When you can change nothing in the car and you cannot really experiment to get yourself comfortable, you’re in for a difficult weekend like I am at now.

“I’ve done some steps with my driving and changing a few things trying to adapt myself to the balance that I have, and to the track, but its proven to be a very challenging weekend.”

Sainz said he didn’t expect any improvement in the grand prix, which he’ll start from fourth on the grid after qualifying more than 0.8s down on pole-getter Leclerc.

“At this point, knowing what the pace is this weekend, it’s more of a damage-limitation weekend for me than anything else,” he said. “I’m really struggling out there with confidence, always feeling really, really on the limit of the rear axle. It’s not a nice feeling to have around Baku.

“I’m going to need more time after this weekend to really go deeper in the data, because now with this format you simply don’t have time. It’s impossible to take conclusions or to change anything that would help me get a bit more comfortable.”

Gasly owns costly Q1 crash

Pierre Gasly has accepted full responsibility for crashing his car in Q1 and ending up 19th on the grid for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The first qualifying segment had only just resumed from a red flag to collect Nyck de Vries’s crashed …

Pierre Gasly has accepted full responsibility for crashing his car in Q1 and ending up 19th on the grid for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The first qualifying segment had only just resumed from a red flag to collect Nyck de Vries’s crashed AlphaTauri car at Turn 3 when Gasly careened into he wall at the same corner, forcing another suspension.

It was a demoralizing conclusion to a difficult day for the Frenchman, who set only seven laps in first practice before his car set itself alight and forced him to stop on track.

His team worked hard in the break between practice and qualifying to repair the car, including installing a new gearbox and power unit, only to see it shattered in the barriers after just six more laps.

“Obviously very disappointed,” Gasly said. “It was a pretty tough day, a pretty tough Friday overall for us as a team.

“FP1 didn’t go as planned with an hydraulic issue in the first 20 minutes, and the boys did an incredible job to repair the car literally a minute before the qualifying, and then after it was tricky with so few laps.”

Gasly admitted that he’d made a rookie mistake under braking rather than there being any technical problem with the car owing to its rapid rebuild.

“Coming into Turn 3, I didn’t brake so late but didn’t brake hard enough,” he said. “I thought I could make the corner and unfortunately just understeered and put it into the wall.

“Pretty frustrating, but thanks to the new format at least we can put this behind us for tomorrow and refresh with the sprint tomorrow — but a pretty frustrating day.”

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The incident not only left the team with another hefty repair job — and Alpine has brought a raft of new parts to the car this weekend — but it’s left him chronically low on mileage at a confidence track ahead of another, shorter qualifying session on Saturday morning followed by the sprint race and then the grand prix on Sunday.

Asked if he had got any sense from the way the car was behaving with his limited track time, Gasly painted a grim picture.

“The reality is that this morning I think I did one lap in [1m] 46s, and the pace in quali was 41s,” he said. “All in all, there is quite a lot to work on for tomorrow.”

Though Friday qualifying evidently arrived too early for Gasly’s liking, he said he could take solace from the fact that Saturday is now a standalone day, which gives him a chance to rebound quickly, and that the Baku circuit will facilitate overtaking on Sunday when he’ll attempt to rise from the back row of the grid.

“We have got to look at some positives where we can find some,” he said. “With the sprint we know everything can happen, and we will go for it tomorrow.

“We score the points only tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday, so we will give our best shot. We can overtake, so we will have to use these opportunities and hopefully we can be a good surprise on Sunday and also tomorrow.”

Verstappen reveals key error that cost him pole

Max Verstappen was left ruing a different tire preparation lap before his crucial final Q3 lap that he believes cost him pole position to Charles Leclerc for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Verstappen and Leclerc were neck and neck after their first …

Max Verstappen was left ruing a different tire preparation lap before his crucial final Q3 lap that he believes cost him pole position to Charles Leclerc for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Leclerc were neck and neck after their first laps but the Ferrari driver pulled away with his second attempt to seal top spot by 0.188s. The difference all came from the second sector, in particular from the exit of the castle section at the top of the hill and the long run down to Turn 15, what is effectively the penultimate corner.

It’s the first pole position of the season for a team other than Red Bull Racing, but rather than it signifying a swing in momentum or even a setup error, Verstappen put the loss of top spot down to a misjudgment preparing his tires for his final lap.

“It’s tough to put the whole lap together round here and also the last run in Q3 was maybe not as clean, because we also tried a different out-lap and I didn’t really feel it was better,” he said. “When you have that feeling already then you’re not as confident as the lap before. I think that’s also why the lap time didn’t really come out of it.”

