In the round-up: Mercedes’ Toto Wolff says his team have worked out why they struggled so much in Interlagos
In brief
Mercedes “understand our mistakes” – Wolff
Mercedes have worked out why they struggled for race pace during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, team principal Toto Wolff says.
“Brazil was probably our most difficult weekend of the season,” Wolff said.
“After promising performances in the US and Mexico, we didn’t perform at our best in Brazil. We have been hard at work to identify the wrong turn we took with the set-up – we have done that. We understand our mistakes and can explain our performance loss to the field. That’s important as we look to secure P2 in the constructors’ championship.”
Vegas an “opportunity” for Ferrari
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur sees this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix as a chance for his team to take more points out of rivals Mercedes.Just 20 points separates Mercedes from Ferrari in the fight for second in the constructors’ championship. With many anticipating the high speed street circuit may suit Ferrari’s car, Vasseur believes his team could take important points out of their rivals.
“For sure, Vegas will be difficult but I think everybody’s anticipating that it will be difficult,” he said. “It will be more than a ‘night’ race – it will be I don’t know what. Conditions look to be very, very cold, but it’s a new track with a kind of special layout. We have to take it as an opportunity to come back on Mercedes.”
Red Bull junior Lindblad wins Macau F4
Arvid Lindblad, the Red Bull junior drivers, converted pole position into victory in the Formula 4 race at Macau’s Guia street circuit on Sunday.
Lindblad beat Theodore Racing team mate Charles Leong as the race finished with multiple corners covered by yellow flags due to incidents. It was his second straight win in the Formula 4 South East Asia category, however the Macau race did not count towards the championship.
The Macau Grand Prix will take place on Sunday to Formula 3 regulations.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Formula 1 gambles on Las Vegas spectacular to break US market (source)
Emily Prazer, Las Vegas GP chief commercial officer: ''I don’t think anyone is prepared, this is genuinely the biggest event the city has done. It is the first time anyone has encapsulated the city. We are trying to own where we are and make it unique on the F1 calendar.''
F1 TV or Sky Sports: who wins the pre-race battle? (Motorsport Broadcasting)
'Motorsport Broadcasting has analysed F1 TV’s and Sky’s build-up to last weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix to see where the similarities and differences lie in their offering. With both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships well wrapped up, it is challenging for F1 and its stakeholders to create engaging content as the 2023 season concludes. How did F1’s in-house team fare with 60 minutes to play with, and how did Sky fill 70 minutes of content (excluding commercials)? And are UK fans missing out by being unable to access F1 TV’s premium live content?'
AvaTrade explains the role of a race engineer (Aston Martin)
'Sitting trackside on the pitwall during every session, Ben Michell is the conduit between Lance and the team back at our Technology Campus who are parsing through terabytes of data to ensure our drivers can get the maximum out of the AMR23. You may well have heard his voice over team radio during television broadcasts, but Ben often works behind the scenes with colleagues trackside and at the AMR Technology Campus. Now, he sits in front of the camera to explain how he plays a pivotal part in our race operations.'
Gundam arrives on the F1 grid in Scuderia AlphaTauri partnership (Hypebeast)
'Scuderia AlphaTauri and Bandai Namco Entertainment have announced plans to bring Gundam to the Formula 1 grid during the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The partnership includes a range of activities, experiences and collectibles. Notably, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s drivers, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, will feature the iconic Gundam decals of the RX-78-2 Gundam and XVX-016 Gundam Aerial on the headrests of their AT04 cars.'
Ho’s win in F4 finale overshadowed by Deligny’s disqualification antics (Formula Scout)
'Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny started alongside Ho on the front row of the grid, and after the start lights went out he moved to the right to defend from MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella. But Rinicella was already alongside and Deligny forced him off the track, over the grass lining it, across the pit exit road and to the grass beyond that in an extremely dangerous manouevre. Deligny seemed oblivious to the fact he had a penalty, and on lap eight he was black flagged due to not serving it. Yet he stayed on track.'
Extreme E mourns loss of Kyle LeDuc (Extreme E)
'Extreme E is saddened to learn that off-road racing legend and former series race winner Kyle LeDuc passed away yesterday after a short illness. LeDuc competed in the inaugural Extreme E season in 2021 alongside Sara Price for Chip Ganassi Racing, before driving in four events last term for the American outfit.'
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.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Saddened to hear of the passing of Kyle Leduc.
My thoughts are with his family and loved ones. 🙏🏻🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/Vsw4jLGZRt
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) November 12, 2023
Warming up for the @netflix cup!🏌️ pic.twitter.com/FCJssv7GeF
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 12, 2023
Even for me, t-shirt and thongs might be a bit ambitious for the Vegas nights 🥶
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) November 12, 2023
Lando Norris x MP4/2. 😍#F1 @VelocityInv pic.twitter.com/PZOrV1HY2x
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 12, 2023
Who will take the checkered flag at the legendary Macau GP this year? 🏁
Make sure to watch live on FIA YouTube channel 16 – 19 Nov : https://t.co/FvjCUJPcNB#MacauGP | #FIAF3WorldCup | #FIAGTWorldCup pic.twitter.com/COaakV6Zvc— FIA (@fia) November 12, 2023
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is Drewie82!:
After getting out of the car, the marshal points out to Charles this isn’t what Ferrari meant by a one stop strategy…
Drewie82
Some very strong entries this week, including from WesselV1, Roth Man, Euro Brun and ady who all came up with particularly good captions.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Thenikii, Sid90 and Piotr Zukowski!
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th November 2023, 6:04
On Sky vs F1 TV debate: As someone in the Middle East who has to pay for the frankly amateur English coverage of the races, I’d happy pay for either service if I could.
The build up to the race for me consists of watching 3 men in a studio discussing things entirely in Arabic with the world feed occasionally shown over them. This is no problem, I use other resources pre-race anyway. 5 minutes before lights out the F1 titles are shown and they handover to the English commentary team (if you’ve selected English audio, if you chose Arabic they continue to commentate). The English commentary team are two Australian chaps who are simply motoring journalists based in the region with no motorsport background whatsoever. They then proceed to prattle on like their hair is on fire non-stop, and I do mean non-stop, for the entire race. Everything they say is wrong: they have no ability to read a race or understand strategy, every single thing that happens from minor oversteer moments to 15 car pile ups is blamed on “cold tyres” regardless of the phase of the race, they can never identify a car on track properly, and they insist on calling Fernando Alonso “The Fonz” at every opportunity.
It is intolerable and unacceptable considering we pay for this service. My shouting at them and their inane ramblings has now annoyed my wife so much that I now watch 80% of the race on mute, simply turning the audio on when team radio pops up.
S
13th November 2023, 6:20
Why don’t you just find a Sky stream on the net, then? Then you can enjoy Crofty getting it wrong all the time instead.
You are paying, so your conscience would be clear…
MacLeod (@macleod)
13th November 2023, 8:18
F1 TV is what i use and it’s much beter then VIA play (in the Netherlands) but compaired with Sky F1 TV are people which know what they are talking about F1.
So use a VPN and try F1 TV (not the international that is Sky) if you like it then buy for a year (season)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th November 2023, 10:47
@geemac You made that sound every bit as excruciating as I suspect it is. I genuinely laughed out loud when I read the bit about ‘the Fonz’.
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th November 2023, 11:31
@keithcollantine It is honestly grim…the second an alternative is available in the region I’ll be signing up for it.
MichaelN
13th November 2023, 11:48
Between all the dozens of people working on these projects, I don’t understand why we can’t also have a one man ‘expert commentator’. Just for the race and just one person; have him sit in a studio to save money.
