Sauber believes it has identified and solved the DRS malfunction that caused Marcus Ericsson’s dramatic accident in Friday’s FP2 session.

Ericsson’s DRS failed to close as he approached Monza’s first chicane, pitching the Sauber left into the barriers and into a series rolls, leaving the C37 in a pitiful state but its driver fortunately uninjured.

Initial analysis of team mate Charles Leclerc’s rear wing assembly revealed a similar Drag Reduction System issue which the team partly resolved before the Monegasque resumed work in the afternoon’s free practice session.

“It was very tricky, we would arrive at the end of the straight and didn’t know if it would close or not,” explained Leclerc.

“I had the same issue but I’ve been luckier with it, it closed a bit earlier than Marcus. We found the issue, we resolved it, but that required a bit of sacrifice in performance.

“We know what to do tomorrow to not have this problem and have full performance.”

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Before heading back out on track, Leclerc was informed that he could manually close the DRS as his team sought to reassure him that the device would work properly. The Sauber driver duly complete his session, clocking in with the ninth fastest time.

“I have full trust in my guys and I know they were doing their job,” he said.

“If they tell me it will be fine the next run then it will be. We found the issue and we ended the day on a high.”

According to Sauber team boss Fred Vasseur, the cause of Ericsson’s failure was rooted in a slight design flaw of the team’s Monza-spec low-downforce rear wing.

“This is the first time [this problem has happened] and probably due to the developed downforce for today,” he said. “It is a new rear wing, but it is not the wing, just the DRS flap.”

While his massive 20G crash obviously left him a bit shaken, Marcus Ericsson was given a clean bill of health by the FIA. He’ll also be given a new C37 chassis for the remainder of the race weekend, with Sauber personnel breaking the overnight curfew to build up the Sweede’s new car.

“Marcus is okay,” said Vasseur said. “We had a chat together after the session.

“He was disappointed to miss the rest of the practice session, and also a bit shocked, but the car will be ready to race.”

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Mercedes and Red Bull appear to be involved in a waiting game with regard to their drivers for 2019, with Lewis Hamilton holding everyone off.

The four-time world champion has yet to commit to Mercedes for the future, and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is on the sidelines until his rival signs on the dotted line, according to Helmut Marko.

The Red Bull motorsport boss was at the Red Bull Ring yesterday to witness the first run in an F1 car of MotoGP star Marc Marquez. During the post-test press conference he was flanked by his old friend Niki Lauda and the two men engaged in an interesting exchange.

“Lewis will sign. We only discuss details, not the money,” insisted the Mercedes non-executive chairman.

“It’s about promotion performances. Lewis stays safely with us, that will be solved.”

Marko: ‘Formula 1 perhaps a possibility for Marquez in 2021!’

As far as Marko is concerned, Hamilton’s signing can’t happen soon enough.

“I hope that finally gets signed. Because Ricciardo says that, as long as Hamilton is not yet contracted to Mercedes, he also does not want to sign. It’s a bit strange! ” admitted Marko.

Hearing that, Lauda lost no time in winding up his fellow Austrian while also setting the record straight with regard to Ricciardo’s prospects of joining the Silver Arrows squad.

“Ricciardo blackmailed you with Hamilton, who has not yet signed! What Hamilton gets, he cannot get anyway. So, we have not made him an offer.”

Red Bull’s other pressing issue however is which power unit the Milton Keynes-based squad will be running with next season: Renault or Honda.

“We have an internal timetable that we want to have decisions on the engine and driver issues by the Austrian Grand Prix,” Marko said.

All should therefore be revealed by July 1.

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Fernando Alonso declared himself quite happy with his seventh-place spot on tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix grid following a qualifying session for which the McLaren driver did not have high hopes.

After brake problems plagued his running in FP1 on Thursday, the Spaniard endured another difficult free practice session on Saturday morning, with set-up issues impacting the speed of his MCL33.

McLaren undertook extensive changes on the car for the all-important afternoon run, but Alonso admits that it he didn’t know what to expect.

“It’s been a very complicated weekend,” Alonso said.

“We lost the first session because of the brakes and in the third one the car was handling very strange.

