In the round-up: Alpine driver Pierre Gasly says his team’s car has a narrow window of best performance
In brief
Alpine has ‘small’ operating window with ’23 car – Gasly
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly says that his team’s A523 has a “small window” where it performs best.The team are currently sixth in the constructors’ championship with Gasly admitting Alpine have been “disappointed” with the first half of their season. The team replaced team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Pat Fry during the summer break.
“I think it’s consistently trying to chase a bit the balance that I like from it,” Gasly explained. “If anything, it [balance] felt slightly better balanced at the start of the year compared to at the recent events. So we need to figure out whether it’s upgrades related or track or tyres, etc. But there is some work to do.
“Obviously the overall potential is not quite there compared to our competitors. But it seems also quite to be quite a small window to really make it operate at its best. So it’s not easy, but F1 is not easy. I’m sure we’ll come back stronger for the rest of the year.”
Miyata extends Super Formula lead over Lawson after horror crash
Ritomo Miyata extended his advantage over Red Bull junior Liam Lawson in the Japanese Super Formula series from a single point to eight points after Lawson was involved in a horrifying opening lap crash at Motegi.
Reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri took his second win of the season with Miyata in fourth after Lawson spun on the exit of turn one while fighting for the lead with Nojiri. As Lawson skidded in front of the pack, both Tadasuke Makino and Yuhi Sekiguchi were launched over Lawson’s car, putting both out of the race with Makino taken to hospital.
After the race was red flagged, Lawson finished in 13th place following a drive-through penalty for having his car repaired during the stoppage.
Moto GP’s Quartararo compares Bagnaia to Verstappen
Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 Moto GP world champion, has compared current champion Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia to reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen.
Bagnaia extended his lead in the current Moto GP championship standings to 62 points with victory at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. It was Bagnaia’s fifth grand prix win in the first ten rounds, with four sprint race wins.
“Pecco is a bit like Max Verstappen now, I think,” said Quartararo.
“He also had the best bike in the past few years, I believe. But you can have the best bike and still not achieve the results. It’s about the combination. But now it seems like he has the feeling that he’s unstoppable. I don’t see any rider now who can be faster than him.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamante highlights major obstacle in motorsport (Daily Express)
''I think W Series did its best to have secured funding for the past two or three years, they've done an amazing job to raise awareness for women in the sport. They raced alongside F1 and they've shown a great platform for young female drivers to get into the sport. For young drivers like myself, it has given me the opportunity to get into the world of single-seaters, as well as the F1 platform which led me to F1 Academy. In F1 Academy, we're trying to do everything as systematically as possible, while also prioritising what's important, which is performance on the track.''
Lights, camera… F1: The inside story of the first time Hollywood took on Formula 1 (F1)
'As director Joseph Kosinski is doing now, Frankenheimer embedded himself, his cast and crew in the F1 paddock for the season, following the circus across the summer from track to track. He had 1961 World Champion Phil Hill driving his camera car, with the 1966 field making cameo appearances either as themselves or as fictionalised team-mates of the protagonists. And just like the new movie, Grand Prix used chassis from junior formulae in disguise – albeit F3 cars driven by many of the world’s greatest drivers.'
Benz and the Billions: Along the Road with Mercedes F1 Boss Toto Wolff (Boadroom)
''Back in the day, my mother or my friends considered a racing career idiotic. Many years later, it was the best thing I’ve done because I’ve been in a car, so I understand what the drivers are feeling and thinking. It’s given me an additional angle that not many people in the industry have, having been in a competitive racing situation.''
Getting to know OP: Part 4 (Oscar Piastri)
''I remember I was at home that weekend and Mark Webber was on pole position. Because of the time difference, it was the middle of the night back in Australia, so I fell asleep and woke up the next morning to find that he had won. As a fellow Aussie, I always wanted him to win so I was hoping I’d wake up to the right result. It was 2009, so I would have been 8 at the time and that is one of my very first memories of Formula 1. I remember watching the highlights back and the way he did it by recovering from a drive-through penalty was awesome and a big moment back in Australia, especially for the motorsport community.''
'Mr Radcliffe, 44, who made his fortune founding online bathroom retailer Victorian Plumbing is understood to have been driving the unique purple Pagani Zonda 760 LH when it crashed after buying it from Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton last year. The car lost control and crashed at Penmaenbach Tunnel on the A55 expressway in Conwy in north Wales on Tuesday. An eyewitness told MailOnline Mr Radcliffe was behind the wheel at the time and was uninjured in the crash.'
Kush Maini on his fast start to F2 (F2)
''Things seem to just be clicking this year which they weren't last year. So, in terms of self-belief and speed, I have that. Now it's just time to put everything together through a weekend. I still feel like we haven't had a weekend this year where everything has come together. We still had some ups and downs even through a weekend like Baku. I feel we had the speed for pole, and I started P14. So, it's still small pieces that are still missing, but it's very small pieces, and I'm sure we can put those together.''
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:
#F1 – @valtteribottas came back to us explaining his journey. From the day he discovered go-kart to his ascent to @F1 and the importance of believing in himself.
(Re)discover our discussions with Formula 1 drivers: https://t.co/Am2pBBJIWj pic.twitter.com/ABgY0axCWn— FIA (@fia) August 20, 2023
Time to build on our momentum. 👊#F1
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 20, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is Skulldasher!:
Logan learned the hard way why Alex has a 99 blocking rating in Madden as well as F1…
Skulldasher
Thanks to everyone who came up with caption idea this week and a special mention to Derek Edwards, EffWunFan and Jeanrien who all came up with particularly good captions.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Carolynn Clarke, Socalf1Fan, Adamtys, Scuderiavincero and Mightyspyder!
Jere (@jerejj)
21st August 2023, 7:14
An unusually chaotic start for a Super Formula race & even later, drivers seemed unusually feisty in battles.
I view the Mugen battle as more or less 50-50, although Nojiri could’ve still given a bit more space because that corner is wide enough for two car widths.
With the eventual outcome, the championship is effectively Miyata’s to lose.
Finally, I doubt the unfortunate incident will impact Lawson’s chances of getting an F1 drive next year.
Yellow Baron
21st August 2023, 8:18
After watching just 30 seconds of that superformula video I was blown away with how nimble the cars look. I assumed they just do a much better job with the cameras than F1 in conveying the speed. Although this may be true it turns out the superformula cars are 130kg lighter than F1 cars!!!
130kg!!
Having said that the top class wec cars often look faster (or at least just as) and more nimble than F1 cars too. Again it must be down to the awful job that FOM does
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
21st August 2023, 8:48
I noticed that too. It was like F1 used to look 20 years ago (not a precise estimate).
MichaelN
21st August 2023, 10:21
All the more surprising that Super Formula cars aren’t exactly short either; they’re about 5,2 meters long which is a bit shorter than F1, but not a whole lot.
Hypercars are quite a bit shorter than F1 cars, but heavier too.
Yellow Baron
21st August 2023, 16:36
But surprising that, thought it would have been the other way around with the hyper cars and SF cars
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
21st August 2023, 13:47
There was a suggestion from Dallara to use this new (what became) SF23 in an interest to move the ancient technology forward in Indycar as well, but the response from Penske Co. was something something…grumble ‘Muricans aint playin with others toys, grumble grumble..