In the round-up: Ahead of his first appearance in his home race, Zhou Guanyu admits he cried when he secured his promotion to Formula 1 three years ago.
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In brief
Zhou cried when he got F1 seat
Zhou was an Alpine junior driver in 2021 when he was picked by Alfa Romeo (which Sauber competed as at the time) to make his debut with them.
“I started crying like I think I never cried before that,” he told the official F1 website. “For five years for me it was just something that I dreamed of.”
Zhou led the F2 points standings after the first three rounds but was beaten to the title by fellow Alpine junior Oscar Piastri. “I felt like even when I was in F2 at the time, halfway through the season, I was leading the championship, I still felt like the percentage [chance] I’d get to Formula 1 was less than 5%, because that year was a tough year.
“There was only one seat at the time, Alfa Romeo, was available and there I think almost 10 drivers fighting and the list was going down and down. Of course I still was in the list but I didn’t really believe that I would had this opportunity, at least for that year to be going straight from F2 into F1.”
Williams bring update for Albon despite damage
Despite the damage done by their drivers’ three crashes in the last two race weekends, Williams will introduced an aerodynamic update to their Halo fairing on Alexander Albon’s car only this weekend. Both drivers will also have replacements of the new front wing specification the team introduced at the last race.
Bumps eased at Shanghai
The Chinese Grand Prix promoter has worked on easing some of the bumps which have developed at the track since it was completed for the country’s first F1 race 20 years ago. Trouble spots a turns one, three and eight have been addressed.
Other changes include the addition of gravel in place of what was asphalt on the outer edges of the run-off areas at turns 12 and 16. Sausage kerbs and artificial grass have been removed completely and new debris fencing installed.
Special livery for Lundqvist
Ganassi driver Linus Lundqvist will carry this special livery promoting Netflix’s forthcoming new film Unfrosted, created by Jerry Seinfeld, at this weekend’s Long Beach Grand Prix.
Foyt “very happy” with team’s Indy 500 preparation
AJ Foyt declared himself satisfied with his team’s preparations for the Indianapolis 500 after the 89-year-old made one of his increasingly rare visits to see them in action at the speedway.
“I’ve been very happy with testing,” said Foyt. “Testing tells you a lot but sometimes it doesn’t, but normally it does. I thought the Open Test went very well. We were up in the top five or six and they had the full field there so that kind of tells you where you stand a little bit.
“I know we had something left and I’m quite sure a lot of them had something left. We’ll just have to wait till they drop the green here.”
He said son Larry Foyt is “doing a very successful job this year” in charge of the team. “He’s learning every day and [you’ve] got to crawl [before] your walk. And that’s where I look at it.
“It’s so much different now because you can’t even really start your own race cars anymore without the engineers of Honda or Chevrolet. And I don’t care for that. But that’s the rules. You’ve got to go by them.”
Boya tops F3 test
Mari Boya narrowly headed the second day of Formula 3 testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. His lap of 1’26.646 put him less than five hundredths of a second ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli and Luke Browning.
The track was busier than it had been on day one and many drivers took the opportunity to conduct long runs at the track which will hold the series’ fifth round at in two months’ time.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
F1 Manager developer accused of ‘dehumanising’ layoffs and mismanagement (Sports Illustrated)
‘According to the same source and verified via two others, the F1 Manager series has been a disaster for the company with sales being ‘very underwhelming compared to management’s expectations.”
The 100 most influential people of 2024 (Time)
‘No athlete has enjoyed more victory laps, in more disparate places around the world, than Verstappen, the Formula 1 driver who has won three straight F1 championships.’
Pulling does the double to end Zandvoort in-season testing quickest (F1 Academy)
‘Continuing her form into the afternoon, the Alpine driver claimed the fastest lap of the two-day test in the drier second session. Clocking in a 1’36.045, Pulling headed the pack by three tenths to Ferrari’s Maya Weug and Mercedes’ Doriane Pin.’
Clare Lansley on AI’s massive potential and what it could mean for Aston Martin and F1 (Aston Martin)
‘Getting data into a ‘data lake’ – a single, massive, un-siloed data storage centre – is where the AI journey starts. Once it’s there, we can apply the right analysis tools on top, and that’s where the machine-learning kicks in.’
‘I’ll try not to be too stupid’ – Misano EPrix team radio (Formula E via YouTube)
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alan and Consi!
On this day in motorsport
- 20 years ago today Paul Tracy won the first race of the new Champ Car season at Long Beach.
