Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, Yas Marina, 2022 post-season test

Alonso to join Aston Martin’s Pirelli tyre test next month

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Aston Martin’s new hire will perform tyre testing duties for the team next month.

In brief

Aston Martin call upon race drivers for Pirelli test

Aston Martin’s new driver Fernando Alonso and team mate Lance Stroll will drive their 2022 car in the Pirelli tyre test being conducted by the team next month.

Pirelli is testing with several teams during the off-season to aid the development of their next tyre compounds for F1, and Aston Martin’s test is taking place at Spanish track Jerez.

The team plan for Alonso to drive on the seventh and Stroll will take over the AMR22 the next day.

Chadwick to continue Williams simulator work

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Williams have announced three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick’s role within their young driver development programme will not change despite the relocation of her racing career to the United States.

Chadwick, who was champion of the Formula Regional-spec-W Series in 2019, 2021 and ’22, will race for Andretti Autosport in Indy Nxt this year.

She was signed by Williams as a development driver in 2019 (with the team’s Driver Academy not created until 2020), and two years ago the team decided to increase her involvement within the team by giving her more time in their simulator in Grove, England.

Williams already announced at the end of 2022 that they would continue their support of Chadwick into 2023, and on Wednesday added that she “will continue with a personalised simulator programme to aid in her progression as a driver and provide valuable support to the team’s race preparations” through 2023.

Sato funded move to IndyCar after F1 career ended

Sato has scaled back to an oval-only campaign for 2023
Takuma Sato has explained on motorsport journalist Marshall Pruett’s podcast how he self-funded his move into IndyCar back in 2010 after his Formula 1 career came to an end.

The Japanese driver raced in F1 from 2002 to 2008, and was in contention to race for Toro Rosso in 2009 but ended up with a year on the sidelines before joining IndyCar with KV Racing Technology.

After 13 years of full-time competition in the series with five different teams, and six wins, he has decided to scale back to only contesting the oval races for 2023 and has moved to Chip Ganassi Racing.

“Of course, all the drivers want to be always professional, always want to be employed and admitted on your performance,” said Sato.

“But sometimes these things are not going that simple, and I thought now is the time I really need to open the door myself even using just pure personal budget, at the very beginning. I was confident that I could get it back in the end. It took time, of course!”

Using his own income, Sato got his first IndyCar seat aged 33. He’s now 45, and has been earning money by driving since then thanks to pay cheques from teams wanting his services but also in earnings from major races like the Indianapolis 500, which he has won twice.

McLaren welcome new engineering scholars

University of Auckland mechanical engineering students Sabrina Yarndley and Joshua Cates have been selected as the latest recipients of McLaren Automotive’s Bruce McLaren engineering scholarship.

The pair will work in Woking’s iconic McLaren Technology Centre for three months, undertaking jobs in multiple departments of the road car firm.

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Comment of the day

There are lots of racing games to look forward to in 2023, and appealing to totally difference audiences. But the hardcore simulators could attract more casual fans with a change that rewards prolonged playing time.

One of the sims needs to invest in a good career mode. Many of them are great as sims but lack any kind of real career mode which is probably offputting to casual players.

Making a career mode (at least in style of Project Cars 2) would open up the playerbase to more casual players.

I am surprised no one does it.
Peyton

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Markg!

On this day in motorsport

  • 65 years ago today Stirling Moss scored the first wins for Cooper and Climax engines in the Argentinian Grand Prix, while Juan Manuel Fangio came fourth in his last home race

Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching Photography back in the UK. Currently based...

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One comment on “Alonso to join Aston Martin’s Pirelli tyre test next month”

  1. SteveR
    19th January 2023, 20:43

    Good for Chadwick, entering a series like this is really the only way to advance her racing career. I wish her luck (and skill).

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