I get that every race is someone’s first, and when we were all getting into F1 I’m sure we got a lot out of the commentary (although perhaps sometimes we shouldn’t have). But after hundreds of races I can really do without someone hysterically shouting throughout the entity of the first couple of laps, then misreading strategies, and coming up with bogus ‘scenarios’ to keep people watching whilst trying to pretend the whole race will be changed in the last two laps. I know why they’re doing it, but it’s not something that adds any value to the F1 coverage. It more often detracts from it.
Someone recently pointed to some amateur YouTube commentators who were essentially live streaming the race as a radio broadcast. While those I checked out were just okay, I’m sure F1TV can find someone better who could do the job at a professional level. And their app and web platform already supports multiple audio feeds!
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
14th November 2023, 12:49
I wouldn’t mind that if there were something genuine to shout about, but given we barely get 2 laps now without infinite replays of the start, we wouldn’t see it even if there were something of interest.
That and the fact that a SC usually kills all interest after 3 corners, like in Brazil. Let them race until they hit the final sector at least!
melanos
13th November 2023, 13:19
You might probably find a decent commentary stream on the radio and hear it while you watch in mute TV. I used to do this, the main problem is that synchronization is not a given
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
13th November 2023, 16:51
F1TV feed is all you need. Fair price, excellent commentary, onboard cams, data and bonus contents.
Dex
14th November 2023, 19:32
And the best thing – no Crofty, the most anti-charismatic guy in the world of television (I suppose, actually I don’t watch TV lol). No more that silly shouting and getting everything wrong (he doesn’t even know who overtook whom lol, because most of the time he doesn’t even watch the race but goes through stats on the internet or something).
isthatglock21
13th November 2023, 16:54
Count yourself lucky for avoiding Crofty’s random ramblings & constant mistakes. The man somehow hit a ceiling many years ago & never improved, full of errors, random moments of hyped commentary over nothing….I oddly prefer the bs they chat about during practise over quali & the race. Surprised the mid east don’t just show the Sky UK broadcast? They’ve somehow made a bigger investment than ESPN/USA etc ever did who just show Sky UK but with tonnes more annoying ad breaks. Anyhow would love to watch an arabic commentary of F1 1 day if it’s anything like the footie
Almond
13th November 2023, 7:05
Man, I still remember the Star Wars and Superman liveries Red Bull ran in 2006. It’s nice to see Alpha Tauri is trying to revive that tradition, even if it’s on a smaller scale. Would be great to see the pit crews dressed in Zeon-inspired attire, but I guess that’s off the table.
Still, that Gundam partnership is just as unexpected as it is welcomed.
Zann (@zann)
13th November 2023, 9:39
It’s good that Mercedes understand now. But I can’t help being a bit nervous that nobody knows what ground clearance they need in Vegas and their car is so super sensitive about it. Tho they have 3 FPs at least.
theRealMax (@millionus)
13th November 2023, 14:29
Feel weird that I’m more interested in the pre-race golf event than the race. Looking a bit hook-y there Alex Albon..! Fore left.
isthatglock21
13th November 2023, 16:56
Lies. This is the team that said this throughout the whole of 2022 only to admit a year later that they did in fact have incorrect simulation data & tools that made their entire year of ‘learning’ & data collection pointless. No one can understand the W13/14. Not god himself or his master….Adrian Newey
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
14th November 2023, 6:26
pretty sure someone said they ran the cars high with a big wing. No surprises, just amplified the issues the car has, maybe it was an impulsive reaction to the USGP, or perhaps the new floor is a little bit too tripsy with certain track conditions. Brazil just highlights the issues Merc has, and how well the Honda PU works out of the corner with it’s engine-breaking scheme, which appears to be computer/logically controlled, which in my book, if a computer is biasing the rear suspension, that’s a form of traction control. But what ever. Merc need an attack-sustain-decay mode for their engine breaking, throw what ever combinations you need for the profile of the circuit, in to the steering wheel and call it a day.