Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Edvaldo isn’t convinced by Red Bull managing expectation over their performance in last week’s test:
They have been saying they don’t stand a chance for months, but they finished the season with a pretty capable car.
This new one has to be a massive misstep for them to be out of contention.
Edvaldo
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alpinestar, Venturi Effect, CDMRacing and Guillaume Blanchet!
On this day in motorsport
- Born on this day in 1950: Danny Sullivan, who raced in Formula 1 for Tyrrell in 1983, then won the Indianapolis 500 despite a mid-race spin two years later, and won the CART IndyCar championship in 1988
- Born on this day in 1955: Teo Fabi, who set pole position three times in Formula 1, was CART IndyCar championship runner-up in 1983 and gave Porsche their only IndyCar victory at Mid-Ohio in 1989
- Born on this day in 1985: Pastor Maldonado, who raced in F1 for five seasons and won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix
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El Pollo Loco
9th March 2025, 2:22
Using a cross eyed picture of Pastor on his birthday? That’s cold, RF.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
9th March 2025, 9:02
Well he used to drive like he had a vision problem half the time ;)
El Pollo Loco
9th March 2025, 11:34
IIRC, he is or was one of the best drivers in F1 (the last race I watched was the 2012 Spanish GP). I assume everything went just as smoothly thereafter.
S
9th March 2025, 4:56
Since there’s no mention of The Race of Champions today – no F1 drivers made the final. Loeb took victory over Mostert.
Wer
10th March 2025, 10:48
Yes! Loeb is the GOAT.
F1 drivers competing: Bottas, Vettel, Kovalainen, Schumacher
El Pollo Loco
10th March 2025, 20:08
Loeb’s won that thing like 10x now hasn’t he?
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
9th March 2025, 7:04
Happy birthday, Teo Fabi! But every time I see your name, I have to say this fact:
Teo scored 3 pole positions but never led a lap. Isn’t it weird?
Jay
9th March 2025, 7:15
I like this quote from Abbi, that’s how real competitors feel. Dare I say it but I’m actually rooting for her now.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th March 2025, 7:38
Regarding yesterday’s Super Formula race, unusually many SC interruptions for a Super Formula race, but the race was still decently exciting & what a close finish.
Every single remaining driver pitting on the same lap is also something unusual with Makino & Nojiri the biggest losers in that shuffle.
Ota’s pass for the lead that eventually proved critical couldn’t really have been timed better, & I’m sure Iwasa will eventually achieve his maiden series victory.
O’Sullivan ultimately fared the best among the non-Japanese drivers, albeit Fenestraz’s series return has also gone relatively smoothly thus far.
Fraga was simply unlucky to end up with front wing damage & a lap down.
O’Sullivan, on the other hand, was very lucky not to get collected by out-of-control Oyu & the Kotaka-Oyu collision was rightly considered a racing incident despite the outcome as it was simply a good short battle that just ended badly.
Regarding the opening lap incident, Miyake was simply impatient with O’Sullivan.
I hope tomorrow’s race will be at least less interrupted, if not fully uninterrupted, & at least equally exciting.
Today’s race was cleaner but also decently exciting with a new-for-2025 tyre window absence from two-race format Sunday races causing some interesting variation in strategies, not to mention quite a few pit stops within the first two laps.
asz
9th March 2025, 9:49
It would have been really unfair if a mid-race spin two years later had affected his Indianapolis 500 win :-)