In the round-up: Next month’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is expected to be unaffected by the late-running building work at the Imola circuit which was blamed for the cancellation of a European Le Mans Series race yesterday.
In brief
F1 not expecting ongoing Imola upgrades to put May’s race at risk
The second round of the ELMS at Imola, which was due to go ahead on May 7th, has been cancelled. The organisers announced yesterday the Imola Four Hours had been “postponed”, but did not state when the race will go ahead, adding they are “urgently working to find an alternative solution with the circuit management and competitors.”
“The improvement works to the paddock and garage complex at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari were due to have been completed by the middle of April, but delays to the project mean the circuit won’t be ready to receive the teams from the European Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup, Ligier European Series and Lamborghini Super Trofeo as planned,” they explained.
RaceFans understands the circuit’s building works – which are primarily in the paddock and garage complex – are not expect to present a problem for the grand prix, which takes place two weeks later.
F1 Academy testing gets underway
The new F1 Academy series for female drivers conducted its first track action at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday.
A morning and an afternoon test session took place for the 15 drivers taking part in the series, which uses Formula 4 cars. Former W Series racer Marta Garcia was fastest overall for Prema by 0.128 seconds over MP Motorsport’s Amna Al Qubaisi.The drivers will be back on track for two more sessions today, before the series’ first ever races take place on 29th April at the Red Bull Ring
Ex-F1 driver Nicola Larini’s son to make car racing debut
Davide Larini, the son of former F1 driver and DTM champion Nicola, will make his single-seater racing debut later this month in the Italian Formula 4 championship at Imola.
His father’s Larini’s F1 career spanned eight seasons. After several years of driving cars which he often failed to qualify for races in he was then picked up by Ferrari as a development driver for their cars and he was handed four race starts with them.
The highlight of his F1 career came in that fourth race as he not only scored his first points but made the podium in second place at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
His son was runner-up in last year’s Italian championship for ROK Senior karts, and the year before topped the ROK Junior points but was not crowned champion due to a rule requiring drivers to contest all rounds.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Zak: 'I’m really enjoying my second year at Williams Racing' (Williams)
'Our Williams Racing Academy driver pens his thoughts on his 2023 so far, covering the opening two rounds of the F3 season in Bahrain and Australia.'
WEC: Season gains momentum as Portimao plays host for round two (FIA)
'The World Endurance Championship moves to the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal for the 6 Hours of Portimao later this week and will be headlined by 11 Hypercars – many of which will feature in competitive action in Europe for the very first time.'
Ericsson seeks taste of revenge on streets of Long Beach (IndyCar)
'Marcus Ericsson stood on pit lane puzzled following an eighth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. The race was finished for nearly half an hour, but the Swede and engineer Brad Goldberg were still dissecting an outing that left Ericsson noticeably bothered.'
Rafael Camara flies on the first day of the collective tests at Monza (FREC)
'The first day of the collective test at Monza is over, Brazilian driver of Prema Racing signs the best lap of the day. Rafael Camara topped today both sessions, but the best overall time came in the afternoon with 1’46.479.'
'Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso have their say on how F1's four weeks away from the track could impact the world championship; Red Bull have made a flying start to 2023, but will the break enable the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari to make ground?'
Alpine reportedly expecting massive ‘six-tenths’ gain with F1 upgrades (Motorsport Week)
'The Alpine F1 team could be set to make a sizeable step forward in the coming races, with the squad reportedly expecting to improve its pace by six-tenths of a second with upgrades.'
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
We liked the look, @kmainiofficial 😜#F2 #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/xN90EbFHPK
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) April 11, 2023
Quite a contrast, 30 years on… 🌞#Senna pic.twitter.com/JFPm5mcWeh
— Donington Park (@DoningtonParkUK) April 11, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Should F1 step in to reduce Red Bull’s advantage in the same way they slipped Mercedes’ wings by banning DAS and qualifying engine modes? Guenther Steiner has argued against it, and Wes doesn’t want to see mid-season changes:
I’d like to think Steiner was implying any reg change in the middle of the season. Those were banned after the end of a full season/multiple seasons.
They definitely were going after the Merc dominance at the end of the 2017-2021 aero era, but they at least waited to change it over the winter prior to a new season. But even that was a bit extreme and essentially targeted a single team, they really should not have been so egregious against one team that continually mastered the regs.
Wes
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Amy, Ben Thomas and Kyle Puttifer!
On this day in motorsport
- 25 years ago today Michael Schumacher won Formula 1’s last race in Argentina
Imre (@f1mre)
12th April 2023, 6:14
I planned an 8-day road trip around Europe with ELMS Imola being one of the main attractions. 7 nights of hotels reserved.
Is it officially cancelled?
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
12th April 2023, 8:26
Yes, as stated in the article – also if you look on the ELMS own website (probably the best place to check) you will see it confirmed there.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
12th April 2023, 18:15
Sorry @f1mre I’m sure you’ll get a refund on the tickets. And in terms of something else to do, there are worse places to be than northern Italy. In fact, if I was marooned somewhere for 8 days, it’d be pretty high up on my list of choices.
Hope you have a fun holiday regardless. Even without Imola and the racing.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th April 2023, 6:20
Making ground will be difficut as RB also works during this unusually long interval & slightly relatedly, a six tenths would be quite massive for a team in Alpine’s position, so we’ll see.
SteveP
12th April 2023, 8:07
I think, where Alpine are concerned, that the old Renault habits are coming forth again. There should probably be a word substitution:
“expecting to improve its pace” should read “hoping to improve its pace” and then delete the rest of the sentence.
Sorry to all Alpine fans, but a serious and sustained improvement there, is as likely as Ferrari working as a team for the whole season and that, sadly hasn’t happened for many years.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th April 2023, 8:08
@SteveP True
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
12th April 2023, 10:07
+ 1 Yes. That would be a massive jump for them. I will believe it when it happens.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
12th April 2023, 12:19
@jerejj I would not write them off completely. After all, Aston did it so maybe Alpine too have something really good shown by the numbers. They had a good car last year so they could be thrown in the mix with Aston, Mercedes and Ferrari, at least at some venues. They certainly look in a better shape than McLaren for now.
On a bigger picture though their reliability has not been that great and the double crash will certainly have a big financial impact. It remains to be seen if they can overcome a 50-60 points deficit on Aston for example over the course of the season. Also, I don’t personally trust their driver line-up to be able to bring maximum points whenever it’s on offer.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
12th April 2023, 13:42
There was a Q&A session with the great Giorgio Piola in Motorsport Italia podcast. A must watch for every F1 fan with great insightful stories about his work in the paddock, Newey, Ferrari, Williams… The only problem is the absence of translation to the English language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CeXnUT7APM
Jonathan Parkin
12th April 2023, 17:06
Am I the only one who misses Traguardo at Imola (the final chicane)
Niefer (@niefer)
12th April 2023, 17:37
I, for one, miss Tamburello.
Hell, I’d be well pleased if at least Villeneuve-Tosa came back.