In the round-up: Fernando Alonso fears he will struggle to keep cars behind him in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
In brief
Alonso fears “nothing I can do” to defend from rivals
Alonso says he expects to have a difficult time keeping rivals behind him during the Las Vegas Grand Prix due to their relatively low straightline speed. The Aston Martins of Alonso and team mate Lance Stroll were the slowest cars measured at the timing line on the pit straight during qualifying, which Alonso admitted made him concerned for the race.
“I think we’ve been the slowest car on the straight for 22 races, so that is not a surprise that on the longest straight of the championship we are struggling a little bit,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned he would be vulnerable during the grand prix from cars behind him, Alonso replied “100%. Nothing I can do.”
Hamilton’s first Mercedes fetches record price
The Mercedes W04 Lewis Hamilton drove to his first grand prix victory for the team at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2013 has set a new record for the highest fetching price for a modern F1 car at a public auction.
Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 from McLaren and raced chassis number 04 in the first 17 rounds of the championship, including a single victory in that year’s race at the Hungaroring. Chassis 04 went for auction at RM Sotheby’s with an estimated price of between $10m-$15m, but was eventually sold for a total of $18.8m (£15.09m).
It is the only car raced by Mercedes since their return to Formula 1 as a manufacturer in 2010 not owned by the team, by team principal Toto Wolff or by Hamilton himself.
Albon reveals delta failure
Alexander Albon has revealed he struggled without a delta time available in the cockpit of his Williams during qualifying. He was one of six drivers who failed to adhere to the maximum lap time between the two Safety Car lines in the session, but all six were cleared of driving unnecessarily slowly.
“My delta time wasn’t working, so I didn’t [know],” he said. “Nowadays they are so strict on our [maximum] Safety Car line times and because it wasn’t working I was stressed because I didn’t want to get a penalty for no reason. So I was reliant on the radio to tell me whether I was going too quickly or not.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Las Vegas Grand Prix offer of a $200 discount doesn’t go far (AP)
‘The offer doesn’t apply to the majority of fans who purchased three-day passes. And the $200 gesture doesn’t go far — at all. There are a number of ways, though, to take advantage of the $200. Someone could spend it all on one item, such as a quarter-zip racing team pullover, but that doesn’t cover the roughly 8% Nevada sales tax. For a little more bang for the buck, consider a $160 racing team sweatshirt and a $40 Las Vegas Grand Prix baseball cap, though again the tax would be on the consumer.’
NASCAR, IndyCar drivers watching F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix for different reasons (Autoweek)
Ross Chastain: ‘I’ve become a fan. I wasn’t a fan 15 years ago, but I was 10 years ago, and I’ve just slowly kind of just watched from afar. I’ve never been to anything, been to any events or anything. I’m glad that we’ve got more events on this side of the pond and love that more people are watching.’
Las Vegas Grand Prix: Tom Jones song a Max Verstappen favourite (BBC)
‘Verstappen, 26, who has won the last three F1 world championships, started out his early career in the company of his father Jos, also an F1 driver. The pair used to drive across Europe to karting meetings for the budding young driver, listening to his dad’s favourite Tom Jones songs, including Green Green Grass of Home.’
Every traveller needs to try Hamilton’s hotel hacks (Men’s Journal)
”I’ve never been a great sleeper. For years I would go to bed at two or three in the morning and sleep for about five hours. But, to be honest, that worked for me, because our days are leading up to the the main event, which is later in the afternoon. So if I wake up at five in the morning, I’m probably peaking a lot earlier in the day than if I wake up at eight. So I’m sticking with waking up later, though these days I’m trying to get more like seven hours of sleep a night.”
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri breaks down racing movies (GQ Sports via YouTube)
‘Formula 1 driver Piastri breaks down some of the most famous racing movies of all time, including ‘Grand Prix,’ ‘Le Mans,’ ‘Cars,’ ‘Speed Racer,’ ‘Gran Turismo,’ ‘Rush’ and F1 documentary, ‘Schumacher.”
Development Update – November 2023 (iRacing via YouTube)
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.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Joao and Matteo!