In the round-up: Mercedes’ upgrades for the Miami Grand Prix could make a difference in tight grid, says James Allison
In brief
Allison eyes qualifying boost in Miami
Mercedes technical director James Allison says he is hopeful that the team’s upgrades for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix could help improve their positions in the two qualifying sessions.
“We head from China, one of the most famously front-limited circuits, to Miami, a track that is more in the rear-limited end of the spectrum,” Allison explained. “Our challenge will be to make sure we don’t try and replay China at a Miami that is a very, very different beast and wants different things from the car than China will.
“We face the enjoyment of another sprint weekend with this second go of having two bites of the cherry and we definitely learnt during last weekend that if you’re going to be ambitious, be ambitious in the sprint race and then tune it down for the main race rather than the opposite way around.
“Hopefully we’ll land a car in a better place, that the upgrades that we’re going to bring to Miami serve us well in a grid that – in qualifying at least – is really close. Around the part of the battle we’re fighting, a few hundredths can make a difference sometimes and a couple of tenths would make all the difference in the world. So looking forward to seeing how that all plays out.”
Abel takes Barber Indy Nxt win
Jacob Abel claimed his first win in the Indy Nxt series after leading every lap of the race at Barber Motorsports Park from pole position.
In his third year in the series, Abel was quickest in every single session and held off Nolan Siegel in the later laps before a Caution period triggered by Jamie Chadwick spinning out effectively ended the race.
After two rounds, Abel and Siegal are joint first at the top of the championship on 95 points with one win and one second place finish apiece.
Sharp leads McLaren junior Ugochukwu in GB3
Louis Sharp continues to lead the GB3 championship standings after the second round of the series at Silverstone.
The reigning British F4 champion finished fourth and fifth in the two races held at the circuit, won by Tymek Kucharczyk and Will Macintyre, respectively. McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu remains in second place in the standings, nine points behind Sharp’s 122.
Fairclough out front as British F4 begins
Deagen Fairclough has the early points lead in the British F4 championship after a rain-interrupted opening round at Donington Park saw him win the first race of the season.
Mika Abrahams won the second race of the weekend after Alex Berg was hit by a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits, which dropped him to third. The third and final race of the weekend was cancelled due to after earlier rain caused a schedulling delay.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
The story of Jim Clark’s hero ‘the Kansas Flash’ – the best American F1 driver you’ve never heard of (Formula 1)
‘You may never have heard of the short, deep-voiced, short-sighted racer they called ‘the Kansas City Flash’, but right from the start I should mention that double world champion Jim Clark hero-worshipped Missourian Masten Gregory long before his own stella career took off.’
Former champion opens up on working with Adrian Newey amid Red Bull exit rumors (Newsweek)
Jacques Villeneuve: ”I didn’t know at the time when I joined in ’96. I realized afterwards. He was amazing because I guess he can visualize the car, he can see it, he can see the airflow. And he relates to it but he also relates to the driver. He knows it’s not a computer driving. He knows it’s not a robot. So even if on the data, the numbers say this is how quick it could be, maybe a driver cannot drive it. It doesn’t feel natural.”
Jos drops out from leading position in Rally de Wallonie (Verstappen.com)
‘Unfortunately, disaster struck in the fourth of nine remaining stages. With two flat tyres, the 52-year-old Dutch driver was forced to retire and had to give up his leading position. He was 39.6 seconds ahead of the rest at that moment.’
WRC Promoter had Netflix talks for F1-style docuseries (DirtFish)
‘WRC Promoter revealed to DirtFish at Croatia Rally that it has in fact already discussed the possibility of producing such a series. Simon Larkin, WRC Promoter’s event director, said they’d gone ”very deep down a path”, but that no agreement has yet been reached, and that financial obstacles from both sides remain a hurdle –particularly as viewing figures for Drive to Survive are beginning to dip for the show’s sixth season.’
Behind the scenes at our Bahrain filming day (Williams via YouTube)
‘See how we got the shots of our 2024 car in Bahrain, with Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant and James Vowles.’
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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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alvino!
On this day in motorsport
- On this day on 1984 Michele Alboreto won the last Belgian Grand Prix which wasn’t held at Spa. He led Derek Warwick (Renault) and Rene Arnoux (Ferrari) home at Zolder.