Brilliant Ricciardo claims Monaco pole with unbeatable record pace

“The rear felt disconnected from the front. We had problems on the rear in the slow corners and in the fast corners we had problems on the front and that’s usually a puzzle that’s hard to solve.

“We made a lot of changes to the car and we went out in qualifying like tossing a coin to see how the car would handle,” he added.

“We saw quickly that it was a different car, that was handling better and giving me the confidence to attack. Seventh tastes very good now.”

Like his top-10 colleagues, Alonso will launch his race on Pirelli’s hypersoft tyre, but higher levels of degradation than expected mean that tyre management and timely pit-stops will be paramount in tomorrow’s 78-lap race.

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“I think the question everybody is asking is the hypersofts, how long they will last and how much trouble they will cause,” he said.

“They are not going to pass you, that’s for sure, but how long you stay out is always a risk.

“If someone stops and undercuts you, then it’s going to be tough. And if you stop early and you are behind a car doing 65 laps on the hard tyre, then you are stuck for 64 laps behind it.”

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Valtteri Bottas is confident his new-spec Mercedes engine will remain in the back of his W09 for the remainder of the weekend despite the unit suffering a water leak issue on Friday.

The Finn sat out the final 30 minutes of yesterday’s second free practice session when his Mercedes crew discovered the engine problem.

An initial diagnosis did not reveal any visible damage to the new power unit but the team had yet to undertake a extensive analysis of the failure.

The new-spec engine has undoubtedly brought an extra boost of speed to the Silver Arrows squad, as Hamilton’s impressive Friday pace clearly demonstrated.

Mercedes confirms ‘phase 2.1’ upgrade for Hamilton and Bottas

“Practice 2 was problematic as I only got a few laps in the beginning then we had a water leak with the engine which we are still investigating,” Bottas explained.

“It is the new spec and it definitely felt fresh but we now need to find out the cause of the water leak but I think we are still confident we can run it for the rest of the weekend which is good.”

Mercedes’ upgraded engine was initially scheduled to be introduced in Montreal, but a quality issue pushed back its debut to France. A delay the German manufacturer put to good use by further optimizing the new specification.

“It felt good. We are not running it yet in full power so there is more to discover tomorrow but in normal running it felt fresh and nice and a bit better than the old one,” said Bottas.

“We definitely looked competitive today in both sessions and Lewis got a really good lap in FP2 so I think we are going to be competitive.

“But we’ve seen on Fridays that Ferrari have been sandbagging so I think they are doing it again but let’s see for Saturday and Sunday.”

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Raymond Vermeulen who, along with Jos Verstappen, looks after Max Verstappen’s interests, played down suggestions that the pair’s absence in Montreal was beneficial to the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen agreed with his team to travel light to Canada after a string of mishaps called into question the 20-year-old’s ability to focus and learn from his mistakes. He subsequently showed up alone in Canada, with neither his manager or father in tow, and put in a productive weekend of racing.

Vermeulen insists however that his absence in Montreal had been scheduled at the outset of the 2018 season.

Verstappen braces for the ‘unknown’ at Paul Ricard

“Already at the start of the season we made an internal plan about which grands prix we would attend,” he told Motorsport.com.

“There was an idea discussed together with the team to have Max on his own for a race.

“So we said ‘OK, let’s do it for Canada.’ So that was the whole story. There will be some more races where Max will be on his own, but that was already in the pipeline.

“We have a very good relationship, we discuss everything together with Red Bull. It was a try-out, the first race Max was on his own, but no special message behind that.

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“It’s also part of his development that he doesn’t need someone around every race,” added the manager.

“For example, I’m here this weekend, Jos is coming to Austria and I’ll be there too, at Silverstone Max is on his own, Jos is going to Hungary, and at Spa we will be together.”

Vermeulen pushed back on the notion that Max’s flawless weekend in Montreal had anything to do with a lack of entourage.

“Max said he had a very good weekend. He was on his own, but still guided by his trainer. He went to dinner with his Helmut [Marko] or his mechanics, and he just had a race weekend like any other,” explained Vermeulen.

“I don’t think there was a big difference. At 20 years old I think he’s old enough to go to a track on his own! It’s not a big thing.

“Of course this is getting a dimension now because the performance was there, and there were some comments in the press.

