RaceFans Round-up: Raising ride height may have hurt us more

Briefly

Bottas blames bumps and experience top for Austin struggles

The bumpiness of the Circuit of the Americas meant Formulation 1 groups needed to elevate the experience heights of their automobiles for the USA Grand Prix to keep away from them bottoming out and carrying down the planks, an issue which led to the disqualification of two drivers.

Bottas felt the lack of downforce from bringing the peak of the ground greater above the bottom severely impacted his workforce’s potential to compete in opposition to their opposition. Bottas certified thirteenth and got here house twelfth within the grand prix.

“We simply all the time felt like we had been on the again foot nearly in opposition to any automotive as we speak,” he mentioned afterwards. “I feel this confirms from yesterday that the pure tempo will not be there. Irrespective of which tyre compound, we’re simply not quick sufficient.

“My feeling in the intervening time is it’s fairly track-specific, as a result of it’s a bumpy monitor and it means we have to elevate the automotive up. And I really feel like for us it’s perhaps extra penalising than another automobiles.”

He mentioned there had been “no enchancment” within the bumpiness of the monitor which drivers have complained about for a few years. “It’s a traits of the monitor, however for our automotive it was a bit [too much]”.

Alpine junior Mini tops day one among F3 take a look at

Gabriele Mini was quickest on the primary day of FIA Formulation 3’s post-season take a look at at Imola. The Prema driver set a 1’30.225 within the final minutes of the afternoon session on Monday, which put him 0.294 seconds forward of Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe in second place.

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic had set the tempo within the morning for Prema, whereas Mini’s operating was curtailed by a technical fault. Mari Boya of Campos was denied first place by simply 0.02s in that session, with Hitech GP’s Luke Browning in third place after spending a lot of the morning on prime. Sebastian Montoya did not set any laps.

Within the afternoon British Formulation 4 champion Louis Sharp was quickest at first, however Alpine junior Mini quickly established himself on prime and went sooner than Beganovic did within the morning. Beganovic ended up in third place, 0.36s slower than Mini, with Boya fourth.

Formulation E’s 2024 pre-season will get underway

There are 82 days till the beginning of the 2024 Formulation E season, and testing for the second yr of competitors utilizing the Gen3 automobiles begins as we speak at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.

The championship’s 11 groups will get a three-hour session within the morning (9am-12pm) and one within the afternoon (2pm-5pm), with an an identical timetable for Wednesday and Friday’s monitor motion. All groups are obliged to run a ‘rookie’ driver in no less than one of many take a look at’s classes.

Run plans are free to be decided by rivals for the take a look at’s first day, however on Wednesday every automotive might want to do two race simulations. FE races differ in length however often final someplace between 40 minutes an one hour. The simulations might be key for Maserati’s Jehan Daruvala, who would be the solely rookie on the 2024 grid.

Hyperlinks

Motor racing hyperlinks of curiosity:

Revered motor racing determine Allan Horsley dies (Speedcafe)

‘Former circuit promoter, race workforce supervisor and inductee into the Australian Motorsport Corridor of Fame, Allan Horsley has handed away. Horsley did a little bit racing himself earlier than he took up a place on the now-defunct Hume Weir circuit which in the end led to the function as supervisor. Six years on, he took over the operations of Sydney’s (additionally defunct) Oran Park Raceway in 1968 the place he turned a number one and modern race promoter.’

How Logan turned America’s first factors scorer this century (Williams)

‘Check out Logan Sargeant’s journey to the head of motorsport and the way he ended a 30-year wait.’

How Energy mastered IndyCar’s avenue programs (Highway & Observe)

‘In case you’re going to new avenue circuits, you begin on the simulator. It’s all the time completely different if you truly get on the monitor, so that you spend the entire first session actually making an attempt to grasp braking factors, grip ranges, how shut you will get to the wall, and so forth. Detroit this yr, particularly, was fairly troublesome to get proper. Your first time round, you actually hate the monitor, however by the top of the weekend, you find it irresistible, as a result of it’s so difficult.’

Sikes units the tempo in USF Professional 2000 post-season testing (Formulation Scout)

‘USF2000 champion Simon Sikes set the tempo as he stepped as much as the subsequent stage of the Highway to Indy for USF Professional 2000 post-season testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, edging the Indy Nxt-experienced Francesco Pizzi.’

A$AP Rocky is Puma and F1’s new artistic director (Hypebeast)

‘American rapper A$AP Rocky is taking the lead on Puma and F1‘s fashion-forward partnership. He has been named artistic director, getting ready for a global design function that may influence all future races. Earlier this yr, the German sportswear large introduced a multi-year cope with F1, which is able to see Puma distribute unique footwear, attire, and equipment on and off the monitor. A$AP Rocky will design collections offered on race day. The primary will debut on the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November.’

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Completely satisfied birthday!

Completely satisfied birthday to Adam Tate!

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