In the round-up: Ferrari will make a €1 million donation to support people in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy following the flooding that has affected the region in recent weeks.
In brief
Ferrari make €1m donation to flood rescue efforts
Intense rain in May has resulted in rivers bursting banks causing flooding through the region – including Imola, which was due to host a grand prix this weekend before the event was cancelled due to the impact of the flooding.
Ferrari announced on a post on social media that it will make a donation of €1,000,000 towards local efforts to help the community and emergency responders.
“Ferrari supports the flood-affected community and is donating one million Euros to the Emilia-Romagna Region’s Agency for Territorial Safety and Civil Protection, joining the regional fundraising campaign,” the team said.
De Vries stranded by flood waters
AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries has described how he was stranded in an Italian village due to the effects of the floods in the Emilia-Romagna region as he attempted to make his way in and around the team’s factory.In a post on social media, De Vries explained how he was unable to reach his hotel on Tuesday evening while travelling to AlphaTauri’s Faenza factory and had to spend a night in a small village nearby due to roads being inaccessible due to flood waters.
“Fortunately McLaren got stranded there earlier and their front jack Frazer was kind enough to give me his room,” he recalled. “The following morning, the hotel lobby turned into an emergency shelter for people who were forced to escape their homes during the night.
“Post-F1 announcement, I only saw one potential option to get home, which was driving via Firenze. After an adventurous drive through the mountains, thanks to the help from local people and authorities in different villages, I finally got home safely. Thank you to every single person who has been kind enough to help me. It was truly heart-warming to see so many look out for each other.”
Ericsson keeps Ganassi on top at Indianapolis
FOM to direct Monaco Grand Prix TV coverage
TV coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix has long been produced by Tele Monte Carlo but has been regularly criticised for missing key racing moments and failing to capture the full spectacle of F1 cars racing around the notorious street circuit.
However, according to Motorsport Broadcasting, F1’s own production team will direct the world feed coverage for next weekend’s race around Monte Carlo.
The Monaco Grand Prix will be the next round on the calendar following the cancellation of this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
IndyCar president open to more ovals on schedule
IndyCar president Jay Frye says that the series is open to introducing more oval races onto future calendars.
The current IndyCar season features oval races across Texas, the Indianapolis 500, a double-header at Iowa and Gateway. Asked if he wanted to add more ovals onto the IndyCar schedule in future, Frye replied “absolutely”.
“There’s no intention to have one less oval than we’ve had historically, than we do right now,” he continued. “So that’s something we’re definitely looking at for the future.
“The mix is very important to us. The diversity of schedules are important to us. Ovals are very important to us – I love ovals, we all love ovals. What we saw in Texas was quite spectacular. We think the [Indy] 500 is going to be at least that and then some. So we’re excited about the future and what next oval could come up”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Lewis Heads Back to School with Petronas (Mercedes)
"It was interesting to see first-hand how Petronas is working with Imperial College on co-developing some of tomorrow's technologies and having the chance to speak with some of the Malaysian students about their experiences here in the UK."
Turning Spain green: Putting the focus on fans at Fernando's home GP (Aston Martin)
"If you're able to get to Barcelona's most famous street, the captivating Las Ramblas, during the week of the Spanish Grand Prix, be sure to visit the AMF1 x Kimoa pop-up store on Rambla De Mar. Located a stone's throw away from the iconic, tree-lined, Las Ramblas boulevard, you'll find an AMF1 car and have the opportunity to get kitted out in our latest teamwear and accessories in preparation for the race weekend. You may even bump into a member of the AMF1 driver squad while you're there… "
IndyCar’s 2024 hybrid system could shine brightest on ovals (Jalopnik)
"The theory is that instead of easing off the throttle to stay tucked in the slipstream of a leading car, a following driver will feed the excess power into the hybrid system’s supercapacitor. The stored energy could then be deployed to make a difficult pass or defend from cars behind."
Paddock popularity and scooter skills: Getting to know the real Jak Crawford (F2)
"I have quite a few friends around the paddock. Obviously, Isack Hadjar. Ollie Bearman and Arthur Leclerc were my teammates last year. I feel bad for leaving people out because I have quite a few friends here. Good friends with some of the Red Bull guys, Dennis Hauger and Ayumu Iwasa, we get along well. Roman Stanek I get along with as well, Clément Novalak. I feel bad if I’ve missed anyone else."
