In the round-up: Lando Norris believes former team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr should have held out for a potential seat at Red Bull
In brief
Sainz “should have gone to Red Bull” – Norris
After Williams announced that it had signed Carlos Sainz Jnr to partner Alexander Albon at the team for the 2025 season, Lando Norris said he would have liked to have seen his former McLaren team mate move to the Red Bull seat currently occupied by Sergio Perez instead.
“I don’t know what their [Williams] plans are,” Norris told Sky.
“Honestly, the easy one is just to say Red Bull – he should have gone there, in in my eyes. Obviously, I’m biased – I know Carlos more than I know Checo, but Carlos deserves a lot. He’s one of the best drivers in Formula 1. He’s proven that countless times. And I’m a good friend of his. I’m happy for him that he’s still in Formula 1, I’m still happy that he got a drive and that he can try and bring Williams back up.
“Him partnering Alex, I think it would be good for Formula 1 at the same time – so that’s a good thing. But I’m sure a lot of people would love to say that he should have gone to Red Bull, potentially. But that’s, not my decision to make.”
High upgrade rate sign of Mercedes’ improvement – Shovlin
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, says the team’s increased rate of bringing upgrades to their car in 2024 reflects the team’s improvement this season.
“The rate of them [upgrades] is really high at the moment, Shovlin said. “Which is just a feature of how well the organisation’s working.
“A lot of success in Formula 1 is about learning and it’s about ideas and at the moment the rate of learning has been high this year, the generation of ideas has been good. And ultimately that’s where all the new parts and new developments come from.”
Crawford craving more consistency
Aston Martin development driver Jak Crawford says he wants to find more consistency over the final four rounds of the Formula 2 season.
The DAMS driver sits fifth in the championship after the Spa-Francorchamps round on 100 points. He says he wants to score more regularly than he has been and that will be his focus over the summer break.
“From my side, I think it’ll be about about how can we be more consistent over the rounds,” he said.
“We have a bad round where we score zero points and then we have a round where we’re fighting for a win in the feature race and then we have a bad round and so on. So it’s been quite up and down, to be honest. So we need to find a way to be more consistent, especially in qualifying. And from my side, just preparing myself for these final races which are very crucial. I think I want to be on it and learn from my mistakes this year and make sure that I never let them happen again.”
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Links
Video: Building the new Aston Martin F1 team factory – Part 7 (Aston Martin)
‘Building One has been operational since last year, with the AMR24 becoming the first Formula One car to be designed and produced inside our new state-of-the-art home. Meanwhile, Buildings Two and Three are now very close to being fully operational. Building Two accommodates a new driver simulator, a restaurant, a gym, and a vast event space. Whereas Building Three will house our new wind tunnel and our model shops, providing an area for our engineers and designers to continue developing our cars. Watch the video below as project manager Guy Austin take us through the latest updates to Buildings Two and Three.’
Stanek only ”50-50” on continuing F2 season beyond Monza (Formula Scout)
”Basically, we had a contract only for 11 rounds, so it looks like I’m not going to race after Monza. Now it’s fully open. I don’t know. It’s up to my management also, so in this period of summer break, we will try to decide.”
1997: Karting star Lewis Hamilton set for F1? | Black Britain (BBC Archives via YouTube)
‘Black Britain caught up with Lewis Hamilton and his dad Anthony as the 12-year-old was making waves on the UK’s karting circuit. Could he possibly become a star in Formula 1? Many challenges remained on the road to stardom, but McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Formula 1 scout Bill Sisley were both confident he would make it. Clip taken from Black Britain, originally broadcast on BBC Two, Wednesday 19th November 1997.’
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