In the round-up: Max Verstappen strays over the limit at times with his defensive moves, says Charles Leclerc.
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In brief
Verstappen crosses the line sometimes – Leclerc
Leclerc, who is 79 points off championship leader Verstappen with 146 available over the remaining races, said his long-time rival “has always been on the limit of regulations” and sometimes oversteps them.
“That’s what makes racing Max so exciting,” he said. “That’s also why I really like having those fights with him, is that you know that he will never let any room to you and it will be always at the limits of the regulations.”
“With Max it’s always at the limits of the regulations, sometimes it goes a little bit over,” he added. “But that’s what makes Formula 1 exciting, those fights.”
Alonso misses media day due to illness
Aston Martin says Fernando Alonso is intending to participate in today’s second practice session despite missing Thursday’s media obligations due to illness.The two-times champion was scheduled to miss today’s opening practice session as Felipe Drugovich will drive his car. Aston Martin said he plans to return to his car in second practice.
Alonso will participate in his 400th grand prix weekend in Mexico, the first driver ever to reach such a milestone.
Rossi, Pourchaire and Vesti among hypercar rookies for test
Several familiar names have been confirmed to be participating in the post-season WEC rookie test following next week’s season finale in Bahrain.
Multiple Moto GP world champion Valentino Rossi, who races in a BMW M4 for WRT in the GT3 class of the championship, will drive BMW’s hypercar in the test day following the Eight Hours of Bahrain race next weekend. Reigning F2 champion Theo Pourchaire will get to run in Peugeot’s 9X8, while former Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti will drive Cadillac’s hypercar.
Arthur Leclerc will be offered the opportunity to run in Ferrari’s Le Mans winning 499P, while Alpine junior Victor Martins will drive his team’s A424 hypercar also.
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Links
Son, nine, of Hamilton rival begins following in the footsteps of famous F1 dad (The Sun)
'Kimi Raikkonen's son is beginning to follow in the footsteps of his dad after tasting success on track. Robin Raikkonen is set to compete in his first international kart racing competition. He qualified for the race by winning the Swiss National Championship this year.'
Gaming the system? Verstappen incident shows overtake rules need urgent overhaul (The Guardian)
'It is understood discussions on the subject are continuing at the FIA and it will surely come up at the drivers’ briefing in Mexico, where those questions will be raised but perhaps Martin Brundle’s judgment, from a former driver with more than a decade racing in F1 and a career since analysing and commentating, is the one most ominous in its assessment.'
Heart surgery to stage success in six months: Kovalainen’s story (DirtFish)
''It’s been pretty incredible how the recovery has been. I mean, better than I was ever hoping for when we went for the operation. We knew that it can take a long time or it can take a shorter time, but it has all gone really well, I think. I just have to remind myself every now and then, because it could be a totally different story. And I’m just grateful that I’m still rallying at this level and feeling well. It’s amazing what medical science can do.''
Driven by Respect: the FIA sets new standards in Safeguarding (FIA)
Mohammed Ben Sulayem: ''Everyone involved in the world of motorsport deserves the right to feel safe, and as the governing body we have a duty of care to protect this right. This new policy is yet another step forward in our commitment to our competitors and colleagues and I would like to thank all those involved in this crucial task.''
Double the FPS in old sims with a simple app! (GPLaps via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Franco really did miss the team 💙 pic.twitter.com/gj7bsgRdmV
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) October 24, 2024
Aston Martin are marking @alo_oficial's 400th "race start."
Alonso should start his 397th grand prix this weekend, though it will be the 400th event he's participated in.
He officially didn't start in Spa 2001 (crash), USA 2005 (withdrew) and 2017 Russia (power unit)#F1 pic.twitter.com/bh8tmRbsGI
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) October 24, 2024
New camera angle here. @LandoNorris was further ahead of @Max33Verstappen going into turn 12 on lap 52 than I realised at first. It would be very interesting to see the front-facing camera footage from the Red Bull if @F1 ever decide to release it.#F1 #USGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/dRgsy6Vz6s
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) October 24, 2024
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Comment of the day
With Williams unveiling their special livery for the next two rounds of the season, reader rprp has this observation…
Squint hard and it passes for Geoff Crammond’s Formula One Grand Prix from 1991…
rprp
Happy birthday!
No RaceFans birthdays today
floodo1 (@floodo1)
25th October 2024, 0:55
That Leclerc is a real racer!
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
25th October 2024, 2:38
@floodo1 hasn’t Leclerc lost everyone of those duels due to Max going over the limit? Not sure I’d be happy about that.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th October 2024, 3:04
Not sure if this applies, but I think the first race of 2022, when verstappen eventually retired due to a mechanical problem, there was some interesting battle with leclerc, where he kept overtaking leclerc and leclerc kept coming back at him, eventually regaining the lead and holding it even if not for verstappen’s problem.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
25th October 2024, 5:01
Definitely not all of them. Silverstone 2019 Leclerc mugged Max the very next race after being mugged by him in Austria.
