In the round-up: Peter Bayer, the new CEO of Red Bull’s junior team currently known as ‘RB’, admits their former development direction was a mistake.
In brief
“Little brother” team chose wrong development path
The team which competed as AlphaTauri last year began to move its car design closer to that of Red Bull towards the end of the season, when it enjoyed a clear upswing in performance. It intends to continue that trend next year, and Bayer is confident they are now on the right track.
“I think we have everything it takes to be successful in the sport,” he told Motorsport Magazin. “There are various themes, but I think the main reason why we are not higher in the rankings was the belief of some engineers that they can do things better than Red Bull Racing with [designers] Pierre Wache and Adrian Newey.
“Back then they managed to assert themselves. But if you look at the situation today, every team is replicating Red Bull. We are the little brother and we believed we could go our own way. That was wrong and that’s why we are where we are today.”
Carlin becomes Rodin
Junior single-seater team Carlin, former home to many Formula 1 stars including seven drivers in this year’s field, will rebrand as Rodin this year following its takeover by the sports brand owned by David Dicker. “The move boosts the team’s performance ambitions on track and further strengthens the company’s business foundations,” it said in a statement.
Rodin will compete in Formula 2, Formula 3, GB3, British F4, Spanish F4 and F1 Academy this year.
Zagazeta gets Jenzer F3 seat
Jenzer Motorsport has announced Peruvian racer Matias Zagazeta will contest the FIA Formula 3 series for them this year. He finished runner-up in British F4 three years ago and has competed in Formula Regional Europe since then.
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Noda joins Super Formula
Juju Noda will leap up to Japan’s top single seater series, Super Formula, with TGM Grand Prix this year. She will be the fourth woman to race in the series and the first from Japan.
The 17-year-old daughter of three-time F1 race starter Hideki Noda raced F3 cars in Euroformula Open last year, where she won once before leaving the series mid-season. She also sampled more powerful machinery in Boss GP and won the Italian F2000 Formula Trophy series.
Schreiner gets Sauber backing for F1 Academy return
Carrie Schreiner will spend a second season in F1 Academy after being picked to join the Sauber Academy. The one-time Formula E test driver returned to single-seaters last year after spending the previous six seasons in sports cars. Schreiner placed 11th in F1 Academy last year, taking a single victory in a partial-reverse-grid race at Zandvoort.
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Button: ‘If I had to draw my dream car as a kid, the Hypercar would be it!’ (WEC)
‘An F1 car, for example, the technology is through the roof and it’s the pinnacle of aerodynamics. But they’re not as technically advanced as a Hypercar – an LMDh car has 38 pages explaining just what the steering wheel does!’
Tost: ‘Max was too fast for the car’ (Verstappen)
‘We told Max: let Carlos (Sainz) pass (at the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix). After all, we expected him to immediately close the gap to Max with new tyres. But so that didn’t happen. We said: Carlos, if you want to overtake, you must close the gap first. Logically, you can’t expect another driver to step on the brakes to let you pass him, when you are two seconds behind. It was indeed a team order, but it only applies if the other driver is close behind and looks at which corner to swap positions. I am sure that if Carlos had been alongside, Max would have let him past.’
Pitt F1 movie filming expected to continue in IMSA (Racer)
‘In a change from the special on-track sessions at F1 events, it’s believed the IMSA filming will be done during official sessions that will be captured as part of Pitt’s Driven-esque arc that features an ageing driver who is brought back to help a struggling newcomer.’
Luminar and Mercedes-Benz extend partnership to F1 team (Mercedes)
‘The ability to detect still and moving objects at high speeds and under wide-ranging conditions make Luminar’s LIDAR an excellent match for the official FIA F1 Safety Car.’
‘We were choreographing on the passes. For each pass, we’d drive five miles and we’d get pieces of three scenes and go back and do it again and again. These cars made real physical contact with each other, too.’
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Carlin, whose past drivers include @LandoNorris, @GeorgeRussell63, @danielricciardo, @Carlossainz55, @KevinMagnussen, @yukitsunoda07, @logansargeant, @liamlawson30 and many more #F1 stars, has been rebranded as Rodin for 2024.#F2 #F3 #F4 pic.twitter.com/ypQgfdsK0d
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) January 9, 2024
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cameron, Nano Rock, Sams, Ryan-Veitch and Euro Brun!
On this day in motorsport
- Born 80 years ago today: Rory Byrne, who designed world championship-winning cars for Ferrari and Benetton
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