In the round-up: Alfa Romeo’s Xevi Pujolar says Valtteri Bottas is bringing a “positive mood” to the team since joining from Mercedes
In brief
Bottas galvanising Alfa Romeo around him – Pujolar
Alfa Romeo’s head of trackside engineering, Xevi Pujolar, says Valtteri Bottas is bringing a “positive mood” to the team since joining from Mercedes.Bottas finished sixth on his debut with the team in Bahrain and was running ninth in Saudi Arabia before an overheating problem ended his race. Pujolar says that Bottas is bringing more to the team than just speed out on track.
“His performance, I think is impressive,” said Pujolar. “But on top of that, what is helping on top of the performance is the positive mood he’s giving to the team and to the other driver.
“He’s fast and he’s bringing the team with him. And I think that’s the key. It’s not only about going fast on track, but then also to make sure that the team is following you, here, at the track and at the factory and with the other driver.”
Norris “would love to look forward to” returning to Jeddah
Lando Norris said that he was “relieved” to have got through the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend and that “We love racing, under any circumstance all we want to do is race, and that’s what we love. It’s why we do the jobs we do.
“But I guess it’s a nervous place to be, as drivers and everything and it’s just you’re going to have these nerves and that’s why we had the chats that we did. But we got given the reassurance from everyone and Saudi and everyone that we were safe. And I think from my side and I think everyone’s side, we believe that and we had to believe it and it’s true, so I’m happy.”
“Whether we come back here or not,” Norris added. “I mean, I would love to look forward to it because it’s a fun track and it’s good fun. But those are discussions we’ll have after the weekend.”
Bustamante and Noda join W Series Academy programme
Teenage W Series racers Bianca Bustamante and Juju Noda will race with the W Series Academy programme for the next two seasons, the series has announced.
Bustamante (17) and Noda (16) are the two youngest competitors in this upcoming W Series season and will be teamed together during the championship. As part of the academy programme, the pair will benefit from dedicated engineers throughout the season as well as receiving coaching on their driving and racecraft.
“All my life, I’ve had my sights set on Formula 1, and now my racing career has taken a big step in the right direction thanks to W Series,” said Bustamante. “There’s still a lot of work to do, and every day I’m learning because everything is still new to me. I’ve enjoyed every moment so far learning what it takes to become a professional driver, and I’m going to give it my all both on and off the track.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Met Mick Schumacher on Sunday and had a long talk with him. Great to see him well after that crash and looking forward to see Mick back racing in Australia in a couple of weeks.@fia and @F1 have done an excellent job in improving driver safety. #f1
— Mika Häkkinen (@F1MikaHakkinen) March 28, 2022
Well done to my team @AlpineF1Team for pushing the boundaries and making this happen. I hope this can serve as inspiration for young girls everywhere to pursue their dreams in the world of motorsport. pic.twitter.com/ksXShtUfp9
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) March 28, 2022
Looks like @F1's UK audience has continued to remain high into the new season. Understand an audience of over 2 million watched yesterday's @F1 #SaudiArabianGP on @SkySportsF1, making it the third most watched race ever on #SkyF1, only behind Saudi and Abu Dhabi last year.
— Dave Nelson (@f1broadcasting) March 28, 2022
F1, IndyCar, SF, F2 and F3 being behind a paywall in the UK now means @IndyLights is probably the top level of single-seater racing you can watch live in Britain?
— Ida (@wood_ida_) March 28, 2022
The #F1 car park after Sunday's race.#SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/52CbYmGrBz
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 28, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
"The IndyCar series raced at COTA in 2019 but isn't targeted for a return. Epstein said, 'Our three major races (F1, NASCAR, Moto GP) work well with our calendar, so we're happy with that.'"
"Leclerc and Verstappen came up through the junior ranks in the same generation and for over a decade have battled each other for race wins in go karts, entry level single-seaters, and now the fastest racing machinery on the planet. That shared history has allowed them to build up an innate understanding of one another’s tactics, habits, personality and limits on a circuit. So far at least, they know exactly when and where to push each other, and when to draw back."
As energy returns to Melbourne, ‘Netflix effect’ supercharges F1 (The Age)
"I’ve had first-hand experience of people I wouldn’t have thought were interested in F1 buying tickets and telling me they’re coming along because of Netflix. It’s been a marketing phenomenon."