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Verstappen said he overheated the Pirelli soft compound, a mistake triggered in part by the lack of practice time under the sprint format.

“We just tried to put a bit more temperature in them,” he said. “After FP1 I think sometimes you are not fully understanding what you want to do for qualifying.

“The first one was good but still not perfect, so we tried a bit of work and it looks amazing; that’s a bit what happened in Australia, but this time I guess it didn’t work.”

Verstappen doesn’t consider the front-row start any great loss, however, noting that the RB19 has been habitually better in racing conditions than in qualifying, a trend he says was borne out in the practice data.

“At the end of the day it’s also not really bad for us,” he said. “We have a really good race car but it has never been super dominant over a single lap. I felt quite good with the little long run we did and I think we will learn a little bit more tomorrow during the sprint qualifying and race, which probably gives you even more of an idea for Sunday.”

“We know we have a quick race car and we have to try and use that on Sunday. We all know the points are on Sunday, so I don’t mind being a bit slower on Saturday and quick on Sunday — or whatever with the formats now. Can I still say that? Sunday? Saturday?”

Teammate Sergio Perez said he also had trouble judging tire warm-up on his way to third on the grid, though he appeared struggle with rubber that was too cold judging by a snap of oversteer through Turn 3 on his final lap.

“Just to get through without making mistakes, without much practice, it was really challenging,” he said. “I’m a bit disappointed to be sitting P3 — I felt definitely there was more in it; my lap wasn’t that clean. But if there a place where you can race, it’s definitely here.”

Leclerc doubts Ferrari race pace, despite pole in Baku

Charles Leclerc isn’t convinced Ferrari has the pace to convert pole to victory in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix but says the car’s unexpected turn of speed is welcome nonetheless after a difficult start to the season. Leclerc beat title leader Max …

Charles Leclerc isn’t convinced Ferrari has the pace to convert pole to victory in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix but says the car’s unexpected turn of speed is welcome nonetheless after a difficult start to the season.

Leclerc beat title leader Max Verstappen to pole position by 0.188s after the pair had set identical times with their first runs in Q3, the difference coming in the technical middle sector of the track. It was the Monegasque’s third consecutive pole in Baku but first of the year and first since last season’s Singapore Grand Prix in October.

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Ferrari has endured its worst start to a Formula 1 campaign in years, having slipped well off Red Bull Racing’s pace since the end of last season, Leclerc admitted he didn’t expect to be in the pole conversation this weekend.

“Honestly, I did not expect it,” he said. “I think we came into the weekend thinking that it would already be a great result if we were in front of the Astons and the Mercedes, and we find ourselves on pole, so really, really happy with that.”

It’s unclear whether the good times will continue rolling for Ferrari, however, with Leclerc unconvinced that pole position can be taken as a sign that progress has also been made on the SF-23’s troublesome race pace.

“We need to see obviously tomorrow for the sprint race and the race on Sunday, as I think we are a little bit more on the back foot there,” he said.

“One thing for sure is that I think we did a step forward in Australia. On my side I obviously couldn’t show it, but on Carlos (Sainz)’s side I think the feeling was much better during the race.

“I expect the gain to be more in the race, but we were also much further behind in the race. But I think it’s mostly setup. How much better, we still need to see on Sunday. So I think on that, we still have some question marks.

“I am absolutely sure that we did some steps in the right direction. I’m not sure if it’s enough though.”

Still, Leclerc was happy to take the pole for its pure morale value to the team in the wake of news that racing director Laurent Mekies is leaving at the end of the year and speculation about further defections, including a rumor that the Monegasque himself is attempting to switch to Mercedes.

“I think the whole team needed it,” he said. “It’s part of our job — I think any team in Formula 1, you need to deal with rumors and pressure but it’s obviously sometimes a bit more difficult to perform under those circumstances, and we did really well. I think it’s good for the whole team.”

Carlos Sainz fared less well after a day of struggle. Though he qualified fourth, he was a mammoth 0.813s slower than his pole-winning teammate, in part thanks to having to use an extra set of tires in Q1 after being caught out by the dual red flags.

“It was a very tricky afternoon and morning,” he told Sky Sports F1. “Since FP1 I was a bit nowhere with my feeling, with the pace of the car. I was just struggling quite a lot. It meant when it came to Q3 … I was coming from behind, really struggling, and it wasn’t a good day for me.

