In the round-up: Sauber believe they have a chance of scoring points this weekend after finishing best-of-the-rest in Bahrain.
In brief
Qualifying key to Sauber points chance
Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi drew encouragement from the team’s performance in Bahrain where Zhou Guanyu rose from 17th on the grid to finish 11th.
“We saw what we can deliver in race conditions, having been convincingly the sixth-best team in the race in Bahrain, and we think we can make one further step this weekend,” he said. “We know where we need to improve, both in terms of car and in terms of execution.
“Our single-lap performance has to be better, as positions higher up the grid would allow us to be in the thick of the battle for the final points-paying positions right from the start of the race, and we need to keep working to refine the set-up of the car to extract its full potential.”
Saudi Arabian GP stewards confirmed
The four stewards for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix are FIA stewards Nish Shetty and Matteo Perini, ex-F1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi and national steward Hassan Alabdali. Shetty and Alabdali officiated the same race last year, during which FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is alleged to have pushed for Fernando Alonso’s post-race penalty to be overturned.
Las Vegas tickets available next week
Tickets for this year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix will go on sale to the general public on March 25th. Advance sales to American Express card members will begin 12 days earlier and locals will be able to buy tickets from the 22nd.
New seating options will be offered this year including more than 7,000 general admission tickets. These will be priced at $600 for a three-day ticket, or $125, $225 and $350 respectively for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All prices exclude taxes and fees.
Car site pulls F1 essay
Why did Road and Track earlier this month publish, then delete from its website, a 5,700-word behind-the-scenes account of Saturday at last year’s United States Grand Prix? Kate Wagner wrote the piece after taking up an offer to attend the race as a guest of Mercedes F1 team sponsor and part-owner Ineos.
The piece, published under the title ‘Behind F1’s Velvet Curtain’, was described as a “skewering” of F1 by The Washington Post. Road and Track’s editor-in-chief Daniel Pund told Defector, “the story was taken down because I felt it was the wrong story for our publication,” and denied they been put under pressure to remove it. “No one from the brands or organisations mentioned in the story put any sort of pressure on me or anyone else.”
An archived copy of the article can be read here.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
The week Horner will try to shut down the scandal for good (Daily Mail)
‘Mintzlaff has been portrayed as part of the Austrian end of the energy drinks company that objected to Horner’s increasing reach within the organisation over recent years. However, it is probable that his arrival will end up being a tacit show of solidarity with the embattled team principal.’
‘At last weekend’s grand prix, the season opener in Bahrain, footage emerged of Horner having an intense discussion with the arguably even ghastlier father of his unbeatable driver, world champion Max Verstappen, while his Spice Girl wife private-jetted in to kiss him for the cameras with the 1000-newton jaw clench of a wronged Tory wife.’
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Sorry, boys — F1 is for the girls now (Business Insider)
‘The double standards aren’t lost on them. ‘If a guy gets something wrong, it’s fine, we’ll gloss over it,’ Sridhar said. ‘If a girl gets something wrong, they know absolutely nothing.”
Third BMW hypercar at Le Mans ‘a possibility’ for 2025 (Sportscar365)
‘We know how brutal Le Mans can be with technical problems, with crashes or whatever. So the more cars you have, the higher the chances that you get through.’
Analysing the first race for WEC’s new ‘Behind Closed Doors’ BoP (Racecar Engineering)
‘The question is: how much were the others playing a BoP game of their own? Few in Qatar believed that what we saw was the absolute truth.’
New job, new colours, new car: Castroneves unveils 2024 Indy 500 livery (IndyStar)
‘(Racing at 50) was always my goal, but I don’t want to just ‘do it’. I feel like we’re still very competitive, and not only just to win, but to make people go crazy here, and that’s what I want to do.’
Motorsport UK Safeguarding Review (Business Insider)
‘Following the conviction and sentencing of Michael Kellard, Motorsport UK’s statement on 14 December 2023… committed the organisation to conducting a full review of the matter and consequent actions available to us. Motorsport UK confirm that LimeCulture, a UK national safeguarding organisation based in the UK, have been appointed to conduct the review.’
Race highlights Qatar 1812km (WEC via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
He was an inspiration to all, and I think we can all take a leaf out from his heads-up attitude.
Cancer is a terrible disease that breaks people and families down without any remorse. So I wanna take this opportunity to say f*ck cancer.
Rest in peace mate. #JP ❤️ pic.twitter.com/NOXOP46SUM
— Christian Mansell (@CMansell_Racing) March 5, 2024
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Bac!