In the round-up: McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says his team cannot afford complacency in its fight for fourth place in the championship with Aston Martin.
In brief
Even great teams trip up in F1 – Stella
McLaren has slashed its deficit to fourth-placed Aston Martin from 102 points to 11 in the last three rounds. But Stella says the team will not take its success for granted, pointing out how easily Ferrari and Mercedes missed out on significant points hauls in Qatar.
“We stay very, very grounded,” said Stella. “We saw how marginal things are. We saw what happened with Mercedes, like what happened with Ferrari who didn’t even start.”
Lewis Hamilton retired on the first lap of the Qatar Grand Prix after colliding with his Mercedes team mate George Russell, while Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari failed to start due to a fuel leak.
“This is not because they are not great teams with great drivers,” Stella continued, “this is because the sport is very marginal. The best thing you can do is just stay focussed, humble and keep delivering. And then, like I say, we will see in Abu Dhabi.”
Ricciardo back in action for Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo returned to the cockpit of a Formula 1 yesterday, performing a demonstration run for Red Bull in Nashville at the wheel of their 2011 championship-winning RB7. He has been out of action since breaking a bone in his left hand in a crash during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.Sztuk wins Italian F4 title with a race to spare
Kacper Sztuka clinched the Italian Formula 4 championship with his eighth win of the season at Vallelunga yesterday. McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu ended Sztuka’s run of six consecutive race wins in the day’s opening encounter, but Sztkuka’s later triumph ensured he can’t be overhauled in today’s final race. While Ugochuckwu has totalled 277 points over the season, the series’ rules only allow drivers to score their 16 best results. That leaves him on 270, Sztuka out of range on 298.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Justiça anula condenação de Nelson Piquet por racismo contra Hamilton (Metropoles - Portuguese)
Nelson Piquet's fine for using a racist expression to describe Lewis Hamilton has been overturned, but the case is expected to go to Brazil's supreme court.
'The first race of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine at Zandvoort delivered thrills both on and off the track. Today, history was written by Kas Haverkort, who became the first Dutch driver in the series to win on his home turf. Additionally, in the Netherlands, Martinius Stenshorne mathematically secured the Rookie title.'
Title rivals fall foul of FREC stewards at Zandvoort for unusual offences (Formula Scout)
'Stenshorne received a reprimand for wearing a watch during the race, in contravention of the FIA International Sporting Code, Appendix L, Chapter 3, article 5, 'which prohibits the wearing of any kind of jewellery, including bracelets or watches, during competition'.'
Plot twist: Miami Dolphins subsidiary helped pay for Mayor Suarez’s $30k F1 weekend (Miami Herald)
'In the filing to the state ethics commission, Suarez reported receiving a single day-pass for the Saturday F1 qualifier race from South Florida Motorsports, LLC — the Miami Dolphins subsidiary and organiser of the Miami Grand Prix, which is based out of Ross’ Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.'
The pressures of racing in Formula 2: expectation versus ambition (Formula 2)
Isack Hadjar: 'I wouldn't say having a rookie alongside me helped. I wish I had a more experienced team mate rather. I think it's quite reassuring to have someone coming from F3 struggling like me.'
Think what we could do with Ecclestone’s taxes (The Guardian)
'HMRC has just received an unexpected £652.6m windfall (Bernie Ecclestone given suspended sentence after pleading guilty to fraud, 12 October). Well that’s our schools’ estimated £150m Raac problem financed at a stroke, with the remaining £502.6m to be put towards refurbishing our increasingly dilapidated schools. Thank you, Mr Ecclestone.'
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Your latest construction update 🚧👀#LasVegasGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/FtfMXP4K5a
— F1 Las Vegas (@F1LasVegas) October 14, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The FIA has been given more time to respond to Felipe Massa’a questions over its handling of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and its potential repercussions for that year’s world championship, which he lost to Lewis Hamilton:
Nice of Massa to give an additional month to F1 to respond.
Liberty will be happy that at least one championship will go down to the wire this year.
Sumedh
There’s still time to join in this weekend’s Caption Competition:
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Fer No. 65, Sebastiaan Huizinga and Carlos!
Jere (@jerejj)
15th October 2023, 6:24
Indeed & thus, while overhauling AM is rather probable, catching up the 79-point gap to Ferrari (or Mercedes, for that matter) over the same race & sprint amount is unlikely because, unlike AM, they’ve both drivers regularly score points.
Simon
15th October 2023, 18:34
03 Long, rambling comment with off target speculation
05 Prediction/s that prove to be unfounded
S
15th October 2023, 8:38
It sure is lucky that this rule doesn’t apply to (certain) F1 drivers.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
15th October 2023, 8:58
It’s a nice thought from the Guardian letter-writer, and in a civilised country this is exactly what would happen. But unfortunately we live in a dystopian hellscape where Everything is Broken On Purpose, and it’s likely that Ecclestone’s payment will instead be used to pay down the national debt, as usually happens when the government receives an unexpected windfall.
I also don’t think it’s appropriate to “thank” someone for paying what they always owed to begin with, years or decades late.
Electroball76
15th October 2023, 10:20
The Govt reaction was probably:
“£652 million? Nice!
We can pay off the mortgage on the holiday homes, destroy the whistleblowers, and still have cash left over for the Christmas party!”
MichaelN
15th October 2023, 14:32
The UK has a pretty high debt though at over 80% of GDP, so while some extra money could be spend elsewhere, keeping that debt on the books also costs a lot of money over the longer term.
And unlike other serial debt-spenders like France and Italy, the UK has its own currency so they have to keep it somewhat under control and can’t expect others to foot the bill (directly or through inflation).
Exediron (@exediron)
15th October 2023, 20:19
Imagine having a national debt below 100% of GDP… (cries in USA)
Robert Henning
15th October 2023, 11:26
McLaren boys will hopefully give Max a good run for his title next year. They are the only other team apart from Red Bull who seem to know what to do. Anything they put on their car makes it go fast. Although I have to admit that their floor looks rudimentary compared to Red Bull’s floor which probably explains the latter’s race trim advantage.