In the round-up: Andrea Kimi Antonelli says he is a stronger driver after crashing in practice in Monza.
In brief
Monza crash ‘made me stronger’- Antonelli
After crashing just ten minutes into his first appearance in a grand prix practice session, Mercedes 2025 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli insists that he has learned from the experience.
“Monza was emotional,” Antonelli said. “It was one of my two home races, and there was so much hype around the whole weekend, and I guess you could say I learned a lesson the hard way with what happened in first practice.
“I enjoyed the couple of laps I did, especially in front of the home crowd. It is a memory I will have for a long time. Mentally it will help me to come back stronger, too. The team helped me so much. They taught me how to face that moment and get through it without worrying too much.”
Perez staying at Red Bull – reports
Amid speculation Sergio Perez’s seat at Red Bull may be under threat for 2025 with rumours suggesting either Carlos Sainz Jnr or Franco Colapinto could replace him despite having a contract for next season, reports in the Spanish media claim Perez’s place in the team remains secure.Marca reports Perez will acquire new sponsors for 2025 which will help him to retain his position at Red Bull.
Perez insisted during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that he will be on the grid next year. “You will see me in Vegas, you will see me next year,” he said. “I’m not the one that worries about it.”
Esterson fills empty Trident F2 seat
Trident has confirmed Max Esterson, who competed in the Formula 3 championship this year, will compete in the final two rounds of the F2 season in Qatar and Losail. The 22-year-old completed a full season in F3 this year, ending up 21st in the championship standings.
He will fill the seat vacated by Richard Verschoor, who has moved to MP to replace Dennis Hauger.
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Links
The off-track drama that is keeping the Eurocup-3 crown in limbo (Formula Scout)
'The results of both Eurocup-3 races at Barcelona last weekend are being appealed, with a potentially premature crowning followed by off-track drama that has put a lot back on the line, and into limbo. RFEDA, the Spanish motorsport federation, will be hosting hearings of the appeals at a later date that will be communicated once the appeals are registered. Should the involved parties dispute the decisions made then, the FIA’s international court would be where the 2024 Eurocup-3 title is then decided.'
'All game modes and platforms have benefited from updates to materials used for track side elements such as sponsor boards, fences, panels, concrete barriers, and lights, with additional tweaks to shaders. These updates offer better quality reflections and a more realistic appearance overall but are especially noticeable on metallic textures and during wet conditions.'
GP2 Tutorial - Smooth FPS with Lossless Scaling! (Ted Meat via YouTube)
Retro simracing YouTuber Ted Meat explains how to play Grand Prix 2 at double its original frame rate through the power of Lossless Scaling.
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Big push before the final triple-header 💪 pic.twitter.com/5MwaDmJNwZ
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) November 11, 2024
Step 1: Seat fit ✔️ pic.twitter.com/EwJjlv5Ott
— Meyer Shank Racing (@MeyerShankRac) November 11, 2024
A new promotional image from Netflix's upcoming series Senna showing Ayrton Senna, Ricciardo Patrese, and Gerhard Berger on the podium at the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix#F1 pic.twitter.com/wo72JeQs9S
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) November 11, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With the Formula 1 world championship all but decided, Sham laments the loss of the wildcard element of reliability in modern races…
I do slightly miss the uncertainty, even if a race was being dominated there was always a chance that things would change as the cars were fragile and highly strung. You always get the feeling that the cars and drivers have more to give these days and for me that’s a bit of a shame. They always look ‘lazy’, like they could be pushed harder. Should a championship be decided on unreliability? No, but it did add spice and I’m not sure if the cars being under stressed so the engines can last so long is a better way.
Should F1 be an endurance event covering several weekends per engine and gearbox? I’m not so sure, F1 is about car and driver – I’d love to see both being pushed to their limits more often.
Sham
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Christian Briddon, A-Safieldin and Khuzai!
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th November 2024, 3:24
If Perez stays, how sad for Red Bull. The once giant that didn’t hesitate to promote new talent to their cars, who brought more success than any recent driver development programme, became sell outs, hiring a pay driver instead who’s doing very little towards the proposed objectives.
How much money is Perez pouring into it for Red Bull to be happy to lose not just first but second in the constructors championship as well?