“But in the past he had podiums when I was here or Jos was here, so the performance was also there when we were around!”

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Renault Sport Racing has issued a carefully worded statement saying that it ‘acknowledges’ today’s announcement from Red Bull about 2019 engines.

Red Bull announced on Tuesday that it was ending its current engine supply arrangement at the end of the current season. The team has opted instead for a two-year deal with Honda, which already supplies the junior Toro Rosso team.

It’s the end of a 12-year partnership between Red Bull and Renault. However the French manufacturer said that today’s news was a natural progression given that the two companies have been increasingly at odds in recent years.

“Renault Sport Racing acknowledges the Red Bull Racing and Honda partnership announcement,” read today’s brief statement from the company.

“Two years after Renault’s return as a works team, we consider this is a natural evolution for both Renault and Red Bull Racing in view of their respective aspirations.

“In an extremely demanding and competitive environment we are proud of the extraordinary results achieved with Red Bull Racing over the past 12 seasons,” the statement continued.

“In particular, the four Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships and 57 wins we have taken together.

• Red Bull officially confirms switch to Honda in 2019

Renault said that its factory team would now be its focus, together with its remaining customer team arrangment with McLaren that began at the end of 2017.

“After two seasons, we are fully focused on the strong progression of Renault Sport Formula One Team, while continuing to foster the fresh relationship with McLaren Racing.”

In a separate statment from Red Bull, team principal Christian Horner thanked Renault for their work over the last decade.

“We have sometimes had our differences but Renault has always worked tirelessly and to the best of its ability to provide us with a competitive power unit.

“That is still the case today and we would like to thank the Renault team, and particularly the guys in our garage at every race, for their unstinting commitment.

“We look forward to ending our partnership on a high come the end of this season,” he said, adding: “We wish Renault Sport all the best for the future.”

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Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly will be racing in Montreal for the very first time next weekend, and expects the track’s layout to pose a challenge to the team’s STR13 chassis.

The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve represents the first real high-speed challenge for teams and drivers this season.

Cars travel at speeds in excess of 300km/h at four different points around the lap, with subsequent slow corners underscoring braking power and endurance.

Trimmed to a low-downforce set-up, Toro Rosso’s Honda-powered STR13 chassis won’t be at its advantage in Canada, according to Gasly.

“I’ve never ever been to Canada in my life, but everyone tells me the Grand Prix in Montreal is one of the best of the season, because there’s a great atmosphere and the town is really super,” says the 22-year-old rookie.

Honda cautious on upgrade and performance push in Canada

“So I’m looking forward to experiencing it for myself for the first time.

“The circuit looks exciting with some long straight sections, so some overtaking opportunities. It’s a complicated track, with the walls never far away and the famous final chicane with the “Champions’ Wall.

“This is a race where you take off a lot of downforce to get good top speed, which means the car won’t be easy to drive.

“Even if there are not many corners here, it’s a complicated track to drive, but everyone seems to like it so I’m looking forward to it.”

It obviously won’t be a home race for the Gasly, but he’ll nevertheless enjoy a home feeling of sorts thanks to the French speaking local folk.

“Of course I speak French, so the people there will understand me, even if I’ve been told the accent and even the vocabulary over there is something a bit different!”

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Daniel Ricciardo has reached the limit of the maximum number of allowed power unit elements, which means any component failure this weekend will automatically lead to a grid penalty for the Red Bull driver.

That probability has increased however as the Milton Keynes-based outfit ponders a deliberate component change in order to head to the Hungaroring next week free of any engine worries, the tight and twisty venue being particularly well-suited to Red Bull’s RB14.

“We are still not sure probably to what extent but it is likely,” Ricciardo said when asked about the likelihood of taking an engine penalty.

“Don’t want to risk it for a disco biscuit. Ideally, we win next weekend, and suck it up here.”

Even powered by Honda, Red Bull would have won – Horner

The prospect of a grid setback won’t deter the Aussie from challenging for a spot on the podium on Sunday, which is where he ended up the last time F1 visited Hockenheim, in 2016.

“I got second here, maybe I’ll win, that’d be nice,” he said.

“I like the track, it is fun, you can overtake so if we do have the penalties and I start towards the back… I’ll stay positive and know that there will be some good overtaking.

