In the round-up: Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich is told he should draw encouragement from the example of his 2019 predecessor Nyck de Vries, who will become a full-time Formula 1 driver with AlphaTauri next year.
In brief
Drugovich has patience needed to reach F1 – Krack
Drugovich won the F2 title last month with three races to spare and was later confirmed as Aston Martin’s junior driver. The team’s principal Mike Krack said the team were impressed by the maturity he showed in his title campaign and believes that, with patience, he can earn an F1 chance like De Vries did.“One thing you always have when you look at drivers is that very often if they are not winning F2 in the first year or F3 in the first year, they quickly get to be drawn into ‘second best’ [drawer], which I think especially in the case of Nyck is not a fair judgement.
“We looked at Felipe, we were quite impressed by the maturity of his racing. He was not hot-headed in many, many races, brought it home and was one of the few not affiliated to a junior programme, to an academy. They went their own way and this is quite impressive.”
The previous seven drivers’ champions in F2 (formerly GP2) drove for powerhouse F2 teams Prema and ART. Drugovich won his title with MP Motorsport.
“To even choose, maybe not one of the famous teams for his third year, I think shows the kind of self-confidence they were having,” said Krack. “And they brought it home and for us that was very impressive.
“So, I think Felipe and his environment are very professional, they have a very good understanding of the scene, and they will have the required patience for Felipe to get into F1.”
Every inch matters in midfield fight – Zhou
Zhou Guanyu said the Japanese Grand Prix was a difficult weekend for Alfa Romeo as the team failed to score for the eighth time in the last nine races.
“Overall this weekend after trying the new package and new front wing it’s looking positive, but we need a little bit more time to understand exactly,” he explained. “But overall I think it’s not an been easy weekend. It’s so close in the midfield battle, every little inch matters here.”
Zhou, who was racing at Suzuka for the first time last weekend, said he “learned a lot” from his debut at the track.
IndyCar swaps Florida test venue for California
IndyCar’s first pre-season test of 2023 will take place at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs in California. The series has previously run at Sebring in Florida.
President Jay Frye described the circuit, frequently used by club racers and sports car drivers, as “a new and unique backdrop” for the series and a “spectacular” facility. The drivers will use the venue’s North Palm and South Palm circuits combined to create a 17-turn, 4.6-kilometre circuit.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Kleine overtreding Red Bull; wereldtitel Max Verstappen niet in gevaar (De Telegraaf - Dutch)
The report claims Red Bull's excess spending under the 2021 budget cap is in the region of '1 to 2 million dollars'.
Rokit leaves trail of millions in deserted deals, lawsuits and bankruptcies (Variety)
'With its bankruptcy stay now lifted, Williams Racing is finally set to get a hearing for its Rokit arbitral award in late November.'
Simpson staying with HMD for 2023 season (IndyCar)
'HMD announced after this season plans to field eight cars in Indy Lights in 2023. So far, the team has named Simpson, Josh Green, Christian Bogle, Danial Frost, Nolan Siegel and Christian Rasmussen as drivers in 2023.'
Crawford’s found his silver linings after missing out in 2022 title fight (F3)
'Going into the summer break, I started to think about the Championship a bit and then afterwards, that’s where I made the mistake in Qualifying at Spa. At Zandvoort, I had a lot of pace because I wasn’t really thinking about the Championship. It was a big dynamic throughout the season and what I learned the most is not to think about the Championship too much.'
Dion Gowda joins Carlin's British Formula 4 team for 2023 (Carlin)
"Born in India, but racing under a Singaporean flag, Gowda made the commitment to move to the UK to continue his racing career having fallen in love with the sport. Joining forces with karting legends Ricky Flynn Motorsport since the 2020 season, Gowda has been learning his craft in multiple championships."
NIO launches three car models in Europe and shows off Gen3 livery (Formula E)
'The state-of-the-art facility in Silverstone signals the team's intent, and marries with the manufacturer's push into several key European markets. All eyes are on the Anglo-Chinese outfit's performance come testing in December.'
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:
Firstly I want to thank @WSeriesRacing for the opportunity they have given me. It’s been life changing and I am so grateful to everyone that has been involved and supported me to this point 🙏🏻 We all wanted to finish this season on track but I am very proud to be a 3x Champion 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YBt2EVt5FJ
— Jamie Chadwick (@JamieChadwick) October 10, 2022
Last week, the FIA also described reports that Red Bull and Aston Martin could be in trouble as "significant and unsubstantiated speculation and conjecture".
Now, they have confirmed two new breaches… by Red Bull and Aston Martin.https://t.co/akMj4WvX6i
— Will Wood (@RaceFansWill) October 10, 2022
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
As Red Bull’s cost cap violation could have been by as much as $7.25 million, should the FIA have given a more precise indication of the scale of their transgression?
I am amazed the figure has not been provided. Give me an estimate to the nearest million, round down to the nearest million if need be, but are we talking like $20,000 or $7 million overspend? There is surely no way they can try and justify a penalty, whether harsh or lenient, without giving an indication of the overspend.
Sam
Happy birthday!
No RaceFans birthdays today
On this day in motorsport
- 30 years ago today Luca Badoer clinched the Formula 3000 championship by winning the penultimate round at Nogaro in France
Ruben
11th October 2022, 1:42
I agree with @willwood there. The FIA should get their communications together. Why not “decline comment” on speculations? Why not announce the penalty for AM and RBR immediately?
All this leads to is team managers with time to spin the story their way, articles full of speculation and comment sections filled with nonsense and hatred.
S
11th October 2022, 2:15
I think they said exactly the right thing, so as to discourage further unsubstantiated rumours to be spread from within F1.
Regardless of what they say, though, nasty people will always make things up to discredit others.
