F1 Live Ticker: Imola, the Update Festival?

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And with that, we’ve reached the end of today’s ticker. Tomorrow, my colleague Kevin Scheuren will take over here again, and we’ll read each other next on Wednesday.

Have a nice Monday, have a good start to the new week, and see you then!

After crashing into the wall again in Miami qualifying, expert Martin Brundle holds Charles Leclerc accountable. In his current column for ‘Sky’, he writes: “Leclerc needs to stop crashing his car.”

“It’s holding him and the team back. Such incidents always have an impact on a race weekend. After the qualifying crash, he needed a new floor, which possibly contributed to the bouncing and problems in the race.”

“He is incredibly fast and committed, and he can afford to trade a fraction of that for a better race weekend and thus a better season,” says Brundle, who advises Leclerc to take it down a notch.

“He needs to lead the team to greater things instead of keeping the repair shop so busy,” says the former Formula 1 driver.

It’s something like the last hope for many Formula 1 fans for an exciting 2023 season after all: Will the penalty Red Bull received for breaching the budget cap in 2021 slow the Bulls down?

Felipe Massa can’t imagine it. Speaking to ‘Gazzetta dello Sport’, the former Ferrari driver explains: “It’s hard to imagine that the wind tunnel restrictions will affect their competitiveness.”

Verstappen is “the best driver with the fastest car” in 2023, says the Brazilian, who explains: “And then there’s another winning quality of Verstappen. Max focuses only on racing, without other distractions.”

“That helps him always give his best. If he could, he would drive 24 hours a day, in the simulator or on the track,” says Massa, for whom the world championship title in 2023 will again only go through Verstappen and Red Bull.

… will most likely never happen. To be fair, one must say: really concrete negotiations never took place either. This is sometimes quite different in the cases in our photo gallery…

Photo gallery: Spectacular Formula 1 transfers that never happened…

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari: Would that be a good fit? The seven-time world champion’s contract with Mercedes expires at the end of the season. But although the Briton has considered a move to Ferrari in the past, his future still seems to lie with the Silver Arrows.

“Of course, you wonder what it would be like to drive in red,” Hamilton says when asked about his contractual situation by ‘ESPN’. “But then I go to my team, to Mercedes, and that’s my home. I’m happy where I am. I haven’t signed a contract yet, but we’re working on one.”

You can read the complete story here!

It’s no secret that Red Bull is currently almost unstoppable with DRS open. But how big is the advantage over the other teams really? Expert Karun Chandhok reveals on the ‘Sky Sports F1 Podcast’: “Someone showed me some numbers on drag.”

“And when they press the ‘magic [DRS] button’, the Red Bull loses about 24 to 25 percent of its drag, […] while most others are at about 14 to 15 percent,” says Chandhok, who calls the Red Bull “ingenious” in this regard.

“We’ve had DRS for twelve seasons now, and they just thought: ‘Okay, we need to find something that gives us this incredible advantage so it doesn’t matter if we don’t qualify on the front row.'”

Although the Red Bulls are usually far ahead on the grid anyway. “But even if they don’t, they’ll still come through the field,” says Chandhok. Max Verstappen won the last race in Miami from ninth on the grid.

Vettel wouldn’t be the first former Formula 1 champion to change his mind after retirement and get back in the car. Our photo gallery shows that this idea has been more or less successful in the past…

Read more Formula 1 Live Ticker: Does Pierre Gasly get a raw deal?

Photo gallery: Formula 1 champions who dared a comeback

We’re staying with (former) German Formula 1 drivers. Sebastian Vettel gave an interview to ‘Bild’ and revealed about his retirement: “At first it was strange not to be there. But I’m coping well with it and follow the sport with great interest.”

“After such a long time in racing, I have something like a daily routine for the first time,” Vettel reveals, explaining: “It took me some time to get used to it. Above all, I enjoy the time with my children.”

Regarding Aston Martin’s current successes, he explains: “I’m very happy for my former team. They’ve worked hard in recent years too. It’s nice that they’re now winning some trophies.”

It’s just a shame that he’s no longer part of it…

To put it mildly, Mick Schumacher didn’t always give the most exciting interviews in his two years as a Formula 1 driver. Now, the current Mercedes reserve driver has revealed why his statements often seem rather boring.

‘RTL’ quotes Schumacher from an interview with ‘DVAG’: “As a child, I could go anywhere and chat with anyone, but the older and more famous I became, the less I liked that. I’m shy and quite reserved.”

“I have two personalities: On the one hand, I’m the racing driver, on the other hand, I’m the private Mick. That’s who I always am, but as soon as I get to the racetrack, I’m the driver. That remains until I leave on Sunday evening,” says Schumacher.

Meaning: If you were to talk to Mick Schumacher privately, such a conversation would probably be completely different from what you would imagine…

A quick look at what else was going on in social media over the weekend: Lando Norris visited his idol and motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi, who has now also become a car racer.

Nico Hülkenberg was at the football stadium, but only saw a boring 0-0 draw in the match between Monaco and Lille in the French league, and Valtteri Bottas enjoyed the “free” weekend with his partner Tiffany Cromwell.

… a certain Max Verstappen won his first Formula 1 race – and that in his first outing for Red Bull! Impressions of this special day can be found in this video, and I also have a few reading recommendations for you here:

Formula 1 Barcelona 2016: Like Bundesliga without FC Bayern!

Max Verstappen: The tricks he used to beat Räikkönen

Barcelona 2016: Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 record for eternity

In the new edition of the Formula 1 podcast “Starting Grid”, Sophie Affeldt, our editor-in-chief Christian Nimmervoll and I kicked off the triple header.

We discuss the updates that the teams could bring to Imola and what steps they would have to take with them. Especially for Mercedes and Ferrari, we hope for a significant step, and for Aston Martin, we wonder when they will follow suit.

Then we talked again about the rumors surrounding Nyck de Vries and how we assess them with a few days’ distance. As usual, there’s also a preview of the race weekend in Imola with a look at the midfield, how the weather can cause chaos, and what awaits me at the track, as I will be traveling there with Christian on Wednesday.

Feel free to tune in and stay loyal to the ticker with my colleague Ruben Zimmermann, who is taking over for me now. We’ll read each other again tomorrow, I’m already looking forward to it!

With the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, we are starting the first triple header of the 2023 Formula 1 season.

With the races in Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, we will get an idea of where the teams really stand. There will be updates, exciting races and important points to be awarded.

Let’s take a quick look back at the last triple header of the 2022 Formula 1 season. Belgium, Netherlands, Italy were the three countries where races were held. And what can I say? Max Verstappen was the best driver in the field at all three tracks, Spa, Zandvoort and Monza.

His hat-trick in this triple header ensured that he took a mighty step towards the World Championship, which he secured two race weekends later in Japan.

Will the Dutchman manage that in the upcoming three weekends too?

It will probably be quite difficult to find a team without updates in Imola, the only question is how big the updates they bring to the track will be.

Apparently, Alfa Romeo will also have a larger package in tow. The Sauber team is not really getting going. The squad around Zhou Guanyu (two points) and Valtteri Bottas (four points) has only collected six points so far.

Zhou is now hoping for progress with the Imola update: “The new package should be reasonably good, a few tenths, I think. We as a team really need it, especially for the race pace, which we struggle with a lot,” as he said in a media briefing at the Miami weekend.

Obviously, the C43 doesn’t have a complete weakness, but there are a few small construction sites. Let’s see what they will bring to get Zhou and Bottas further up the field.

Read more Formula 1 Live Ticker: Mercedes «nowhere with this car»