Norris: Discussions with Red Bull before McLaren deal no more than a “chat”

In brief

Norris: Contract discussions with Red Bull were no more than a “chat”

Norris signed a multi-year contract extension to remain with McLaren until the end of the 2025 season early this year. After recently revealing he had preliminary talks with Red Bull about a race seat, Norris clarified that they amounted to little more than a casual conversation.

“I spoke to them, I spoke to a few other people,” Norris explained. “But, like, a chat’s a chat. It’s not like, ‘what can we do’ straight away.

“It was just coming to the end of the contract when you just see what options are available. You just kind of find out what might be possible over the next few years. It wasn’t just Red Bull – every driver has chats with a lot of the different teams about what could happen, and simple as that, basically.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that the team has had multiple speculative discussions with Norris over the years about the prospect of racing with his team.

“We’ve spoken to Lando a couple of times over the years, but every time we’ve had a conversation, the next day he signed a contract with McLaren,” Horner said. “He’s on a long-term contract with McLaren and looks like he’s going to be there for a few more years.”

Indy Lights rebranded as ‘Indy NXT’

The IndyCar feeder series Indy Lights has been rebranded as ‘Indy NXT’ as of next season. The championship’s branding refresh is intended to “inspire and relate to Generation Z and young talent.”

The 2023 Indy NXT series will run as originally scheduled, starting off alongside the IndyCar series in St Petersburg on March 5th. This year’s series champion was Linus Lundqvist.

Mini steps up to FIA F3 with Hitech

Formula Regional European Championship runner-up Gabriele Mini will step up to the FIA Formula 3 championship next year with Hitech, the team announced.

The 17-year-old has competed at Formula Regional level the last two years with ART. This season, he took fourth place in the Formula Regional Asian Championship with two race wins, despite missing a round, and came second to Dino Beganovic in the European series with three victories.

Formula 1 extends AWS data partnership

Formula 1 has extended its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and will debut new graphics at this month’s season-ending grand prix in Abu Dhabi.

AWS provides data points that FOM display as visual graphics on the world feed coverage, including telemetry analysis of rival drivers through corners, overtaking difficulty predictions, projected pit stop outcomes and more.

From the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, AWS will introduce a new ‘track dominance’ graphics, which will visually display which micro-sectors on the circuit each driver is fastest around.

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Domenicali, presidente de la F1, recorrió Barranquilla con Pumarejo (El Heraldo - Spanish)

Following the Mexican Grand Prix F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali visited the city of Barranquilla in Colombia which is looking to host a round of the world championship potentially dubbed the Caribbean Grand Prix.

Formula 1 Expects a Las Vegas Race to Be a Good Bet (New York Times)

"One thing we did at the outset of this project was reaching out to the local community that would be affected by our track, to hold out that olive branch from day one and say, ‘We know we’re going to cause you noise and disruption, but we think this is for the good of the city, and we want to make sure you’re a part of that conversation.'"

Verstappen and Grosjean to compete in 6 Hours of Spa (FIA WEC)

"The two-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen will line up in the #1 Oreca 07 LMP2 fielded by Team Redline. His team-mates will be Jeffrey Rietveld and Maximilian Benecke. Verstappen will be joined on the grid by R8G Esports team owner and IndyCar star Romain Grosjean. He will share the wheel of his team’s #7 Oreca with Martin Hemmingsen and Ulas Ozyildirim."

Ferrari raises profit forecasts as losses mount at Aston Martin (Financial Times)

"Italian sports car maker Ferrari raised its annual profit forecasts after bumper results, while UK rival Aston Martin suffered an earnings downgrade that sent its shares plummeting."

The 'no comfort' approach behind delivering an upgrade (McLaren)

"In June and July, we were in aerodynamic development, and it started to show enough promise for us to create more detail on this from a planning perspective. We spent a lot of time in July making sure that the performance step was enough because the scope of work and cost was high. The operational side of the team was going into a lot of detail to be certain and de-risk all aspects because the scope of work was so vast, and it involved taking the chassis out of service."

