Motorsports

Mercedes seeking to make Grosjean’s F1 test happen

Sportem
Sportem
9 Min Read

In the round-up: Romain Grosjean’s planned Mercedes Formula 1 test has not been abandoned, over two years after it was postponed.

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In brief

Grosjean’s Mercedes F1 test hopes not over

Mercedes announced in May 2021 that Grosjean would conduct a Formula 1 test with them at Paul Ricard the following month. Grosjean’s F1 career had come to an early end the year before following a shocking fireball crash in the Bahrain Grand Prix which split his car in two and left him nursing burns to his hands.

However the planned test had to be put on hold after F1 made changes to the 2021 calendar. With Grosjean racing full-time in IndyCar from the following year, and F1’s rules making opportunities to test limited, the date has not been rescheduled.

Grosjean has since lost his Andretti Autosport seat and his plans for next year remain unconfirmed. RaceFans understands Mercedes, having done a seat fit in overalls with Grosjean back in 2021 ahead of his planned run in their title-winning 2019 car, are still looking to make the long-awaited test happen.

Mercedes F1 team’s 2022 profits revealed in accounts

The annual report and financial statements from 2022 for the Mercedes F1 team have been released by Companies House, and reveal the team made a profit in their first title-free year since 2013.

In total Mercedes’ turnover of £474.6 million was an increase of £91.3 million over 2021’s numbers, and that equated to a big year-on-year jump in profits too with a climb from £68.8 million to £89.7 million. Therefore following 2022 the team had to pay out £75 million (up from £55.2 million the previous year) in dividends to shareholders due to their large profits.

Mercedes spent £35,097,000 on race car development during their title-winning 2021 season, which increased to £41,016,000 last year as they sought to make up ground on the dominant Red Bull.

IndyCar working on lighter aeroscreen

IndyCar president Jay Frye has provided an update on the work to lighten the series’ aeroscreen, a safety device surrounding the cockpit of the Dallara DW12 that was introduced to the car in 2020.

“It’s basically a version two of it [in development for 2024]. It will do the same thing from a safety perspective, which I think we’ve seen numerous times it’s come into play in a big way. So we’re very grateful for that,” Frye explained.

“Pankl PPG have done a really good job of lightening up the current version, so it’s going to be a lighter model. Which we’re trying to lighten up the overall car. There’s going to be some, one of the things with it, the original piece, was driver cooling. So we’re building some driver cooling elements to the new screen, so yeah it’s going to be good.”

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