In the round-up: Lando Norris he is confident that McLaren CEO Zak Brown is leading the team in the right direction.
In brief
Norris confident McLaren are taking steps forward under Brown
McLaren announced this week they have signed Red Bull’s chief engineering officer Rob Marshall as their technical director. He will join another new signing, Ferrari’s David Sanchez, at the team next year.
Norris said it is a positive sign for his team’s future. Asked how much faith he had in Brown’s vision for McLaren, he answered: “I would say a lot. Even more now than in the past.”
“I guess I would never want to say that I have no belief and I never have said it and probably won’t,” he continued. “But definitely since the last few changes, there have been a lot of good things coming from that, both in terms of mood, atmosphere, but at the same time, also performance and things to look forward to in the future.
“Not everything is purely direct in Formula 1. A lot of things take time. So I guess you have that part of it too, but definitely things have taken a step forward so I can easily confirm that and say it with confidence. But, until we see it, that’s the timely part.”
No rethink over Aston Martin’s Monaco pit call for Alonso
Fernando Alonso insists Aston Martin made the right decision to risk pitting for slick tyres first as rain fell during last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. The move surprised many, as six drivers before him had taken intermediates, and he returned to the pits the next lap for the same.
“I think it was the right decision,” Alonso told media including RaceFans. “Maybe if you have a crystal ball and you know the conditions, you know who stops, who doesn’t stop and then finally it rains and you need the inters – 100% you stop for inters.
“What I don’t like in Formula 1 is that we see always the negatives and we all see everything very easily from the sofa. I tell you an example: If we stopped for inters, this week we will only talk about the wrong decision of Red Bull for stopping one lap too late for Max. We would never say that Aston Martin was very brave and chose the right tyre – we would only talk that Red Bull chose the wrong tyre and they stopped Max one lap later. This is the other mentality of Formula 1, the unlimited search for perfection, which is not possible to reach some sometimes.”
Le Mans hypercar BoP changed after all
The FIA and Le Mans 24 Hours organisers the ACO are changing the Balance of Performance (BoP) for the hypercar class for next weekend’s blue riband endurance race.
Toyota have won all three World Endurance Championship rounds so far this season. A joint statement by the FIA and ACO said that the strict parameters governing each of the hypercar models would be modified as the performance difference between them was “greater than initially anticipated.”
“Considering these factors, and following an in-depth analysis of available data,” the statement continued,” the WEC Committee has decided that the goal of ensuring a level playing field within the Hypercar class will be best achieved by implementing correction between, but also within, the LMH and the LMDh platforms.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1, county take on repaving costs for Las Vegas Grand Prix (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
“County documents do not note the potential cost of the paving work. It was previously noted in March by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO Steve Hill that F1 was seeking $37 million for the infrastructure work.”
Lewis Hamilton’s Vegan Neat Burger Revs Up US Expansion with $18 Million Raise (Vegnews)
“A new vegan fast-food spot in every major city backed by your favourite athlete? This fantasy can soon be a reality because this week, vegan chain Neat Burger announced it has raised an additional $18 million from new and existing investors, including Formula 1race car champion Lewis Hamilton.”
Indianapolis 500 TV ratings see 2% bump, biggest share in 15 years (Indy Star)
“NBC saw a 2% bump year-over-year in its TV ratings for Sunday’s red-flag-heavy Indianapolis 500, which averaged 4.92 million viewers when combining the traditional NBC broadcast (4.71 million) and streaming on Peacock and NBC’s online platforms (216,000), according to Fast National Data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.”
Detroit Grand Prix to kick off in downtown after decades (Detroit Free Press)
“I worked down here in the eighties when the grand prix was here. It was fabulous. The streets were filled, businesses benefited, people could watch out of buildings, and I never felt, once it moved to Belle Isle, it was ever as connected with the city.”
Can anyone stop the Kiwis in Jakarta? (Formula E)
“Last season in Jakarta, we saw air temperatures over 30 degrees, and it was Evans who mastered the heat to win the inaugural race here. The New Zealander perfectly calculated a late-race lunge for the lead and didn’t look back. So far this season, we have already seen two hot ones in Hyderabad and Sao Paulo, and in both races, Cassidy and Evans were amongst the cream of the crop.”
Ferrari 499P hybrid powertrain: how ERS and 4WD work (Ferrari)
“The Prancing Horse cars can only use the positive torque unleashed by the electric unit at over 190 km/h, that is, in specific conditions and on certain sectors of FIA WEC tracks. At Le Mans, these conditions occur near the final part of the Porsche curves and in the initial part of the track when exiting the Bugatti circuit and entering the 24 Hours circuit. At Monza, the venue for the fifth round of the 2023 season, drivers take the second turn of the Ascari chicane and the Parabolica corner, which leads onto the main straight at speeds of over 190km/h.”
FIA delegates complete location check at planned Auto Moto Park Albania (FIA)
“The venue is to be set by the city of Elbasan, roughly 40 kilometres from Albania’s capital city, Tirana, and 75km from the second biggest city in the country, Durrës. The initial target for the circuit is to obtain grade three of FIA circuit licence, allowing racing with cars of power to weight ratio of 2-3kg/bhp and therefore open to classes such as Formula 3, Formula 4, TCR and GT3.”
Mawson resigned to Supercars wait after FIA snub (V8 Sleuth)
“I’ve had support from Motorsport Australia to basically endorse and get myself upgraded but the FIA have simply stuck to their regulations, which means the revision is done at the end of the year in November/December. We requested an earlier revision but the FIA didn’t even respond.”
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