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Double mission for the Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams in Barcelona and Monaco


Double mission for the Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams in Barcelona and Monaco

The motorsport season 2021 is in full swing. One race weekend follows another: a look back (and ahead) at the latest news from the Formula 1, Formula E and GT racing sites

Here’s what happened: results and facts

* News from the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport teams

* Social Media News: What’s new online?

Here’s what happened: results and facts

* F1: Lewis Hamilton wins the Portuguese GP, Valtteri Bottas is third

* GT World Challenge America: Two podium places for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the two series laps held on the Circuit of the Americas

* Pirelli GT4 America: The top three placings also for the Mercedes-AMG GT4 in each of the two races in Austin

Snippets of news

From Portimão to Barcelona: This week the F1 will travel around 1,000 kilometers as the crow flies from one side of the Iberian Peninsula to the other. Thanks to race winner Lewis Hamilton and third-placed Valtteri Bottas, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team said goodbye to the Portuguese Grand Prix last weekend with three more trophies in their luggage. It was the number 97 Grand Prix victory for Lewis and the 500th start for Mercedes-Benz cars in the premier class. And at the end of the third race weekend of the season, Lewis leads the drivers’ championship for the 122nd time in his F1 career, breaking a record that he had previously shared with Michael Schumacher. The 2021 Formula 1 World Championship will continue next weekend with the Spanish Grand Prix. For the first time in a long time, the teams will appear at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya without having benefited from pre-season winter testing. The track has been a happy hunting ground for Mercedes over the past four years: Lewis has won four times in a row, and pole position in qualifying has gone to a Silver Arrows driver eight times in a row since 2013. With a record of five Grand Prix wins in Barcelona, ​​Lewis is just one win behind Michael Schumacher, who still holds the record for most wins in Spain. Ferrari is the most successful constructor in the Spanish GP with twelve wins, ahead of McLaren (8) and Williams (7). Mercedes (6) takes fourth place together with Lotus.

Grand Prix of Portugal (Photo by Wolfgang Wilhelm)

Deep dive: While the 2021 Formula 1 season has only just begun, Tom Batch, Principal Engineer in the team’s Applied Science department, has just returned from his personal highlight of the year in Auckland, New Zealand, where he helped INEOS TEAM UK achieve maximum performance for your yacht in the 36th America’s Cup. In a detailed interview, Tom, who worked for seven years as a trackside engineer in Formula 1, reports on his involvement in the project and answers specific questions about the differences and similarities between Formula 1 drivers / teams and professional sailors / teams in the USA cup. Small spoiler: They have a lot more in common than you might think at first …
You can read the interview here

Monaco, here we come: While F1 prepares for a second race in the Iberian Peninsula within a week, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship prepares for its fourth weekend of the season in a place all too familiar to Formula 1 fans on the iconic streets of Monaco. After a one-year break during which Formula E was unable to drive in the Principality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth Monaco E-Prix will be held next Saturday. It is the first time that the all-electric racing series will be held at the Monaco Grand Prix, which will also host the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks later. Monaco is new territory for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team, but a home race for drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries, as both live in Monte Carlo. There were two different winners in the three previous games, namely Sébastien Buemi (2) and Jean-Eric Vergne (1). However, the races took place on a shorter route. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E team is going to the Monaco E-Prix – the seventh of 15 races in the 2020/21 season – and occupies the top spot in both the driver and team standings. The teams have the added challenge that Monaco is the only one-day event on this year’s racing calendar.

