In the round-up: Formula 1 and Moto GP almost shared an owner four decades ago, motorcycling legend Giacomo Agostini has revealed.
In brief
F1 enjoying a “golden moment” under Liberty
Bernie Ecclestone looked into buying the Moto GP series in the eighties as he increased his grip on Formula 1’s commercial rights, Agostini revealed speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, as current owner Liberty Media closes on a deal to buy the motorcycling world championship.
Agostini expected “good things” from a Liberty takeover of Moto GP based on their management of F1, which he said is enjoying a “golden moment” under its American owners. “Since we are certainly no less in terms of entertainment, indeed, I may be biased, but I believe that our races are even more exciting, I think there is a good margin of growth,” he said.
Misano won’t rival “mega” Tokyo – Cassidy
Nick Cassidy raved about Formula E’s new track in Tokyo. “It was mega,” said Cassidy, who lost the lead of the series last weekend. “It was a proper FE track: Bumps, fast, corners. You’ve really got to attack in qualifying. I thought this track was fantastic.”However he doesn’t expect as much from the Misano circuit in Italy which is the championship’s next destination.
“I don’t think that track will be quite as cool as here,” he said. “I’m a big street circuit lover, I think that’s Formula E’s DNA. For Misano though we’ll try to do our best result possible.
“I don’t feel like we’re super-efficient right now. I feel like we have to improve. So at that track, that’s probably going to be the key.”
French F4 race rained off
Yani Stevenheydens won the opening race of the French Formula 4 series at Nogaro yesterday. However the second race, which featured a partial-reverse grid, was cancelled as heavy rain fell at the circuit:
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Formula 1 owner Liberty to unveil £3.5bn takeover of Moto GP (Sky)
'Greg Maffei, the president and chief executive of Liberty Media Corporation, is expected to announce the motorsport industry's most significant corporate deal for years during a trip to Madrid as early as Monday.'
Growing grids a great problem for IndyCar to have (Racer)
'From its Michigan-based shop, Prema is said to be planning to launch its American open-wheel initiative in 2025 with a focus in hiring an IndyCar veteran to lead the team and mentor a second driver who has come up through Prema’s championship-winning European ladder which reaches all the way to Formula 2.'
Steiner not surprised by Haas's scoring start to F1 season (Reuters)
'I think at the beginning they played it down to have an excuse for it to start off with, and then it was better than they expected. That is for me wrong to do.'
More drivers continue to learn new IndyCar hybrid in testing (IndyCar)
Rinus Veekay: 'It’s fairly similar. There's just a lot more buttons for me to press and a lot more stuff you need to go through.'
Getting to know the real Tsunoda (Formula 1)
'I’m not sure I’ve fully fallen in love with F1 yet to be honest.'
Bottas drives Leyton House CG891 at Adelaide Motorsport Festival (Adelaide Grand Prix)
'Bottas went out on the track in the Adrian Newey-designed Leyton House alongside Australian motorsport legend Craig Lowndes, who drove a 1988 Arrows A10B Megatron.'
My racing movie screenplay is the next big... racing movie (Car and Driver)
'In the past few years, there have been several movies about cars and racing: Ford v. Ferrari (Le Mans '66). Ferrari. Gran Turismo, featuring some Ferraris. Even Brad Pitt is making a Formula 1 flick. Obviously, Hollywood loves these kinds of movies, and I want a piece of the action. So here's my screenplay for the upcoming hit film Racing Movie.'
GB3 round 1: Oulton Park (GB3 via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Formula E engineer or stand up comedian? 😂@JakeHughesRace and his race engineer had some spare time during the #TokyoEPrix to crack some good jokes!
What's your best dad joke? 👀👇 pic.twitter.com/AcoQiQHO9y
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) March 31, 2024
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Comment of the day
We had a stack of great entries for the Caption Competition this weekend. Jeanrien, Cyberaxiom, Gary Taylor and Notagrumpyfan all came up with particularly good entries but our winner is:
Yet another Aussie ordered out of Norris’ way
Mr Scallywag
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Seymour!
On this day in motorsport
- 40 years ago today Mario Andretti dominated the CART IndyCar season opener, the series’ first race at Long Beach after replacing Formula 1. Geoff Brabham was second despite losing a cylinder and running out of fuel at the finish
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
1st April 2024, 1:51
The best decade, and a car with the word “Megatron” in the name… what more does one want!!
montreal95 (@montreal95)
1st April 2024, 2:26
Don’t know if the best decade it’s debatable but Megatron is definitely the best name for an F1 engine ever(it was just an old BMW rebadged of course). Fittingly it propelled the team to its best ever WCC finish. And the cars were beautiful then both the Arrows and the March. Much sleeker than the long and heavy monsters of today.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
1st April 2024, 6:14
A lot of personal bias in my original statement, of course.
