In the round-up: Yuki Tsunoda says his team mate apologise for the first-lap tangle between the pair in last weekend’s sprint race.
In brief
Tsunoda gets a Baku breakfast apology from de Vries
Tsunoda has revealed Nyck de Vries apologised to him on Sunday morning in Baku after the AlphaTauri pair clashed in the previous day’s sprint race.
Damage from the collision led to Tsunoda’s retirement after just two laps, while de Vries was able to continue and went on to finish 14th.
“We didn’t have a chat [after the sprint],” said Tsunoda on Sunday. “But this morning when we were eating breakfast he came to my table and apologised to me. So that’s all good. We just reset completely and we said ‘let’s race strong’. So we’re all good.”
It was a reversal of fortunes in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday as de Vries retired after nine laps while Tsunoda scored a point by finishing tenth.
Sargeant “extremely disappointed” to let down Williams
Williams’ Logan Sargeant said he was “extremely disappointed” to let down his team on Saturday in Baku as he crashed into the turn 15 wall during the ‘Sprint shootout’ and as a result missed the sprint race.“I mean, it happens,” he said after finishing 16th in Sunday’s grand prix. “Obviously, it’s not what I want to happen. I’m extremely disappointed to have left the team with a big, big, big crash damage and a lot of work for the boys to do overnight.
“But I’ll learn from it, I’ll move on, and I did my best to execute a good race today. That’s all I could really do. And I look forward to Miami and try to be better there.”
Alfa Romeo retired Zhou to save his engine
Alfa Romeo’s head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar has revealed the reason why Zhou Guanyu pitted to retire in the final third of the Azerbaijan GP. Zhou had been running in 18th at the time, ahead of only one other car and far away from a potential points finish.
“So, Zhou, we had an issue on the cooling system. That’s why we had to retire, just to make sure that we don’t damage the engine,” Pujolar told media including RaceFans.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Paddock buzz: Newgarden persists despite 'evil' damage (IndyCar)
'Team Penske put two drivers on the podium of Sunday's racer at Barber Motorsports Park. The team’s other driver soldiered on with a damaged car. Josef Newgarden wasn’t sure what was wrong with his car in the opening couple of corners of the 90-lap race -- he thought it was a right rear tire losing air pressure – but television replays clearly showed contact from Felix Rosenqvist.'
McLaughlin hails ‘most complete’ IndyCar victory (Speedcafe)
'Scott McLaughlin has ranked his fourth IndyCar win as his most complete after taking to Victory Lane at Barber following a race-long strategic battle with Romain Grosjean.'
Pourchaire 'in a lot better position than last year' to fight for F2 title (Formula Scout)
'The results of the weekend Baku placed Pourchaire in the points lead. The Frenchman acknowledged that he is 'in a lot better position than last year' to fight for the title, not only because of the amount of points he has scored in the first four rounds compared to his rivals, but for his current form.'
Maini: ‘Not getting too greedy’ vital to building consistency in Baku redemption (Formula 2)
'In a weekend that threw plenty of curveballs the drivers’ way, Kush Maini continued to showcase himself as ‘Mr Consistent’ of the 2023 field. Despite an underwhelming qualifying performance in his eyes, believing that the potential was there for pole, the Campos Racing driver shook off the frustrations to secure back-to-back points scoring finishes in Baku.'
Committed, spiritual and a prankster: What is was like to work with Senna (McLaren)
'Ayrton's no.2 mechanic, Gary Wheeler, on what it was like to work with the Brazilian.'
New experiences in store for F1 Miami (Sports Business Journal)
'Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and CEO Tom Garfinkel are intimately involved in the race. After spending millions of dollars on the buildout of the campus for last year’s inaugural race, Ross has continued investing. A new permanent paddock club has been built above the team pits area, whereas last year’s paddock club was held in an existing section of Hard Rock Stadium. The event is moving the paddock village area to the Dolphins’ football field, where fans who buy a general admission ticket can look down from the 300 level and watch the happenings among the personnel gathered from 10 F1 teams.'
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 to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Squeaky clean start 🧼🫧#AzerbaijanGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/2RLh89Fo4R
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 1, 2023
Miami, we're on our way. 🇺🇸#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ybDvch43Ns
— Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake (@alfaromeostake) May 1, 2023
Was doing the trackside commentary so haven’t been tweeting this weekend but could see this unfolding and actually tried to deliver a warning Ocon was due in if they could hear the tannoy. Huge breakdown in communication and set-up should never have started #F1 #AzerbaijanGP https://t.co/PurFtxH6jl
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) April 30, 2023
"Aggressive but calculated."@RGrosjean with the pass around @smclaughlin93.#INDYCAR // #INDYBHM pic.twitter.com/mhpxNGYtgL
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 30, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix and revised sprint race format was not a great advert for F1. There was little overtaking, Safety Car interruptions and crashes too. But one RaceFans reader found a few ways to enjoy Sunday’s otherwise action-free encounter.
F1 always had races with less overtakes and eras with dominant teams and drivers.
This wasn’t even close to the worst; just the triple overtake by the world champions made this race worthwhile to watch. Let’s also be grateful that Perez has found an extra gear. Also no need for Sky commentary, as you can now listen to Alonso’s onboard radio analyses and advice.
And the sprint race might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but the quali for the sprint this weekend was very exciting.
I enjoyed the weekend, and relived part of it reading this article.
couldntstopmyself
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Adam Kibbey and Ruliemaulana!
On this day in motorsport
- 30 years ago today Giancarlo Fisichella won round three of the Italian F3 championship at the super-fast Enna-Pergusa circuit, pipping Andrea Boldrini by just four-tenths of a second
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd May 2023, 11:26
I fully share COTD’s view.
Simon
2nd May 2023, 12:30
Color me all shades of surprised :/
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd May 2023, 12:53
Very solid view in that CotD, I largely agree. The race was full of tension for the lead and we did get some decent action at several moments. Alonso is a gift that keeps giving this year, really enjoying that too.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
2nd May 2023, 14:38
Hearing that fan engagement was down quite significantly over the weekend based off the various social media metrics they are monitoring now.
Also early signs seem to be that the Friday GP Qualifying session was the least watched (Afternoon UK/Europe time) qualifying session since 2005, That the Saturday morning Sprint qualifying session was lower still & that the sprint race itself drew a smaller audience than Qualifying usually does when in that slot on a Saturday afternoon.
It also seems the reason they were keen to push through the revised format used in Baku as quickly as they did was that as each sprint weekend has gone by there seems to be less interest in it and the concern is that the novelty factor of a different format may be wearing off. The hope was that modifying the format would bring in new interest but based off the Baku weekend that doesn’t seem to have happened.
S
2nd May 2023, 15:47
To be fair, they did decouple the sprint from the GP here – making the sprint and its qualifying somewhat of a separate sideshow. Doing so reduced its importance greatly as it no longer impacted the GP.
If it was still tied to the GP for setting the grid, more people would feel the incentive to watch it and engage.
Add also that the sprint qualifying was the exact same format as the main qualifying. It needs to be different altogether – not just shorter. The same could be said of the sprint race itself.
Then, there was the fact that pretty much every session in F1 (and F2 also) was dull by Baku standards.
Additionally – looking at the championship and season overall, one team is dominating and that won’t change. That’s always bad for engagement and ratings.
I can’t help but think if they’d run a ‘normal’ (non-sprint) event format instead, the engagement would probably be pretty comparable.
Bottom line here is that people didn’t like it and aren’t talking about it because the whole lot was boring, and you could tell it was going to be like that right from Friday practice.