FORMULA 1 will use grid kids in 2018 after the sport decided to stop using grid girls before races.
The youngsters will be young karters and aspiring racing drivers selected by each grand prix’s national sporting authority and 20 at each event will have the chance to stand alongside the drivers on the grid before the race.
The grid kids will be selected on merit or via a lottery system, with F1 bosses saying it will make the build-up to races “more relevant and interesting for fans, especially the younger ones”.
Explaining the decision, F1 commercial chief Sean Bratches said: “This will be an extraordinary moment for these youngsters: imagine, standing beside their heroes, watch as they prepare to race, the elite of the elite in motorsport, to be there, alongside them in those precious few minutes just before the start
“What an unforgettable experience, for them, and their families. An inspiration to keep driving, training and learning so that they can dream of one day being there themselves. What better way to inspire the next generation of Formula 1 heroes.”
Hungarian grid girls stand at the red carpet during the drivers’ parade.Source: AFPGrid girls line up for the pit lane walk ahead of the Italian GP.Source: AFP
FIA president Jean Todt added: “Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and the dream of every young racer competing the junior series that make up the FIA’s single-seater pyramid, from karting all the way to F1.
“We are therefore delighted to bring that dream a little closer by giving the future champions of our sport the opportunity to stand alongside their heroes on the grid in the build-up to the race start.”
Child mascots have long been a common feature in football, with youngsters accompanying players on the walk from the tunnel to the pitch in World Cup and European Championship fixtures.
F1’s decision to end the longstanding practice of using walk-on models has proved hugely contentious with former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone among those to criticise the move.
Lewis Hamilton has innocently given Aussie Daniel Ricciardo a harsh reality check during their shared Spanish Grand Prix press conference.
Ahead of Friday night’s practice sessions, Hamilton only needed eight words to succinctly suggest the McLaren star has a car that is capable of winning Grands Prix right now.
The 31-year-old has had a hot and cold start to his career with McLaren, scoring points in all three races this year.
However, he’s also been forced to accept that right now teammate Lando Norris is by far the premier driver.
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Ricciardo apologises for sloppy error
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His British teammate finished on the podium in Italy and came fourth in Bahrain and Portugal. He is third in the driver championship.
It’s why Hamilton pointed out to Ricciardo that he has a car capable of winning races.
Hamilton’s challenge came after a simple question where the reigning world champion appeared to suggest he wasn’t totally happy with his team only winning two of the first three races of the season.
By the end of Hamilton’s answer, Ricciardo joked that he wouldn’t be disappointed with winning two races.
“I’ll take a couple wins,” he said with a laugh.
Hamilton responded: “Well you’ve got a good car man, so…”
The Aussie took it all in his stride, saying: “I know, I’ve got to pull my finger out”.
Hamilton only needed eight words to succinctly suggest the McLaren star has a car that is capable of winning Grands Prix right now.Source: AFP
Hamilton said earlier he was still less than satisfied with his team’s performance so far in 2021.
He highlighted Mercedes’ struggles in the pre-season testing event and being “behind the Red Bulls” early in the season.
“We really can’t afford to keep relying on mistakes from the others,” he said.
“So we’re just keeping our heads down and keep working away. We’ve got a good package and it does have its weak areas. And that’s what we’re working on.
“In terms of my side, I’m really happy with the output so far. Naturally you’re always trying to raise the bar and that’s something that’s very difficult to do and to make as few mistakes as possible, but they’ve been there and I’m grateful for them because it just makes you stronger when you learn from those experiences.
“So what’s crazy to think is there’s still 20 more to go. It’s a long season, huh.”
Ricciardo is hoping to bounce back in Barcelona.Source: Getty Images
McLaren is happy to give Ricciardo time to adjust, putting faith in his long-term ability to help the team become a genuine championship contender.
Team Principal Andreas Seidl told Motorsport Magazine last month: “It’s something which just doesn’t allow him to continuously push the car at the limit, because for him in certain dynamic conditions it’s like driving on a knife’s edge.
“But that’s definitely something where I think we made already steps for this weekend, together with him, despite the disappointment in qualifying.
“And we simply have to keep working together with him in order to improve this situation.
“As always, there’s the driver’s side, but obviously we also look deeply on the team side into this, and see how we can help him with improvements we bring to the car, with set-up changes, in order to lift the performance.”
If Daniel Ricciardo could take anything from the Portuguese Grand Prix it’s that despite several mistakes, he still ended up in the points.
While his teammate Lando Norris is off to an absolute flyer in the World Championship, sitting third ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, Ricciardo’s weekend was littered with mistakes.
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While he said he felt as though he was getting more comfortable during the practice sessions, Ricciardo was shown up in the qualifying session, embarrassingly going out in Q1 and starting the race in 16th.
He had been compared to the other drivers in a new car this season, particularly Carlos Sainz with the Ferrari driver qualifying in fifth.
But while Sainz ultimately faded in the race to miss out on points, allowing Ricciardo to move up to ninth, it wasn’t a faultless drive for the Aussie.
While most of the grid had already pitted, Ricciardo had moved up to fifth and was hoping for a good stop.
It wasn’t fatal but a 4.8 second stop was far from ideal.
The move to McLaren has been eye opening for Ricciardo.Source: AFP
It’s one place McLaren trail by a long way in pit stop times, with Ricciardo’s almost three seconds slower than Sainz as the fastest on the day, while Norris was the 16th fastest overall.