Fans choose time capsule design to be buried at our new factory (Aston Martin)
"After a massive public vote, our partner JCB will create and bury a specially designed fan-chosen time capsule at our new Silverstone headquarters. The winner was the recreation of a modern Formula One chassis, complete with integrated roll-hoop and Halo, decorated with the Silverstone layout and a Union Jack flag."
Nyck de Vries on becoming Formula E World Champion and his hopes for 2022 (Ellie Does F1)
"Quite quickly after jumping out of the car and seeing everyone, realising that we are the first world champions, I started to become emotional.The whole season included a lot of different emotions and to finally come out on top was just a massive relief."
"The word 'smuggling' kind of understates the scope of what Randy Lanier and his associates did; their organisation shipped some 600,000 pounds of marijuana into US ports via speedboats and later barges, according to federal prosecutors. He was probably one of the biggest cannabis brokers in American history."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
After the thrilling battle for the win between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc on Sunday, @oweng only wishes that the TV director had allowed us to see more of it.
I was screaming at the TV while those replays were happening. It was infuriating! The director seemed to think it was ok to spend the majority of the lap showing the replays and slow mo crowd shots of the action at the end of the previous lap, cutting to the live action just before the end of the current lap. So we missed watching the cars set up for the next battle.
In F1 the action isn’t just what happens at the point of the overtake attempt, it can take a whole lap to set up so watching the cars during the full lap is key to seeing all that unfold.
F1, there’s plenty of time for replays after the race or on your social media content. Please let us see more live action.
Same goes for cutting away from an on-track battle to show a midfielder trundling down the pit lane.
@oweng
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Blake, Hatebreeder, Thekingofspa, Fanl and Wsrgo!
On this day in motorsport
- 20 years ago today Juan Pablo Montoya took pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
29th March 2022, 0:50
I honestly don’t mind the replays, Gives you a chance to see things you may have missed live so I love getting a few different angles in the immediate aftermath when it’s still fresh in the mind.
Most broadcasters don’t stick around for long post race & not every fan has time to either so hold them off & showing them all after is a silly idea as many would miss them. And likewise not every has social media or wants to wait around for a few hours trying to remember & find the relevant bits you want to see again so that is also a silly idea to hide all that stuff away outside of the race broadcast.
Maybe they could look at keeping the live feed on screen in a small box in the corner or something during replays (No split-screens as I want to see replays full-screen) but not showing them at all or holding off for too long is something I really wouldn’t like to see as I like seeing them in that immediate aftermath.
Also disagree about showing the cars further down the order pitting as that stuff is important to how the races play out these days. Again though maybe a compromise would be to show that stuff in a box on the tower on the left side as they did with some things at times last year.
I do agree about garage/crowd shots though. Sometimes showing that stuff can add something but most of the time it doesn’t so maybe only show that sort of thing if it is really adding something to the coverage. Sometimes seeing a crowd reaction or the pit reaction can add some weight to a situation as it shows the tension, excitement, frustration or whatever & crowd shots can also help bring some of the atmosphere of the venue to viewers.
I do wish they would stop pumping in the canned crowd noise though. Been a few times over the 1st races races when the cheering we have heard has been crazy yet looking at the grandstands it doesn’t look like anybody is really reacting the way it sounds so think that is fake audio been pumped in unnecessarily perhaps?
pastaman
29th March 2022, 1:56
The problem is the cutaways to the crowd and the replays were being shown at the absolute worst times
theRealMax (@millionus)
29th March 2022, 8:49
Couldn’t agree more with COTD. It’s when they pan for 1 minute on a car in the pits which is broken down, it’s not even in the race any more…! So show the race. Aaaarrggghhhh
Bradders (@bradders)
29th March 2022, 9:18
Huh. Good point about the crowd noise. It never occurred to me that it could be canned. It does indeed sound exaggerated.
oweng (@oweng)
29th March 2022, 12:06
I disagree that it’s a “silly idea” to ask that the live action is left uninterrupted. You wouldn’t show a replay of a shot in football while the attack was still going on.
I wasn’t calling for a ban on all replays during the race, just for the timing and the balance to be better. We missed a lot of important race action that was deciding who would win, just to show a replay of something we watched seconds ago.
