In the round-up: Aston Martin say they will avoid bringing significant upgrades to sprint race weekend after the problems they encountered at last year’s United States Grand Prix.
In brief
Aston Martin will avoid upgrade “confusion”
Aston Martin hit trouble when they brought an upgrade package to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas last year. As it was a sprint race weekend they only had one practice session to validate the changes, but both drivers lost time due to technical problems, leading to both being eliminated in Q1.
Technical director Dan Fallows said they will avoid making the same mistake again this year. “We want to give ourselves the best chance of bringing updates to the car that perform right away,” he told their website. “That involves not just doing your homework before an update makes it to the track, but also making sure you’ve got proper comparisons on the track.“When we updated both cars for the Canadian Grand Prix last year, we were relying on our deltas at previous races. Whereas if you go to a circuit with one car in one spec and the other in a different spec, it gives you a chance to do a good back-to-back comparison.
“We were very aggressive with our update programme last year. For example, we brought new floors to the sprint weekend in Austin, but this year we are going to be a bit more cautious about sending significant updates to sprint weekends where we can potentially cause ourselves confusion.”
More yellow, less red for third Ferrari
A striking yellow livery has been revealed for the third Ferrari 499P which will race in the World Endurance Championship this year. Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Ye Yifei will drive the AF Corse-run car.
More red, less yellow for Palou’s new sponsor
Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou has the backing of DHL, previously Romain Grosjean’s sponsor at Andretti, for the 2024 season. The long-running IndyCar livery has been reworked for this year.
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Robb says amen to livery deal
Foyt driver Sting Ray Robb has confirmed an unusual new sponsor for the upcoming season – a religious app dedicated to promoting prayer.
Nobels takes F1 Academy seat
ART have confirmed their third F1 Academy driver for the upcoming season. Aurelia Nobels will drive a car sponsored by Puma.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Audi-Boss will Technik-Vorstand rausschmeissen (Bild - German)
'Bild claims Audi CEO Gernot Dollner is planning to relocate the manufacturer's chief technical officer Oliver Hoffmann to its Formula 1 project. Hoffmann was an architect of Audi's tie-up with Sauber for the 2026 season, which was announced two years ago.'
Saudi contractor wins $480m Qiddiya Speed Park race track contract (MEP Middle East)
'Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) in Saudi Arabia has awarded a major contract to United Maintenance and Contracting Company (Unimac) for the development of the racetrack and its associated infrastructure at Qiddiya’s Speed Park.'
Preparing a pit crew for an F1 season (Mercedes)
'We have three crews - Race One, Two and Three - and not everyone does every race, so having team members able to step in and fulfil multiple roles is so important and gives everyone a lot of confidence.'
BIC adds 500 extra Victory Grandstand seats (News of Bahrain)
'Grandstand tickets have already completely sold out for BIC's Main, Beyon, turn one, and University stands. Through a reconfiguration of seating, BIC is now able to offer an additional 500 seats in the Victory Grandstand to be able to meet the demand and accommodate more race-goers.'
Il punto di Gian Carlo Minardi (Minardi - Italian)
'I'm shocked by this whole (Horner) situation... It seems to me to be a real fury that certainly takes away the team's serenity.'
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
The new season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive arrives on Friday.
Here's the latest trailer from Netflix.#F1 pic.twitter.com/jr4ieNGhCy
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) February 20, 2024
Taking to the track with our 2024 car!
Watch @OscarPiastri go to work behind the wheel of our MCL38! 🧡 pic.twitter.com/MahFCjWJSa
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 19, 2024
A524’s first outing 🥰 pic.twitter.com/TFrEXvx8iV
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) February 20, 2024
2024 lid talk with @danielricciardo 🤝 pic.twitter.com/ROzygQWzRC
— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) February 20, 2024
💜❤️ IndyCar St.Pete helmet! pic.twitter.com/979Py7Omno
— Pietro Fittipaldi (@PiFitti) February 20, 2024
Monaco turning into a racetrack again…#F1 #FormulaE pic.twitter.com/42hkMu9YbT
— Marc Priestley (@f1elvis) February 20, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Does Lance Stroll have it in him to get on terms with Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin – or is he just not quick enough?
Lance is a talented driver but he is not talented enough for that seat or for F1 at this point given the drivers that are waiting to break into F1. And more talent is not something that he can “find” at this stage of his career.
Leroy (@G-funk)
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Lou, Nirupam, Phiwe, Saiesh, Keamo and Phiwe Maserumule!
Jere (@jerejj)
21st February 2024, 6:16
Nice simple helmet design for Danny Ric.
Ludewig
21st February 2024, 7:58
Looking at men’s helmets is not really my thing, to be honest.
Asd
21st February 2024, 8:54
Palou’s new DHL livery is great, but I wish he had stayed with the blue! The light blue is quite a classic look in IndyCar, reminiscent of the light blue cars sponsored by Players e.g. Forsythe Racing cars driven by J. Villeneuve, Greg Moore etc.
I wish the yellow Ferrari was the main picture in this article, so we can filter it easily among all the hundreds of F1 articles on the website.