Tag Archives: racing

May 14, 2024 · 8:15 pm

Liberty boss believes “goodwill” of F1 teams will ease Concorde negotiations

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei believes that the goodwill of Formula 1 teams will make for “easier” Concorde Agreement negotiations ahead of a new deal for 2026.

The current Concorde, which runs to the end of 2025, was negotiated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by then F1 boss Chase Carey.

Since then the teams have boosted their incomes as the sport has expanded, and their earnings from F1’s overall revenue have increased.

Maffei believes that the financial health of the teams in the Liberty era will encourage them to be co-operative as the new Concorde is discussed with Stefano Domenicali.

“We’ve just sent out the new draft of our proposed Concorde Agreement,” said Maffei. “There’s been some discussion with some teams about it, and where it will go. And so we have reason to think it should be relatively easier.

“I’m sure there are teams who will want more money than we want to give them. There’s always that tension.

“But I do believe the goodwill that we have created, and the general fact that they’re all not only making more money remember off of F1, but also their own sponsorship deals have been tremendously stronger – go look at the success of sponsorship at Red Bull, McLaren, even Ferrari now, with their new HP deal.

“The teams are doing very well to where they were before we got involved. So I think that hopefully that goodwill carries forward.”

Maffei made a comparison with the philosophy espoused by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who spoke to the teams at last year’s Canadian GP.

He told them that a sports league and its participants both benefit from working together.

“Prior management, before Liberty, went out of their way to basically have the teams kind of screw each other,” said Maffei. “That was the whole attitude.

“And we’ve tried to take more of the – and full credit to Roger Goodell – fight on Sunday, but on Monday, we’re all together, this is one league, and we do better if we rise together. And I really do think there’s much more of that attitude.

“That doesn’t mean there’s lessened competition. But I think the teams appreciate that Liberty is playing the long game and trying to grow the sport, because that’s how we all profit.

“So in general, the sentiment around the teams towards Formula One Management is very good. And very positive.”

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May 4, 2024 · 11:42 pm

Stella: Magnussen’s Miami F1 blocking tactics “completely unacceptable”

McLaren Formula 1 team boss Andrea Stella says that Kevin Magnussen’s blocking tactics in the Miami GP sprint race were “completely unacceptable.”

Magnussen picked up a string of penalties for going off track while trying to keep Lewis Hamilton behind. In so doing he prevented the Mercedes driver from attacking the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg up ahead.

Hulkenberg eventually finished seventh, and while Hamilton was eighth on the road he lost his point for a pit speeding offence. Magnussen’s penalties dropped the Dane to 18th. He was also subject to an unsportsmanlike behaviour investigation.

Although the tactics made no difference to the races of his own drivers Stella questioned Magnussen’s sportsmanship and suggested that penalty in such a case should see the driver banned for the race.

“For me, it’s actually relatively simple this case, because we have a case of a behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor,” he said.

“This behaviour is perpetuated within the same race, and repeated over the same season. How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential. It’s not five plus five plus five equals 15.

“Five plus five plus five equals maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, reflect on your sportsmanship, and then go back. And if we see that you’ve become loyal, fair, and sportmanslike to your fellow competitors, then you can stay in this business. It’s completely unacceptable.”

In addition to four time penalties Magnussen picked up three penalty points, taking his running total to eight.

“I guess the penalty points are still is in place,” said Stella. “So I don’t know exactly the situation for some drivers, I have to confess. But definitely it may mean that the metrics might have to be adjusted, damaging intentionally the race of competitors just makes no sense from sportsmanship point of view. And this should be addressed immediately.

“Because if you are out of the points, you get 20 seconds or whatever, at the end of your race, it doesn’t make any difference. But for the competitors you have damaged, you have put them out of their race, again, in a deliberate, perpetuated and repeated way. This is completely unacceptable.”

Asked about the reaction of the FIA stewards he added: “I think they just potentially they were surprised themselves from the fact that this was repeated. And I’m sure they are going to look into that. And by offering a strong opinion, I think I want to reiterate that these values of being fair, it’s a sport, it’s a competition, we need to give everyone a fair chance to compete.