“The worst thing of all is that there’s parc ferme and obviously it will be tough to change anything from here onwards. I will have to find everything within myself. I will make sure I try to find some rhythm and pace.”

Leclerc beats Verstappen to Baku GP pole

Charles Leclerc bested Max Verstappen to start Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in succession. Ferrari had looked quick all day in Baku, vying for top spot in the single hour of practice afforded to the drivers …

Charles Leclerc bested Max Verstappen to start Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in succession.

Ferrari had looked quick all day in Baku, vying for top spot in the single hour of practice afforded to the drivers under the sprint rules and looking consistently competitive through the qualifying hour.

The scene was set for a duel between Leclerc and Verstappen, and the pair set equal times with their first laps, the Dutchman taking top spot by virtue of crossing the line first.

But Leclerc put the result beyond doubt with his second lap thanks to a blistering middle sector around a quarter of a second quicker than Verstappen’s best. The Red Bull driver fought back in the final split with a purple sector of his own, but it wasn’t enough, with Leclerc snatching his first pole of the season by 0.188s.

“For sure I’m surprised,” he said. “We came into the weekend thinking it would be a great weekend if we were in front of Aston Martin and Mercedes in qualifying, and in the end we’re on pole, so it’s a really good surprise.”

Verstappen suggested he hadn’t prepared his tires properly for his final lap on the way to second place.

“The second run we tried something different on the out-lap that maybe wasn’t ideal for the lap in the end,” he said. “Nevertheless, we’re P2. We know that we have a very good race car. All in all it’s not bad.”

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Sergio Perez completed the top three but was frustrated to be 0.292s off the pace in the tricky evening conditions.

“I’m disappointed to be sitting P3 because definitely there was more in it,” he said. “My lap wasn’t that clean. But if there’s a circuit where you can race, it’s here.”

Carlos Sainz was fourth, but the Spaniard was way off the pace at 0.813s adrift of his teammate, having struggled all day to match his Ferrari to the circuit. He was almost beaten by Lewis Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver 0.161 further back in fifth.

Fernando Alonso qualified sixth just 0.028s ahead of an on-form Lando Norris, the Briton making his first Q3 appearance of the year. Yuki Tsunoda likewise qualified in the top 10 for the first time this season and will start eighth ahead of Lance Stroll and Oscar Piastri.

George Russell was a shock exclusion in Q2 after being knocked out by teammate Hamilton by just 0.003s. He’ll line up 11th ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Williams driver Alex Albon.

Valtteri Bottas qualified 14th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Williams rookie Logan Sargeant in the first Q2 appearance of his career. It’s also the first time an American has made it past Q3 since Scott Speed qualified 15th at the 2007 British Grand Prix.

Zhou Guanyu will line up 16th ahead of Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. It’s the fourth time the pair has qualified in that order, but Magnussen’s afternoon was compromised by a car problem that forced him to retire from the session before the end.

Pierre Gasly was classified 19th after smacking against the outside wall at Turn 3 after locking up on approach. The Frenchman had only just made it out in time for qualifying after his mechanics had forgone their lunches to rebuild his car after his practice fire, including installing a new power unit and gearbox, but their efforts ultimately came to nothing.

Only Nyck de Vries will start lower after the Dutchman speared into the barrier, also at Turn 3, earlier in the session. His AlphaTauri car was badly damaged after de Vries appeared to carry far too much speed into the corner, but TV radio replays suggested he may have been experiencing brake-by-wire problems earlier in the segment, which could have contributed to the smash.

F1 technical updates: 2023 Azerbaijan GP

Alpine has brought a number of development pieces to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, though it’s unclear how many of the new parts may have been damaged in Pierre Gasly’s fiery stoppage during practice. The Alpine A523 is sporting an upgrade package …

Alpine has brought a number of development pieces to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, though it’s unclear how many of the new parts may have been damaged in Pierre Gasly’s fiery stoppage during practice.

The Alpine A523 is sporting an upgrade package comprising a new floor as well as new front and rear suspension that the team hopes will haul it closer to Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. It’s also equipped with circuit-specific low-drag front and rear wings designed to tackle the high-speed Baku straights.

Speaking before the practice hour, Alpine technical director Matt Harman said the floor represented a significant step forward in the team’s thinking about its aerodynamic concept.

“It’s a little bit of a departure in some areas,” he said. “It’s pretty much across the whole floor, really. There’s some redistribution of geometry you won’t be able to see — unless the car’s upside down — which is quite important also.

