In the round-up: The promoter of the Canadian Grand Prix is not interested in turning his round of the championship into a sprint event.
In brief
Traditional format is best, says Canadian GP promoter
Canadian Grand Prix promoter Francois Dumontier says he prefers the traditional race weekend structure to the sprint format which Formula 1 introduced three years ago.
“I’m a fan of the current format with free practice, qualifying, and the race,” he told the Journal de Montreal. “It’s traditional, but it’s the right one.”
The report claimed F1 charges $4 million (£3.14m) to race promoters for sprint events. But Dumontier said he disagrees with the series’ claim they provide better value for spectators.
“F1 says we see the cars running just as often with five periods on the circuit, but in fact, they are shorter.”New IndyCar deal for Road America
Road America, one of America’s most highly-rated permanent road circuits, will remain on the IndyCar calendar for several more years after signing a new deal with the series.
“Road America is a magnificent facility and great partner to IndyCar,” said the series’ president Jay Frye said. “With its rich history, iconic layout and packed grandstands and campgrounds, it remains a favourite for our drivers and teams.”
Penske Porsche one-two at Le Mans test
Toyota were third quickest, seven-tenths of a second off the pace, followed by the third of the Penske Porsches. The quickest Ferrari was fifth, 1.1s slower than the day’s fastest time.
Less than three seconds covered the 21 fastest hypercar entries. However the sole Isotta Fraschini, 23rd on the time sheets, was over two-and-a-half seconds off the next car in the same class and only 1.7s faster than the quickest LMP2 car.
Chadwick takes first Indy Nxt win after red flag
Jamie Chadwick converted her first pole position in Indy Nxt into her breakthrough victory in the series. She led the field in a late, two-lap restart after the race was red-flagged following a collision between Myles Rowe and Jordan Missig.
Chadwick led Louis Foster and Jacob Abel home by eight tenths of a second, the other two podium finishers separated by a mere two-hundredths at the line. Abel leads the standings on 256, 18 ahead of Abel, Chadwick ninth on 141.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Private jets descend on Montreal for F1 in emissions-heavy weekend (The Montreal Gazette)
'A private jet can emit two tonnes of carbon dioxide in a single hour, the organisation states. Compare that with data from the Canada Energy Regulator, which says the average Quebec resident accounts for fewer than nine tonnes over an entire year.'
New tub no problem for Newgarden and Team Penske (Racer)
'It’s been a long time since we’ve replaced a tub. We’ve done a few rear ends, but to actually replace an entire car, you know, from basically nothing to where we are, and to you put a new livery on the car, to do all that, and to be out of here by 10 o’clock at night, I think that’s a big undertaking by the team that shows you that we’re well prepared.'
Race 2 - Round 3 Zandvoort F1 Circuit - Formula Regional European Championship (FREC via YouTube)
Motorsport Games explains Le Mans Ultimate DLC and cancelled IndyCar Game (TraxionGG)
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:
Heavy crash a few minutes ago in a very wet support race ahead of the #CanadianGP.
Colin Kaminsky climbed out of his car after hitting the pit wall barrier hard enough to shift it backwards in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America race.#F1 #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/IPeF7h1cNF
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 9, 2024
HUGE WRECK 🫣
So, so grateful that Logan Adams is able to walk away okay after this flip at Road America, always thankful for the AME Safety Team and the halo 🙏
📺: https://t.co/QMF8PbyQoV pic.twitter.com/3Nx7m4g5MK
— USF Pro 2000 (@USFPro2000) June 9, 2024
TROUBLE at the front of the pack!
Polesitter @L_Lundqvist76 and multiple cars are involved right after the drop of the green!
📺: #XPELGP on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/Y4yazyYMTw
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 9, 2024
@F1GPCanada shameful, my sister makes a sign for @LandoNorris @McLarenF1 that we bring to the track and after the race whilst walking the track security grabs it from her and destroys it. She was obviously distraught and crying after, this is pathetic! Please RT for visibility pic.twitter.com/hmovSna6qe
— Luke (@penguinsfan32) June 9, 2024
Also. Can we just remove DRS. Just for one race. Just to try it out #F1 #CanadianGP
— Claire Cottingham (@Cla_Cottingham) June 9, 2024
Can we have 20 Grand Prix a year at Montreal.. never misses! #F1
— Stefan Wilson (@stef_wilson) June 9, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Were Alpine being straight with Ocon about the reason for ordering a position swap with Gasly? Hje isn’t convinced:
This ridiculous order never had any chance to work out. Ricciardo jumped a whole second in just one sector, and after he built such gap, Ocon was told to let Gasly through.
