How can Audi and Porsche enter F1? Ask Mark
F1 befuddlement? Our GP editor is here to help this month with questions on F1 cars splitting in two after crashes, and the data that teams receive
Hi Mark. What’s the deal with Audi and Porsche both joining F1? The two were stopped from co-existing in sports car racing, so why are they now both preparing F1 entries?
Adam Nott, via email
Although both Porsche and Audi are within the VW Group they are run as separate entities. So the VW Group has authorised an F1 presence for each but they will be completely different programmes with different power units, etc. Unlike WEC, F1 doesn’t object to two brands from the same group entering.
Do you know why Daniel Ricciardo is struggling so badly this season? Lando Norris seems to be leaving him behind. Is it a specific car issue?
Richard Davies, London
Daniel Ricciardo did have a car issue with last year’s McLaren, specifically how best to trade off braking with cornering in a different range
of corner speeds. It just didn’t respond to the way his muscle memory had developed in his career up to that point. But it seems more than that now, as if the length of the struggle has brought him down.
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