Steve K
29th March 2022, 4:42
Funny enough, Indy Lights has been behind a streaming paywall in the USA for a few years now. I used to love watching GP2 (it was called back then) and Indy Lights. They just vanished from my TV never to be seen again.
grat
29th March 2022, 20:36
My interest in Indy has dropped quite a bit now that everything but the race is behind the Peacock.
Don’t bother with F2, either.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
29th March 2022, 6:26
Thanks fot the birthday shoutout. I was 14 when I made this account back in 2008, and I turned 28 today. Half my life I’ve spent as an F1 fanatic and a Race fan. Kind of mind-blowing.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th March 2022, 7:36
Amazing, right @wsrgo. Have a great birthday!
RandomMallard
29th March 2022, 8:33
Wow that’s amazing @wsrgo. Happy birthday
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
29th March 2022, 11:02
Many thanks @bascb and RandomMallard!
Qeki (@qeki)
29th March 2022, 14:13
@wsrgo Happy birthday! My account isn’t as old as yours but I also visited this site for the first time in 2008!
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
30th March 2022, 4:35
Thanks a bunch @qeki !!
Red Andy (@red-andy)
29th March 2022, 6:40
Bit harsh on Formula E there, Ida.
The F1 viewing figures are interesting. So much for the hordes of fans who were never going to watch again after Abu Dhabi.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th March 2022, 7:16
COTD was spot on, during the 2nd lap of the VER/LEC battle I too found myself cursing out the director for showing crowd shots and replays when the battle was still very much going on. The replay I can deal with, at least it’s showing something interesting, but why on earth is such a thing not shown in Picture-in-Picture as it is during other sports?
The crowd shots are just stupid. I don’t mind a crowd shot every now and again, but I shouldn’t be looking at celebrating crowds instead of the thing I’m actually interested in when it’s happening. Add it to the end of a replay later on in the race when there’s nothing going on.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
29th March 2022, 7:16
Leclerc and Verstappen never raced each other in junior series. All it takes is a Google.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2022, 8:22
@hahostolze True, only in karting in the early-2010s.
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th March 2022, 8:26
@hahostolze You have to learn to NEVER trust google as you noticed.
Max and Charles drove against each other in WSK Euro Series – II Round 2012 – sabato: Verstappen, LeClerc, Filini
Both were DSQ as Charles said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVQ6dXTYW78
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
30th March 2022, 4:37
@macleod Junior series refers here to junior formulae, single-seaters basically, which is restricted to cars, and doesn’t include karting.
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th March 2022, 7:15
@wsrgo Ok then your right offcourse but i think the writer thinks those are included (included me)
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
29th March 2022, 8:06
I’m with Xevi Pujolar. As it happens I finally got around to watching D2S episode 8 (Bottas) and 9 (Jeddah) at the weekend and the timing couldn’t have been better: seeing Valtteri’s dignity in facing the difficult facts that, first, he would be leaving Merc, and second, that he could never really hope to match his truly extraordinary team mate, was another reminder of why he deserves our admiration as a person and as a driver. So Bottas’ apparent resurgence is one of the happiest emerging storylines of the year to me, and I like to think it shows that he didn’t simply get to Mercedes, find his limit and stagnate or fall back. Instead he was tested and tempered and turned into the best driver he could be, and now takes that fortitude, refined judgement and leadership qualities to an environment that desperately needs them. I really hope that, with the pressure off in so many ways and with a new and more realistic challenge in front of him, he can continue this year in the way he has started (and that we don’t see any more technical DNFs!)
Qeki (@qeki)
29th March 2022, 8:20
Met Michael Schumacher on Sunday and had a long talk with him. Great to see him well after that crash and looking forward to see Michael back…
@fia and @F1 have done an excellent job in improving driver safety. #f1
and then I read it again…
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th March 2022, 8:28
@qeki I hope you met and talk with Mick because i don’t think you talk to his father Michael.
erikje
29th March 2022, 12:18
Maybe you should read the articles above before you react.
That will clear things up.
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th March 2022, 7:18
I did read it but was my attempt on the little misspelling which clearly failled.
Mika Häkkinen
@F1MikaHakkinen
Met Mick Schumacher on Sunday and had a long talk with him. Great to see him well after that crash and looking forward to see Mick back racing in Australia in a couple of weeks.
And Oki wrote Micheal … never mind it’s not important.
