In the round-up: Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin says the team will reintroduce the floor they removed from Spa onto their cars at Zandvoort
In brief
Mercedes planning to reinstall removed Spa floor at Zandvoort
After Mercedes removed their updated floor from their car over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend to reinstall a previous specification floor, the team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says they intend to refit the new floor to their cars at Zandvoort.
“We are planning to do that now,” Shovlin said.
“We essentially reverted the car to the Silverstone-spec on the Friday night. We did that because we had a good race in Silverstone, and Spa and Silverstone are not dramatically different circuits in terms of the corner speed range that you’re dealing with.
“We’d clearly introduced some problems somewhere. We think that was largely due to how we were running the car in Spa – not induced by the updates themselves. That was obviously giving us a bit of bouncing in the high speed corners, a few issues with the balance. Going to that Silverstone-car got it all back to normal. We’ve since had time to look at the data to understand what it was we did exactly and, knowing that, we’re pretty confident that we’ll be going for a reintroduction in Zandvoort.”
Dixon wants more wear at Milwaukee
Scott Dixon says the upcoming IndyCar oval race at the Milwaukee Mile will bring the question of how much tyre wear is best in the series to the forefront.“Milwaukee will be interesting,” Dixon said. “They’ve really got to work on the formula for those tracks because nobody wants to just follow the leader. Unfortunately, with the repave at Iowa, that kind of ruined the best short track we’ve had for a good five, ten years.
“It will be interesting to see the Milwaukee test for us, almost zero deg as well, extremely hard to pass. We’ll have to see how that plays out. I know they’re talking about bringing a softer tyre.
“Deg is key. You need three or four seconds over a stint. That spices it up, makes it interesting. Firestone don’t want to hear people talking about degradation, but it creates great racing.”
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Links
F1 design guru Newey reveals his favourite cars of all time (Formula 1)
''The Bluebird (CN7), I think that land speed record car of the mid-60s was absolutely astounding. It’s more advanced than many F1 - all F1 cars in many ways - and the first car actually to properly understand ground effect, venturis and tune it.''
Pricing confirmed at $42.99/month for upcoming Venu Sports streaming service (ESPN Press Room)
'Venu Sports, the upcoming standalone streaming service being built through a joint venture to be established by ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery, will be available at a launch price of $42.99 per month for the service, with a seven-day free trial. Includes coverage throughout the season of the biggest auto racing events, including all IndyCar Series races, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and Championship Race and all Formula 1 events.'
'After completing the F1 Academy 'Discover Your Drive' Race Academy, the pathway behind the wheel continues with the opportunity to qualify for the British Indoor Karting Championships, a more accessible and affordable start in motorsport. Split into two categories for under 16s, children aged eight-to-12 compete in the Cadet class, if their 12th birthday falls after 1st June 2024. Meanwhile, those aged 12-16 participate in the junior class. The window to qualify for the BIKC finals runs from June 1st to August 31st, 2024.'
Thank You Mercedes (Jarno Opmeer via YouTube)
Multiple F1 Simracing world champion Jarno Opmeer reflects on what he achieved as part of the Mercedes esports team over the last four years.
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
A day to remember! 🧡 #Part3 pic.twitter.com/D7sa8OWPdX
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 4, 2024
Escape to the North ✨#VB77 @tiffanycromwell pic.twitter.com/9U6BW7mHOP
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) August 3, 2024
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Comment of the day
No surprises for guessing the theme of this weekend’s winning Caption Competition, going to notagrumpyfan!:
“This magic sweat band will help you lose 1.5kg, easily…”
notagrumpyfan
Thanks to everyone who came up with caption ideas this week and a special mention to Only Facts!, Electroball76, Roth Man and EffWunFan who all came up with particularly good captions.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Katy, Paul Gawne and Pamela Mclaren!
Ajaxn
5th August 2024, 3:36
Any word on the new FIA rule changes, in particular about the asymmetrical Braking loophole they’ve closed?
Is this because someone has been caught {Redbull}, or were teams proposing this to the FIA as a design direction?
SteveP
5th August 2024, 8:10
If you’re thinking that, then you’d be looking for performance drop at places with more tight curves, like Austria or Hungary, and not so much drop at high speed sweeping curves like Silverstone and Monza.
MacLeod (@macleod)
5th August 2024, 8:20
I think you will be surprised which team used that feature. Teams were informing if this was a feature they could use which was shotdown by the FIA.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
5th August 2024, 11:38
YouTube covers every race session, with 5- and 30-minute highlights of the races. 30 mins is perfect for a series I’m not entirely invested in but has great racing occasionally.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
5th August 2024, 11:39
Of course this is in entirely the wrong thread =/
anon
5th August 2024, 12:22
Nobody seems to be sure.
There was some speculation that a team might have been looking at that avenue, with the FIA then stepping in to state that wasn’t allowed. That suggests it probably has not been used and it’s more likely to be the second scenario (that a team asked the FIA if such a system could be developed before they committed further resources to it).
