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erik van haren: “barcelona, in two weeks austria, spa, silverstone, hungary: during those races redbull has to show they can make steps forward. the upcoming race in austria, redbulls home race, will be a very important one. they’ll be bringing new updates, they want to make the car less heavy [..] so it’ll be crucial to see where they’re at then and if they can make good steps forward.”


In Telesport, Erik Van Haren explains that Red Bull's leadership is essentially waiting for confirmation from Verstappen, which has still not been given: "For Red Bull's decision-makers too, they would now prefer Max Verstappen to say: 'I'm staying at Red Bull'. Then there can be calm and, as they say behind the scenes, they can attract new personnel. Then they become more interesting, also for sponsors. Verstappen is simply the big man at Red Bull; he basically carries that team." The exit clause can be activated this summer if Verstappen is outside the top two in the championship: "He can trigger it for the first time this year. He is currently seventh in the standings, I don't expect him to suddenly be second by the summer break. Being able to trigger a clause doesn't of course mean you will do it immediately, but it is a question that Verstappen will be asking himself in the coming weeks." According to Van Haren, it remains striking that Verstappen is mainly continuing to wait and see: "But he has not indicated internally: 'I'm staying anyway'. There was a meeting with the Red Bull top last week in Austria. It was already planned and it was more of an evaluation. Of course the decision-makers would have liked him to have said somewhere in the past weeks: 'I'm staying anyway'. According to my information, he has not done that internally either." [gpfans.com/nl/f1-nieuws/1…] [youtu.be/CaZWYaqO3Ug]

Laurent Mekies on Red Bull's Austria Upgrade Package "The lap times will answer your questions. It is true that the picture this season, with the differences in performance, has to do with who introduces upgrades. Ferrari took a big step forward this weekend. Our next major upgrade comes in Austria. You are as good as the lap times it delivers. Everyone in Milton Keynes has worked very hard on that upgrade package. There is no doubt that the package in Austria by itself is not going to be enough. We know that we still have to make more steps. It is important, however, that we continue to close the gap constantly. We have been doing that since Japan and we must continue to do so, so that we are no longer talking about a deficit of four tenths, but about a smaller difference." When a journalist asked about the team's weight reduction plans "I am going to eat less. That is my plan for Austria, and hopefully we then become lighter. I know that Austrian food is tasty, but the plan is to bring the car to Italy and maintain a bit of a diet." [f1maximaal.nl/formule-1/red-…]

Sharpen your skates! ICEBREAKER, a new series based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Hannah Grace, is coming to Netflix. A competitive figure skater and a college hockey captain develop an unexpected partnership when a facilities mishap forces them to share the same rink...

fred during the dnf is TAKING ME OUT

"are you a heartstopper gay or a heated rivalry gay?" I'm a Fellow Travelers gay

Laurent Mekies: "I wouldn't say we're in no-man's-land. We're fighting with the top four (teams), but we can't compete for the podium at every circuit. In Canada and Monaco we could fight for the podium, but that wasn't possible here. That's the honest picture. Still, before that late drama we were able to beat one Ferrari and one McLaren. That was the best we could do. I think we expected that reality check in Barcelona. This was the first circuit with a long straight and medium- and high-speed corners after the weekends in China and Japan. So we certainly expected a different performance compared to Monaco, where we suddenly could fight for pole position. I think this weekend confirms the progress, because we're talking about three or four tenths behind the polesitter, or three or four tenths needed to fight for the victory. That was definitely a very different picture at the start of the year on these kinds of circuits. There is still a gap, without a doubt, both on the power unit side and the chassis. That's what we have to fight for now. It's no longer about one single thing. It's about finding a bit of performance in medium- and high-speed corners and on the straight, etc." [racingnews365.nl/mekies-trekt-p…]