AlexS
25th October 2024, 5:42
Leclerc is one of the drivers that can race Verstappen.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th October 2024, 7:12
@freelittlebirds Leclerc won last week against Verstappen, it just didn’t quite meet the definition of a “duel” because Sainz and Norris were also involved at the relevant point!
MacLeod (@macleod)
25th October 2024, 8:25
Max doesn’t do always over the limit but Charles sure win some of thos close wheel battles.
Dane
25th October 2024, 10:30
Austria and Bahrain 2022 and Silverstone 2019 Leclerc beat Max.
Nick T.
25th October 2024, 1:05
I’m not a fan of Max, but he’s a master of operating within the gray area of the rules, which in many ways is no different than teams exploiting loopholes in the rules.
The issue with the rules cannot be solved by changing them. They’re too dynamic. However, one thing is clear, the way they’ve written the guidelines on passing on the outside make it impossible and make it too easy for the driver being overtaken / on the inside to hold onto their position. The rules also prevent drivers from setting up a multi-corner pass (I.E., compromising a driver by forcing him to defend the inside + compromising his exit). That is very rarely possible.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
25th October 2024, 2:19
Modern “journalism” annoys me. The Sun article referencing Hamilton purely to broaden the reach by name dropping when he has absolutely nothing to do with the actual story itself.
notagrumpyfan
25th October 2024, 8:33
Kimi Raikkonen reduced to merely being a ‘Hamilton rival’ ;)
The poor journalism includes this site; why include a link to a very local Sun article on an international F1/racing site? And why as the first link (which Keith always said was the most important of the past day)?
It’s pure click-bait (which Keith seems to make fun of only when others do it).
Jay
25th October 2024, 9:06
Good on you for bringing this up lately! Us lurkers see it.
Ludewig
25th October 2024, 10:16
@notagrumpyfan
Yeah, perhaps the advertising income is going down and Keith is getting desperate.
JJ (@jjfrazz)
25th October 2024, 3:43
Re: “Overtaking in the modern era”
I honestly don’t understand what all the whining is about. Were there any penalties given over the decades of F1 for ‘track limits’ before the recent boondoggle years? Who invented “track limits” anyway? Isn’t it a race?
All Lando had to do was give the place back for overtaking off the track. He would have quickly overtaken Max sooner or later, but…
Max got a mark-against for “track limits.” But he did not gain from being off track.
The pen is now mightier than the racing!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th October 2024, 7:13
@jjfrazz Leclerc isn’t whining – he said this is part of the reason he enjoys fighting against Verstappen.
Also, one doesn’t give places back if one thinks the other driver drove sloppily enough to earn a 5-second penalty ;)
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th October 2024, 7:15
(Also, Las Vegas 2023 was one of the few times Verstappen has received a penalty for bad driving, he was passing Leclerc at the time, so Leclerc of all people would know that Verstappen sometimes oversteps the line and that this is part of the risk of the driving style Verstappen has chosen).
MacLeod (@macleod)
25th October 2024, 8:29
Track limited came in live because of tracks not made for F1 and had Motors in mind.
There are no overtakes offtrack because there was no offtrack and if you could overtake it was welldone and you got a praise from the other drivers……
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
25th October 2024, 5:39
“Son, Nine, of Hamilton’s rival”
The heck is that headline?!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
25th October 2024, 7:13
@fer-no65 A badly-written tabloid headline.
MacLeod (@macleod)
25th October 2024, 8:31
indeed Lewis will be old when Kimi’s son comes to F1 and will be gone… Very bad headline!
MichaelN
25th October 2024, 10:13
They know Hamilton gets clicks.
Problem: There is no Hamilton story.
Solution: They invent one.
This is The Sun. It’s atrocious and should not be given any attention.
Ludewig
25th October 2024, 10:20
Just clickbait. The real issue is with other sites that link to clickbait like this.
Neil (@neilosjames)
25th October 2024, 6:57
That Hamilton headline appears to be quite wrong, and most fans looking at it would think such wording shouldn’t be allowed… but it’s considered entirely perfect according to a badly written rulebook (that of modern clickbait journalism).
Jere (@jerejj)
25th October 2024, 7:42
Gaming the system indeed & FIA should’ve clamped down such actions as well as fully clarified the matter already after the 2021 Sao Paulo GP.
Out of those three DNSs, the 2001 Belgian GP one only happened because the original start became null & void, i.e., without this action, the 400th race start (without further DNSs or withdrawals) would occur in Brazil.
Possibly the ‘new evidence’ McLaren attempts to use, although if by the front-facing camera you mean T-camera angle, replay footage from Max’s T-cam was shown on the world feed.
Axel
25th October 2024, 10:09
Keith’s tweet points out my frustration with the rear wing facing camera. It barely shows any real information about what the defending driver is doing and often ensures that the front facing camera is not used while it is a much more exciting viewpoint to look at a battle between two drivers.
Kroxigo
25th October 2024, 15:54
Says leclerc who pushed perez into the barrier at turn 1 baku….
Alex
25th October 2024, 17:05
Said the “race inchident” man. He didn’t know what a monster he was creating from it back then.