Class wins in the tough NLS race: The third round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series brought the customer racing teams two more class wins before the outstanding game of every season, the ADAC Total 24h Race. In the 62nd EIBACH ADAC ACAS Cup Moritz Kranz (GER) and Janine Shoffner (GBR), who drive the Mercedes-AMG GT3 number 9 from GetSpeed ​​Performance, again prevailed against the opponents in the SP9 Am class. As in the previous NLS round, the BLACK FALCON Team TEXTAR achieved another double victory in the combined SP4T + SP8T class. Mustafa Mehmet Kaya (TUR), Gabriele Piana (ITA) and Mike Stursberg (GER) celebrated a comfortable victory in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 # 140 in front of sister car number 141 from Marco Müller (GER), Stephan Rösler (GER) and Ersin Yücesan ( DOOR). After a chaotic qualification, which was interrupted several times due to repairs on the track, the SP9 teams could not get among the leaders in the overall standings, but at the end of the four-hour race three top 15 placings were booked. The Mercedes-AMG Team HRT number 16 took tenth place, with the high-performance cars No. 2 and No. 8 of the Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed ​​taking twelfth and 14th place respectively. Next weekend, the teams will again have the opportunity to optimize the setup of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. The six-hour qualifying race on the Nürburgring begins next Sunday at 12:00 noon CEST – a dress rehearsal for the big event in the “Green Hell”.


Double mission for the Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams in Barcelona and Monaco

Photo courtesy of Daimler Global Media.

Podium successes on the Circuit of The Americas: Three class wins, four podiums and valuable points for the global manufacturers’ championship of the GT World Challenge: The customer racing teams put in a strong performance at the GT World Challenge America event and its support series at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

Philip Ellis (SUI) and Russell Ward (USA) in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 number 33 from WINWARD Racing stood for a long time on both days as part of the victory in the GT World Challenge America. The duo finished second in the first race, which was shortened due to heavy rain. After starting the second race from pole position, they finally had to be content with the third. On the other hand, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 # 04 from DXDT Racing followed, a result that was enough for Colin Braun and George Kurtz (both USA) to take class victory in the Pro-Am class.

At the GT America races at the same location, Ross Chouest (USA) from RENNtech Motorsports celebrated another class win as the fastest GT4 driver in the first race. Class win number three of the weekend this time in the Pirelli GT4 America – was contributed by Murillo Racing. Kenny Murillo and Christian Szymczak (both USA) in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 with the number 72 won the Silver Cup class as runner-up in the second race. Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo (CAN) in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 with the number 89 from RENNtech Motorsports took third place on the overall podium.


Double mission for the Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams in Barcelona and Monaco

Photo courtesy of Daimler Global Media.

More races and class wins: Antonelli MotorSport started successfully in the Italian GT championship with a race win. In the first of the two sprint races at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Bar Baruch (ISR) and Luca Segù (ITA) in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 # 90 suffered the misfortune of retiring prematurely after a collision with an opponent. An overwhelming victory in race two more than made up for the shaky start to the series’ opening weekend.

Nova Race achieved further podium results in Monza with its Mercedes-AMG GT4. Fulvio Ferri and Andrea Gagliardini (both ITA) in the number 228 finished third in the GT4 PRO-AM class in both races, while Diego Di Fabio and Luca Magnoni (both ITA) in the GT4 AM class in the # 207 the sister car took second place.

Like Antonelli MotorSport, the ABBA Racing team recovered strongly after an early setback in the British GT Cup championship. An early pit stop robbed Richard and Sam Neary (both GBR) of a top position in the first of the two 50-minute sprint races at Brands Hatch. In the second race, however, the father-son duo in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with the number 88 comfortably recorded a fourth win of the season.

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 showed a strong performance at the season opener in Endurance Brasil in Goiâina. No less than five cars ended up in the top seven of the GT3 class. Ricardo Baptista and Cacá Bueno (both BRA) from Team RC took second place on the podium. Atila Abreu and Leo Sanchez (both BRA) from AMG CAC Competições rounded off a successful day for the customer racing teams with a win in the GT4 class.


Double mission for the Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams in Barcelona and Monaco

Mercedes AMG Customer Racing at the Italian GT 2021 – Photo courtesy of Daimler Global Media

Social media news

# MyJobInF1: In the latest installment of ‘My Job in F1’ we introduce our composite kit cutter Matt, who talks about the nature of his job at the factory and what he likes best.

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