SteveP
5th August 2024, 18:46
In season, if they are asking for “clarification” they are trying to block something.
If you look back to a classic case played out in public view:
General speculation about Ferrari engine cheats generated a number of “clarification” enquiries from Red Bull, followed by a couple of amendments to the technical regulations by the FIA to clarify that the proposals were most definitely not allowed.
Ferrari PU performance in races dropped alarmingly, and they entered a hush up deal at the end of the season in return for providing the full list of the dodgy developments.
Normally, the in-season “clarifications” are not indicators of the querying party checking legality of their development, they are normally indicators of the querying team (or teams) ‘fishing’ for edge case stuff in use by a competitor.
A case of is this actually legal? Or is it out-of-bounds, and when are you going to “clarify” that to ruin their chances?
pastaman
5th August 2024, 4:20
$43/mo ? I guess I won’t be watching Indycar for the first time in 20 years. A shame
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
5th August 2024, 5:30
It’s a chunk of money BUT you get everything: football, tennis, Motorsport, NBA, NFL…
Seems like quite a deal if you follow all those sports. I’d not pay it, but it’s good that it’s a joint venture with all the major broadcasters being together.
SteveP
5th August 2024, 8:13
Re-read just the quoted bit, and it’s apparent that $42.99 is the launch price.
Biggsy
5th August 2024, 10:55
@fer-no65
Bundle-fication is the worst thing ever.
And your selling point just highlights the absurdity of it.
Imagine wanting to by milk, but they tell you that each time you wanna buy milk, you have to buy apples, pringles, b-day cake, 6-pack and more…
And then you either just drink your milk and let everything else rot, because you don’t need it/eat it, or you force yourself to consume it, just so that you feel your money isn’t wasted. Even though you don’t drink, you don’t eat pringles, you don’t need that many apples, and you aren’t throwing a b-day party for 15 people twice a week.
Do you realize how absurd that is?
This is basically what you get with bundling all of those sports.
Outside of F1, I don’t really care, nor have time to follow other motorsports. Let alone watch NBA, NFL, football, tennis… I’d be glued to TV 24/7… Which is the goal of course. (pun not intended)
notagrumpyfan
5th August 2024, 12:06
Actually it happens in grocery as well. But there it is more a promotional tool (a free gift wrapped to the product you buy). Another example in grocery is offering multi-packs; not everybody needs or wants it, but you buy it anyway because you think it is a good deal. Also you find more and more the meal ingredient packages; some of those ingredients you might not need/want at all.
And when you buy a new car you see how much sense it can make. Most people go for the packages rather than ticking off the individual items they want.
When done well it is a win-win; the consumer gets more items for a lower overall price, and the supplier makes more money (top and bottom-line).
For those who don’t want the package, they can still buy most of the individual products separately (F1TV).
SteveR (@stever)
5th August 2024, 11:34
And I’m paying $79/year for F1TV…. I’m going to jump on that deal!
SteveP
5th August 2024, 19:28
I’d what the full, non-launch discount, price is. Could be that the $42.99 is a 50% discount for the first 6 months on a minimum 24 month contract.
Look before you leap.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
5th August 2024, 11:39
YouTube covers every race session, with 5- and 30-minute highlights of the races. 30 mins is perfect for a series I’m not entirely invested in but has great racing occasionally.
Unregistered
5th August 2024, 10:04
It takes billions and billions of dollars spent globally to put on the various motortainment show(s) from various racing organizations to amazing venues to teams to car manufacturers, OEMs, tyre suppliers, vendors, tens of thousands of personnel, hundreds of drivers not to mention the production and transmission of the events, in 4K around the globe.
But, nah, I Ain’t Paying for nuttin’ !
Have one less burger/candybar/beer a day
MichaelN
5th August 2024, 13:55
That’s all well and good, but they’re spending that money knowing they can turn a profit. That’s what the budgets are based on. And they will know that they can afford to lose x% of the audience by increasing the price. Or at least they think they do. Plenty of businesses have misjudged that. We see a similar bundling in Europe with parties like Viaplay, Sky and others. But the former is still struggling, even after they got F1TV to raise prices in select countries to stop that being a competitor. At the end of the day the customer decides the price. If the asking price is too high they will simply walk away. It’s not their problem that it costs money to run the series. It’s not like there’s a dearth of alternatives to have an hour or two of fun in the weekend.
Tristan
5th August 2024, 20:52
Typical out of touch thinking… You think people are buying candy burgers or beer a day? Sure well off people are, but they’re not the ones that can’t afford $40/month… Meanwhile the rest of us are struggling to put together our rent, especially in this economy with the price of fuel and groceries.
It’s a crazy price if they want to hit mass market with this product.
pastaman
6th August 2024, 13:33
I currently pay $7/mo to watch Indycar. I don’t watch other sports, there is no way I’m paying 6x more per month to continue watching Indycar.