“These values need to be taken into account in creating the appropriate set of regulations. But I’m sure the FIA will look into that. And we’ll come with sensible proposal for the sporting advisory committee to evaluate, and hopefully this will become soon either rules or guidelines that the stewards can apply.”

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April 28, 2024 · 1:32 pm

Ocon: Too early to judge Alpine F1 upgrades

Esteban Ocon says it is too early to judge the upgrade package trialled on his Alpine A524 Formula 1 car at the Chinese GP.

The Enstone team was able to fast track one set of new parts for Ocon’s use in Shanghai, while his team mate Pierre Gasly stayed with the standard car.

Ocon started 13th and had a solid race to 11th in the main event, while Gasly was not far behind him at the flag.

Ocon conceded that it was and the team’s his best race of 2024 thus far, but he remained cautious on the overall impact of the changes.

“I think happier and a bit disappointed at the same time not to be in the points,” he said when asked by this writer about his race.

“We ended up through 2.3 seconds away from the points, which is difficult to swallow, given the job that we’ve done this weekend.

“I think it was fully maximised. I feel like this race has been my best driving race of the whole season, I was very happy with how I managed everything.

“And there was clearly nothing left on the table. So to not have that reward is a little bit sad, but it’s going in the right direction, a small step at a time.

“I think both cars made a good step forward, well inside the top 15. Of course, a lot has happened this race. So difficult to give conclusions exactly on where we would have ended up if everyone was there.

“But we will keep pushing, and hopefully we have one more shot of being close to the points in Miami.”

Ocon stressed that the team would have to conduct a proper analysis of how the upgraded car compared to rivals in the Shanghai event.

“I think we need to dig in exactly on what has been better,” he said. “I think for sure the weight has been an improvement.

“On the rest, I think we need further analysis to exactly see if it has brought a clear performance advantage, because I think both cars were in good shape in that weekend on that side.”

Regarding future prospects he added: “At the moment, we haven’t scored one point this season. So it’s early to say. But it’s our best finish of the year with both cars.

“We need to be careful what we read into it, we need to be careful also, who was there in that race? There’s been many things happening, and lot of contenders that are in the back.

“So that’s the other thing, that we need to be careful on. But on the same time, I feel like it’s been a very strong weekend on the operational side, and on my side driving, and I’ve been happy with that. So we keep going.”

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April 24, 2024 · 3:25 pm

Hulkenberg: “Good reaction” from Haas after F1 sprint frustration

Nico Hulkenberg says that his Haas Formula 1 team had a “good reaction” in Shanghai following a disappointing sprint event.

Hulkenberg qualified for the Saturday morning sprint in 13th and slipped back to 19th after struggling with tyre degradation.

The team took advantage of the new parc ferme rules to make changes for the afternoon’s main qualifying session, in which the German earned ninth place.

In Sunday’s Grand Prix he finished 10th and the best of the rest behind the cars from the top five teams.

It was his third score in five starts in 2024, following a 10th place in Jeddah and a ninth in Melbourne.

Asked by this writer if he was satisfied with his Shanghai weekend Hulkenberg said: “Definitely, especially after how it went yesterday morning [in the sprint], and also Friday in the sprint quali. A very good reaction, and recovery.

“It just shows that everything has to be perfect for us to put ourselves in that position, and we did that, two close-to-perfect sessions.

“And one point is all that’s available obviously, with one of the top five teams’ cars not being where it should be. And that’s all there is at the moment.”

Hulkenberg admitted that while the post-sprint setup changes worked the car could have been even better.

“I think always with more time you would still continue working and try to improve it,” he said. “But with the limited time and running, that’s what you have.

“Just the race felt very, very static from where I was sitting, and these cars it gets incredibly difficult to follow.

“I think the FIA should look into that again, because the dirty air effect is close to what it was again in 2019- 2020. And obviously that’s not great for racing and for dynamic action.”

Regarding the next event he said: “Miami is a super nice venue, a very special one for sure, one of our three home races. So we go there with good vibes, and expect a hot weekend, and see what we get.”

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