In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel says the F1 order at the start of the year is unlikely to change under current constraints.
In brief
Cost cap making it harder for teams to rise up order
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel thinks the competitive order in Formula 1 is unlikely to change much before the end of this season due to the impact of the cost cap on the development race.“It’s the same old game,” he said. “Nothing has changed. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember. So I have never seen a team starting last in the beginning of the season and all of a sudden being in the front at the end of the season. You don’t catch up. And probably this is the hardest year to catch up because you can’t spend money. It is what it is.”
Mini sets the post-season pace as F3 test starts at Jerez
While Formula 1 and Formula 2 do not finish their 2022 seasons until late November, Formula 3 already has and is spending this week at Spanish track Jerez to do three days of post-season testing.
Gabriele Mini, protege of former FIA president Jean Todt’s son Nicolas, set the pace on the opening day with the Hitech GP team.
The Italian set his fastest lap in the morning session, heading Art Grand Prix’s Kaylen Frederick and Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti. Frederick came to the fore in the afternoon session, but could not match the earlier pace, while several teams switched focus to doing longer runs. The test action was stopped several times by incidents, one of which Mini caused after he topped the times.
Alonso adds F3 racer Marti to his driver management stable
Formula 3 racer Pepe Marti has joined A14 Management, the driver management company owned by Fernando Alonso.
Launched only six months ago, the firm already supports the careers of drivers in Formula 2, Formula Regional, Formula 4 and karting, and 17-year-old Mart is the fifth signing.
He came third in Spanish F4 last year, stepped up to Formula Regional Asia and came second, then made an even bigger step to race in F3 where he came 26th in the standings in his rookie season. He already had links to Alonso through the F1 world champion’s Kimoa clothing brand.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
British F4 Esports series returns for third year with £6,000 prize (Formula Scout)
'The British Formula 4 championship will have an official Esports counterpart for the third year running with the announcement of a six-round series taking place this Autumn.'
'Ginetta Junior, the starting point of Lando Norris's car racing career, will leave the TOCA support bill after 15 years to support British GT.'
Argenti Motorsport add Isaac Barashi to British F4 driver line-up (British F4)
'Argenti will complete the 2022 season as a four-car operation after confirming the signing of Barashi. The 17-year-old has tested extensively throughout the year with the team to gain valuable experience and mileage in the Tatuus T-421, and will now round out that programme with his first competitive action, starting at Silverstone this weekend.'
Exclusive: The plan of the Argentine Franco Colapinto to be able to reach F1 (Infobae)
'The 19-year-old has the chance to race for the next two years with MP Motorsport, the reigning F2 champion. With that team he will take part in F3 post-season testing.'
Andretti Autosport optimistic ahead of Chadwick's Indy Lights test (Racer)
'Andretti Autosport president J-F Thormann has been the driving force behind the team’s Indy Lights and Road To Indy programs for as long as the outfit has been involved in junior open-wheel racing. Among all of the future stars who’ve worked their way through their Indy Lights program, few have drawn as much attention as W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who will conduct her first test for the team on Wednesday in Sebring.'
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.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
That restart lap at @Brands_Hatch 🤩@JarrodWaberski, @Jacksherwood78 and @tommills_21 make it three different leaders inside one tour of the legendary Kent circuit! pic.twitter.com/fEYB50QtQf
— GB4 Championship (@GB4Championship) September 21, 2022
This morning, we took some time out with Sebastian to visit Stoke Mandeville Hospital, meeting NHS staff and patients at the National Spinal Injuries Centre to learn more about their ground-breaking work. pic.twitter.com/TPMjJN5UqW
— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) September 21, 2022
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The FIA’s announcement of the 2023 F1 calendar, which has expanded to 24 grands prix as anticipated, prompted many questions about how serious the talk of emissions and cost-saving were by the FIA and F1. The races in North America are under particular scrutiny for not being grouped together, but would that have been the best solution for the paddock?
It isn’t really clear how much can be saved by ‘bundling’ the North American races. Yes, it looks and sounds like a good idea to put some of Montreal, Miami, Texas and Las Vegas in a group, but is there really any saving?
The distances between them are great enough that they will still be fly-in events. Just too far to go by road in the time available. Typically 3,000km+ between them. Shortest hop, Miami to Austin, 2,100km. Mexico and Brazil are flights regardless.