Johns
12th November 2024, 3:35
Not as much money as Aston Martin with lance
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
12th November 2024, 3:58
The difference between 1st and 3rd in the WCC is what, $20m?
And being third in the WCC instead of first has the advantage of roughly 14% extra wind tunnel/CFD time, at least until mid-season. That’s extra development time for the 2026 car, for a paltry (for Red Bull) $20m. Money well spent (especially if Pérez covers parts of it with sponsors).
I doubt Red Bull are playing that game, but 14% is a lot of time.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th November 2024, 6:31
@casjo I also doubt they’re playing a game & while a lower finishing position means more aero testing time for a half-year period, the loss of annual final position-based prize money is still a hit even for the biggest teams.
Red Bull Racing is the only one among this group that doesn’t receive any separate historical payment.
The prize money aspect also affects employee bonuses, so something all teams always care about.
notagrumpyfan
12th November 2024, 7:06
€20m might be a lot for you, but losing it for a well funded team to get 14% more wind tunnel time and CFD is a small investment, especially around the time when a new car concept needs to be developed.
It happens everywhere, and staff accept it can impact short term bonuses for long term success. In almost all businesses (also those with profit sharing/bonus programmes) companies invest in Marketing and R&D. It will reduce short term profit, but is expected to have a bigger return in the long run.
And to take the analogy further: see the extra sponsoring money Perez could bring as an R&D subsidy; the lower FIA super license points payment is like paying less profit tax; and the investment in long term success instead of short term bonus is like a retention scheme (e.g. deferred stock options).
In the end F1 is just like any other for profit company.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
12th November 2024, 20:40
@jerejj Not if Red Bull is already earning more than it is allowed to spend.
An Sionnach
12th November 2024, 22:26
Pure speculation on my part, but I’d guess that almost every move Red Bull might make can be countered with enough cash, so Pérez may stay there until his backers will no longer cover the shortfall. Even wealthy backers must run out of patience at some point, and if they can see the light and back someone younger and more talented, then Pérez is toast…
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th November 2024, 23:27
If you know what you are doing, you don’t need a wind tunnel, unless its purely for validation.
F1 has too much money and politics for it to be near efficiency in terms of it’s engineers production output, thus teams who suffer from ‘wind tunnel issues’ are typically those who either have poor incentives for perspective engineers or those teams who have poor engineering teams.
Pretty sure the software and common sense are still at least 90% of the effort.
Craig
12th November 2024, 7:45
At this stage I’m not convinced it’s anything to do with money as it’s not like Red Bull is strapped for cash or would struggle to drum up other sponsorship.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th November 2024, 8:52
Craig Indeed since they’ve always been among the biggest teams.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
12th November 2024, 6:08
COTD: As a Finn, please no. Still bitter about Häkkinen’s Mercedes going boom at Indianapolis in 2000 and effectively ending the championship; and Räikkönen retiring at Nürburgring in 2003…
Jere (@jerejj)
12th November 2024, 6:25
If the Marca report is true, Red Bull Racing would likely fail at winning the drivers’ championship as well, given the performance closeness between top teams, which means that Checo wouldn’t be taking points away from closest championship contenders & with Max not having a relatively big lead like he already had after the Chinese GP when this closeness period truly began, he’d struggle to come out on top against both Ferraris, McLarens, & maybe also Russell, depending on Merc’s overall level.
I assumed Sargeant would move to IndyCar the whole time, & I wish him good luck in his new racing career chapter.
I see where COTD is coming from, but ultimately, I prefer this trend of in-race retirements being rarer & rarer under normal circumstances, although neither would I mind more pushing.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
12th November 2024, 6:43
That Eurocup-3 situation sounds a mess. Including the dubious spectacle of a team getting their driver penalised by breaking parc ferme rules in order to help his teammate in the championship. Of course, such a thing would *never* happen in F1…
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th November 2024, 12:52
when he drops the cliches then maybe he might be right. it was pretty clear toto set him up for failure, hopefully he was paying attention, and maybe thats what he really means.
José Lopes da Silva
13th November 2024, 11:52
Berger looks like Kvyat.
José Lopes da Silva
13th November 2024, 11:53
Great job by Michael Raballand and Ted Meat on Lossless Scaling and Grand Prix 2!!