In the round-up: Fernando Alonso should not have been penalised for weaving in front of Valtteri Bottas on the last lap of the Canadian Grand Prix, says former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean.
In brief
“Let them race” says Grosjean over Alonso penalty
Alonso was given a five-second time penalty for making multiple changes of direction in front of Bottas on the final lap of Sunday’s race. The penalty dropped him from seventh to ninth, and left Grosjean unimpressed.“I really disagree with Fernando Alonso’s penalty,” said Grosjean. “He didn’t deserve one for moving twice on the straight. The back straight is not even straight so how can yo go straight?
“Bloody let them race. It’s good to see wheel-to-wheel action, obviously it has to be under certain limits, but I didn’t feel like that was anything bad. I thought it was good racing and it was exciting to see it.”
Grosjean also criticised the race director’s decision to show the black-and-orange flag to Kevin Magnussen due to his damaged front wing. “Yes, the front wing is going a little bit in pieces but it’s a small piece and if you really want to avoid anything [hitting] the drivers, put an Aeroscreen just like IndyCar, and then the part can fly and won’t hit the driver’s helmet.”
Piastri to make F1 practice debut soon
“He will be in an FP1,” Szafnauer said after the Canadian Grand Prix. “We can tell you it won’t be Silverstone, but it’s not far off.”
After the British Grand Prix F1 will head to the Red Bull Ring. Piastri tested a 2021-specification Alpine at the Austrian track earlier this year.
Latifi’s grandad in the grandstands last weekend
Nicholas Latifi’s grandfather was among his family members who came to watch his belated first appearance as a Formula 1 driver at home. Latifi’s rookie season coincided with the Covid-19 outbreak which kept the Canadian Grand Prix off the calendar for the last two years.
While Latifi comes from Toronto, much of the rest of his family is from the Montreal area. “I had my grandfather, all my immediate family [here],” he said after the race. “Everyone else besides my immediate family still lives here in Montreal.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
The most expensive car park 🚦#canadiangp #formulaone #f1 pic.twitter.com/jyhIa2qCwf
— Roberto_baldea (@BaldeaRoberto) June 22, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Podcast: Bottas, My big break (Motorsport magazine)
'At the end of 2018 I almost stopped. It was so close. Just because of the fact I couldn’t understand and take in the fact that I couldn’t beat Lewis in those two years.'
Verstappen sent secret text message about Hamilton after controversial crash (The Express)
"It read: 'Cannot cope with the pressure that guy hahaha. Don’t worry Tommy, we’re gonna beat him this year.'"
Madrid interested in hosting Formula 1 race (Reuters)
''I would like to confirm our commitment to you and to this project, as well as our willingness to sign the appropriate agreements to promote the race and offer a great sporting and entertainment spectacle,' local government cabinet minister Enrique Lopez wrote in a letter to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.'
Indy Lights runs oval test at Iowa, Rasmussen fastest (Formula Scout)
'He was the only driver to record a sub-20 seconds lap, with his 19.9122s effort having an average speed of 161.167mph. Rasmussen was 0.1030s faster than team-mate Hunter McElrea in second place, with McElrea leading the way early on.'
A race in my words: Doohan (F2)
'We stayed in fifth for the first four or five laps I think. Then as soon as the car started to come alive, we started to slowly overtake.'
'Over the top hypocrisy' of F1 oilsands protest helps Alberta's case, Kenney argues (Yahoo)
"I am happy with what Sebastian Vettel did, because I think? it’s almost like a cartoon caricature of hypocrisy."
'It’s important for the younger generation, if there are kids out there that want to get into motorsport, be they male or female, young boys need to understand that engineering is a normal vocation for females to take, and likewise females need to know it’s one they can have without any prejudice because of their gender.'
F1 22 Developer Deep Dive - Audio and Music (F1 22 via YouTube)
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Comment of the day
Are Ferrari likely to hold the upper hand over Red Bull through the coming races?
The difference in set up choices were no longer relevant after Baku where Ferrari have introduced a new low-downforce package. Ferrari didn’t update the F1-75 in the first seven races and were more than a match to Red Bull who were developing the RB18 at a faster rate. Barcelona is normally the benchmark track to measure the aerodynamic balance of an F1 car and Ferrari were mighty quick there so it’s normal to expect them to be quick in high downforce tracks.