Just think of the cultural exchange opportunities having the team personnel spending weeks on end in the heartland of the USA, going hotel to hotel…
NS Biker
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cwojdek, Mattb, Radoye, Sato113, Onmar22 and Ommar22!
On this day in motorsport
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
22nd September 2022, 3:55
There is never a hardest year for excuses.
jff
22nd September 2022, 7:07
But flying 3,000km is better than flying 13,000 for a round trip.
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
22nd September 2022, 7:20
I am not sure why is RaceFans lately referring the french F2 and F3 team as “Art”. It is “ART”.
Re flights and emissions, the problem is not the spread of the American/Asian races, but the fact that, even if you put them together in the calendar, people still travel from the venue back to London the Monday after, and then back to America/Asia the week after. You do not only have to put them together in the calendar, but make them back-to-back. And I am not sure teams and journalists would accept triple back-to-back out of Europe. Probably the best solution is conventional back-to-back, i.e.:
– Flight to Canada from Europe.
– Next week race in, say, Miami: flight from Montréal to Miami.
– Flight to Europe again from Miami.
MacLeod (@macleod)
22nd September 2022, 7:49
@diezcilindros – typing Art is just lazyness of us as holding shift while typing is a lot of work to type ART.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd September 2022, 7:27
Mclaren in 2009 is a pre-cap example.
Regarding COTD, the shortest distance both via air & road is between Austin & Mexico City.
However, I agree that grouping all North American mightn’t necessarily be for the better, but rather over climatic conditions than travel distances between locations, especially Montreal’s.
The only thing wrong with NA event schedulings is essentially not grouping LV with COTA & Mexico City despite being at the tail-end like them.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
22nd September 2022, 8:09
For me it’s strange why Miami is a standalone event. Is there any reason for it not to be double header with Montreal in June?
George.be
22nd September 2022, 7:53
Comment of the day is BS: Even a short air-hop is better than two transatlantic flights, and a lot of equipment can travel 3000 miles by truck in about 60 hours. The 1300 miles between Austin and Miami or Vegas is little more than the distance of Zandfoort to Monza… Montreal and Mexico are quite a distance, true, but at least the M-A-V or V-A-M are doable.
But maybe there are other reasons to keep their dates apart (get the same attending public on two or more events). At least be honest then, and say so.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
22nd September 2022, 13:42
Pastor Maldonado. LOL
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
22nd September 2022, 20:20
Mini’s never gonna get picked up by Mercedes or Audi – he’ll have to change his name!
some racing fan
23rd September 2022, 8:11
I had responded to the COTD with the point being that you could pair all the Americas races (except for Miami) the easiest in autumn- provided F1 goes to Montreal in September 2 weeks after Monza, and Singapore and Japan are moved to April. From late September onwards Montreal is too cold for an F1 race- F1 used to hold the Canadian GP in late September before 1982- and the first race in Montreal in 1978- the one Gilles won was held on 8 October- and it was 5C (41F) on race day.
The only thing about Miami is that it is much harder to hold that race in autumn because of the NFL regular season, which takes place from September to January, and the University of Miami college American football team also plays at Hard Rock Stadium, usually on Saturdays when the Dolphins aren’t playing there. The Dolphins play there at a minimum of 8 times a year (16 games in one season, 8 at home and 8 away, and up to 11 times if they have a successful season), and F1 could possibly have a race in Miami in November, if they coordinated with the NFL and the NCAA- which is already a lot of work for all 3 parties.
some racing fan
23rd September 2022, 8:20
Also, the absolute stupidest thing of many stupid things about this calendar is the one week gap between Vegas and Abu Dhabi. There are 11 time zones that seperate Vegas from Abu Dhabi- and Emirates does an A380 flight directly between Los Angeles (270 mi/432 km from Vegas) and Dubai (85 mi/139 km from Abu Dhabi) that, depending on the conditions can take 15 to 16 1/2 hours.
It’s the same with Baku and Miami- a flight between Baku and Miami via Istanbul can take up to 15 1/2 hours, depending on the conditions (around 3 hours from Baku to Istanbul, and 12 to 12 1/2 hours from Istanbul to Miami, plus the layover).
hyoko
24th September 2022, 12:47
Of course, Seb, for you it is pretty hard to catch up. Nigh impossible