“It’s quite a different pressure distribution for the floor. It’s pretty extensive. It’s not a single part in a modular floor, it’s the whole floor.

“It’s just pure performance. It’s just total load we’re putting on the car.”

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The team was ambitious to bring a significant update given the single hour available for practice, and its worst fears must have been realized when Gasly’s car caught fire and stopped after only seven laps. Teammate Esteban Ocon was held in his garage after eight laps as a precaution while the team identified the cause of the issue, which early indications suggested was a hydraulic leak.

Oscar Piastri’s revised McLaren MCL60. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

Much focus is also on McLaren’s upgrade this weekend, with the team saying the car presented in Baku is the one it had hoped to start the season with.

It’s listed only new floor geometry that “significantly alters local suction distribution” as a performance update, although changes to the rear wing and beam wing have also been made specifically for Azerbaijan’s low-downforce demands.

McLaren principal Andrea Stella has said a B-spec upgrade is due before the August break and another significant round of upgrades is scheduled for the autumn.

Subtle changes for Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W14. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

Among the front-runners, Mercedes has been the most active in updating its car, bringing a “subtle” new rear wing endplate, lower deflector behind the rear axle and front suspension as well a circuit-specific change to the front brake ducts to help with cooling.

Verstappen leads Baku GP practice

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the sole practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a car fire for Pierre Gasly truncated the hour by almost 15 minutes. The Dutchman had only just taken top spot when Gasly’s Alpine started smoking on just …

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the sole practice session at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a car fire for Pierre Gasly truncated the hour by almost 15 minutes.

The Dutchman had only just taken top spot when Gasly’s Alpine started smoking on just his eighth tour of the Baku City Circuit, and before long flames were visible from the engine cover.

The Frenchman parked at the top of the hill at Turn 12 for marshals to douse his car in foam, but the extinguishers did little to stop the thick brown smoke billowing freely from the roll hoop airbox.

A red flag was called for the officials to bring the internal blaze under control and recover the car, which the team said had been set alight by a hydraulic leak.

The suspension was also opportune to collect Kevin Magnussen’s Haas car, which had stopped with a hydraulics failure of its own in the run-off zone at the first corner.

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It took around 13 minutes to get the session restarted, but it wasn’t until the final 10 minutes that teams broke out the soft tires.

Verstappen had been the comfortable leader on the medium tire, but early on the softs teammate Sergio Perez pipped him to the top spot before Charles Leclerc rotated into first place for Ferrari.

But a very late run on the red-marked rubber returned Verstappen to the top with a time of 1m42.315s, edging Leclerc by just 0.037s and Perez by 0.139s.

Carlos Sainz completed the top four for Ferrari, but the Spaniard was 0.584s adrift.

Red Bull Racing and Ferrari were the only teams to dip beneath 103 seconds around the 3.7-mile street track, but Lando Norris impressed with fifth in his updated McLaren. He was 0.81s off the pace to head the midfield ahead of a similarly impressive Nyck de Vries for AlphaTauri.

Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were closely matched in seventh and eighth respectively, but Alonso never used the soft tire, preferring instead to stick with mediums throughout the hour. He also suffered from a broken DRS that required repairs.

Alex Albon was ninth for Williams ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

Lewis Hamilton toiled to 11th for Mercedes. He also didn’t use the soft tire, and he was more preoccupied with brake problems around the high-speed circuit.

Oscar Piastri spent most of the session undertaking aero testing, with only his last 10 laps on softs being representative. He ended the hour 12th after nudging the barriers on the run down the hill.

Valtteri Bottas finished 13th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, whose session was undone in the opening minutes by a cracked right-rear wheel rim following contact with the barriers. The tire popped off the wheel, forcing him to complete most of the lap on the way back to the pits on three wheels. He carried significant bodywork and floor damage for the rest of the session as a result.

Nico Hulkenberg was 15th for Haas ahead of Logan Sargeant and George Russell, the Mercedes driver also troubled by brake problems and eschewing the soft tire.

Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Gasly completed just 15 laps between them ahead of qualifying, Gasly due to his fire and Ocon as a precaution.

Magnussen wasn’t able to resume after his stoppage, leaving him last with eight laps.

Verstappen doubles down on F1 quit threat

Max Verstappen has reiterated a threat to walk away from Formula 1 if it continues to put what he considers to be business priorities ahead of sport. This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the first of six sprint rounds this season but the first …

Max Verstappen has reiterated a threat to walk away from Formula 1 if it continues to put what he considers to be business priorities ahead of sport.

This weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the first of six sprint rounds this season but the first run to an altered format, with the shortened Saturday race getting its own qualifying session and standing alone from the main event on Sunday.

Verstappen stirred controversy at the Australian Grand Prix when asked about the changes, telling Portuguese TV that he “won’t be around for too long” if the sport continues tinkering with its weekend format and increasing the number of events in a season.

Asked in Baku whether his quit threat was serious, Verstappen pointed out that he’s always intended for his F1 career to be short.

“I always said that anyway, even if there won’t be any more sprint races or whatever,” he said. “But yeah, I do feel that if it’s getting at one point too much, it’s time for a change.”

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Verstappen has described changes to the format as antithetical to the sport’s DNA, and this week he said that’s because F1 was taking a commercial-led approach to the weekend rather than one led by competition.

“I look at it from a racing point of view, and probably F1 looks at it from a business point of view,” he said. “Of course I understand. These sprint races, they probably add a bit more excitement. But I look at it from the racing point of view.

“Normally when you then do the sprint races, that’s exciting — few shunts in there, damage, blah, blah, blah, safety car, a bit more excitement — but throughout the race you get quite a clear picture of what is happening, who is quickest, so you also have quite a clear view on what is going to happen on the next day.

“That probably takes a bit the shine away from the main event, which I think always should be the special event.”

Sprint races might increase the action, but Verstappen worries they detract from the Grand Prix proper. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

Verstappen also used the opportunity to speak candidly about his future more broadly, admitting that his motivation to compete through an expanded calendar was something he was constantly assessing to prevent himself from burning out.

“I do like racing, I do like winning. I know that [with] the salary and everything, you have a good life. But is it actually a good life?” he said.

“If we keep expanding the calendar and the whole weekend is that long, at one point you question yourself: Is it worth it?

“I think you always have to be talking to yourself, looking to yourself. Are you still motivated, fully motivated, and do you love what you do? At the moment that is definitely the case. There will for sure be a point where you want to do maybe other stuff as well.

“Sometimes it sounds very weird for people from the outside because they’re saying, ‘Ah, you’re in Formula 1, you’re winning,’ and probably I would have said the same when I was in their position. But once you’re in it, it’s not always how it looks like or how people think your life is. Yes, it’s great — it’s amazing, you can do a lot of things, very independent — but there is always a limit.”

The Dutchman said he wasn’t the only one thinking critically about the workload of a growing calendar, with other drivers and team members at risk of walking away as the sport encroaches further into the private lives of its participants.

“I think every person is a bit different,” he said. “It also depends what you want out of your life.

“Some people just love racing, and that’s the only thing they know or the only thing they want to do. I’m probably a bit more in the middle. I do love racing, but I also want to do other kinds of racing, and then you can’t combine the two or set up other kinds of stuff.

“I think when you do that amount of races, not only the drivers but also staff and the team, it’s a lot of people who will struggle with that.”

Alonso enjoying newfound social media disruptor role

Fernando Alonso says he’s been enjoying being “active and ironic” on social media amid online gossip that he’s in a relationship with Taylor Swift. The internet has been ablaze with unverified rumors that the two-time champion has been dating the …

Fernando Alonso says he’s been enjoying being “active and ironic” on social media amid online gossip that he’s in a relationship with Taylor Swift.

The internet has been ablaze with unverified rumors that the two-time champion has been dating the 12-time Grammy winner. Rather than ignore or rebuff the rumors, Alonso took to social media to post a video of himself winking at the camera to the backing track of Swift’s song “Karma” and with the caption “race week era,” an apparent reference to the singer’s “Eras” tour.

@fernandoalonso

Race week era😉 #F1 #F1TikTok #Formula1

♬ karma sped up – ✨️j <3 ✨️

Asked about how he had reacted to the sudden boom in international interest, Alonso said he took it as a sign that the sport was able to attract new fans if it played its cards right online.

“I think I’ve been always active and ironic a little bit on social media,” he said. “I remember (in) the Ferrari days also doing a lot of samurai quotes and things like that.

“I think we didn’t have the fan base that we have now — you know, this younger generation. I think also other drivers they have like guys taking care of their social media channels and something like that; me, no, so maybe they see a little bit more authentic way of doing things.

“I’m maybe not correct all the time, so I’m whatever — so there are a lot of things going on.”

But asked directly whether there was any truth to the rumors about him and Swift, the Spaniard opted to leave a blank space.