Ferrari only lagged compared to Red Bull on the straights and in the tyre management department. That is no longer the case after the upgrades introduced in both Barcelona and Baku. Ferrari was quicker than Red Bull in both qualifying and race in Bahrein, Australia, Barcelona and Monaco.
Red Bull was quicker than Ferrari in both qualifying and race only in Imola. In Miami Red Bull have had the advantage during the race due its superior tyre management. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia, Baku and Canada were tracks suited better to the RB18, Ferrari was in contention for the win in all those tracks. If you look at the remaining races, the only track where Red Bull might be untouchable is Monza while there will be lots of tracks where Ferrari will be flying.
@Tifoso1989
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Andrew Smith, Daniel and Inc0Mmunicado!
X1Znet (@x1znet)
24th June 2022, 0:51
Obviously Vettel’s “tar sands protest” had an much stronger impact than if Greenpeace had invaded the track. The latter would have quickly been forgotten as “their typical shtick”, whereas the “hypocritical” protest by Vettel is still being written about a week later.
jff
24th June 2022, 6:48
And it’s rather smart protest by Vettel. He raises the awareness about oilsands (which I had to look up) and he indirectly the same about his sponsor (which would be a bit difficult to do directly).
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
24th June 2022, 0:58
What Fernando did was not racing.
Sharing opinions on what constitutes good racing should probably not be in the domain of Mr-once-in-a-generation-race-ban-for-terrible-and-dangerous-racing Grosjean.
bosyber (@bosyber)
24th June 2022, 7:38
Given the evidence he worked hard on himself to be better I don’t think your comment needed that last sentence @proesterchen, but I do agree with the first part, and that Grosjean defends his former teammate, well logical. Still, to me this says that in future his opinion on incidents in F1 can be seen as an outsider who feels hie has a say, rather than as someone who has a solid take and should be listened to.
slowmo (@slowmo)
24th June 2022, 8:19
Didn’t Grosjean pretty much get slated by his rivals in Indycar for his driving standards being dangerous? I wouldn’t put much weight on his opinion of what is fair driving personally.
Bradders (@bradders)
24th June 2022, 8:32
I do. His driving standards in Indycar are no less erratic than they were in F1.
Sviat
26th June 2022, 20:47
I re-watched the race and the episode. I am baffled by the stewards’ decision to penalise Alonso. There was nothing wrong.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
24th June 2022, 1:58
There’s this thing called the rulebook and there’s this other thing called a rule that making 2 or more moves is a penalty. Grosjean can never return to F1. In Indycar they just ram into other cars and nothing is against the rules.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
24th June 2022, 2:45
Why a gossip column from The Express included in a round-up here? Are we going to read personal massage from every other drivers too?
slowmo (@slowmo)
24th June 2022, 8:21
@ruliemaulana in fairness they absolutely would if they could but the phone hacking scandal put paid to that one for the newspapers! Hopefully most people will just ignore it for what it is, a fun comment with no context.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
24th June 2022, 11:40
I lol’ed hard at the headline though. “SECRET MESSAGE”
No, private message, not secret lmao.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
24th June 2022, 3:19
@keithcollantine the doohan article links to a forum thread
re:cotd, time will tell, but Ferrari have missed a lot of chances so far this year that have been completely unrelated to having the faster package or not. They need some bad luck to befall Red Bull, but also to stop making unenforced errors. What package they have is the secondary consideration at this point.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
24th June 2022, 10:10
Thanks for the COTD !
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
24th June 2022, 12:51
Well done :)
Nick T.
25th June 2022, 11:46
We should be talking about that insane black and orange for Magnussen instead. Ocon even admitted he wasn’t worried and only complained over the radio hoping to get past him. Magnussen also rightly pointed out that in Jeddah Hamilton kept going with half his wing off and said Hamilton should have been allowed to do that too.
F1 is becoming such a sissy sport due to the zero risk tolerance of the race directors. Do they even have actual former racers making the calls?
Jere (@jerejj)
25th June 2022, 14:50
Unsurprising from someone who once got a race ban for dangerous driving.