F1 Paddock Notebook - Singapore GP Friday

Recapping all of the news and notes from Friday in Singapore, Crash.net F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- F1 managing director (motorsports) Ross Brawn held a presentation for the media on Friday presenting the car concepts under the revised technical regulations for 2021. This was following the leak of a photo earlier this week. “I did a lecture to young people about getting involved in engineering,” Brawn explained. “Rather naively, I put up this image on the screen, and of course all the phones came out at that was it!”

- The images Brawn showed to the media were evolutions of the initial image that had been revealed at the lecture, featuring the 18-inch wheels planned, as well as revised wing designs and added farings around the front and rear wheels, plus a better-looking Halo.

- Brawn said the current cars tend to lose 50 percent of their performance when following another car, with the estimations under plans for 2021 being that this will fall to just 20 percent.

- Contrary to Brawn’s comments, Force India technical chief Andrew Green said the teams had not been heavily involved in coming to the concepts, saying they had “come completely from Formula 1 Group.” He also said he doubted the final cars would look anything like the concepts as teams look for the fastest design, not the best-looking one.

- Force India ran a major update package on Friday in Singapore, made possible following the sale of the team to a new consortium. Otmar Szafnauer said the package could have arrived at Spa, only for the financial difficulties to hold the process up.

- The major incident in practice on Friday was Sebastian Vettel’s touch of the wall while on a qualifying simulation in FP2. Vettel had been due to run close to teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s P1 time, only to touch the wall exiting Turn 21. Vettel immediately pitted, where his car was found to be leaking a fluid, later found to be brake fluid. Vettel did not return to the track, ending FP2 with just 12 laps completed.

- Vettel downplayed the incident, saying he was not panicking, but it marked another minor error in a season that has seen a number of opportunities pass him by.

- The other major prang came courtesy of Charles Leclerc, who clipped the wall while crossing the bridge before Turn 13. Leclerc took full blame for the error. Curiously, both he and Vettel - Ferrari teammates next year - ended the sessions in which they hit the wall in P9.

- Lewis Hamilton said he is braced for a three-team fight at the front of the pack with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all in the mix. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was less sure about his team’s chances in qualifying, though, having lapped half a second slower in FP2 during the qualifying simulations.

- Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso will both take new gearboxes for this weekend’s race. Neither receive a penalty: Sirotkin used his previous gearbox for six straight events, while Alonso did not finish the last race at Monza.

 -Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen will both take fresh MGU-H power unit parts for the weekend. For both, it marks their third and final MGU-H of the season, meaning there is no penalty to be applied for either driver.

- Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene was in an animated mood on Friday in the FIA press conference. Arrivabene revealed Kimi Raikkonen was informed he had been dropped by Ferrari on the Thursday of the race weekend, but denied this had made the Finn unhappy: “He was so unhappy, he did pole position on Saturday.” Arrivabene also confirmed Charles Leclerc is signed to Ferrari until 2022 at the earliest under his new deal.

- The topic of Mick Schumacher also emerged following his recent surge in the Formula 3 rankings, leading to speculation he could be set for an F1 link in the near future. Arrivabene said the door would always be open for Schumacher at Ferrari given his father’s links to the team.

- Arrivabene also said that Antonio Giovinazzi’s future would be resolved in the coming weeks, with the Italian driver in contention for a seat at Sauber alongside Raikkonen.

- Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff took to Sky TV to slam the series events that have left Esteban Ocon set to miss out on a seat for 2019, blaming it on “lies” and “hidden agendas” from teams. Ocon had contracts on the table from both McLaren and Renault, but is now facing a year in a reserve role at Mercedes. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner suggested Wolff should “write a cheque” to land Ocon a seat at Williams.

- Horner also cast doubt on a possible F1 return for Sebastien Buemi, believing the Swiss driver will stick with his existing commitments in the WEC and Formula E.

- Running in Singapore resumes with FP3 at 6pm local time (11am BST) on Saturday ahead of qualifying at 9pm local time (2pm BST).