In the round-up: Toto Wolff says that Mercedes are changing their entire car for 2024
In brief
Mercedes changing ‘literally almost every component’
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says that his team will change almost every part of their car for the 2024 season.
The team finished second in the constructors’ championship last year, far behind rivals Red Bull, after sticking with their ‘zero sidepods’ aerodynamic concept
We are completely moving away from how we laid out the chassis, the weight distribution, the airflow. Literally, there’s almost every component that’s been changed, because only by doing that I think we have a chance. We could get it wrong also.
FIA “pretty strict” on wind tunnel compliance
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough says that there are robust systems in place to prevent wind tunnel data transfer between them and Mercedes as they used the Mercedes facility during construction of their new wind tunnel.
“The FIA are pretty strict and do a lot of inspections and all that stuff,” McCullough said. “Dominic Harlow comes and visits the teams.
“For us with Mercedes, it is absolutely shut down to one, open to the other. Different access doors, different people running the sessions. So I think from confidentiality things, obviously with the relationship we have with Mercedes it’s very robust from that side. And the FIA, that’s their job to police all that.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Ferrari biopic puts viewers in the driver’s seat (The Age)
Patrick Dempsey: ”Why I think the movie is so good is that it captures the essence of racing. Which is that it takes such a toll on family. People are on the road all the time. There is the danger that they miss their children growing up, things like that. But if you want to do anything, something is going to be sacrificed. I don’t think you can find balance. Either you’re all in, or you’re not. That’s what’s great about this movie. It’s about loss, mourning and wounds.”
Stella reveals the moment McLaren’s 2023 F1 season turned around (Speedcafe)
‘Difficult to mention one in particular. I just go by instinct and feeling in trying to answer your question, and as I do so, what comes to my mind, almost in a visual way, is the early laps in Austria. We had, in Free Practice 1, Lando was in the new car and Oscar was in the previous car, and I could see in telemetry that Lando, thanks to the new car, he was able to carry quite a lot more speed in the corners. I remember thinking to myself ‘this looks good’.”
10 Sports Business Predictions for 2024 (Boardroom)
Toto Wolff: ”Racing in New York, in Manhattan, if that were ever to be possible, that would be great without discounting all the other venues. We’ll find a way around that’s spectacular. I don’t know where it would be, but racing on Fifth Avenue? It would be amazing.”
Raymond Vermeulen: ‘We are living a childhood dream’ (Verstappen.com)
Vermeulen, Verstappen’s manager: ”Stefano Domenicali is someone who seeks out communication and asks us for our opinion. And of course I know that Max does have a voice in the world of Formula 1. So for example, Max in Spa: we like it when that race is on the calendar. We like that the Netherlands is going to extend the Zandvoort contract, or when the circuit promoter just does a very good job. Because everything that happens there also kind of reflects on us. So we are enormously proud when we see that Zandvoort arranges everything so well. Really, they’ve done that very well.”
‘Once a future megastar, Magnussen is still waiting for a competitive car’ (Motor Sport)
‘Kevin Magnussen is a dear friend, as I say, and he is also a good person. He is a loving husband and father. He is a very experienced F1 driver, he is extremely fit, and his battle scars have made him not only wiser but also shrewder than he used to be; yet he is still only in his very early 30s. He is almost as embedded at Haas as Max Verstappen is at Red Bull. More’s the pity, perhaps. He could still win grands prix, and even F1 world championships, if the right opportunity were to knock. But, sadly, it almost certainly will not.’
Worst Indycar Season Ever? (TyDye RacingGaming via YouTube)
YouTuber TyDye RacingGaming chronicles the poor 2015 IndyCar season for Dale Coyne Racing.
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