In the round-up: Despite McLaren’s recent upswing in form, Lando Norris is wary some corners at Spa-Francorchamps will highlight their car’s weaknesses.
In brief
Norris wary ahead of Belgian Grand Prix
Norris’ second place finish at Silverstone showed how strong the upgraded McLaren MCL60 was on a high-speed track, and last weekend he followed that up with another second place at the high-downforce Hungaroring.
This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix takes place at Spa-Francorchamps, another high-speed venue that should suit McLaren. But Norris is wary some corners will expose the MCL60’s shortcomings.
“I think it’s still clear that we’ve got some weaknesses and those weaknesses are going to show in certain places,” he said. “Even in Spa we’re going to struggle in certain places even more, like turn one. I’m already scared of turn one in Spa.”
F1 Academy increases its F1 branding
All 10 Formula 1 teams’ liveries will appear in the all-female Formula 4-spec F1 Academy series next year.
F1 has coordinated the deal to nominate 10 of the 15 drivers on next year’s grid to run in the colours of F1 teams. The 2024 season will take place exclusively on the support bill of F1 grands prix.
The other five drivers, even if they are F1 juniors, “will be supported by other partners” when it comes to their car liveries, said the series in a statement.
Abel Motorsports hands Indy Nxt debuts to two drivers
Abel Motorsports will expand from one to three cars for the next Indy Nxt round on the streets of Nashville.
The team has signed USF Pro 2000 graduates Francesco Pizzi and Yuven Sundaramoorthy on part-time deals. Both will race in Nashville and at the double-header Laguna Seca finale, Pizzi will race on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course and Sundaramoorthy will race at Portland, which means he misses the USFP2000 finale.
Pizzi – previously of FIA Formula 3 and a Formula 4 champion – is currently sixth in the third-tier series with a pole and a podium, while Sundaramoorthy is 14th in the standings.
McLaren reveal AI livery
McLaren are running a one-off livery for this weekend’s Formula E season finale in London, which they claim is the world’s first livery designed using artificial intelligence computing, as part of the team’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Using input from their races drivers Jake Hughes and Rene Rast plus four others, a brief for the design was created which “with the help of AI, we turned into the world’s first livery designed using generative AI,” said the team in a statement.
“We inputted the six visions into a text-to-text AI, where we asked for prompts for an image AI. These prompts were then put into a text-to-image AI, which produced six individual artworks, one per vision, that were then combined into one single piece of artwork by an image-to-image AI.”
Carlin get another new face in F3 line-up
Rodin Carlin has signed Euroformula race-winner Francesco Simonazzi for the last two rounds of the FIA F3 season.
The 19-year-old takes the place of Max Esterson, who was signed for two rounds after Hunter Yeany lost his seat after a points-free first five rounds of the season.
Simonazzi is currently fourth in the Euroformula standings with one win, and last year he took a win en route to sixth in the F3-level championship. In Euroformula he has picked up plenty of experience at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, the two tracks he will race at in F3.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Iowa was a reminder of why IndyCar needs more bullrings (Racer)
‘The latest calendar rumors have the August Indianapolis road course round being traded for the long-awaited return to the Milwaukee Mile. Additional rumors suggest World Wide Technology Raceway’s short oval, which ran as a double-header in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, could return to the twin-race format in the future.’
Man dies in crash on Mount Panorama circuit (Speedcafe)
‘A man died in a single-vehicle crash on the Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit on Wednesday morning. The incident occurred at the intersection of Mountain Straight and Hinton Road, which forms ‘Hell Corner’ (turn one) of the 6.213km race track.’
Andretti sponsor’s NASCAR move could foreshadow team’s move to series (Sports Business Journal)
‘While Andretti Autosport is focused on trying to get into F1, a recent move in NASCAR by its major sponsor Gainbridge is indirectly serving as an experimental step into the stock car series for Andretti, according to people familiar with the matter.’
Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s $6bn spend on ‘sportswashing’ (The Guardian)
‘In 2021, Public Investment Fund invested in a $550m sponsorship of McLaren, a Bahraini-owned company based in Woking. PIF’s $6.3bn figure, however, does not include the $40-45m which state-owned oil giant Aramco spends annually to sponsor F1, or other contracts signed prior to 2021 such as $65m to hold an annual grand prix in the kingdom.’
Las Vegas Grand Prix paving continues with lane closures coming (Las Vegas Review Journal)
‘The first Sphere portions of F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit were paved over the weekend, with a bevy of road impacts planned over the next few months on the rest of the 3.8-mile track. Crews will continue initial track paving operations through Sept. 1 on the public portions of the track, while final paving work will begin July 31 on Sands Avenue between Las Vegas Boulevard and the Sphere.’
Formula E CEO: We must look at US and China expansions (City A.M.)
”We need to be in mainland China,’ said Jeff Dodds. ‘I know we can dance around that a bit but we need to be in mainland China. Every manufacturer partner of the six manufacturers we work with says the most important market for them globally is China.’
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Spud and Mikef1!