‘Kiss-activated trophies’ to be awarded at Japanese and United States GPs

In brief

Japan, United States GPs to award ‘kissable’ trophies

The winners of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix in October will receive unique trophies that feature a special gimmick.

The trophies, designed by Pininfarina, feature touch-activated technology that will light up with the colours of the winner’s national flag when the kissed.

The ‘kiss-activated’ trophies will be awarded at Suzuka at the end of tomorrow’s race and on the podium at the Circuit of the Americas.

AlphaTauri withdraws ‘rising sun’ artwork

The AlphaTauri team apologised and removed a social media post featuring an image which bore similarities to the Japanese ‘rising sun’ military flag, commonly associated with the second world war and Japanese imperialism.

Following criticism from fans, the poster, depicting the team’s Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda was later accompanied by an apology from the team before being deleted.

“We have seen some comments over the last few hours, about our Japanese GP poster,” read the team’s now-deleted response. “We created this poster just for an aesthetic purpose without any intention of referencing any political movement or historic fact. We apologise with everyone who could be offended by such an involuntary reference.”

AlphaTauri have since reposted a modified image with the likeness to the rising sun flag removed.

LKY SUNZ apologises for “misunderstanding”

LKY SUNZ says a statement it issued on Friday regarding its hopes of entering a Formula 1 team in future was not “intended to be a reflection on the FIA’s Expressions of Interest process.”

The hopeful entrant announced it was prepared to pay up to three times the $200 million anti-dilution fee if necessary to obtain a place on the grid. “Our statement was merely highlighting our preparedness to pay this amount should any future Formula 1 regulations state this,” they added. “We apologise profusely for any misunderstanding that this may have caused.”

RaceFans understands three of the four known entrants which submitted applications to the FIA have not been selected, and LKY SUNZ is among them. LKY SUNZ CEO Benjamin Durand told RaceFans he could not comment on the status of their application as they are bound by a non-disclosure agreement.

Nio retain Ticktum and Sette Camara

The Nio Formula E team has confirmed an unchanged driver lineup for the 2024 season of the all-electric world championship.

Dan Ticktum and team mate Sergio Sette Camara will remain at the team who finished ninth in this year’s championship, jumping ahead of Mahindra at the final round of the season.

“The 2023 season was a lot better than 2022 for us, and we have done pretty well with the package that we have,” said Ticktum. “At the start of ‘Gen 3’ I think the pace of our car has been very strong. So, hopefully, we can build on that this year, maybe with some alternative strategies, and optimising our package even more, we can achieve some more points in 2024.”

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Albon demands crucial change to F1 race weekend after Las Vegas inclusion (Express)

'It's another race in the US and it's an important race for us as a team, being, you know, you could almost say half-American. But, yeah, I would say the atmosphere is going to be electric, we're not going to be able to enjoy it as much as other people, but it's going to be a cool race.'

Bernie Ecclestone's still going strong at 92... and ex-F1 supremo is as outspoken as ever! (Daily Mail)

'With 22 or 23 races there will be too many divorces. It is a matter of when. But without any shadow of a doubt I would stick to 18 prestigious races. That’s because we don’t know, however long-term the contracts are on paper. We don’t know whether they will suddenly decide that it isn’t working too well and stop.'

The Debrief by Aramco: Japanese GP (Aston Martin)

Fernando Alonso: ''Suzuka is such a special track – probably my favourite – so I've enjoyed being out there today. After last weekend, it was good to immediately feel comfortable back behind the wheel. We made some set-up changes between practice sessions and the car was feeling good by the end of FP2, but there are definitely a few more bits to look at overnight as we aim to extract the maximum out of the package.''

Un(Serious) Tokyo Showdown (AlphaTauri)

'Local hero Yuki Tsunoda and up and comer Liam Lawson take on F1 World Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen and Checo Pérez across a series of challenges in a couple of very small trucks. Known as Kei trucks, the tiny, flatbed utility vehicles are normally seen ferrying (quite small) piles of goods around the narrow streets of towns and villages all across Japan.'

24 Hours in Tokyo (Williams)

'Join Logan Sargeant as he guides us through his trip to the Japanese capital prior to his first race weekend in Suzuka.'

THE CAR THAT HAD TUSKS! The Story of the Williams FW26 (Aiden Millward via YouTube)

'A car that was attracting attention while at the same time becoming a meme for how ugly it was.'

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

At least we gave it a shot! 😅

Good luck with the show! https://t.co/wkjBsxfiFb

— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) September 22, 2023

Bowling night, Mercedes-AMG F1 style. 🎳💪 pic.twitter.com/oAHCaG8pSQ

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 22, 2023

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• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

With Daniel Ricciardo’s recovery still requiring more time, Red Andy spots a potential conundrum approaching for AlphaTauri…

Presumably, if it came down to it, Lawson would race in the Mexican GP rather than the final Super Formula round, as both take place on the same weekend.

But it could present an interesting conundrum for AlphaTauri if Ricciardo is still unavailable and Lawson goes back to Japan for whatever reason. The rules say teams are only allowed to use four drivers per season, so they’d have to give de Vries a call…

I expect Ricciardo will be back by then anyway, since it’s more than a month away. But fun to think about.
Red Andy

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Tisoyjriii, Paul Prinnel and Sujeeth!

On this day in motorsport

• On this day in 1973 Peter Revson won a bizarre Canadian Grand Prix following a shambolic debut for the Safety Car. It also proved to be the final race for Tyrrell pair Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert