In the round-up: Aston Martin are determined not to slide any further down the championship order.
In brief
Aston Martin wants to hold off McLaren in points table
McLaren have talked up the potential of them eating Aston Martin to fourth in the constructors’ standings this season, and now the team that started 2023 as Red Bull’s closest rival has revealed their focus is on keeping McLaren at bay rather than rising back up the order.
Aston Martin’s team principal Mike Krack said the objective is “at least fourth” in the standings now. The team lies 64 points behind Ferrari in third and 49 ahead of McLaren in fifth – though the latter took 29 points out of Aston Martin at the previous round. There are six rounds to go, three of which are sprint events which pay out extra points.
“We are currently fourth in both championships and we should not forget we have had some amazing results and seven podiums this year. With every race we continue to learn and grow together as a team. We are in a fierce battle with some exceptional competitors, but we will not go down without a fight,” said Krack.
“Continuous development has been our philosophy all year. There are still some developments in the pipeline that will appear on the car all the way to Abu Dhabi – and with stable regulations for next year, these developments will feed into the new car. So we will not take our foot off the gas at all. We will keep pushing and we want to conclude the season strongly.”
Alfa Romeo failed “to put everything together when it mattered” in Japan
Alessandro Alunni Bravi admitted his Alfa Romeo team underperformed at last month’s Japanese Grand Prix given they had “decent pace”.Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both failed to progress past Q1. Bottas retired early on following damage from a collision while Zhou finished a lapped 13th.
“We had decent pace in Suzuka, and we were not too far from our direct competitors, as we learned more about the upgrade package we recently introduced,” said Alunni Bravi. “What we missed was to put everything together when it mattered and, as we head to Doha, this is what the entire team must work for.
“We have to be at the top of our performance from the only practice session on Friday onwards, even more crucial than usual with a sprint event. By putting our focus onto extracting more performance from our package, we’ll be able to make that extra step forward to get back into the top 10.”
F3 teams reveal their test line-ups
Teams in the FIA Formula 3 Championship have revealed who their drivers will be for the upcoming post-season tests.
Campos Racing will run 2022 Euroformula champion Oliver Goethe, 1999 CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya’s son Sebastian and Mari Boya, who is currently fighting for the title in the Formula Regional-based Eurocup-3 series. Jenzer Motorsport, meanwhile, have chosen Formula Ford Festival winner Max Esterson, 2021 British Formula 4 runner-up Matias Zagazeta and two-times Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alexander Wurz’s son Charlie.
MP Motorsport have only confirmed their drivers for this week’s Jerez test. They have gone with former Alpine junior and Formula Regional European Championship Hadrien David, FREC title contender Tim Tramnitz and two-times Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi’s teenage son Emmo.
Other notable names on the entry list include, GB3 points leader Callum Voisin and McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu at Rodin Carlin. They will be joined by Zane Maloney, whose presence suggests he may be considering a tilt at the Macau Grand Prix. Williams junior Luke Browning will drive for Hitech GP, recently crowned Euroformula champion Noel Leon for Van Amersfoort Racing and Nyck de Vries’ protege Laurens van Hoepen at ART, who the former AlphaTauri driver won the Formula 2 title with four years ago.
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F1 Academy broadcast
The final round of the Formula 4-spec, all-female F1 Academy series, which will take place at the Circuit of the Americas on the support bill of the United States Grand Prix on 21st-22nd October, will be broadcast in at least 42 countries.
F1 has agreed terms with 18 international broadcasters, nine of which transmit to multiple countries, for live television coverage of the weekend’s track action. Previously those broadcasters only showed highlight packages.
In addition to an expanded TV presence, video feeds of the final two qualifying sessions and three races of the season will be shown (without geographical blocks) on several of F1’s social media channels. F1 also announced “a live pre-race show will also be aired” ahead of each race.
Marta Garcia leads the championship ahead of the COTA round, with Sauber junior Lena Buhler and Hamda Al Qubaisi seeking to beat her to the title.
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
AlphaTauri price tag ‘commercially unviable’ - Rodin founder (Racer)
'Rodin Cars founder David Dicker says he’s had tentative talks about purchasing AlphaTauri but that a price tag nearing $1bn is 'commercially unviable'. Rodin was one of three teams whose applications to join Formula 1 as a new constructor was recently rejected by the FIA.'
'McLaren is suing Alex Palou for at least $23 million to recoup costs the team says it lost when the driver reneged on the contract he signed to join the team. Palou guaranteed that he had 'no outstanding obligation under any contract or agreement' that would keep him from joining McLaren after the IndyCar season ended, according to the 29th September filing in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Commercial Court.'