Qeki (@qeki)
29th March 2022, 12:45
@macleod It would have been a dream to meet either of them
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2022, 8:21
Good for Alfa.
He should. I’m sure the same anxiety about safety will be unnecessary in the future.
Re Ida’s tweet: SF races get live-streamed on RB Motorsports YT channel.
Re Racefans tweet: I.e., the world’s most expensive car park.
Re COTD: I didn’t mind the replay amount or timings in the race.
I don’t feel they were any more nuisance than in other races bar Monaco GPs to an extent.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
29th March 2022, 8:25
Regarding COTD, i also find the coverage choices poor. they spent so long filming Ricciardo and Alonso it seems they didn’t notice bottas slow right down and lose positions. Even during the safety car (when it was appropriate to do so), I don’t understand why they never showed a replay of Bottas’s issue.
I also think all the graphics are overkill with the time being wasted with the drivers smugly folding their arms with a fake f1 engine sound filling the screen!
Kevin C (@kev-f1)
29th March 2022, 9:47
With all the overheating going on this weekend – I’m wondering just how many retirements/failures we are going to get this season as the summer approaches… Cool the car and cool the brakes seem to be common themes across the first 2 races!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
29th March 2022, 10:01
Bottas is galvanizing Alfa because you see Finnish drivers are particularly adepted to this new E20 formula.
Sergey Martyn
29th March 2022, 10:43
C’mon! Alfa has been galvanized by Kimi!
Bottas is just reaping the harvest
Carsten Nielsen (@carstenb)
29th March 2022, 12:23
Absolutely agree with COTD, especially during Leclerc vs Verstappen duel it was unbearable to watch replays without any visibility of the ongoing duel.
Has anybody got views on the “updated” timing graphics in F1TV? Last year they often had the picture in picture in the timing column, this seems to have been axed in 2022. And I believe we se way too little of the actual time differences, even if the timing app is available. The problem with the timing app is that live timing comas almost instantaneous while the streaming has too much delay (30-40 sec – more or less half a lap) For long periods of times they show either current tire selection or number of pitstops made, I don’t need a prolonged view of the tires current tire. And during quali – although obvious for real fans – they don’t make it clear who the 5 dropouts are in Q1 and Q2 (in my case the wife gets a little confused – in 2021 this was much more clear.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
29th March 2022, 13:15
@carstenb I think the PIP in the timing tower will likely return at some point as for whatever reason after the last few graphics package refreshes certain features haven’t been part of the new package immediately & then been reintroduced over the 1st few races of the year.
We haven’t seen the Halo telemetry overlay or the telemetry overlay they introduced for the nose-cam towards the end of last year either & i’m sure both will be back over the next races.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
29th March 2022, 13:44
TBH the replays never bothered me, Was just not something I thought about as I was watching live so I was kinda surprised to see so many complaints when I looked online afterwards.
I get those saying they could be held back & shown a bit later but I guess a potential issue with that is that you could then end up with several laps of stuff to show replays of meaning you have an extended period away from the live action. I think it’s better to get them in as quickly as possible so your back to live action before they get back to the part of track where something may happen & they can of course always end the replays early if they see it getting close before that.
I think the same when I often see people complaining about them showing the start replays. I like seeing those as it’s impossible to catch everything live so I like getting the replays to catch the things I didn’t spot live & when they are shown so relatively soon after the start the things I may want to look out for are still fresh in my mind, If they hold off too long & other stuff happens it’s easy to forget to look out for certain things.
I think they could look at using a PIP box to show the live action during the replays.
Something along the lines of this perhaps:
https://i.imgur.com/8rqQxNE.jpg
Carsten Nielsen (@carstenb)
29th March 2022, 15:19
If this kind of PIP was inserted it would help immensely.
I understand the need to show some replays, but 3 replays of the same highway overtaking which we sometimes have is – IMHO – overkill and downright annoying. If the situation is controversial, brilliant or race defining; by all means show it in several angles, details, slowmo etc but for fairly straight forward overtakes I don’t need to see it multiple times while missing the live action.
DaveW (@dmw)
29th March 2022, 15:38
The replays and crowd shots were unbearable. I felt like they wanted to maximize use of those zoomy transition graphics.
I do feel like most directors have backed off on the slow zoom-ins of WAGs and random conventionally attractive women in the stands.