They said he was not injured, the only thing they were concerned with was the G-forces he absorbed. If he's allowed to run tomorrow he'll start from the pit lane...
Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz escaped unhurt from a nasty accident during practice for the Russian Grand Prix. The Spaniard was taken to hospital in Sochi after smashing into barriers at Turn 13, approached at 200mph. Sainz posted a tweet saying: "All OK. Nothing to worry about. Already thinking about how to convince the doctors to be on the grid tomorrow." There was no immediate information on what had caused Sainz to lose control on one of the fastest parts of the track.
Team replies to snarky Alonso remark in the best way possible Manor Formula One hasn't scored a single point in the standings in 2015, but you can chalk one up for the backmarker team in the "sick burns" department During the F1 press conference in Russia on Thursday, McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso was asked a question about Manor having Mercedes engines, to which the former champion replied, "they can put an airplane engine (in the car) and they would be no further (ahead)." Strong words from a driver whose average finish this year is 15th and who drives for a team that has consistently finished at the rear of the pack. The "pot-calling-the-kettle-black" scenario was not lost on Manor. The former Marussia team tweeted a fantastic response to Alonso's jab. "We'll let that comment lie for now," Manor F1 tweeted. "Plenty of time to discuss it when we're garage neighbours next year." The team even added a kiss-blowing emoji. The tweet is in reference to garages being set in the order of the standings.
Honda's problem is better isn't good enough, it needs to be truly competitive. That's not easy and if it isn't right up there with the Merc and Ferrari power systems they'll continue to get all the blame. In a major sense they're in the same position Renault has been in. They only have an engine, no chassis ownership to share their blame. Like Renault said, if the car wins, the team takes the credit. If the car loses, the team blames the engine. All we've seen so far from McHonda is the latter, though apparently for good reason, and we've no way of knowing how well McLaren will share the success if Honda turn it around.
The race was rather processional. Not a bad race, all racing is good, but not a great race either. There were moments of excitement, Like when Kimi forgot to engage his brain on the last lap.
It was an interesting battle for third with a handful of laps left. I can only imagine the conversation after the Finn on Finn violence, but I'm sure it was monotone with a lack of emotion.
Your right about the engine manufacturer being a stepchild. One thing that Honda has going for them is that we all know how the car performs now with a good chassis/poor engine combination. If McLaren suddenly gets competitive next year then it pretty much has to be due to the engine and not the chassis. Maybe I'm dreaming but I really hope that Honda comes through and also Ferrari for that matter. Ferrari can only win when Mercedes blunders. It would be great to see a competitive constructor championship.
Can you imagine what Perez thought. Oh carp 3rd to 5th in one corner.:mad2: Then on the next lap he's gifted 3rd back again by Kimi. :biggrin5:
Raikkonen gets a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for causing the collision with Bottas. Since he didn't serve that during the race, it is converted into a 30-second penalty on race time which drops him from fifth to eighth. That means Ferrari gets few enough points to give Mercedes the constructor's championship - all after the race....
Even though Kimi screwed up & in my mind was completely at fault I though it was neat how he dragged that busted car across the line. The penalty seems right to me, but me thinks Bottas might think they went easy on him.
I'm surprised we haven't heard any conspiracy theories that Merc and Ferrari conspired to make this happen. That is, their refusal to supply engines was calculated and meant to intentionally drive RB out of F1. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting it, just amazed I haven't heard it from any of the sensationalist media types. Rivals forcing Red Bull out, Newey claims (racer.com)