In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo will sit out first practice for the next round of the world championship in Japan.
In brief
Ricciardo to miss first practice at Suzuka
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko revealed Ayumu Iwasa will make his debut in an official Formula 1 practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix next week. “On Friday we will use our young pilot Ayumu Iwasa in practice, an all-Nippon team,” he wrote in his column for SpeedWeek.
The 22-year-old has already raced at the track this year when he made his debut in Japan’s Super Formula championship earlier this month, finishing ninth.
Antonelli rues missed podium
Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli scored the best result of his Formula 2 season to date in the feature race at Albert Park. However he was disappointed to miss a podium finish after starting on the front row of the grid.
He said he had a “pretty difficult race” to fourth. “The first stint was really good, I was able to keep up with the front runners. But after our pit stop we were definitely struggling a lot, didn’t have the pace we had yesterday and it was really difficult to drive the car that was quite unpredictable and looked like we suffered a lot more degradation compared to the others.”
His team mate Oliver Bearman, who missed the second round while making his debut for Ferrari, scored his first points of the season with ninth place.
1964 F1 drivers’ trophy up for sale
John Surtees’ 1964 world championship trophy will be offered for sale by Bonhams at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting next month. They estimate it will fetch up to £15,000.
Surtees, who died in 2017, won the trophy while driving for Ferrari, taking victories in the German and Italian grands prix and pipping BRM’s Graham Hill by a single point at the final race in Mexico.
Brazil WEC trophy is rubbish
The winners of Brazil’s first World Endurance Championship round for 10 years will receive trophies created from waste collected around Sao Paulo.
The cups have been designed by Brazilian street artist Mundano. The promoters intend to use waste created at the July race to produce next year’s trophies.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Red Bull employee will go to tribunal should her appeal over Horner case fail (The Guardian)
‘The female employee who made a complaint of inappropriate behaviour against Christian Horner will take her case to an employment tribunal if an appeal against the dismissal of her grievance is unsuccessful.’
Campaigners back woman suspended for raising complaint against Red Bull F1 boss Horner (Daily Mail)
‘I have so much sympathy with this woman because I think there is often this perception that if you do the right think you will be ok, she raised her complaint, followed the process but hasn’t been given the dignity of a proper response.’
Gimmicks or not, some have ideas for a Thermal Club redux (Racer)
‘The track layout, to be honest, makes it so you’re going to destroy your tyres by following people through high-speed corners due to the understeer it creates, so leading is probably the best tyre-saving strategy.’
Lawson edges closer to full-time drive as Red Bull puts pressure on Ricciardo (New Zealand Herald)
‘Should Ricciardo fail to improve over the next two Grand Prix in Japan and China respectively, Red Bull will perform a swap that sees Lawson likely installed in (RB) seat for Miami and remain with the team for the rest of the season.’
Brundle’s Australian GP verdict: Sainz’s win and Alonso-Russell incident (Sky)
‘I personally have no doubt that Alonso intended to wrong-foot an eager Russell heading into a clear overtaking zone, but I doubt he intended such a violent outcome for the Mercedes driver. ‘
‘Having run as a complete reversal of the qualifying order since 2018, the race three format will change this year. Instead, the top 12 drivers from qualifying will be reversed on the starting grid for the final race of each event, with the rest of the grid forming up behind them as per their qualifying classification, the only exception being if penalties are applied during the weekend that are carried into the final race.’
Rosin: Beganovic did ‘nearly a perfect job’ as Prema streak clear in Melbourne (Formula 3)
‘I would say Dino has done nearly a perfect job. Saving when it was the moment to save, attacking when it was the moment to attack and then managing in the best way possible.’
Birth of a single-seater giant: the untold story of Prema’s early years (Formula Scout)
‘After leaving school aged 14 in 1972, Rosin started his career ‘in a very small company in Italy, which is a very famous company to work in motorsport: Trivellato’. The Trivellato family operates a large car dealership in north-eastern Italy, and its racing department was a regular in Formula 2 and F3 in the 1970s, taking Riccardo Patrese to the 1976 FIA European F3 title.’
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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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Many questions being asked why, and unfortunately it’s because of a wider issue facing all Formula 1 teams.
This year FOM has limited the amount of Behind The Scenes content that can go out onto YouTube, primarily due to it’s crossover what Drive To Survive are capturing🙃— Matt (@mattamys) March 25, 2024
I’m glad @IndyCar, unlike @F1, was smart enough to make its experiment with a different format a non-championship event. But the #IndyCar #ThermalChallenge was a barely-disguised advert for a private club which produced a spectacle every bit as poor as #F1‘s tedious sprint races.
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) March 25, 2024
Apparently, we were at a F1 race. 🤦🤦 pic.twitter.com/leoZ2WajFR
— Marshall Pruett (@marshallpruett) March 24, 2024
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alianora La Canta, Fallon, Henrique Pinheiro, Jake, Jorge H., Lyndell D Wolff and Lyndell D Wolff!
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Nigel Mansell scored a surprise win in his first race for Ferrari in Brazil. Johnny Herbert also scored points on his debut in F1’s final race at Jacarepagua.