Peugeot set to race 9X8 with rear wing in 2024 (Dailysportscar)
'The ‘no rear wing’ 9X8 has proven to be truly competitive only sporadically and Peugeot Sport has now decided to redesign the car around a much more conventional aerodynamic package. The 2024 car, with a full rear wing and the underfloor aero of the current car, ditched for a flat floor, is likely to test for the first time in December.'
McLaren reserve driver deal opens doors with Toyota (Speedcafe)
'The relationship with Toyota is a small but potentially significant development in the broader context of McLaren’s operation. Alongside its F1 team, McLaren has an IndyCar project along with an entry Extreme E and Formula E. It has long-held ambitions to return to endurance racing, with Zak Brown admitting to do so it needed an engine partner.'
What Formula 2 teams said after getting a first look at their next car (Formula Scout)
'The reveal of the Dallara F2 2024 at Monza wasn’t just providing a first look for media and fans, but more importantly for the teams who had to try to learn as much as they could from getting up close to the car.'
Alpine F1 Team's technical cirector Matt Harman sits down with Reddit (Alpine)
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 X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
.@jimmyvasser & @jpmontoya were 2000 #IndyCar Teammates @CGRTeams – how about this pair of HardCards hiding in a dusty file folder; CART issued spares; our professional drivers often misplaced their originals!! pic.twitter.com/1OHIcQHBJX
— Mike Hull (@IndyMHull) October 1, 2023
YES CHIARA 👏
OK Junior Karting CHAMPION! Making the whole Alpine family proud 💙#Alpine #Raceher #AlpineAcademy pic.twitter.com/OyImWMUdLF
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) October 3, 2023
The 3's were Thirsty.@smclaughlin93 continues to impress.#INDYCAR // @Team_Penske pic.twitter.com/lJxnL2yEEA
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) October 4, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Mercedes have changed some design characteristics of their W14 car to make it more competitive, but there are handling characteristics that still frustrate their drivers as it can make it more difficult to find the right set-up. That is made even harder this weekend when there is only one practice session at the Qatar Grand Prix.
And the cost cap means that Mercedes can not spend their way out of their current troubles and to adopt a different design after their radical ‘no sidepod’ concept proved inferior to the design direction that Red Bull went in.
Their problem is the suspension. The zero-pod design was, if anything, too good, and was negatively affecting their suspension. The problem is, changing the suspension requires changing the chassis in a significant fashion, re-certifying it for crash testing, and blowing their development budget right out of the park.
If Mercedes could throw another $50 million at their development, it would be a radically different car, but that simply isn’t an option under the budget cap.
Grat
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Cholle, Yorricksfriend, Jason Sultana and Ddoc!
Edvaldo
5th October 2023, 3:49
Alonso better up his game then, right!?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th October 2023, 4:12
Yes, krack mentioned the many podiums in this article, but if I recall they’re all alonso’s.
Nick T.
5th October 2023, 22:25
Someone did the calculations and if there were two Alonsos on the team, they’d still be in second place by more than 80 points.
S
5th October 2023, 5:31
For the people saying “Why didn’t Andretti just buy an existing team instead” – here’s your answer.
That is a truly ridiculous amount of money, and F1 simply isn’t worth it.
MichaelN
5th October 2023, 15:51
Depends on how they want to play it. Haas is probably making money off F1 with the way they’re making barely any investments and doing everything on the cheap, but they’re still guaranteed a hefty payout from the commercial rights owner. Then it’s just a case of setting a timeline, and factoring in a potential sale somewhere down the road.
Dorilton must be disappointed that neither Audi nor Porsche went to them. If they had wanted to sell for 2026, there aren’t any obvious candidates left. That could see them being ‘stuck’ with the former Williams team for a lot longer than anticipated.
S
5th October 2023, 16:27
That’s probably true – however, they didn’t have to pay bribe money all their competitors to get in initially like Andretti have been forced to.
Haas had neither this ~$1bn, or (what is currently) a $200m anti-dilution fee to contend with, destroying their bottom line before they even got started…
I’ll bet they both did. No F1 deal (especially of this magnitude) is done without exploring as many options as possible – and even some that aren’t genuine options (like someone asking $1bn).
