In the round-up: McLaren team principal Andrea Stella denied they are seeking an engine supply from Red Bull-Ford from 2026.
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In brief
McLaren seeking new Mercedes engine deal
Following the announcement Aston Martin will use Honda engines from 2026, McLaren scotched speculation they are seeking a supply of Red Bull’s new engines, produced in conjunction with Ford, from 2026. “I can confirm there is no link,” Stella said.
The team is looking into extending its existing deal with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, whose engines they have used since 2021.
“We had conversations with Red Bull a few months ago as part of the due diligence in exploring what’s available on the market in terms of power unit for 2026, but at the moment we are quite advanced in our negotiations with HPP, so there’s no conversation ongoing with Red Bull,” said Stella.
Canada less suited to Mercedes – Wolff
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is cautious over the team’s chances of replicating its strong showing at the Circuit de Catalunya when F1 moves on to this weekend’s race in Canada.“It was a circuit that suited our car, and we should expect our direct competitors to be stronger in the next races,” said Wolff. “The gap to Red Bull is large and it will take lots of hard work to close that down. Nevertheless, we’re up for the challenge.”
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve looks less well-suited to the W14, said Wolff. “With its long straights and low-speed corners, it’s not a track that we expect to suit our car as well as Barcelona did.
“No matter where the true pace of the car is this weekend, we will aim to maximise our result. The characteristics of the circuit will also provide further opportunity to learn about the W14 and feed into our development path.”
Ferrari chairman hails Le Mans win
“After 50 years we have returned to compete in the highest category of endurance racing that has a place at the very heart of our story and that of all motorsport,” Elkann continued. “We’re proud indeed to have taken Italy once again to the top step of the podium at Le Mans, celebrating in the best possible style the centenary of the most important race of its kind in the world.
“This victory that Antonello Coletta, Amato Ferrari and the entire team, from our mechanics to our drivers, have achieved today in such challenging conditions – because of the 24-hour duration, the unpredictable weather and the impressive strength of our competitors – serves as an example for us all.”
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F1 Arcade plan 30 new sites in expansion drive
Formula 1’s official simulator racing experience F1 Arcade is planning to expand internationally, with a focus on the USA, after attracting £30 million in investment. It opened its first site last year in London.
“Given the success of the first location and its appeal to such a diverse audience, we believe F1 Arcade has the potential to become one of the most sought-after experiential hospitality brands globally,” said CEO and founder Adam Breeden. “For now, we are eagerly anticipating the opening of Birmingham UK in late 2023 and our first US site in Boston in early 2024 as well as announcing further locations imminently.”
Alpine enjoy a round on Clarkson
Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson made good on a promise he made on social media to buy beer for the Alpine team if they scored a podium finish in the Monaco Grand Prix. Clarkson, Esteban Ocon and team principal Otmar Szafnauer handed out the refreshments at the team’s chassis development base in Enstone, UK to celebrate the driver’s third place finish in the race last month.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Leader Palou riding speedy heat wave into summer strech (IndyCar)
'We got the win at the (Indianapolis road course), got the pole at Indy, got the pole and the win (in Detroit). Obviously, we’re (on) a roll.'
Your guide to the Canadian GP (McLaren)
Stella: 'We’re on the right trajectory as a team for the long-term foundation and we know results will start to come to us once we improve the car. In the meantime, we’ll try and extract the most from the next GP in Canada.'
Isack Hadjar: My greatest influences (F2)
'When I got into single-seaters, I actually started to understand how good (Lewis Hamilton) was because you’re in go-karts and you watch F1, you don’t really know what it is like to drive a racing car. When I started looking at him properly and seriously, I was like this guy is way too good.'
Le Mans takes its toll (Porsche)
'Throughout the further course of the race, number five suffered a sensor malfunction and was forced to continue in stop-and-go as Dane Cameron had to restart his vehicle multiple times. In addition to that, the cooling system was leaking.'
Conor Daly joins Dreyer & Reinbold for Nitrocross Round 1 at Mid America Outdoors (NBC)
'Daly finished eighth in the Indianapolis 500, his only top-10 so far in the 2023 IndyCar season.'
Ferrari wins 24 Hours of Le Mans (Ferrari via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Thanks to @Charles_Leclerc and your competitive bidding spirit, we are thrilled to announce a total of €429,000 was raised by the ‘Charles Leclerc for Emilia-Romagna!’ charity auction. All proceeds are being donated to those impacted by recent flooding in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. pic.twitter.com/oitwBbpNEt
— RM Sotheby's (@rmsothebys) June 10, 2023
Tuesday's the day for our in-depth review of F1 23.
Look out for our full verdict on the latest edition of the official F1 game including Braking Point 2, F1 World plus the physics, handling and gameplay changes including the return of red flags.#F1 #F123 #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/NDJuXKLVLL
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 12, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Does WEC’s Balance of Performance enhance the competition or spoil it?
The problem with Balance of Performance is it makes any result slightly unsatisfying. The Le Mans 24 hours was extremely exciting last weekend, but we will never know whether Ferrari won because they were actually the best team or because Toyota were slowed down for the sake of the show, and that makes it slightly unsatisfying.
