In the round-up: IndyCar leader Palou says winning the title won’t determine a change of scenery for 2024.
In brief
Palou’s future still unknown as F1 remains an option
Alex Palou says he is still several months away from determining where he will race next year, and that could involve moving from IndyCar to Formula 1.
Palou leads the IndyCar standings by 72 points, the biggest margin anyone has held since 2020, approaching the season’s halfway point. He has won three of the last four races and conducted an F1 test with McLaren, though his next such outing will not be until after the IndyCar season concludes in September.
He is out of contract for 2024 and has been heavily linked to joining McLaren’s IndyCar squad, but Palou also has an eye on reaching F1 and his current boss Chip Ganassi wants to hold on to him as long as possible. When will the decision be made for next year?
“I don’t know, honestly I don’t know, but that day will come,” Palou said to media including RaceFans. “Maybe in two months, three, four I don’t know.”However Palou doubts his results will influence his plans. “I don’t think that by winning more races, we will get one seat or the other seat, or one seat in F1. I don’t think getting different results will affect our season for next year.
“I think already what we did in 2021 was a big accomplishment that I’m really happy of; winning my first championship in my second season in IndyCar. So I don’t think that what we’re doing this year, it’s very different from what we did in ’21. So I don’t think it’s going to change it.”
AlphaTauri ‘didn’t get strategy right’ in Montreal – drivers
AlphaTauri head to the Red Bull Ring this weekend having finished no higher than 12th in the last four races and at the bottom of the constructors’ standings. The team got neither of its cars into Q2 at the Canadian Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda finished 14th and Nyck de Vries was a lapped 18th in the race.
Tsunoda said the team “weren’t able to put it all together”, which “was a shame as we probably had the pace to score points”.
“I tried to recover as much as possible [from starting 19th] and we knew that we had to be aggressive with race strategy. Maybe we didn’t get it quite right, but I feel there are a lot of things we can learn from that weekend, and we won’t make the same mistakes in the future.”
WEC Hypercar line-up changes for Monza
Further changes to the Hypercar entry have been announced for the next round of the World Endurance Championship, the Six Hours of Monza.
Meanwhile Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 will also finally be in action, with the trio of Gianmaria Bruni, Neel Jani and Harry Tincknell they announced some time ago.
Evans optimistic despite Jaguar’s slump
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans dropped back in the Formula E title race at last weekend’s Portland EPrix, coming through from 20th to finish fourth while title rivals Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis finished first and second.
“We had a plan for the race and executed it pretty well. I know it sounds crazy, after starting 20th and finishing P4, but I think it could have gone a little bit better,” said Evans, who is now 32 points behind leader Dennis with four races to go in Rome and London.
“I’m looking forward to Rome, but obviously it’s a different game in ‘Gen3’, as we saw in Jakarta. We won there last year and this year we really struggled. In the last few races I feel like we’ve not had the pace as in previous races, but we’re going to Rome with high hopes and good memories.
“It’s coming to that part of the championship where you have to be perfect and execute clean races, but I’m ready for it.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Why Andretti’s climb to F1 just got steeper (Racer)
'It has been a big week of investments in Formula 1, and while none of them involved Andretti Global, they are likely to have a big impact on Michael Andretti’s hopes of joining the sport.'
Bottas: Room for improvement at Sauber (Speedcafe)
'Valtteri Bottas believes there is room for improvement at Sauber as the operation ramps up towards becoming Audi’s factory F1 team from 2026.'
The setup: Mid-Ohio with Steve Barker (IndyCar)
'The big thing when we've just come from Road America to go to Mid-Ohio, it's a completely different challenge, not least because of the track surface. We've gone from Road America that was repaved six months ago or so to Mid-Ohio that was repaved like it was about 20 years ago. It seems that long ago. The asphalt there and the different surfaces at Mid-Ohio, they're very smooth. So it takes a lot of work to generate tyre energy.'
'Zane Maloney has made waves in his rookie F2 campaign with Carlin and will be looking to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season. Before round eight begins, we get to know more about life in the Caribbean for 'The Boy From Barbados’, as well as his love of combat sports, the thrill of racing and why his guilty pleasure food definitely isn’t a fan favourite.'
Bumper USF Pro championship fields ready for Mid-Ohio (USF Pro 2000)
'Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, is set to make an eagerly anticipated USF2000 debut with Exclusive Autosport. Schrage, 18, dominated the 2022 FRP F1600 Championship Series with nine wins. He also broadened his horizons by competing in several Kenyon Midget oval track events, winning twice, and finished fourth-place at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival after earning a coveted Team USA Scholarship.'
Tramnitz tops testing, Camara fastest in FREC FP1 at Spa (FREC)
'The collective testing day of the Formula Regional European Championship at Spa-Francorchamps consisted of a three-hour morning session where Tim Tramnitz set the fastest time with a 2’14.548. In the early afternoon, the first practice session took place, lasting for 50 minutes. Prema's Rafael Camara recorded the fastest time of 2’15.442, closely followed by team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.'