XE Explains: storms and flooding in Italy (Extreme E)
"One cause has been the drought which has affected northern Italy since January 2022. Rainfall has been at less than a quarter of the normal level, and this caused rivers to dry up and thus the soil in the riverbed to become dry and cracked. The river Po, Italy’s greatest river, which flows close to where I reside, dried up almost completely. Then the rains came. May was a time of almost continuous rain, and the dried riverbeds absorbed vast quantities of water, which plugged the base of the rivers such that further rain led to a rapid growth of water level."
Ricciardo's return to Red Bull (Red Bull via YouTube)
Red Bull offer a behind-the-scenes look at Daniel Ricciardo's first six months back at the team.
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:
Yuki Tsunoda and his AlphaTauri team mates have been helping with the clean-up in Faenza ❤️ pic.twitter.com/uf2qN5syTf
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 18, 2023
It's nice to see how the passion for sport gives happy moments even in these dramatic situations.
We are all close to the population affected by these floods. pic.twitter.com/MjTi4VCiru— Marcello Lotti (@marcello_lotti) May 18, 2023
Trident is supporting those affected by the current emergency in Imola. We express our solidarity to all the people in Emilia-Romagna. The most important thing is the safety of everyone living and working in struggling areas hit by the floods. #Trident #EmiliaRomagnaGP
— Trident Team (@trident_team) May 18, 2023
Some impressions from the #Imola paddock from earlier this day. Lots of trucks, forklifts and packing going on. Weather is dry and even sometimes sunny. #imolagp #f1 pic.twitter.com/2yl3rPAvCq
— Silja Rulle (@SiljaRulle) May 18, 2023
New lid for the 107th Indianapolis 500 🔥 #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/hjt4TGyl9N
— Alex Palou Montalbo (@AlexPalou) May 18, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With modern day IndyCars reaching as high speeds as ever around the famous speedway, @GT-racer is nostalgic for the CART days of old…
Imagine where speeds at Indy would have been had the CART/IRL split not happened and those late 90s/Early 00s CART spec cars had run there.
I remember all the talk coming out of Indy in 1997 from those who didn’t have any links to the IRL was how pathetic the IRL cars looked and sounded compared to the CART spec cars that had run there until then.
I honestly think that the initial IRL formula did just as much harm to the popularity of Indy style cars than the split itself had because those cars were an awful spectacle in comparison to CART. And to be honest for as great at Indycar has gotten post reunification I don’t think it’s ever quite managed to get back most of what made the CART era such an incredible spectacle that helped make it as popular as it became.
GT Racer
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to David Craft and Laurie Gregg!
Yellow Baron
19th May 2023, 1:48
Would it be worth it for indy car to try out short track ovals like NASCAR?
Perhaps mandate smaller brakes to increase braking distances
But even without that I wonder if it could still be worth it
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
19th May 2023, 4:15
Finally we might get to see some action when it actually happens at Monaco.
The replay cutaways mere milliseconds before key moments during the race was absolute amateur hour.
MacLeod (@macleod)
19th May 2023, 7:52
@justrhysism – It’s possible it will rain in Monaco next week so action could be not what you expect :)
Red Andy (@red-andy)
19th May 2023, 8:37
@justrhysism The FOM directors have recently been less interested in showing the on-track action and more interested in showing the trackside “celebrities” (e.g. the Miami Grand Prix, starring James Marsden as Roger Federer), of which there are many at Monaco, so it’s possible that the new TV direction will simply be a different type of dreadful.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th May 2023, 5:50
Good move by Ferrari as well as Mclaren front jack Frazer & Yuki.
FOM finally taking over world feed coverage directing in Monaco is a positive surprise, which I didn’t see coming.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
19th May 2023, 7:48
So does liberty media, it remains to be seen if it will be any better
Qeki (@qeki)
19th May 2023, 7:50
That indycar hybrid system sounds like a sneaky version of DRS.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
19th May 2023, 8:52
Whilst I welcome the donation by Ferrari, I think in the scheme of things it’s not that much. They will be spending $140 million + on their F1 activities alone. And I am sure they must make hundreds of millions profit most years. I think they might have been a little more generous in the circumstances?
Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
19th May 2023, 18:52
This is a bit of ungrateful response tbh. Ferrari chose to support relief efforts in donating what most would consider a fairly substantial amount of funds which is quite generous of them regardless what “you” deem as generous. This only notes Ferrari’s financial donation, we don’t know what other ways Ferrari is donating to the cause/effort over there. Such as giving employees time to help with the cleanup, time off to help loved ones, etc. Ferrari isn’t far from Imola (like an hours drive away) so I wouldn’t be surprised if that regions devastation impacts them/their employees and employee families directly. I swear, some folks are never satisfied with generous gestures from wealthy people/organizations.