Hopefully next year, with so many manufacturers and more experience for teams like Ferrari, Balance of Performance will no longer be used in WEC. But if they tweak it slightly all the time to try to make it ‘fair’, then every result is tainted by the question, ‘what would have happened if there was no Balance of Performance? Did the best team really win?’
In sports, unless a random luck element comes into play, the best team should always win, and with Balance of Performance that is not guaranteed. It just doesn’t work and is not sporting. Hopefully it will never be introduced to Formula 1.
@F1frog
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Trayambak Chakravarty, Scunnyman, Artanonim and Jackson!
On this day in motorsport
- 30 years ago today Alain Prost won the Canadian Grand Prix and retook the points lead as rival Ayrton Senna retired
LyndaMarks
13th June 2023, 2:53
You look at Toyota’s pace Pre BOP tweak and after it and it’s clear they lost a decent chunk of there performance as a result of the bop tweak.
I remember back to the ALMS where the BOP was altered to the point that the LMP1 Audi R10 was so badly handicapped that it ended up been made slower than the LMP2 Porsche Spyder.
There were circuits where the Audi was a couple seconds slower than they had been before the BOP changes.
At that point an LMP2 car winning races overall just didn’t feel like much of an achievement given how skewed the BOP had become.
And Audi were hit similarly harshly with BOP at Le Mans to try and allow the Pescarolo cars (Which from memory at the time were LMP2 cars modified to be eligible to run in LMP1) to get a win overall.
The whole system is open to manipulation and abuse.
Yellow Baron
13th June 2023, 6:36
I’ve been wondering how the teams go about trying to sandbag in an attempt to circumvent the bop. Then also how the aco or whoever it it goes about staying on top of that.
It is pretty weird given they seemingly have stable regs but then again they are such long races than even small advantages can cement results over the distance.
Perhaps a reverse grid but without bop makes more sense for wec given the length of races. But then they would just need to figure out how to make sure the fastest car actually tries to get pole.
Otherwise I’m not aware of wec and how strongly quali pace dictates race pace
anon
13th June 2023, 8:04
The thing is, that was in part because the ACO admitted that the rules were originally too biased towards the R10 and other diesel powered cars in order to incentive their use. For example, when the original R10 came in overweight, the ACO suddenly increased the minimum weight by 20kg for all LMP1 cars – a move that even Audi publicly admitted favoured them.
MichaelN
13th June 2023, 9:14
Yes, they and others lost some performance. That’s the point of the BoP setup of the combined LMH and LMDh class. It’s fair to criticise the way the FIA/ACO went about it, but it was inevitable that changes would be made.
And it worked out very well, and various teams including Toyota could have won the race if they had done a better race.
Alan Dove
13th June 2023, 9:33
If you prepare for an event and right at the last minute you’re slapped with a weight penalty that changes almost every variable one can think of then it’s harder to do a ‘better race’. It’s made a mockery of the sport. Imagine Messi having to wear lead lined boots for the final of the World Cup. BoP is utterly distasteful., and what happened at Le Mans with its implementation (and this is the main egregious act here) was nothing short of a disgrace, but because Le Mans a ‘feel good story’ everyone is too scared to actually say it out loud.
MichaelN
13th June 2023, 12:27
It was harder, true, and the FIA/ACO should have handled it better. At the same time, a change was inevitable given all the new data from the first three events. Let’s not forget pretty much every team had to work with some changes; it’s absolutely not something that only affected Toyota.
Toyota deserves credit; had great pace, good strategy, and they were within seconds of the lead with just a relatively short while left to race. They had a good race, but one (just one!) car did it better.
Qeki (@qeki)
13th June 2023, 8:37
I’m not sure if BOP is used in IMSA or any other american category if so then it’s on its way to F1 if not then it could stay absent.
MichaelN
13th June 2023, 9:16
It most definitely is a part of IMSA.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
13th June 2023, 8:43
I feel like McLaren are going to be mighty sorry come 2026 when there’s six works teams on the grid and they’re the ones stuck with a customer engine. I am starting to get some major Williams decline vibes from that team.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
13th June 2023, 9:01
Only starting to get that vibe?
They seem to be trending backwards exactly like Williams did.
BamBoomBots
13th June 2023, 10:10
Same here. The moment they confirm they will remain a customer team will basically confirm they will, and are happy to, trot around P5 in the championship standings. If I was Lando I would be looking out for the seats of Lewis, Perez, Sainz, or Alonso. Much the same for Piastri actually.
With the way things are going I actually rate Alpine as a better choice than McLaren at the moment.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
13th June 2023, 10:44
Kinda stunned McLaren are choosing to stick it out as a customer of Mercedes than trying to find a constructor to partner with. Guess they’re happy with rolling about in 5th/6th rather than moving the team forward.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
13th June 2023, 13:46
I would just like to mention that Red Bull Racing were world champions four times with a Renault, customer engine. It is definitely possible to win this way. Not that I can see McLaren pulling this off to be honest.
Boomerang
13th June 2023, 17:21
Of course it is possible, if you’re Red Bull Racing.