But Ricciardo took the blame for his error as he overshot the pit box.
“Okay, that was a good comeback guys, good comeback, thank you,” he said immediately after the race.
“Well done Daniel, back in the points, P9,” came the reply.
But Ricciardo clearly had the pit stop on his mind.
“Erm … I also know it’s a bit of a broken record but apologies for the stop,” he said. “Realise I came in quite long. Sorry for that.”
“Don’t worry about that Daniel, everyone’s okay. No harm done, we’ll come back in a week’s time and smash some stuff up” was the reply over the radio.
The 4.8 second pit stop saw him come back on nearly 2.5 seconds behind AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in 10th and he had to fight his way back up, overtaking Sainz but being overtaken by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.
“I’ll tell you why that was slow, look how far beyond his mark Daniel Ricciardo was,” David Croft said.
“That little T is where the wheels are drivers are expected to stop and any further and the crew has got to start reaching for where the wheels are going.”
Daniel Ricciardo overshot the pit box.Source: FOX SPORTS
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl said the team are looking to improve their pit stops but that Ricciardo was to blame for Portugal.
“I think we need to separate what happened today, Daniel overshot the position by quite a bit and that (affected the) front jack. So I think it was well done by the crew to recover [after] that loss of two seconds,” he told reporters in Portugal.
“In general it is clear that we are not there yet, we want to be, because we want to have each single pit stop be the best ones.
“But we are working on that. We’re working on both the consistency and the speed. I definitely see that we’ve made steps forward there. But at the same time we still need to make further steps.”
But Seidl also said he believed that Ricciardo would come good as the season continued.
“He’s the one who’s probably disappointed the most because he knows he has it in him, he’s disappointed that he can’t extract the performance of our car yet,” Seidl said.
“But at the same time, he’s very experienced. We are also very experienced on the team side. It’s important to stay calm, work through this.
“I’m one hundred per cent sure that it is just a matter of a bit more time, and then we will see Daniel back to the performance that we all know from him.”
Still can’t wipe the smile off his face.Source: Getty Images
Speaking to Sky Deutschland, former F1 driver Timo Glock said Ricciardo had had similar issues when he was at Renault but turned it around.
“He had his little problems there (at Renault) at the beginning, but got on top of them very well over time. That’s why McLaren will have to wait and see how this internal team duel develops,” Glock said.
“In general, McLaren is currently very, very strong and I’m extremely happy for Andreas Seidl, who is doing a really great job in getting McLaren back on track as the third force.”
Daniel Ricciardo was happy to bounce back at the Portuguese Grand Prix after a horror run in qualifying but knew there were issues he and McLaren must address.
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Post-race Ricciardo spoke in general terms about what was going wrong, having finished behind teammate Lando Norris for the third successive time this season. While the young Brit finished on the podium in Italy and came fourth in Bahrain and Portugal, Ricciardo only managed to cross the line seventh and sixth in the first two races of the year.
Teething problems were to be expected with a new team after leaving Renault at the end of 2020, and Ricciardo spoke on the weekend about the difficulties he was facing in his new car and the need to tweak some things with its set-up.
Now he has gone into specifics about what’s holding him back, revealing the braking system is putting him on edge.
“To be honest, just locking — locking brakes,” Ricciardo told Motorsport Magazine about the biggest problem he’s facing. “Well, it’s a bit of locking and sometimes it’s losing the rear (of the car).
“But there’s a fine line, I guess. And I think probably there’s a period in the kind of entry phase (into corners) where the car is on a knife-edge.
“And I feel like there’s probably a set-up solution where I can just open that and not be on such a knife’s edge, because it is really sensitive.
“I think Lando is certainly able to drive around that better than me at the moment. And probably to fast track my learning, I can just try something with set-up that opens our window, and it’s probably with the suspension or something like that.”
Ricciardo is hoping to bounce back in Barcelona.Source: Getty Images
McLaren to take feedback on board
Ricciardo is still learning and some key takeaways from Portimao will allow him to go back to his team and explain what’s going wrong, and what can be done to fix it.
McLaren won’t take his feedback personally, knowing it’s a matter of trial and error to get somewhere with the car that will make the Honey Badger comfortable.
“The team also dealt with it well, they appreciate that, let’s say, the car is not probably doing everything I want it to do,” Ricciardo said. “So they kind of put their hand up as well.
“Definitely after Bahrain and Imola, I had a clear direction for the team as far as updates and feedback to aero, like ‘OK, this is where we need to improve the car looking forward’. But I still wasn’t sure what I want currently in the car and then how I want to set up the car.
“We’re kind of not trying to go too far away from Lando, because obviously he’s on top of it and driving well. But I think today I learned a few things that maybe I can start to, let’s say set it up to suit me and see how that goes in Barcelona.”
McLaren is happy to give Ricciardo time to adjust, putting faith in his long-term ability to help the team become a genuine championship contender.
Team Principal Andreas Seidl told Motorsport Magazine: “It’s something which just doesn’t allow him to continuously push the car at the limit, because for him in certain dynamic conditions it’s like driving on a knife’s edge.
“But that’s definitely something where I think we made already steps for this weekend, together with him, despite the disappointment in qualifying.
“And we simply have to keep working together with him in order to improve this situation.
“As always, there’s the driver’s side, but obviously we also look deeply on the team side into this, and see how we can help him with improvements we bring to the car, with set-up changes, in order to lift the performance.”