“Nothing to say,” he said. “I don’t comment!”

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The Spaniard was keen to steer attention to the weekend, though the ordinarily ambitious Aston Martin driver said he was preparing to take a more conservative approach in Azerbaijan in light of the newly modified sprint format.

“I know there is always the talk of chaotic race or difficult weekends,” he said. “But at the moment when you have a competitive car the opportunity is only to make a mistake, to be honest, and to really make your weekend bad if you have something going really wrong in Q1 and things like that.

“I don’t see much of an opportunity of taking advantage of it or capitalizing on something unless Red Bull does a mistake, so it’s a weekend of avoiding mistakes, not a weekend of making something special, let’s say. We need to approach in a very cautious manner.”

Alonso did say he was a fan of the reduction in practice, having understood the lack of excitement in the pre-qualifying track time during his years observing from the F1 sidelines.

“When I was out of the sport in those two years and I was at home, I was not watching practice,” he said. “I have to be honest — they were just too long and boring. So I see the point of making something that was different in the weekend. We have to embrace that. We have to help F1, and hopefully the fans will give us good feedback on the weekend.”

Leclerc shrugs off Mercedes rumors

Charles Leclerc has been reassured by Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur that the team’s recovery is still on track despite racing director Laurent Mekies’s impending departure and rumors linking him to Mercedes. AlphaTauri announced this week that …

Charles Leclerc has been reassured by Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur that the team’s recovery is still on track despite racing director Laurent Mekies’s impending departure and rumors linking him to Mercedes.

AlphaTauri announced this week that Mekies would replace Franz Tost as team principal at Faenza from next season. It’s the third significant departure from the team in the last six months. Former principal Mattia Binotto left at the end of last season and chassis head David Sanchez will defect to McLaren for 2024 after a period of leave. Several other personnel of lesser profiles have also reportedly left the team since the end of last year’s campaign.

The brain drain has intensified the focus on Ferrari and its poor start to the season, but Leclerc says he’s not concerned after his discussions with team boss Vasseur.

“The team is more than one person and I’m very confident for the future with Fred having what he has in mind,” Leclerc said. “I’m really confident.

“I think he has been open with what he wants to achieve and the way he wants to achieve it, and this gives me the confidence probably more than ever. So as much as obviously it’s moving, I’m confident for the future.”

Leclerc said he understood Mekies’s decision to leave for a team principal role.

“We have a really good relationship with Laurent, but we all understand, I think, in the team that this opportunity is right to take, as it’s a really good opportunity for Laurent,” he said.

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Vasseur was keen to play down the significance of Mekies’ and Sanchez’s departures in the context of the broader team structure and rebuilding process.

“To lose two people in 1,600 is not a drama,” he said. “It is absolutely not against Laurent, but you are speaking about two people in a group of more than 1000 people. For sure these individuals are important, but it is nothing compared to the group. The power of the team is always more important than the individuals.

“We are recruiting massively — we are not communicating, but we are recruiting massively — and we will do it step by step because you can’t put an organization in place in two weeks.”

Leclerc and Vasseur made their comments to the F1 media ahead of this weekend’s Baku Grand Prix, after rumors had circulated in the Italian press that Leclerc is looking for an exit route from Maranello and has opened talks with Mercedes about a potential switch. Leclerc denied he was in conversations with the Brackley, UK-based team, insisting that he wants to see Ferrari’s fortunes turned around.

“No, not yet. Not for the moment,” he said. “For now I am fully focused on the project I am today, which is Ferrari. As I said, I fully trust and I’m confident for the future, then we’ll see.

“I’m fully committed to Ferrari, and I love Ferrari. It’s always been a dream for me to be in this team, and my main priority is to win the world championship with the team. So no, it’s not something in my mind.”

Vasseur said he wanted to prioritize Leclerc as Ferrari’s lead driver for a future championship challenge.

“He’s clearly part of the project,” he said. “He is involved with the development of the team and he’s part of the development because he’s developing himself. He’s a performance contributor on track and out of the track.

“It’s true in every single team that you are always building a team around a driver. If you have a look over the last 20 years, all the success stories in F1 took time, but always a team built around someone — a driver.

“It was true with Lewis (Hamilton) at Mercedes, it was true before with Michael (Schumacher) and Ferrari, it was true with (Fernando) Alonso at Renault — it was true everywhere. You can find lots of examples, and for sure Charles is an important pillar of the performance.

“I’m really convinced that it’s a personal commitment from him.”