“In 2016 there were a few battles going on. I remember the race here in 2014 was fun. There was a lot of battles, I don’t know for the lead, but definitely the midfield.

“So there is a slight chance of rain on Saturday, that could change the grid a bit. The race will be all right, extra DRS zone now. So that should keep it closer.
“I want a good race here. Even if I start towards the back I still want to go for it. I feel like the triple-header did not treat me that well.

“So I’d at least like to make this double-header good for me. Both heads not just one.”

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A normal day of running was all Stoffel Vandoorne was hoping for on Friday in Hungary, and the Belgian got just that after reverting back to an older McLaren MCL33 chassis.

For this weekend’s race, the Woking-based outfit ditched the Belgian’s previous MCL33 chassis following a two-race slump marked by inexplicable issues that impacted Vandoorne’s performance.

At the end of the day however, and despite a spin in FP1 on the ultrasoft tyres, the 26-year-old was both satisfied and relieved by his practice sessions.

“The feeling was actually back to normal, so that was a positive thing to get into this weekend – we actually had a normal Friday where we could work normally on the car set-up,” he said.

“Unfortunately no lap time on the ultrasofts for me because I spun off the track, but long run pace was good, back to normal, quite competitive.

McLaren’s Vandoorne gets new chassis ahead of Hungarian GP

“A good feeling in the car again and it feels finally like tomorrow we can start putting some pieces together again and prepare the best we can for qualifying.”

Obviously, with improvements come the prospect of fighting once again for a spot among the top-10 in qualifying, although the McLaren isn’t sure that is where he really wants to be at the end of Saturday.

“It is very tight,” he said.

“I think the target for us is to be as close to possible to the top 10. I don’t know for us if being in Q3 is a good thing with the tyres, the ultrasofts, so being as close as possible would be ideal.”

Regardless of how the remainder of the weekend day pans out, Vandoorne was simply happy to regain his footing after a very complicated couple of races.

“It’s nice just to have a normal weekend, get into the weekend and finally start working again and not just completely look after problems all the time,” he said.

“So, happy how today went and looking forward to progress a bit tomorrow.”

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A week off from racing and his national side’s success in the soccer World Cup will combine to give Pierre Gasly an extra spring in his step heading into this weekend’s German Grand Prix.

The French driver will be hoping it will boost him into breaking a pointless streak for Toro Rosso that extends all the way back to the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

After receiving a new-specification Honda engine in Canada, Gasly went through the ‘triple-header’ of races on consecutive weekends in France, Austria and Britain without a single top-ten finish.

But he is heading to Hockenheim on a high after Formula 1’s weekend off coincided with the final of the World Cup tournament.

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“It was really nice to have a rest,” he said. “I went back to my home town in Rouen, and got to watch the World Cup Final with all of my friends while having a BBQ.

“I watched the game intensely, I was so stressed! It was almost as if I was playing or even about to start an F1 race!

“I’m super happy that we’ve put the second star on our jersey!,” he said. “We went into town after to celebrate with all of the French fans, and seeing everyone singing in the streets just enjoying the moment was fantastic.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen so many people in my city, it’s like the population doubled!

• Horner clarifies Toro Rosso ‘test team’ position

“To be able to enjoy a weekend off with my friends and family after three weeks away was great, it gave me time to recharge before we go again for two more races in a row.”

Although Gasly hasn’t raced in a Formula 1 car at Hockenheim, he’s no stranger o the circuit from junior formulae.

“I had my first Renault 2-litre race at Hockenheim, where I qualified second on the front row alongside Stoffel Vandoorne,” he recalled.

“The last time I was there was in GP2 in 2016,” he added. “I was having a good race but my fire extinguisher went off going down the straight and the cockpit filled with smoke.

“I was disqualified on safety grounds. It had been a really good race up until then.”

Like most of the drivers taking part in this weekend’s race, Gasly listed the stadium section as his favourite part of the modern Hockenheim circuit.

“The Hockenheim track has plenty of character with a lot of history behind it,” he said. “It is very technical with not much in the way of straights and it’s the most fun to drive.

“I’d like to go and see the old part, as I gather it was really impressive with the very long straights and the chicane before it turned back towards the pits.”

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