In the round-up: Steve Nielsen, the FIA’s sporting director, has reportedly resigned from his position
The RaceFans round-up will return
The round-up will be taking a brief break over the Christmas period. There will be no round up tomorrow (25th), Tuesday or Wednesday.
The round-up will return on Thursday 28th December. If you are celebrating Christmas, have a very happy and safe weekend!
In brief
FIA sporting director Nielsen resigns – reports
Steve Nielsen, who was appointed as sporting director for the FIA in January of this year, has reportedly resigned from his role within the governing body.
The BBC reports that Nielsen, who was hired by the FIA after serving as as Formula 1’s sporting director for five years, stepped down after being unhappy with the FIA not showing a willingness to make the changes he felt were necessary to its race control operations.
Nielsen’s hiring was one of many actions taken by the governing body to address criticisms of its operations following the controversial conclusion of the 2021 Formula 1 season. Niels Wittich, who was one of two race directors appointed to replace Michael Masi as F1 race director for 2022, completed a full season as the sole race director in 2023.
Wolff wants to see “many more” titles
Despite winning eight constructors’ championship titles and seven drivers’ championships for Mercedes since joining the team in 2013, team principal Toto Wolff says he wants to see “many more” titles for the team in the future.
“We have a board in our factory which shows all the constructors’ world champions since 1958 – you have the logos, the badges for each of the years – and the table goes until 2050,” Wolff said. “There is 27 open, empty places. And I would like to look back in 20 years and see these many more Mercedes stars.
“When you’re retrospective – and hate retrospective views – but when we look back in 10 or 20 years and we consider that peak decade it was – second-first-first-first-first-first-first-first-first-third-second – when you look at it from that perspective, you kind of say ‘that was okay’.”
Tsunoda reveals “biggest mistake”
Yuki Tsunoda says his clash with Oscar Piastri at the Mexican Grand Prix was his “biggest mistake” of the 2023 season.
Tsunoda was running eighth when he collided with the McLaren driver at turn two on lap 48, dropping him eight places before he recovered to finish 12th. He admitted that he had “a couple of regrets” during the season but “especially Mexico.”
“But it’s motorsports,” he continued. “Obviously the learning what I did there was definitely my biggest mistake for the whole season and I have to learn from it. But, also, I tried it. I was P8 – if I finished P8, it still was not enough to be a P7 anyway. So I tried it at least. And I don’t have much regrets.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1 Quiz: Can you remember what happened in the 2023 season? (BBC)
‘The 2023 F1 season is over but it won’t be long until we are back in Bahrain for the start of the 2024 campaign. Now is your chance to test your knowledge on what happened this year.’
‘In terms of best race, Las Vegas had it all. Drama at the start, drama at the final corner, plenty of gutsy overtakes and incidents along the way, and we didn’t even know Max would win until the last handful of laps.’
Valtteri Bottas wants to qualify for 2024 Gravel World Championships (Velo)
‘He’s no stranger to setting lofty goals, and more importantly, following through on them. You don’t get to the top of one of the most competitive sports in the world where there are only 20 available spots by being bad at goal setting. In addition to the whopping 25 F1 races next season, he now has the weekend of October 5-6 circled on his calendar for the UCI Gravel World Championships in Halle-Leuven, Belgium.’
INSIGHT: Testing the F2 2024 car to its limits (F2)
”The test in Bahrain was all about making sure the car was compliant with all our expectations in terms of performance, behaviours, just ticking all the boxes in the development programme. We did nearly 5000km, ending just 7km short of that figure, which is a shame, but to be able to achieve that across several different sessions around Magny-Cours, Jerez and Bahrain is good.”
The second-tier champions Pourchaire emulated with a one-win season (Formula Scout)
‘It was crazy enough that Servia won the 1999 Indy Nxt title without ever standing on the top step of the podium, but the fact his title rival and Dorricott Racing team-mate Casey Mears didn’t either makes this a huge statistical anomaly. There were two drivers who took two wins each, but ended up third and seventh in the standings, while Servia’s title charge was built on five second places and Mears split his four podium results into two seconds and two thirds. Two drivers outside of the top 10 in the standings won races, and for both their victory contributed to around a third of their total points.’
Franz Tost farewell message (AlphaTauri via YouTube)
‘2023 is ending, and our Team Principal, Franz Tost, will leave the team at the end of the Year. It’s been 18 years with highs and lows, success, hard work, and many new drivers introduced to the sport. Franz has transformed the company from a little team to a significant structure with over 400 employees. Danke Franz!’
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday for today to Andrew, Richpea, Wasif1, Willian Ceolin and Alex Tunnicliffe, happy birthday for the 25th to Louise.1987 and Urvaksh, happy birthday for the 26th to Michael S and happy birthday for the 27th to to Scott Joslin, Super_Swede_96, Dean Mckinnon and Diceman!
On this day in motorsport
- 24th: Born today in 1941: Howden Ganley, who raced for BRM, Frank Williams and March in the seventies. His career was cut short when he was injured in a crash while driving for his final team, Maki, at the Nurburgring, following suspension failure.
- 25th: Born today in 1943: Wilson Fittipaldi, who raced in F1 for three years before handing his Copersucar drive to younger brother Emerson
- 26th: Born today in 1958: Adrian Newey
- 27th: Five-times Formula 1 race starter Andre Pilette died on this day in 1993. His best result was fifth place in the 1954 Belgian Grand Prix, driving a Gordini
The round-up will return on December 28th.