In the round-up: Despite being rejected by Formula 1, Andretti say they still intend to broaden their motorsport portfolio by entering the series.
In brief
Andretti still seeking F1 entry
Andretti Global has ambitions to add more than just F1 to its existing roster of championships, which includes IndyCar, Formula E, IMSA and Extreme E.
“We’re the only ones that compete in the amount of series that we do,” said president JF Thormann. “And then the ambition that Mike still has – we still have to close the loop obviously with Formula 1, that’s well-documented – and hopefully NASCAR. Then we’re going to have a race virtually every weekend and it’ll keep our name out there and keep us busy.”
Although the FIA approved Andretti’s application to enter F1 last year, Formula One Management turned them down. It said the team, run by the son of 1978 world champion Mario Andretti, wasn’t sufficiently well-known to add interest to the series.
Thormann said his experience of working for the team is different. “A lot of times when I travel if I have the branding on, the amount of people that will actually ask and say ‘do you work for the Andretti race team, is it Mario, is it Michael?’ You realise the power of the name and how recognised it is. It represents that hard work, Mario’s story of coming over with just their shirt on their backs. It’s just pride to to wear that.”
Chadwick handed IndyCar test
Multiple W Series champion Jamie Chadwick will test for Andretti’s IndyCar team next month. Chadwick, who scored her first victory in Indy Nxt at Road America in June, will drive one of their cars at Barber Motorsport Park.“The Indy Nxt field is really competitive this year and what Jamie has been able to do is a testament to the level of skill and potential she has,” said Michael Andretti. “We believe in rewarding hard work and results and are excited to give her this opportunity.”
Ex-Schumacher Ferrari F2001B on sale
The Ferrari F2001B which Michael Schumacher used to win the first race of the 2002 season is being offered at auction and is expected to fetch up to $10 million (£7.78m). The car was based on the 2001 design, incorporating some elements of the F2002 which wasn’t ready in time for the first races of the season.
After his win in Australia, Schumacher took the same chassis 215 to third place at the Malaysian Grand Prix, following which the team introduced the F2002.
Fanatec owner insolvent
Endor, owners of the Fanatic simracing wheel brand, filed for insolvency yesterday. “As part of the insolvency proceedings, we will continue the restructuring and work at full speed to reorganise the company,” said CEO Andres Ruff. “We are confident that we will emerge stronger from this situation and return to a sustainable, profitable growth path.”
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WEC weighing up three-driver mandate for all races (Sportscar 365)
'It is an advantage today to run with two. More track time, a bit of a more open strategy, so it’s an advantage to have two.'
How Hadjar’s set-up might have made a difference at Spa-Francorchamps (Formula 2)
'The Frenchman’s all-round set-up meant he was quick all around the lap, so even though he was slower than Bortoleto through the first and third sectors, he was not that much slower.'
F2’s Maloney to test RLL IndyCar on IMS road course (Racer)
'The test will take place with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.'
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Comment of the day
Mercedes’ explanation for Russell’s disqualification indicates how significant an advantage he may have gained, says Andre:
Seems plausible. The long stint meant higher tyre wear, which made the car run even lower, thus accelerating plank wear.
That also possibly meant that towards the end of the race George had the car running pretty low, which helped his performance in sector two in particular.
So it’s not just the benefit of carrying less mass, but also the aerodynamic benefit of running closer to the ground. Potentially.
Andre
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Jack Lenox!
On this day in motorsport
- 25 years ago today Mika Salo handed victory to title-contending team mate Eddie Irvine in the German Grand Prix. Irvine failed to win the championship, and Salo never took an F1 win.
Adrian Cheng (@raikkonenf12008)
1st August 2024, 3:01
The auction prompted a question in my head.
Back during the early 00’s, Ferrari introduced their championship-contending car a few rounds into the season for a few years.
Was it ever explained why they couldn’t get their cars completed in time for the first races?
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
1st August 2024, 6:56
More development time. Similar to 2009 Red Bull RB5 missing first and second winter testing because of that.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
1st August 2024, 7:15
It was also something of a luxury Ferrari had in the early 00s’. They could run an old spec car and know they’d still be in contention. The field spread and rate of development today means it’s unlikely someone would have that cushion.