With two laps to go. At that point Gasly already had two seconds to Ricciardo!
It’s more than obvious they just wanted Gasly to finish ahead, no matter what. It was simply impossible to gain two seconds on a single lap, and pass with DRS on the last lap.
It was all about Gasly finishing in front.
Hje
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Aslan Lateh!
On this day in motorsport
- Born today in 1941: Dave Walker, who ended his only full season of F1 in 1972 point-less while his team mate Emerson Fittipaldi won the world championship
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Nick T.
10th June 2024, 7:08
F1 should be racing at Road America instead of that joke of a Miami track.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
10th June 2024, 15:33
Problem with Road America is that it’s a great track but would need a ton of work to bring the facilities upto any sort of standard.
There are no pit or paddock buildings and the facilities overall would in no way to able to deal with what F1 would bring both in terms of the number of spectators but also the amount of people that are around an F1 paddock in terms of team personnel, FIA/FOM staff & the media.
Dex
10th June 2024, 22:13
Then maybe they should lower those standards. F1 should adapt to tracks better, it can’t only be the other way round. I don’t say this one is doable, but Miami has no place in F1, not in my book at least. Neither does Vegas. USA have so much more to offer, and F1 should have cars able to handle those tracks. As for the logistics, well, I sure hope they have at least one guy able to figure things out. But it wouldn’t be as lucrative, and that’s the only real issue here.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th June 2024, 7:43
I hadn’t realized holding a sprint format means a higher hosting fee versus standard format, but a preference towards standard format is understandable nevertheless, which means that even if the sprint amount doubled, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve still wouldn’t be among those twelve.
The argument about track time is also valid even though the session amount is the same, but since sprint qualifying & sprint are shorter on average than standard qualifying & practice sessions.
Luke’s tweet: I’m totally baffled what argument could that single security individual use for doing so, given signs don’t belong into the forbidden items category by any means & are a perfectly common feature on circuits all over the world, including on post-race track invasions, yet he still singled out one individual over others without any justifiable reason.
He should never be allowed to be in his position again as a consequence of misusing power.
Claire Cottingham’s tweet: Spa-Francorchamps would probably be the only worthy circuit for such an experiment anyway.
Stefan Wilson’s tweet: Please no. While the race was decent overall, it wasn’t the best ever either.
COTD: I agree. Clearly indeed about favoring Gasly who’ll continue at Alpine in all likelihood.
Nick T.
10th June 2024, 8:38
The other thing RE: Canadian GP is that it’s run like Swiss clock. That’s because it’s been there for so long with the same exact date. So, the local businesses and public transport are tailored to its schedule. The whole city really gets into it. It’s a great time. So, I can see why an extra million or whatever isn’t worth the trouble. Edit: I see you said it actually costs more. So, it’s doubly not worth it.
Nick T.
10th June 2024, 8:39
It also explains why F1 is so keen on forcing through more sprint weekends. It gets them more $. It suddenly all makes sense.
Mr B
10th June 2024, 14:50
Funny you say about how well it is run, I think the organisation of these events is quite incredible.
Have we heard anything though about who was responsible for wrongly telling spectators waiting to enter the circuit that FP1 & FP2 had been cancelled and subsequently turning them away?
Jay
10th June 2024, 9:57
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
10th June 2024, 15:39
I think DRS hurt Montreal a bit as we had a great fight for the lead between George & Max with Lando catching to join the fun. And then as soon as they enabled DRS Lando just breezed past Max & George fairly easily so we ended up with no battle at all. DRS just too often results in stuff like that & it always ends up been so anti-climactic due to how boringly easy the push of a button highway pass ends up been.
Was just too powerful in most cases & we saw on the lap after the restart that proper overtaking that’s actually exciting to watch is possible without the silly DRS gimmick. For instance Albon threading the needle to pass 2 was it Ricciardo & Gasly without DRS been one of the best overtakes of the year.
But quantity over quality is the order of modern show over sport F1 I guess.