7 March 2023 16:04 (UTC)
Take a closer look behind the scenes at the Tuscan GP
Until this weekend, it was just about possible to convince yourself it was business as usual in the world of Formula 1: familiar places in, if you were prepared to squint a bit, a not entirely unfamiliar order. But F1 went through the looking glass at Mugello: new race, new circuit, new adventures – albeit with more than a dash of classic F1 for reassurance. Here are a few things you may have missed from the Tuscan Grand Prix…
New races have a habit of being problematic – because a new race usually means a new circuit, with the inherently long snag list that implies. It wasn’t the case at Mugello, which was a welcome relief. The circuit has been hosting elite-level motorsport since the mid-1970s and the F1 circus rolling through the gates doesn’t pose any more problems than MotoGP would – though one thing you do notice is that the garages are rather more… cosy. The pitlane is a little bit tighter than at the average F1 venue too. It all looks a lot bigger when Valentino Rossi’s in town…
If the crew were pleased to be at Mugello, that doesn’t come close to how happy the drivers were. This is, first and foremost, a drivers’ circuit, filled with maximum effort, fast, flowing corners – there’s nothing even remotely approaching a slow turn. For Carlos, it was his first time at Mugello, while for Lando it was his first return since racing here in Italian Formula 4. He was so happy, he sang his radio check all the way around the circuit on his first Friday morning practice lap.
Both Carlos and Lando did sessions in the simulator before coming to Mugello but it can’t replicate every bump, every raised kerb and every patch of repaired asphalt. They spent much of FP1 trying to figure out which handling problems were things they could affect in the set-up, and which were inherent in the track and being suffered by everyone. When in the garage, they were paying a lot more attention to watching other cars on track via the monitors than would usually be the case.
We had high hopes that the form shown at Monza could be carried over to Mugello – but it was obvious from pretty early on it wasn't to be. It’s important to remember that we didn’t benefit from the red flags at Monza – quite the opposite in fact – and that the car had been genuinely strong there. On a different type of track this week, the MCL35 didn’t have the same level of competitiveness. The common element of feedback from the drivers after each run on Friday morning was: ‘It doesn’t feel like it did at Monza.’
For the sake of clarity, standard practice in the garage every weekend is to call corners by number. Inevitably, over time, the names creep in: Copse, La Source, Parabolica, Campsa, Spoon and so on. It isn’t something that usually happens quickly – but by Saturday, Turn One was already San Donato, Turns Eight and Nine were the Arrabbiatas. Mugello has character: it’s difficult to ignore.
Lando seemed marginally the more comfortable of the two drivers through FP1 and the start of FP2, which may have led to a touch of overconfidence that saw him clip a kerb, get slightly off line, put a wheel on the gravel and suddenly end up spinning into a wall. It came as a shock in the garage because – a few excursions across gravel traps notwithstanding – neither driver has suffered a practice crash in recent history. Happily, the car wasn't badly damaged, and the repair fitted in to the normal Friday evening strip-down and rebuild schedule without requiring the use of a curfew-breaking joker.
Everyone in the garage sees the same pictures as everyone at home, which means they’re seeing the action with a slight delay. That becomes very apparent when a big accident on the start-finish straight reverberates off the grandstands, seconds before it appears on TV. You hear the first impacts, the squeal of tyres, the heavy thuds into the wall and the rain of carbon fibre in the aftermath – and then see it on TV. By the time pictures of Carlos’ crash were on screen, the crew were already on their feet.
You will not see a more frenetic garage than one when a red flag is thrown: everyone hammering out into the pitlane with fans, kit, tools and everything that the car might need when it stops. The only person who didn’t have all the right equipment for the second red flag was Will Joseph, Lando’s race engineer. After covering his clipboard start procedure sheet with notes at the start and the first restart, he found he had no room left for the second – leading to the decidedly atypical radio call for more paper to be rushed down to the end of the pitlane.
Andreas Seidl summed up the mood in the camp departing Mugello when he said the team were ‘pretty happy’ with the result at the Tuscan Grand Prix. We had a bumpy weekend, never really looked competitive and had a DNF – but, crucially, saw our advantage in the race to third place in the Constructors’ Championship shrink by only two points. We’re over the halfway mark in the season now and returning to a slightly more familiar tempo of races over the next six weeks. The run-in is going to be tight – but there’s a fabulous battle ahead.
