In the round-up: Max Verstappen names the most stressful race of his fourth championship-winning season.
In brief
Verstappen ‘prefers not to think’ about Hungarian GP
Verstappen said the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he finished fifth after colliding with Lewis Hamilton, was the most stressful race of the year. “I think Hungary was quite eventful, let’s say like that,” he told Red Bull’s official channel. “I prefer not to actually think about that weekend again.”
He arrived in Hungary 84 points ahead of championship rival Lando Norris at the halfway point in the season, but enduring a frustrating race in which he slipped down the order while McLaren scored an emphatic one-two.
In contrast he said the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he tangled with Oscar Piastri at the first corner, was his least stressful weekend.
“There was nothing to fight for really anymore,” he explained. “The championship was done for driver and constructors for us. So I think that’s why it was less stressful because it doesn’t really matter what the outcome is. It has no influence in the championship.”
Moto GP team claims Hamilton interest
Pit Beirer, motorsport director of Moto GP team KTM, says Hamilton has shown genuine interest in moving into the series as a team owner.“We have had very interesting discussions with his management,” Beirer told Speedweek. “It’s no secret that Lewis Hamilton is interested in Moto GP and is thinking about having his own team. There are concrete discussions here too.”
Vandals target Senna statue at Imola
Objects around the statue of Ayrton Senna at Imola have been vandalised twice over the Christmas period according to local reports.
Fans regularly leave items including flags around the statue. Il Resto del Carlino reported two acts of vandalism occured on December 24th and 25th in which some flags caught fire.
Senna died following a crash at the circuit while he was leading the San Marino Grand Prix 30 years ago.
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'In 10 years' time what we want people to say is: 'Not only is sustainability in action possible, but part of the definition of what good looks like, and if F1 can do it and show how it's done, everyone can do it.''
How Lawson looked set for F1 (Auto Action)
'We were able to assist with the financial burdens Liam faced on his rise through motorsport and to reach a point where Liam is now in a championship winning Formula 1 team.'
Upgraded steering wheels coming to IndyCar for 2025 (Racer)
'The Cosworth Mk 3 model, which is an optional unit for teams to purchase, has been chosen by eight of IndyCar’s 11 full-time teams and presents drivers with a wider frame — a larger diameter — to generate more force and leverage in the move from 284mm to 310mm.'
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On this day in 2013 Michael Schumacher suffered serious head injuries in a ski crash in France
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Comment of the day
@Slowmo offers a view on why both Sauber’s drivers have found themselves without drives next year:
I think the head-to-head at Sauber just proved how awful the team has been as a constructor over the last three years.
We know Bottas is not a top tier talent so by handily beating Zhou it just proved he wasn’t going to be the next big talent in the sport. I think Bottas did his job well for Sauber as a barometer for performance to measure against Zhou. Zhou did okay but he’s clearly not going to advance any further with that team and hasn’t shown enough for other teams to try and pick him up.
The only metric that really matters for head to head performance measurement in back marker cars is laps ahead.
@Slowmo
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to our readers whose birthdays fell since the last round-up:
- 24th: Andrew, Richpea, Wasif1, Willian Ceolin and Alex Tunnicliffe
- 25th: Louise.1987 and Urvaksh
- 26th: Michael S
- 27th: Scott Joslin, Super_Swede_96, Dean Mckinnon and Diceman
- 28th: Lazzar
- 29th: Jsc, John Graham and Dynamite Clock
- 30th: Journeyer, Naz3012, Rick and Liam Stroud
On this day in motorsport
- 24th: Born today in 1949: One-time F1 race starter Warwick Brown
- 25th: Born today in 1987: Ma Qing Hua, the first Chinese driver to participate in a grand prix weekend, though he never started an F1 race
- 26th: Born today in 1958: Adrian Newey
- 27th: Born today in 1985: Jerome d’Ambrosio
- 28th: Born on this day in 1909: David Murray, who started the very first world championship race at Silverstone in 1950 in a Maserati 4CLT. He retired with technical problems, as he did in his three other world championship race starts.
- 29th: Born on this day in 1969: Future Toyota F1 driver, three-time Le Mans winner and Formula E team principal Allan McNish
- 30th: Born today in 1956: Francois Hesnault, the last driver to start a race as a third entrant for a team, driving a year-old Renault at the 1985 German Grand Prix, having been dropped by Brabham earlier in the year
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Jere (@jerejj)
30th December 2024, 6:50
Earlier this year, the Gilles Villeneuve statue in Quebec was a target of vandalism & recently the Senna statue, which is weird.
David BR (@david-br)
30th December 2024, 14:06
Verstappen spent much of the Hungarian GP dumping his frustrations on the team via the radio, which is probably why he eventually attempted a rash pass on Hamilton and why he wants to forget the race (or he’d rather the team forgot it maybe). But he actually emerged from it relatively unscathed in terms of the WDC points deficit. His view of the Abu Dhabi race – another Max-induced collision – kind of justifies the view that these incidents occur either when he’s feeling the pressure/frustrated or when he’s feeling no pressure at all, in both cases, rash attempted passes. The intense battles against title rivals, as seen with Norris, are mostly another type as they’re very carefully calculated and he usually gets away with them unscathed, if not unpenalized.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
30th December 2024, 15:44
I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but when he goes wheel to wheel with Hamilton and they collide it’s almost always Verstappen who suffers more (Bahrain 2018, Silverstone 2021, Brazil 2022 and now Hungary 2024). Monza 2021 was a draw in that respect, but it’s interesting as no other driver has that record of surviving crashes with Verstappen.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th December 2024, 18:55
I would say brazil 2022 was a draw, they both lost a lot of time, it’s just that merc was the better car that weekend.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
31st December 2024, 1:20
proper judo move by Lewis.