In the round-up: Jean Todt, who was formerly a president of the FIA and team principal at Ferrari, has endorsed Felipe Massa’s call for the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be cancelled.
In brief
Former FIA president agrees Singapore GP result should have been cancelled
Massa is mounting a legal bid to have the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix cancelled as he believes the FIA failed to take action when it first learned of the ‘Crashgate’ conspiracy. Renault had instructed Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash during the race in order to help his team mate Fernando Alonso win.
Todt stood down from his role in charge of Ferrari at the end of 2007 and became FIA president three years later, after his predecessor Max Mosley oversaw the governing body’s response to the Crashgate affair. He told La Stampa he does not wish to be drawn into the controversy around the case but acknowledged the episode was “very hard for [Massa] psychologically.”
“Maybe we could have been tougher when this story became known,” Todt continued. “There is no doubt that the Singapore Grand Prix was rigged and should have been cancelled.”
Schumacher drives 2023 Mercedes in Magny-Cours test
A contemporary Formula 1 car has run once more at Magny-Cours, which hosted the French Grand Prix from 1991 to 2008. The track is hosting a Pirelli tyre development test.
Mick Schumacher is conducting the test at the wheel of Mercedes’ 2023 F1 car. He navigated a low-grip track due to cold temperatures and rain to complete 90 laps.
The bad weather did not prove detrimental for the test, since Pirelli had brought several different prototypes of intermediate and wet compound tyres to be used. Schumacher’s fastest lap on intermediate tyres was a 1’35.542, and his fastest on wet compound tyres was 1’41.962 on the full wet. It is set to be dry but cloudy on the second day of the test today.
Piastri: “At McLaren, we are encouraged to question the team”
Oscar Piastri shed light on how he and team mate Lando Norris are encouraged to challenge McLaren’s decision-making during races – but not excessively. “I’m a pretty reserved guy ad I think it kind of comes across in my radio messages all the time,” he told the Eff Won podcast.
“For us at McLaren, we actually are encouraged to question the team. But once [only in each instance]. And then once we’ve got the next message on what the plan is – sometimes that’s the same message, which you respect, but sometimes they will see it from a different perspective if you can give them a reason that maybe they haven’t thought of. That’s what these conversations are for.
“If you’re the driver behind, you’re always going to want to be let past because having clean air is always beneficial. It always goes two ways. Sometimes it might seem like there’s tension in there, but it’s the kind of conversation that helps us move forward together and see things from different perspectives.”
Campos sign Goethe for 2024 FIA F3 Championship
New Red Bull junior team member Oliver Goethe will be part of Campos Racing’s line-up in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.
The 19-year-old dominated in Euroformula last year, then moved to FIA F3 with Campos, contesting two rounds of the 2022 season. He spent the 2023 campaign with Trident and took one win and one pole en route to eighth in the standings.
Goethe reunited with Campos for the FIA F3 World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix, finishing ninth, and is the team’s first confirmed signing for the 2024 season.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1 developer Codemasters suffers round of lay-offs (IGN)
‘Veteran UK developer Codemasters has suffered a round of layoffs following the launch of racing games F1 23 and EA Sports WRC. Codemasters owner EA confirmed the redundancies in a statement issued to IGN, although failed to disclose the number of staff affected.’
Sainz’s Vegas penalty was wrong but unavoidable, says Warwick (Reuters)
”It’s a difficult job for a steward, the same as a referee, and we’ve got to be impartial, we’ve got to be strict and we’ve got to be hard sometimes even when it hurts us,’ said Paul Warwick, an F1 race steward. ‘The penalty we had to give Sainz in Vegas, it felt wrong, it was wrong, we worked very hard for it not to happen but they’re the rules.”
Discussion about reversed grid format (Auto Motor und Sport – German)
‘The old suggestion of the reverse starting order for the sprint was pulled out of the hat again. The aim is to artificially bring more excitement and action into the mini race. If drivers placed at the front move back, an incentive would of course have to be created to qualify as well as possible. That’s why the idea was brought up to distribute points for sprint qualifying in the future – at least for the front positions.’
Optimising hybrid power takes priority over a new IndyCar chassis – Miles (Racer)
‘Although numerous drivers and a handful of team owners have called for a new chassis to be designed and introduced to make the most out of the hybrid package, Dallara’s soon-to-be teenaged IndyCar model is under no threat of being replaced.’
McLaren Racing welcomes FIA Girls on Track UK to its flagship DE&I programme (McLaren)
‘McLaren Racing Engage, the team’s flagship diversity, equity and inclusion programme, is adding FIA Girls on Track UK in its roster of strategic partners in order to foster a more diverse and inclusive culture in motorsport. FIA GoT UK, led by national motorsport governing body Motorsport UK, aims to inspire girls and women to explore pathways into motorsport through a programme of events and mentorship across a female networking community.’
How an Indian driver is pursuing F1 at the age of 30 (The Times of India)
‘Lee Keshav, from New Delhi, is targeting F1. He started his motorsport journey at 14 and wanted to be a Moto GP rider. However, he transitioned to four-wheel racing and achieved success in national championships. He participated in the 2014 MRF Challenge and aims to compete in Formula 2 next year.’
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