In the round-up: Alfa Romeo asked the stewards to confirm whether Lance Stroll’s first-lap pass on one of their cars was legal.
In brief
Alfa Romeo rue Stroll’s pass on Bottas
Valtteri Bottas immediately got on his radio to complain about Stroll’s first-lap pass on him during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Stroll drew level with Bottas on his outside as they approached turn four and pulled ahead as they rounded it. However as he applied a slight steering correction at the exit, Stroll put all four wheels over the white line at the exit of the corner. “The Aston overtook me outside the track, turn four”, Bottas told his team.
Alfa Romeo’s head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar confirmed the team had queried Stroll’s pass with race control. “We reported it but we were told that was okay,” said Pujolar in response to a question from RaceFans. “That was it, we had to leave it, we left it there.”
Stroll went on to finish tenth, two places ahead of Bottas. In total 15 lap times were deleted during the race for running wide at turn four, including one by Stroll on lap nine.
Lo plans to invest in existing team
Hong Kong billionaire Calvin Lo, who is backing one of the new F1 team applicants for 2026, says he is considering an additional investment in one of the current teams.
“There have been talks about the possibility of Mr Lo getting involved with a second existing F1 team.” said a statement issued on his behalf yesterday.
He is keen to raise the sport’s profile in Asia, where four races on the 2024 F1 calendar will take place.
“To make F1 truly global, we cannot forget about this part of the world,” Lo said. “There are many opportunities left untapped in F1.”
Martins calls team mate’s pass “too optimistic”
Victor Martins was not impressed with ART Grand Prix team mate Theo Pourchaire’s attempted overtake during the Formula 2 feature race at the Hungaroring, which almost resulted in a clash between the two frontrunners.
“Theo tried to go on the inside of turn three, which was a bit too much optimistic, and then we were arriving side-by-side into turn four, but I just kept the line,” said Martina. “I need to review again, honestly I don’t know what really happened but I focused ahead and on myself.”
He felt “just regarding the race” the move was not too aggressive “but if you take the championship and where he is, I would say yes.”
“That kind of move at that moment of the race is, for me, a bit too optimistic. But in the end we didn’t touch each other, we tried to stay clean. I’m sure he ran a bit out of turn four, really wide, because he didn’t want to touch with me. So, in the end it was a matter of keep it clean between team mates.”
Pourchaire sits second in the F2 standings, and Martins is fourth, with both harbouring title ambitions. “We are aggressive, both of us, and we know that we don’t need to do mistakes,” Martins concluded.
Motorsport mindset ‘not normal for female mind’ – Patrick
Danica Patrick, IndyCar’s most successful female racer, claims the skills needed to be successful in motorsport don’t come naturally to women. She also pointed out the shortage of women racing in junior categories and go-karts makes it less likely any will arrive in F1 in the near future.
Speaking during a special live broadcast of the Hungarian Grand Prix aimed at and presented by children, Patrick was asked whether she thinks there will ever be a female world champion.
“As I’ve always said in my whole career, if it takes 100 guys to come through to find a good one and it takes 100 girls, that takes a long time to find a good one, right? So it’s just the odds are not in favour of there always being being one or being many of them,” she said.
“At the end of the day, I think that the nature of the sport is masculine, it’s aggressive. You have to handle the car, you have to be – not only just the car, because that’s a skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, in a female mind.
“For me I know if somebody tries to blow off or make it difficult on me, I would go into like an aggressive kill mode, right? It’s like – nnn! – and you just want to go after him. And that’s just not a natural feminine thought. And I say that because I’ve asked my friends about it. They’re like ‘yeah, that’s not how I think’. And so I just think that that’s why there aren’t as many [women], but it doesn’t mean there aren’t.
“So I think it’s possible. Will I see it? I’m 41. Will I see it in my life? I don’t know, maybe. Maybe it will be you.”
She added female participation in motorsport is on a trajectory that’s “always steadily on the incline” for roles in and out of the cockpit.
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Ricciardo as fresh as he was during his ‘prime’: Masi (Sky News Australia)
‘Former F1 race director Michael Masi says Australian Daniel Ricciardo looks as fresh as he did during his ‘prime,’ despite having not been on the grid. ‘Daniel’s been quite measured in his return,’ Mr Masi told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.’
The most experienced drivers in the second tier of single-seater racing (Formula Scout)
‘Roy Nissany went into the Hungarian GP weekend as a record-breaker, having become the most experienced driver ever in the second tier of single-seater racing a few days prior. He is yet to race at the top level, but did other F2 long-timers make the step up?’
‘I’ve never been more bummed about a fourth place’ – Rosenqvist (Racer)
‘“The last restart, I’ll have to look at it, but if I felt like Will Power pushed me up in the marbles; I was very lucky to finish the race, to be fair, waiting to see where I ended up. I’ve never been more bummed about a fourth place. But it was a good run.”’
F1 23 patch notes (V1.08) (EA)
‘A new patch for F1 23 has begun rolling out across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Qualifying practice programme improvements and a two-player career sprint race tyre allocation issue are among the 20 game elements addressed in the v1.08 patch.’
Hungarian Grand Prix: ‘Verstappen and Red Bull among great combinations in history’ (BBC)
‘In Verstappen, this rocket machine is being driven by a generational talent, someone who can be mentioned alongside all the great names, and is building numbers to compare with them, too. And each recognises how lucky they are to be with the other.’
Doohan joins Piastri in exclusive F2 club (Speedcafe)
‘Jack Doohan has joined countryman Oscar Piastri in an exclusive F2 club following the Feature race at the Hungaroring. He claimed a grand chelem: pole position, fastest lap, and victory after leading every lap. It was only the seventh time in F2 history the feat had been achieved and only the second time in a feature race.’
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