In the round-up: Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is dismayed by the state of competition in Formula 1 this year.
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In brief
F1 has “two championships” – Steiner
Steiner said Formula 1 effectively has “two championships” this season due to the separation between the ten teams.
“I honestly thought this year it would be closer together, but the opposite happened,” Steiner told Australia’s ABC. “We have got five teams on the top and then five teams on the bottom. It’s almost like two championships.
“But I think Ferrari this year, if they have got good progress in development, they could challenge Red Bull hopefully, in the second half of the season.”
Gasly becomes part-owner of FC Versailles
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has joined the ownership group of French football club FC Versailles.
“I am delighted to get involved with FC Versailles because I have always wanted to get involved in professional football,” said Gasly, who has become a minority owner of the club. “This is the start of a very beautiful story. Go Versailles.”
Gasly joins a group of fellow drivers who are part-owners of sports teams. Lewis Hamiltonis a part-owner of the Denver Broncos NFL team and Valtteri Bottas shares ownership of Finnish ice hockey club Lahti Pelicans.
Drugovich returns to racing in ELMS
Aston Martin junior driver Felipe Drugovich will compete in this year’s European Le Mans Series with Vector Sport.
The 2022 Formula 2 champion will compete in the LMP2 class of the ELMS alongside team mates Stephane Richelmi and Ryan Cullen. Drugovich has not raced since taking the F2 title, though he took part in testing and two Friday practice sessions for Aston Martin last year.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Horner ‘agrees to a public ceasefire’ during emergency ‘crunch talks’ at Red Bull (Sun)
‘When asked if it was time to ‘draw a line’ under the situation, as Horner insisted people do, Jos Verstappen said: ‘I think it’s a bit too late for that now. If that’s what he wants, fine, but I don’t think it will be possible.”
Column: F1 needs to take control of the Red Bull drama as Horner accuser files FIA complaint (Associated Press)
‘Someone has to show what kind of business F1 really is by demanding something more out of Red Bull. Be it F1, or the FIA, or every sponsor tied to Red Bull right now, someone needs to clean this up. Or is everyone just going to take Red Bull’s word for it?”
Extreme call that ended ugly Ricciardo ‘spiral’ (Advertiser)
‘I wanted to be able to fall back in love with training again, but to train and to train well you need to get some time back in your life to do that properly. You can’t do a million other things because you have no window to train, and then maybe you’re not as strong or as healthy or as fresh as you should be, and it spirals. I wanted to get that feeling back again, to bring out the old me. Racing and training are my priorities right now, and all of the other stuff is secondary.’
Pirelli’s C5 compound tyre makes its debut (Pirelli)
‘The decision to go with a softer selection was taken after analysing last year’s race, which centred around the C2 with 10 drivers using it for 47 of the 58 laps, and three drivers running it for more than 50 laps. The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was characterised by numerous stoppages, including three safety cars and three red flags, with two restarts from the grid and one rolling restart.’
Alex, Logan, Lia and James to pilot legendary Williams at Goodwood (Williams)
‘We are thrilled to announce our participation in this year’s prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed with our F1 drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, Team Principal James Vowles, and F1 Academy starlet Lia Block forming a stellar driver line-up over the course of the event. They will take to the wheel of the 1982 drivers’ championship-winning FW08 at the annual showpiece celebration of motorsport, perfectly uniting Williams’ history made and history in the making.’
Penske’s Sullivan spots opportunity in historic winning role (IndyCar)
‘Lauren Sullivan’s day-to-day duties with Team Penske involve behind-the-scenes roles of being its IndyCar engineering and logistics coordinator. She also has another title: Sullivan is believed to be the first female to serve as a spotter for an IndyCar race victory. Late last week, a personal situation arose with Josef Newgarden’s planned spotter, and Sullivan was tasked by team management to pick up spotting duties for the season-opening race.’
Rodin’s CEO calls the team’s Carlin split ”unfortunate and stupid” (Formula Scout)
”I would have been perfectly happy to carry on with the initial arrangement but, for reasons I can’t really go into, it just wasn’t possible. We just had to make a change. Unfortunate and stupid really on the other guy’s part but that’s how it goes.”
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On this day in motorsport
Born 60 years ago today: Future Ferrari Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini