In the round-up: IndyCar leader Palou says winning the title won’t determine a change of scenery for 2024.
In brief
Palou’s future still unknown as F1 remains an option
Alex Palou says he is still several months away from determining where he will race next year, and that could involve moving from IndyCar to Formula 1.
Palou leads the IndyCar standings by 72 points, the biggest margin anyone has held since 2020, approaching the season’s halfway point. He has won three of the last four races and conducted an F1 test with McLaren, though his next such outing will not be until after the IndyCar season concludes in September.
He is out of contract for 2024 and has been heavily linked to joining McLaren’s IndyCar squad, but Palou also has an eye on reaching F1 and his current boss Chip Ganassi wants to hold on to him as long as possible. When will the decision be made for next year?
“I don’t know, honestly I don’t know, but that day will come,” Palou said to media including RaceFans. “Maybe in two months, three, four I don’t know.”
However Palou doubts his results will influence his plans. “I don’t think that by winning more races, we will get one seat or the other seat, or one seat in F1. I don’t think getting different results will affect our season for next year.
“I think already what we did in 2021 was a big accomplishment that I’m really happy of; winning my first championship in my second season in IndyCar. So I don’t think that what we’re doing this year, it’s very different from what we did in ’21. So I don’t think it’s going to change it.”
AlphaTauri ‘didn’t get strategy right’ in Montreal – drivers
AlphaTauri head to the Red Bull Ring this weekend having finished no higher than 12th in the last four races and at the bottom of the constructors’ standings. The team got neither of its cars into Q2 at the Canadian Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda finished 14th and Nyck de Vries was a lapped 18th in the race.
“I enjoyed the Montreal experience, but as a team, we were lacking a bit of performance on track and we also didn’t execute the best weekend on all fronts,” said de Vries. “Me personally, but also together with the team, didn’t always make the right calls and decisions, and that ultimately resulted in an uncompetitive weekend and no points on the board.”
Tsunoda said the team “weren’t able to put it all together”, which “was a shame as we probably had the pace to score points”.
“I tried to recover as much as possible [from starting 19th] and we knew that we had to be aggressive with race strategy. Maybe we didn’t get it quite right, but I feel there are a lot of things we can learn from that weekend, and we won’t make the same mistakes in the future.”
WEC Hypercar line-up changes for Monza
Further changes to the Hypercar entry have been announced for the next round of the World Endurance Championship, the Six Hours of Monza.
Glickenhaus Racing have confirmed Roman Dumas and Olivier Pla will remain in the American team’s car after contesting the first four rounds of the season, while Nathanael Berthon replaces Ryan Briscoe to form an all-French line-up.
Meanwhile Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 will also finally be in action, with the trio of Gianmaria Bruni, Neel Jani and Harry Tincknell they announced some time ago.
Evans optimistic despite Jaguar’s slump
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans dropped back in the Formula E title race at last weekend’s Portland EPrix, coming through from 20th to finish fourth while title rivals Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis finished first and second.
“We had a plan for the race and executed it pretty well. I know it sounds crazy, after starting 20th and finishing P4, but I think it could have gone a little bit better,” said Evans, who is now 32 points behind leader Dennis with four races to go in Rome and London.
“I’m looking forward to Rome, but obviously it’s a different game in ‘Gen3’, as we saw in Jakarta. We won there last year and this year we really struggled. In the last few races I feel like we’ve not had the pace as in previous races, but we’re going to Rome with high hopes and good memories.
“It’s coming to that part of the championship where you have to be perfect and execute clean races, but I’m ready for it.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Why Andretti’s climb to F1 just got steeper (Racer)
‘It has been a big week of investments in Formula 1, and while none of them involved Andretti Global, they are likely to have a big impact on Michael Andretti’s hopes of joining the sport.’
Bottas: Room for improvement at Sauber (Speedcafe)
‘Valtteri Bottas believes there is room for improvement at Sauber as the operation ramps up towards becoming Audi’s factory F1 team from 2026.’
The setup: Mid-Ohio with Steve Barker (IndyCar)
‘The big thing when we’ve just come from Road America to go to Mid-Ohio, it’s a completely different challenge, not least because of the track surface. We’ve gone from Road America that was repaved six months ago or so to Mid-Ohio that was repaved like it was about 20 years ago. It seems that long ago. The asphalt there and the different surfaces at Mid-Ohio, they’re very smooth. So it takes a lot of work to generate tyre energy.’
‘Zane Maloney has made waves in his rookie F2 campaign with Carlin and will be looking to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season. Before round eight begins, we get to know more about life in the Caribbean for ‘The Boy From Barbados’, as well as his love of combat sports, the thrill of racing and why his guilty pleasure food definitely isn’t a fan favourite.’
Bumper USF Pro championship fields ready for Mid-Ohio (USF Pro 2000)
‘Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, is set to make an eagerly anticipated USF2000 debut with Exclusive Autosport. Schrage, 18, dominated the 2022 FRP F1600 Championship Series with nine wins. He also broadened his horizons by competing in several Kenyon Midget oval track events, winning twice, and finished fourth-place at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival after earning a coveted Team USA Scholarship.’
Tramnitz tops testing, Camara fastest in FREC FP1 at Spa (FREC)
‘The collective testing day of the Formula Regional European Championship at Spa-Francorchamps consisted of a three-hour morning session where Tim Tramnitz set the fastest time with a 2’14.548. In the early afternoon, the first practice session took place, lasting for 50 minutes. Prema’s Rafael Camara recorded the fastest time of 2’15.442, closely followed by team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.’
Detroit’s next upscale boutique hotel will open this summer (Detroit Free Pess)
‘Detroit boosters and tourism officials have for years said that the city needs significantly more hotel rooms to better compete with other cities to host big events and conventions. The occupancy rate for downtown hotels has been strong in recent weeks, with some hotels completely sold out for special weekends, thanks to visitors arriving for Taylor Swift, the Detroit Grand Prix and the Movement festival.’
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