Ruben
11th October 2022, 4:26
Well, it’s a bit of egg-on-face when you’re first very fierce about singling out specific teams only to reveal a week later that the press was right. Why not “decline to comment” or “can confirm nor deny” instead.
Sadly true.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th October 2022, 6:44
I assume that was a typo and you meant “encouraged”, since that’s what happened. There were many more rumours after the FIA attempted to claim the rumours were false than beforehand, due to the FIA’s lack of credibility.
S
11th October 2022, 9:39
If that’s your assumption, your assumptions are discouraged.
Thank you for providing a soft example of my final sentence, though.
All the FIA were doing is asking everyone to stop talking in a negative manner about F1 until some facts have been presented. Surely that’s justifiable in their position, isn’t it?
PaulT (@pault)
11th October 2022, 3:47
The FIA cannot “immediately” announce penalties because there is a process they must go through to determine what they will be, and it is first dependent on RBR and AM responses to the non-compliances. It’s described in detail here –
PaulT (@pault)
11th October 2022, 3:48
PaulT (@pault)
11th October 2022, 3:50
Can’t get the link to work. It’s a Jonathon Noble/ Autosport article dated 11 October.
Ruben
11th October 2022, 4:20
The effort is appreciated!
I see that there is/should be a process to be followed, but having a suggested penalty included in the verdict to which teams can protest would be better in my opinion.
jff
11th October 2022, 8:32
It’s a pity normal links to other sites don’t work.
maybe it works like this: https://bit.ly/3Td5uXi
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th October 2022, 6:46
@pault That makes the whole thing even more suspect than I thought, because it would be easy to conveniently change whether there was a breach, or the nature of that breach, in response to what the team responses said.
Team responses belong to after judgment is rendered, not before.
aaa123
11th October 2022, 11:56
I think the FIA’s statement re: rumours and the like stem from the likes of Wolff fomenting trouble by claiming that “it’s an open secret that one team is massively over the budget cap”.
The fact that the rumours about which teams were over the cap turned out to be true does not change the context of the FIA’s reaction to strongly worded statements by people who legally could not be in possession of all the facts. To be clear I’m not trying to say this was all Wolff’s doing, but his willingness to be soundbite guy does make it easier to use him as an example.
I can’t believe I’m defending the FIA, what a bizarre year this is!
someone or something
11th October 2022, 2:24
Rokit leaving behind a trail of unpaid bills and hungover business partners feeling defrauded? Who could’ve possibly seen it coming?
As it turns out, pretty much everyone. I mean, if I can say “I told you so“, that’s not a very high bar.
And, in contrast to my largely gut-feeling based cynism, William Jones did an excellent job of putting some flesh on the “money laundering” bone.
Add to that the fact that the whole episode was rife with oddities. Jonathan Kendrick boasting that he used to be a ‘tyre engineer’ for Alan Jones – at a time when, mathematically speaking, he must’ve been no older than 20 – which absolutely no one could remember, but everyone at Williams seemed to just shrug it off and roll with it? The whole story about Claire Williams claiming in apparent earnest that putting a bottle of brown sauce on the meeting table may have tipped the scales in favour of the sponsorship deal?
Those were never, of course, obvious red flags. Double-waved yellows, more like. Be extremely cautious and be ready to stop at any time. Still, I wonder how that many people could so oblivious to what a scam looks, tastes, feels, and especially sounds like. Did no one follow F1 in the Nineties?
The comment section in the “brown sauce” article is an interesting excavation site for F1 fan sociology (I was going to say “gold mine”, but nah). The majority seemed to welcome the deal and express positive sentiments and wishes for Williams’ future. So far, so unspectacular.
A minority, including myself, could not help but comment that something smelled oh so fishy.
And a third group thought it fitting to attack the second group, occasionally personally and ferociously, for daring to insinuate that Rokit may be nothing but hot air and bad news (well, now we know how that turned out).
I’m not sure what my point is here. There may be several. One of them might be the fact that the second and third group would probably no longer be a minority on this site, but comprise 90% of the comment section and be even nastier to each other. But I think what impressed me the most back then was the collective lack of scepticism of vast groups of F1 fans who could be thrown of the scent of something that looks, swims and quacks like a duck if it carried a sign saying “Ceci n’est pas un canard” (if they additionally knew any French, that is).
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th October 2022, 6:48
@someone or something At the time, Williams was desperate for money. Jordan encountered at least one major scam (Gametrac) in its attempts to keep itself afloat in 2003-2003. The difference is that in Williams’ case, it worked long enough to find itself a buyer (and the fact Williams could maintain confidence and not upset its sponsors unduly – paying or otherwise – likely helped in securing one).
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th October 2022, 2:46
Re: COTD & Will Wood tweet
This makes me wonder how big the chance that this cost cap saga is just a ploy to drive engagement so F1 still on the news even after they have WDC a bit too early.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
11th October 2022, 6:38
Not everything is a nefarious plot.
Sometimes things just happen because the process is followed and have results at some point in time.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
11th October 2022, 6:49
@ruliemaulana Not a very effective ploy if so – little use in being in the news cycle if it puts people off the series when they notice it.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th October 2022, 7:19
@alianora-la-canta maybe it just an Austin build-up show. There’s still a chance that Red Bull only get a fine.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th October 2022, 22:13
@ruliemaulana Still underlines my point that F1 would have been better off avoiding the cost cap saga altogether by not dragging it out and ruling on it in a manner consistent with the evidence thus far presented.
Grapmg
11th October 2022, 16:15
The sad thing is that the polarisation between the Max and Lewis fans is back after it faded slowly this year. The Japanese audience showed us how F1 should be with a great atmosphere and respect to all fans.