Detroit's next upscale boutique hotel will open this summer (Detroit Free Pess)
'Detroit boosters and tourism officials have for years said that the city needs significantly more hotel rooms to better compete with other cities to host big events and conventions. The occupancy rate for downtown hotels has been strong in recent weeks, with some hotels completely sold out for special weekends, thanks to visitors arriving for Taylor Swift, the Detroit Grand Prix and the Movement festival.'
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
The #AustrianGP is a sprint race weekend which means a total of 36 more points are available for this round than ordinary grands prix.#F1 pic.twitter.com/s8vkmT72gI
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 28, 2023
Whatcha got going on TK? 👀
— Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (@ArrowMcLaren) June 28, 2023
12 races down…
14 to go 🤤#F2 #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/Utrj5ou7Iq
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) June 28, 2023
The World Endurance Championship is surveying fans on whether it should introduce sprint races.#WEC pic.twitter.com/86mKxgOFKN
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) June 28, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Helmut Marko has revealed that the AlphaTauri Formula 1 team will change name in 2024, just four years after dropping its original name Toro Rosso. That was an Italian translation of Red Bull, while AlphaTauri is the name of Red Bull’s own fashion brand. All of its other businesses have the name Red Bull in them, so what will the team rebrand to?
Actually surprised how badly Red Bull/AlphaTauri fumbled this identity so badly. I don’t feel this has anything to do with the car’s performance on track and everything to do with the identity – or lack of, with the team.
AlphaTauri has a great logo that fits with Red Bull’s brand, a defined colour/livery style with metallic blue and white and instead of advertising the drink it advertises Red Bull’s clothing brand. But the clothes themselves are bland, uninteresting and ludicrously overpriced. The brand comes across cold, corporate and lacking energy, personality or character. AlphaTauri did a poor job of advertising it’s own product
I felt that turning into its own identity diverged from Red Bull was a good step but it’s been handled so badly and is disappointing as it feels it was never given the opportunity, tools or individual style to distinct itself in the first place.
Adam
Happy birthday!
No RaceFans birthdays today
On this day in motorsport
- 20 years ago today Ralf Schumacher won the European Grand Prix at the Nurbugring ahead of Williams team mate Juan Pablo Montoya, after an engine failure ended Kimi Raikkonen’s race
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
29th June 2023, 4:13
I love this WEC survey option: “All WEC events should be increased to 24 hours like Le Mans.”
Why stop there? How about a 48-hour endurance race? Or a whole week? If modern 24-hour races have become essentially flat-out sprint races, wouldn’t a week-long race that truly tests the endurance of the cars be more in the spirit of the discipline?
To be honest, I wouldn’t mind 45-minute sprint races added to WEC events, either. These are some magnificent cars — why not take every opportunity to see them in wheel-to-wheel action? Plus, a qualifying session for a sprint race would have real stakes, much more than qualifying for a 24-hour race. Or, make it championship-order reverse grid. It’s a BoP formula anyway — giving slower cars a leg up is built into the system. It’s not like there’s any purity to compromise.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th June 2023, 5:34
The strategy might’ve failed, but De Vries didn’t help matters with that clumsy unforced error at T4.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
29th June 2023, 7:47
I do wonder how De Vries season would have panned out had he taken the Williams drive instead of AlphaTauri
SteveP
29th June 2023, 7:58
Why Andretti’s climb to F1 just got steeper (Racer)
If Andretti hadn’t already seen, what the F1 teams had seen – which is that the F1business is on a steep upslope for the assessed value – then he’s a business fool.
I think he knew the most likely future being that a buy in later would be costly, and was pushing hard to get in before the values went up.
Buying Sauber failed because of two factors:
1. Various advice to Sauber was that selling at that point would not reap the financial gain that a later sale would do
2. Andretti seemed to want total control and apparently wouldn’t give assurances that the home base wouldn’t move and people currently employed wouldn’t immediately/rapidly lose their jobs.
The latter is seen by Sauber as part of their duty of care to their immediate employees as well as the network of 3rd party organisations supplying them.
Qeki (@qeki)
29th June 2023, 9:15
If Liberty Media wants to modernize and make F1 more of a show why stick to old teams. Let new teams arrive and create an enviroment like Red Bull in 2005 so called “party team” We need new blood in the field. Don’t worry if they fail. Then you got a whole two new seasons of drive to survive stories to tell! Imagine a team full of “americana”. Let’s say like Andretti. Huge boost for your own country. The most important thing as they say behind the ocean. More over less (quantity over quality)
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
29th June 2023, 15:31
Lots of people would love to be in Formula 1 and fail (in sporting terms) at it.
Because that entry alone is worth a lot in a series with limited entries and guaranteed profits created by the existing team and commercial rights holder make it only more alluring.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
29th June 2023, 10:11
Regarding the Alpha Tauri news story on the change of their design philosophy and name in 2024, I am sure it’s been mentioned before, but what are the limits on sharing components, chassis design, etc now?
What does a separate team have to provide themselves, independently, under the latest rules?
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
29th June 2023, 15:37
2024 FORMULA 1 TECHNICAL REGULATIONS
17.3 Listed Team Components (LTC) + Appendix 5
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/fia_2024_formula_1_technical_regulations_-_issue_1_-_2023-04-25.pdf
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
29th June 2023, 19:01
Thank you, I think. A little light reading. I think I need a concise version ;-)