Porsche clearly wanted their investment to go into a (presently) successful team, and Audi probably figured that Sauber were a better proposition than Williams (who have been consistently running last for several years and only recently changed ownership themselves) – assuming the prices were roughly equal…
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
5th October 2023, 17:18
In a world where the Denver Broncos — a bottom-of-its-division team in a domestic league without much international profile — just sold for $4.65 billion, $1 billion seems low for a franchise in one of the most popular global sports leagues. If Andretti is successful in getting to the grid, I find it hard to believe he’d be spending less than $1 billion, between the raised anti-dilution fee, the facilities, and the start-up period of designing their first car with no prize money to fund it.
Nick T.
5th October 2023, 22:31
You’re looking at it totally wrong. The NFL generates exponentially more revenue per team than F1. And most of these popular sports have hundreds to thousands of games per season, which is why they make so much more money than F1. In baseball’s case it’s nearly 6,000 games. That’s why the lowliest baseball player in the entire league still makes millions per season.
Also, the Broncos could can quickly turn around their fortunes. F1 teams much less so.
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
6th October 2023, 0:51
Not anymore. Forbes estimates the average F1 team revenue at $380 million, up 70% over the last 5 years, with the average NFL team revenue at $581 million.
Of course you’re right that there are more matches in those leagues to broadcast (in the case of baseball, far more than the casual fan can care about) and more mechanisms to balance team performance — but that is exactly the direction that Liberty is moving F1 in, too, and it is that expectation that is clearly driving the valuations of the teams to higher multiples of revenue.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th October 2023, 6:09
I’m still positive they will, although the amount of points-scoring events left is enough for Mclaren to overhaul them if they keep their form.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
5th October 2023, 7:48
There’s 3 more sprint races….please bin them off for next year.
SteveP
5th October 2023, 9:26
Eating Aston Martin, is someone taking digs at Zak Brown?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th October 2023, 4:46
Ahaha, fun indeed, I hadn’t noticed that part!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th October 2023, 4:46
We could say they’re gonna catch up with aston so fast they won’t just beat them, they’ll eat them in the standings!
SteveP
5th October 2023, 9:29
“Sprint”. Even the FIA don’t use the word race.
Bin them off? Not severe enough. “Terminate with extreme prejudice” has a nicer ring.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
5th October 2023, 10:53
Unfortunately we’ll just get more in future seasons.
Pretty certain it’s only a matter of time before some venues get two sprints in place of the main long race.
After all if you ask the owners they’ll tell you everyone loves them.
SteveP
5th October 2023, 11:13
The self-fulfilling prophecy – keep pushing larger amounts of what people don’t like, and they go elsewhere.
Sooner or later, ALL of your audience does agree with you because everyone else left.
“Oh, we don’t do ‘XYZ’ because there’s no call for it.”
Red Andy (@red-andy)
5th October 2023, 11:23
I would actually prefer that format. It would make it easier to avoid the sprints altogether by simply ignoring F1 on those weekends.
The danger for F1 if it tries this format is if it turns out that the “popularity” of the sprints is merely parasitic upon the main event, so that sprint-only weekends see a big decline in viewing numbers.
Coventry Climax
5th October 2023, 13:19
So if it’s true mercedes have troubles due to there being less sessions to setup their car correctly,
will people claiming that everything is done by simulation these days anyhow, take notice please?
S
5th October 2023, 15:24
F1 design and simulation/testing does exist primarily in the digital world now. For every team. Your point?
Mercedes have exactly as much real-world per-event testing as every other team does. They also had exactly as much real-world pre-season testing time and real-world in-season (non-event) testing time as every other team.
They had even more in-factory testing time/resources available to them than another team who is performing better than they are.
Mercedes’ troubles are due to one thing and one thing only: Mercedes.
Dusty
5th October 2023, 14:29
Re: cotd
If all success from Red Bull in the last 2 years with their rocket car is only due to overspending something between 0.3 and a couple million in coffee, Mercedes overspending 50 million would turn their car into a time machine, just perfect to go back to 2021 and pit for a fresh set of tires.
I also think Mercedes sidepod design was actually too good and I would find very entertaining if they tried it again in 2024. Third time’s a charm.
Nick T.
5th October 2023, 22:41
lol@the second paragraph.
I think his point, however ridiculous, was that they needed to change everything else to synch up with the zero sidepod design, but he was the only person to realize that or MB did, but they couldn’t spend enough to do it yet still decided to chase it.
Nick T.
5th October 2023, 22:39
Grat’s comment being the COTD of is a joke. The entire history of F1 before the budget cap should be enough of a sample size to show that dominant teams aren’t beat by another team outspending them and that besides Renault in 2005-2006, only two designers have won WDCs in the last 32 years and no one is no longer on the grind and he was the man who designed the Mercedes chassis that went on to win for 7 straight seasons.