I was thinking that as Sauber are a bit ‘game’ in the naming department, they could perhaps rebadge their engine similarly, and become the Stake Optimus Prime.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
1st April 2024, 10:56
Yeah yeah. They’ll be up for it I’m sure. And how they’re not just Stake they’re also Kick are they not? So how about “Stake Optimus Prime Kick Megatron”? Both retro and futuristic! :)
anon
1st April 2024, 20:58
@montreal95 the March cars were notorious for also being extremely unpleasant to drive, with some fairly significant safety concerns being raised about those cars.
Gugelmin in particular was often in severe physical pain when driving those cars, due to how Newey pursued aerodynamic benefits at all costs, resulting in an excessively cramped monocoque. Because of the way he had to contort his lower body, it was impeding the circulation in Gugelmin’s legs to the point that, in some races, he couldn’t get out of the car afterwards without the mechanics having to partially lift him out of the car.
Indeed, it seems that some March mechanics were privately thankful that Gugelmin didn’t have a particularly severe crash in the latter stages of certain races because, in an emergency situation, Gugelmin might have struggled to get out of the car unaided.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
1st April 2024, 22:55
@anon Don’t know about Gugelmin, but I’ve read an in-depth interview with Capelli and he loved to drive the Newey Marches. He said they felt special and unusually well sorted for such a cash strapped team. Yes he also mentioned that they weren’t easy to drive but any racing driver would take a quick but difficult car over an easy but slow one 24/7/365. Now I wasn’t talking only about the Arrows and March specifically. Any car of that era be it Mclaren/Ferrari/Williams/Lotus/Benetton etc. etc looked way more slick, nimble, purposeful somehow than the ungainly fat beasts of today. I’m sure MV or any other contemporary driver would prefer those cars over today’s ones(with all the necessary safety modifications obviously.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
1st April 2024, 2:41
CVC was forced by the European Commission to sell its shares in Dorna, acquired in 1988, to Bridgepoint after acquiring SLEC, the owner of FOM, back in 2006. A precedent has already been set, so I’m unsure if Liberty is that arrogant to proceed with this purchase which is typical of mega US corporations, or if they already have some assurances that the EU antitrust commission will turn a blind eye to this acquisition.
Either way something feels not quite right here. Just hope that the EU antitrust commission will block this deal for the sake of MotoGP. I just lost hope regarding F1.
BlueChris (@bluechris)
1st April 2024, 6:26
I agree, i don’t want liberty to “fix” MotoGP also after the “Good” work they do in F1.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
1st April 2024, 7:53
I agree too. The antitrust commission should block the MotoGP deal.
But, since I’m old and cynical, I fully expect the EU to turn a blind eye to it.
Some magic money will change hands behind closed doors, and some political EU bozo will then affirm that everything is “in line with the regulations”. Wouldn’t surprise me one iota.
It will all be amazingly perfect.
Masses and masses of new customers will subscribe to MotoGP broadcasts (on a separate subscription from F1 of course, at an additional fee) and you will be happy (or else…). Something like that…
I hope I’m wrong, I really do. I love being wrong about these things. :)
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
1st April 2024, 11:39
Especially on 1st of April. :D
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
1st April 2024, 22:22
Indeed, if it were allowed to go ahead, I would like to see CVC take legal action against the EU for missed revenue and earnings from being forced to sell!
Jere (@jerejj)
1st April 2024, 6:45
Neither mentioned nor linked in this round-up, but for everyone’s info, I just read that Nikita Mazepin will become Lewis Hamilton’s successor at Mercedes.
notagrumpyfan
1st April 2024, 7:32
It will be announced today.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
1st April 2024, 8:30
What on April 1.
What a cunning stunt.
Jere (@jerejj)
1st April 2024, 8:55
notagrumpyfan @davedai
I normally never manage to come up with any good jokes for April Fools’ Day, but this year, I did, so I used an opportunity to go off-topic, which I normally never do.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
1st April 2024, 9:26
OK delete mine and see if we can catch anyone.
Sorry
Jere (@jerejj)
1st April 2024, 10:35
@davedai Nothing to be sorry about.
notagrumpyfan
1st April 2024, 13:54
You had me for half a second ;)
Tristan
1st April 2024, 8:16
Steiner sounds salty, car was made before I left, it’s the wrong thing to downplay expectations. I don’t think their car is that much better than the rest of the bottom half but they’ve executed better than them for sure. The whole race needs to come together.
There’s a higher road one could take is all.
Yellow Baron
1st April 2024, 10:07
Steiner was held back, if he were at mercedes they would be dominant to a greater extent than they ever were. same for mazepin.
Yellow Baron
1st April 2024, 10:11
Almost cant believe this is happening to Moto GP. On the other hand though, it may actually not be too bad. Since the racing is already great they shouldn’t be concerned with that and if they indeed don’t meddle with the on track stuff (even down to the camera work because it’s fine!), and instead focus solely on marketing, then it should be alright. Just with the viewership increasing a bit which in some ways comes with it’s downfalls..
It could go horribly wrong though :/