In the round-up: Kevin Magnussen welcomed the appointment of Ayao Komatsu as the new team principal at Haas.
In brief
Komatsu tackling poor development – Magnussen
Magnussen says he “had a great relationship” with former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner but is encouraged by the direction the team is taking under his replacement.
“I think it’s great that Ayao is already addressing some of the elephants in the room, like our trajectory on development for a season just hasn’t been good,” he told Reuters. “It’s certainly very exciting times for us in Haas.”
Hulkenberg dismisses 2025 contract claim
Magnussen’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg took to social media to correct a false report about his Haas contract. Hulkenberg countered a claim he is already contracted to drive for the team in 2025.“Don’t believe everything,” he wrote. “Someone took a joke a bit too serious.”
Sauber to auction launch car
Sauber will again auction off their show car in which they revealed the livery of their C44 car earlier this week.
The team auctioned the launch model of the C43, their final car while competing as Alfa Romeo, last year. Having changed identity to that of title sponsors Stake for 2024, the Sauber team will hold an online auction for the car, built by Memento Exclusives, used to reveal their livery for the new season at London’s Guildhall on Friday.
The auction will begin on Saturday 1st March, the same day as the opening round of this year’s championship in Bahrain.
McLaren reveal O’Ward’s livery
McLaren’s IndyCar team have revealed the livery that Pato O’Ward will race in for this year’s IndyCar championship.
All three of McLaren’s drivers in the series will run in different colour schemes for this season: black and papaya for O’Ward, blue and papaya for David Malukas and white and papaya for Alexander Rossi.
The team will also field NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson in a fourth entry in this year’s Indianapolis 500.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Christian Horner’s F1 future at stake in crucial Friday meeting with investigator (Guardian)
'On Friday at an undisclosed location believed to be in central London, Horner will sit down with an English KC, appointed by Red Bull Racing’s parent company, the drinks manufacturer Red Bull GmbH, and face questioning on the allegations made by a female employee that he used what is understood to have been described as 'controlling' behaviour in his interactions with her.'
DC's Batman set to take over Albert Park (Australian Grand Prix)
'Located on the golf course near turn nine of the circuit, Pit Stop Park Powered by DC Super Heroes will be home to entertainment for everyone from toddlers to teens to the young at heart. A Gotham City climbing wall, giant Batman slide and a Batmobile will be the show-stopping highlights, while craft and play stations, obstacle courses, and roving DC characters will keep the crowd entertained for hours.'
'The platform would aggregate content to offer fans an extensive, dynamic lineup of sports content, aiming to provide a new and differentiated experience to serve sports fans, particularly those outside of the traditional pay TV bundle. Offering to include NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, Formula 1, NASCAR, College Sports, UFC, PGA TOUR Golf, Grand Slam Tennis, the FIFA World Cup, Cycling and much more.'
Super Bowl 58: How Las Vegas fell in love with big sport (BBC)
'Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), says hosting F1 'was the hardest thing we've ever done' but after that, he is confident the city can deliver 'the best Super Bowl experience the NFL's ever had'.'
Accelerating Dreams: African Karting Cup paves the way in South Africa (FIA)
''The African Karting Cup is a great platform to highlight our region's incredible talent. I'm pleased to see drivers from FIA Member Clubs across Africa participating this year. These events play a crucial role in doubling our motorsport participation and ensuring a strong future for our sport.''
Sharp dressed man! (Motorsport UK)
'Adding to his excitement and further fuelling his career dreams, Sharp also has some very special dates inked into his 2024 diary. As the reigning British F4 champion, he will be spending a Grand Prix weekend embedded with McLaren Racing and will also profit from a year-long coaching programme and expert guidance from BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team at the Alpine Racing Human Performance Centre. Moreover, he has already relished a rare opportunity to spend a day on the Formula One simulator at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team state-of-the-art campus in Brackley.'
WRC fan survey (FIA via Facebook)
'WRC fans! Your voice matters. Let's shape the future of the sport together. Click to participate to our online survey.'
