0:08 - Mercedes Explain Why They Aren’t Yet Committing to 2021 1:45 - Verstappen “Making Mistakes” a Part of Aggressive Driving
2:40 - Fast Feed
Mercedes Explain Why They Aren’t Yet Committing to 2021
It was recently reported by many sources that Mercedes wanted to stay in Formula 1 beyond 2021 and that is still the consensus but there first needs to be some details sorted out. Toto Wolff gave more clarity surrounding the situation:
"Like I've always said, we are in this for the long term. Mercedes provides a great marketing platform for our brand. This is what we do. We build race cars and we build road cars.”
He reasserted how important F1 is to nascent car technology
"Formula One is the halo platform for hybrid engineering - something which is not communicated enough, because it was talked down at the beginning of the V6-Hybrid era and it is something that we should really put more emphasis on.”
However, he wants the right terms and conditions to be in place and that is the focus of the negotiations
"In that respect, with all the things that are out in the media, we like the platform, but at the same time we are in a negotiation with the rights holders and things need to be sorted out.”
"The partnership is clearly something that indicates our wish to continue our successful journey in Formula One."
He further elaborated why it was taking so long to come to a conclusion
"It's an ongoing process and it's a complicated set of contracts - a trilateral contract between the FIA, the commercial rights holder and all of the teams. That needs time and the devil lies in the detail.”
"I wouldn't want to commit here to give a specific date because there are quite some topics that remain to be agreed on and it's a work in progress.”
“Clearly there is the will and the wish for all of the stakeholders to come to a close before we embark on the 2021 season, because that would be an uncomfortable situation."
Verstappen “Making Mistakes” a Part of Aggressive Driving
Many who follow F1 consider Max Verstappen as one of the most exciting drivers on the grid right now and a lot of that comes down to his aggressive driving style. He has often received a lot of flak for this though from his fellow drivers and officials from other teams. Max, however, is in no mood to change his style as he feels that driving a car at its limits entails the possibility of making errors.
"Sometimes you have to drive aggressively and sometimes not, but making mistakes is part of it.”
The reasoning behind this is that without this added element of uncertainty, the sport will lose its human edge.
"If you don't want that, just put a robot in the car. Frequently it is said 'don't do that' or 'don't try then', but it doesn't work that way.”
He accepted that as long as he learns from his mistakes, there is nothing wrong with his approach to F1.
"If you are driving with a racing car on the limit, it is very easy to make a mistake. The most important thing is that you then learn from it."
Fast Feed
- Ferrari’s “car for this year is a completely new design” aimed at making it better through corners
- Verstappen feels that Red Bull “are on the right track” and is hoping that they “can go for a podium every race this year”
- More than 150 FIA stewards came together at the FIA International Stewards Program with an aim “to set the benchmark of international stewarding”
- Albon is “more comfortable with the team now” and feels that “It’s all going smoothly”
- Regarding his life in F1 George Russell said that he is still “the same bloke” even though everything is at “a much larger scale in F1”
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