Teams do go ‘backwards’ with development (Alpine managed to build a slower car, Mercedes abandoned their big undercut side pods) but generally speaking the speed at which the cars improve, a team would need a heck of a car to keep it in service that long.
McLaren basically skipped a year in the mid 00’s also, Williams did it in the early 90’s, and going back further lots of teams arrived on day one of a new season with last years car. I think today though, there’d be plenty of reasons to tell everyone its a new car even when it isn’t. The last days of the previous iteration of Williams spring to mind. It would have been hard for them to secure sponsors if they told everyone ‘it’s just last years car, tweaked a bit’.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
1st August 2024, 16:54
@raikkonenf12008 Partly because they had reliability questions about the new car & hadn’t been able to complete a full race distance with it.
They felt the prior years car was still a good enough platform that they could apply some of the bits from the new car to it & still be competitive.
Up until the mid/late 90s it wasn’t uncommon to see teams start the new season with the old car & it also wasn’t really that uncommon to see a team use the same chassis for multiple seasons & just constantly evolving it over that time to add performance.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:31
It was fairly common in those days to introduce completely new spec cars during the season. McLaren and Ferrari both did it. A product of unlimited budgets in those days. Michael forced them to move up the introduction. He was OK with the possibility of unreliability. He just wanted a more competitive car.
Riker (@corsair)
1st August 2024, 10:30
Alpine are in all sorts and are moving away from their own engine.
Yet Andretti – which had clearly done the work – can’t enter because one of the reasons is it isn’t a known name? Seriously? FOM is a joke.
SteveP
1st August 2024, 11:52
That’s slightly inaccurate, the response said that the Andretti brand as such did not, of itself, bring enough to the table.
The submission was primarily promoted as bringing a big auto-manufacturer (GM/ Cadillac) into the competition, and it was noted by FOM that Cadillac would not be in the competition entry until 2028 and FOM suggested a re-submission for that date.
Andretti themselves admitted, and continue to maximise the involvement of Cadillac as a major feature of their submission, but they gloss over the time gap between the date of having that feature engine and the date of their wish to start racing.
They had a proposal for a stop-gap PU to make the car actually move, but now Renault are canning that PU, so they have no sniff of a PU before 2028.
I see that delay as a failure on the part of Andretti, they should have lined things up to have Cadillac ready on the starting blocks to start development when the new engine regs were released
In project planning, you’d build the Gantt chart fairly quickly to see which long lead time items need to started early to match a particular target completion time. They either didn’t do that, or thought they could fudge it with a Renault PU
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
2nd August 2024, 5:12
they should have done that as soon as they took over, instead of trying to cover for Renault’s long running scam.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 7:48
Who “took over”?
Alpine are Renault.
They just did a rebranding, for the great association with a well known car brand.
Well known to a small circle of people, mostly in France, anyway.
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
1st August 2024, 12:26
Was lucky there, was thinking of getting a Fanatec wheel, but word over the last few months of long wait times, low quality and after sells nightmares stopped me…
Jeffrey Powell
1st August 2024, 22:48
Because this is a round-up section I feel able to comment on John Swinney Scotland’s first ministers statement that Andy Murray is Their greatest Sportsman ever, he forgets two Scots who totally overwhelmed the world’s best during the sixties and early seventies in a way so extraordinary that it in retrospect seems uncanny. I can only say I feel sorry for the people of Scotland that their politicians are such numbskulls.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:33
Murray is a special kind of special. The fact that Turdgeon was their brightest star is also fairly comical.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 15:21
I thought Colin McRae was active in the late-80s – 2000s ??
Yes, yes, I know Clark & Stewart, but I thought you were limiting things too much. :)
Jeffrey Powell
2nd August 2024, 20:29
Hi Steve I am a great Rally Fan. and Colin was undoubtedly a force of nature ,an outstandingly fierce competitor.
But was not as totally dominant certainly as Jim Clark in the right machinery virtually unbeatable, I was a great fan of Jochen Rindt and Stewart managed to burst my bubble continuously . These two Clark and Stewart undoubtedly were the supreme competitors from the early 60s to 73.