Toto Wolff: It was a very difficult Sunday for us in Singapore. There were still some positives to take because we saw glimpses of the car's pace and potential. But we couldn't convert that into points in the race itself, although the car showed it was competitive in free air.
Wolff: We've had plenty to debrief and analyse over the past few days and many learnings to take forward. Thankfully we can move quickly onto the next race and a new challenge for us to tackle.
Toto Wolff: Our target is to rebuild the momentum we had before Singapore and capitalise on the positive underlying performance of the car. There are still five opportunities to score good points and end the year strongly.
Wolff: Suzuka will give our package some challenges, and it will be hard to repeat the qualifying performance we saw in Singapore - but I hope that will be balanced out with a stronger Sunday afternoon.
Wolff: F1 hasn't been to Japan since 2019 and the team is really looking forward to being back. It's such a special track; one of the most challenging for both man and machine. And we've missed all the brilliant Japanese fans, too.
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Motorsport IT: Ferrari tests the modified floor at Suzuka: the solution feeds some hope of making a good impression in Japan, a track that on paper is more suited to the characteristics of the Red Bull RB18.
The new solution can be easily recognized externally in one aspect: the stiffening rod is now shorter because the anchoring point on the floor has changed. No longer at the end of the sidewalk, but has been moved to the extractor ramp.
Motorsport IT
The Ferrari engineers worked on the flexibility of the materials and by observing the arrangement of the fibers it can be seen that, with the same design, different values of stiffness of the bottom can be found.
Motorsport-Total.com - Kevin Magnussen finished a sensational fifth at the season opener in Bahrain and scored points in three of the first four races of the season. But then things went downhill for Haas, and the US squad has now had no points for six races.
"It could be that people set the bar higher than they should have [after the first races]," says team boss Günther Steiner, emphasizing that "a very good job" was done, especially in the first two races. have made.
In the meantime, however, such results have become much more difficult because the larger teams are now "reliable". That wasn't the case at the start of the season. "We have ten very good teams," emphasizes Steiner.
Motorsport-Total.com - Lewis Hamilton will complete his 16th Formula 1 season in 2022 and there is apparently no end in sight for the 37-year-old if you believe the latest statements from his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff like.
In an interview for Channel 4 F1 with David Coulthard, which was released on Channel 4 Sport's YouTube channel on the day of the Singapore Grand Prix, Wolff suggested that extending Hamilton's contract was just a matter of time be.
"The advantage is that we talk to each other a lot. We sat down just last week and he said: 'Look, I still have five years ahead of me, how do you see it?'" says Wolff.
Motorsport-Total.com - Only a few seat for the 2023 season are vacant. One of them alongside Kevin Magnussen. Mick Schumacher has to worry about his future in the premier class, but the option of staying with Haas is not off the table yet.
Günther Steiner in Suzuka says when asked when the second driver will be announced for 2023: "I knew someone would ask me that question! I'll give the same answer: I don't know." But he hopes to be able to say more soon.
He is quite satisfied with Schumacher's performance in the last few races. Since the criticism in Monaco, where the Haas driver had a serious accident, the development has been positive. "He didn't damage the car and he scored points. So how should I say no?" Steiner affirmed.
#AMuS Red Bull has the fastest car on the straights. According to their rivals, this is not only due to an efficient car. Rumor has it that Red Bull can lower its car on the straights. An old trick, but much harder to pull off under the new regulations.
The numbers speak for themselves. On nine of the 17 racetracks, Red Bull was ahead in terms of top speed. Only Williams can reasonably keep up with four best times. But the FW44 also generates the lowest downforce in the field.
The Red Bull RB18, on the other hand, is also fast in the corners. The measurements refer to the qualification when the cars are normally on the road without a slipstream. In the race, the top speed values are often falsified by who can activate DRS and who cannot.
Motorsport-Total.com - Charles Leclerc said in the PK that the track in Suzuka was similar to the one in Spa, where Max Verstappen clinched a sovereign victory this year. "Yes, but on this track you drive with a little less downforce than at Spa," adds Verstappen himself.
Apart from that, the tracks are actually quite similar. "But to be honest, I'm not expecting the same scenario," he emphasizes, because: "We just had a very good weekend in Spa and hit the nail on the head with the set-up."
Other teams couldn't have done it. "So I don't think this weekend will necessarily be like Spa again." Already in Monza you could see that Ferrari was closer again.