Jack Doohan: My greatest influences (Formula 2)

"When I joined Trident, it was off the back of the worst year in my racing career in 2020. One of my first test days in F3 was with Giacomo at Monza and straight away, it was really good, so Giacomo decided to sign me after that one test day, and he saw what I could do in one of his cars. He had that faith in me, but he did so much more than that."

Rahal Purchases Prize Past Pieces in Newman/Haas Auction (IndyCar)

"Rahal purchased two cars important to him, including the No. 06 Dallara in which he won his first race (the 2008 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg). The other car was the No. 2 Panoz he drove as a Champ Car World Series rookie in 2007."

Season 8 rookies ranked and reviewed (Formula E)

"Standing head and shoulders above his fellow Rookies - and a couple of Formula E veterans for that matter - was Avalanche Andretti's Oliver Askew. Fresh from the world of IndyCar and IMSA, the American driver tried his hand at all-electric racing, which proved a success."

British pilot is the first female quadriplegic racing driver ever (Guinnes World Records)

"People often ask me how I control the car: if it’s more difficult, whatever they are imagining at that moment. But I don’t know any different. To me, the question is the same as this: how does it feel to drive with your feet? That is a natural thing for you."

SF Full Access - 2022 Mexico City GP (Ferrari via YouTube)

"Our 2022 Mexico City GP was straightforward. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc did their best, but today, as indeed was also the case over the rest of the weekend, the F1-75 did not have the pace to match that of the other top teams."

Horsing Around in Texas (Daniel Ricciardo via YouTube)

"Let me just quote the late great Colonel Sanders. He said, I'm too drunk to taste this chicken."

WRC Generations - Launch Trailer (PlayStation via YouTube)

"WRC Generations is the first rally game to include hybrid cars and all the changes they bring to the competition, WRC Generations also includes all content that appeared in previous games in the franchise, while introducing some major new features such as the Leagues Mode, Team creation, a Livery Catalogue so you can share your custom liveries and stickers to other players and Cross-platform compatibility to all asynchronous modes!"

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1588230199094681600

BACK ON TOP!!! 📢

Two-time champ @jarno_opmeer managed the Mexico race magnificently to take his first W of the season! 👏🏆#F1Esports #F1 pic.twitter.com/a3t71K7Ll1

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 3, 2022

A message to our fans: pic.twitter.com/wuA2BZHim8

— F1 Las Vegas (@F1LasVegas) November 3, 2022

Ushering in a new era.#INDYNXT by @FirestoneTires has arrived. pic.twitter.com/HKFoYn2iiv

— INDY NXT by Firestone (@INDYNXT) November 3, 2022

After 8 fantastic years, its good bye for me from @MahindraRacing .
I started there as a race driver in 2015 and later moved into my role as special advisor.
In my first race I secured the first ever podium with and for the team. pic.twitter.com/qKCAkVLBRa

— Nick Heidfeld (@NickHeidfeld) November 3, 2022

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• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

With teams debating whether to introduce a second factory shutdown period into Formula 1 over the winter, PeterG worries about team staff members being stretched to the limit with the current calendar…

Just further highlights that there are too many races now.

But money is clearly more important than the good of the sport and those who actually work the most hours within it.

Already saw some reports earlier in the year about an increase in staff turnover and i expect that is only going to get worse as more simply decide to walk away rather than put up with the increasing ridiculous number of races as well as the apparently brutal double and triple header weekends.

Sports going in the wrong direction on several fronts and when the bubble it’s in bursts it’s going to end up far more worse off.
PeterG

Happy birthday!

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On this day in motorsport

• 10 years ago today Kimi Raikkonen famously told his race engineer ‘I know what I’m doing’ on his way to victory in Abu Dhabi, while Vettel raced from the pits to the podium