In the round-up: Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu will face a “huge challenge”, predicts the team’s former driver Romain Grosjean.
In brief
Komatsu faces “huge challenge” – Grosjean
IndyCar racer and former Haas F1 driver Grosjean says the team’s new principal Ayao Komatsu has a lot on his hands in his first season in charge.
Grosjean raced with Haas in Formula 1 from their first season in 2016 up to leaving the sport at the end of 2020. Komatsu was announced as Haas team principal on Wednesday, replacing Guenther Steiner.
“I’m very happy for Komatsu, first of all,” said Grosjean. “He’s a very good friend of mine. I’ve competed at every one of my 181 grands prix in Formula 1 with him working on my car somehow. His kids are the same age as my kids, so we’ve been very good friends, and I’m excited for him. It’s a huge challenge in front of him, so I’m excited for him.
“I wish Guenther all the best in his next chapter. He’s definitely a man that’s got a lot of ideas and things to do, but for me the main thing is very happy for Ayao.”
Tost doubts Verstappen will be equalled
Former AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost doubts any driver will be able to match world champion Max Verstappen in the same team.The Red Bull driver has won the last three world championship titles and scored over twice as many points as team mate Sergio Perez last season. But Tost doubts any driver would be able to hold a challenge to Verstappen in the same car.
“If Max continues to have a good car, he will win many more races and titles,” Tost told F1 Insider. “He’s still not at his limit and will get even better. No driver who is or will be his teammate will ever progress beyond the role of number two driver.”
Mahindra drop AI ‘ambassador’ after backlash
The Mahindra Formula E team have shelved a controversial AI-generated ‘ambassador’ which prompted a negative reception from fans.
The team publicly revealed ‘Ava’, an AI-generated model they intended to act as a brand ambassador for the coming Formula E season. But following widespread criticism, team principal Frederic Bertrand said the team would scrap ‘Ava’.
“Nurturing diversity, inclusion and innovation is at the hear of Mahindra Racing,” Bertrand said. “Our AI influencer programme was designed with this innovation in mind. Your comments hold tremendous value. We have listened, understood and decided to discontinue the project.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
''Formula E has the title of world championship, but it has only nine years and in terms of the motorsport world it’s nothing. I think there is a tendency from the outside public to underrate you and the championship. Inside the Formula E paddock and in general in the motorsport world you are highly regarded and you get a lot of interest. For example, Red Bull gave me the possibility to run the car in Abu Dhabi. I think that maybe the fans, especially Formula 1 ones, undervalue Formula E and jump to the conclusion that this is not at the level. In the end, this is the only category without paying drivers. Formula 1 still has seven or eight drivers at the back paying to be there for sponsorships or country money.''
International Court of Appeal of the FIA (FIA)
A decision by the FIA's ICA, upholding an appeal by International GT Open team Optimum Motorsport to overturn an appeal decision made by the National Court of Appeal of the Spanish Automobile Federation over a stewards' decision from a race at the Red Bull Ring in September 2023.
Pratt Miller Engineering working its plan toward IndyCar program (Racer)
'Pratt Miller Engineering, the Michigan-based racing operation that supported Team Chevy’s IndyCar program through 2022 and is responsible for building the Corvette Z06 GT3 as well as running General Motors’ factory Corvette IMSA GTD Pro effort, continues to work towards creating an IndyCar Series team of its own with goal of launching in 2025.'
Esports expansion for 2024 FIA Motorsport Games (FIA)
'The third edition of the FIA Motorsport Games in Valencia, Spain, this year (October 23-27 2024) will feature a hugely expanded Esports programme with two gold medals up for grabs across two separate gaming titles. The GT Esports racers will again have the opportunity to chase gold on the Assetto Corsa Competizione title but a separate competition also will be staged with racers competing in a virtual version of FIA Formula 4 on iRacing. The Esports GT category will focus on slightly longer races, including a mandatory pit stop. The Esports FIA F4 category will have shorter sprint races, providing more action.'
''I remember the first time I put on the red t-shirt with the Ferrari logo on it, I just got goosebumps immediately. I've learned so much here the last three years and it's been an amazing journey for me so far. I father used to drive cars as a hobby, for fun. That's what got me into racing. I used to go with him to the track and I really liked it. Then for Christmas, as a seven-year-old, I got a kart and that was it. I just fell in love with it.''
Habsburg and Vesti to join Garcia for the 24 ELMS Campaign (Cool Racing)
'Already team mates in the Asian LMS, Garcia and Habsburg will be joined by a newcomer to the world of endurance, Frederik Vesti.'
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@alex_albon Hanging on in there 🫠
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Comment of the day
With a lot of Formula E fans in the UK and Ireland upset with the series’ move behind pay TV for the 2024 season, reader Alesici offers a money saving tip…
The cost of watching 15 of the 16 races is £120 for four months of subscription.
If you don’t mind stopping and starting the monthly subscription between races three (27th January) and five (30th March) and between races 12 (26th May) and 13 (29th June). That trick saves £90.
Alesici
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Abdurahman, Brian Frank and Al!
Ferdinand
12th January 2024, 7:28
Has all the signs of a ‘classic promotion of the runner up’ within the team, which usually amounts to nothing. Let’s hope for all people involved at Haas I am proven wrong. You would think they’d learn from other teams though.. well, let’s see.
BasCB (@bascb)
12th January 2024, 13:34
To me the appointment of his successor points to Steiner having been the one to step out rather than the team thinking this through.
Elvira
13th January 2024, 10:11
It looks like it developed very quickly but I can’t tell which one was holding the smoking gun.
JA
13th January 2024, 13:08
Somewhat agreeing. Its fair to run a next man up system and prepare for it, but here im agreeing with BasCB that its looks like an unprepared move and on top of that picking the best engineer within the team. So it isnt a promotion of the best within the team in terms of leadership, but the classic most knowledgeable specialist who is then removed from his speciality.
notagrumpyfan
12th January 2024, 8:31
AI replacing ‘influencers’ should be a good thing.
I don’t even understand why somebody lists ‘influencer’ as occupation. It would be much better to refer to them as what they are good at which attracts views; they can be an expert in a certain field, comedian, actor, or just being good looking. And failing all that, we could call them ‘spruiker’, as that’s what they really are.
Ciaran (@ciaran)
12th January 2024, 11:06
We already had a word for them – grifter!
SteveP
12th January 2024, 15:03
They are people that are good at being famous for being famous and expect people to take more notice of their views as a result.
Tristan
12th January 2024, 11:03
So the FIA once again judges its own work and rules that it can do no wrong. I’m interested to see what the grounds will be. Spain’s national court of appeal ruled that the wording of several articles included in the Sporting and Technical rulebooks may be contradictory… Sounds familiar…
No wonder Mercedes didn’t bother going to the International Court of Appeal over 2021.
Quite simply, you can’t have the body appointing people to preside over cases brought against the body. The conflict is too huge. Nobody will sacrifice their relationship with the FIA by ruling against it.
It’s a corrupt process in its very essence.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
12th January 2024, 18:28
Biased opinion presented as fact.
Nick T.
15th January 2024, 15:05
At least Grosjean won’t be one of those problems.