Car progression updates (Forza Motorsport)
'Today we’re outlining important changes to the Car Progression mechanic in Forza Motorsport. These updates will give players freedom to equip the parts they want to install to their car regardless of Car Level, while retaining aspects of the system for those who enjoy it. Firstly, we will remove the locked part mechanic so all car parts can be accessed at Car Level 1 for every car in the game. Once a car is added to your car collection, you can install upgrades to it in any order that you wish. Whether it's engine swaps, race tyres, aspiration changes, body kits or any other part available for your vehicle, you will have the freedom to build cars your way.'
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it to us via the contact form.
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
The boys are going to be looking the part in 2024 😊#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/vhlTCRBbTo
— MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) February 8, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Alpine have been an easy team to criticise for their middling performances in recent years, but Luis Felipe is looking forward to seeing what their new A524 will do…
It’s why I like Alpine/Renault. Despite them getting bashed a lot and criticised heavily in public opinion and the media, these guys really work hard. But the judgement that comes due to how terrible their past leaders were, overshadow good stuff like this.
I’m really interested to see how it’ll go. It’s clear that in terms of aero, for the start of the season, it’ll be no major change, or them suddenly pulling a major move to be fighting up there. That will happen progressively. But all of those changes that went into the mechanical side, power unit, placement, chassis dimensions – while it doesn’t lead to clear gains of lap time as direct consequence, it produces what I call ‘brute performance’. It’s a better and quicker platform – somewhere between 0.5s to one second in the best of worlds – and once you start to add downforce points and develop it way more, the car responds well in terms of lap time. If they do this right, it could be that if they start the season in the lower end of the grid, but they may end it in a good shape in Abu Dhabi, glued on the top four cars. But that will depend on how well they develop the aero platform. I’m looking forward to it.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Bullfrog and Akshay!
On this day in motorsport
Tristan
9th February 2024, 0:21
>Christian Horner’s F1 future at stake in crucial Friday meeting with investigator
This is what today is all about! Absolutely riveting!
Re: The sports streaming service, we have that in Australia with ESPN/FOX, it’s called Kayo, it came out really cheap, $10/month but now is sitting at $30/month. It’s ridiculously successful so makes sense to bring the model to the U.S. They’ve promised the last 2 years to bring F1TV/”red button” features like on-boards but it’s not happening. It would be cool to have WB/Disco added to it though, that’s a separate sports platform for here $15/month.
Either way, I’d expect it to launch at a steep discount to capture the market then devolve to being on-par with traditional pay TV sports subscription pricing. It’ll be good for the U.S honestly, Kayo was a no-brainer value proposition and a great way to watch F1 until the price rises.
That reminds me, time to do some sleuthing to see if I can pay for F1TV with a VPN.
notagrumpyfan
9th February 2024, 7:25
If the investigation is (merely) about ‘controlling’ behaviour then I doubt it will be career ending.
On one extreme it might lead to some extra managerial training sessions, on the other extreme it could land him an extra bonus (‘controlling’ [the business] is one of the job requirements for a CEO).
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
9th February 2024, 10:24
Whatever Christian is accused of, it’ll take quite something to surpass Vince McMahon.
Ludewig
9th February 2024, 8:59
Imagine having a conflict with a coworker and having it play out through the media. Utterly toxic and ironically, it completely stifles the people involved, as they have to constantly worry that everything they do is interpreted in negative ways and then presented to the world as the truth. So they are themselves now victims of the very controlling media, whose norms and values are more than questionable.
But I almost never see the media take responsibility for their often utterly toxic and damaging behavior, which is ironic, given that most of them have certain political beliefs. Although to be fair, those beliefs tend to be that people with the ‘wrong’ race or gender can be abused freely.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th February 2024, 10:37
Hope they’ve all found the undisclosed location, and some actual news, about something that has happened, emerges about the red bullying story.
MichaelN
9th February 2024, 15:36
It’s quite surprising that entire scenarios – including heroes and villains, motives and methods – are being printed without a single named or known source. Whatever happens next, a lot of those scenarios will, by necessity due to their contradictory claims, prove false. No doubt this will all be quickly forgotten, and the rumormongers will continue on to the next story.
Let’s just wait. Maybe nothing will come of it, maybe something will. Nobody knows, and… that’s fine. Just wait.