Motorsport News July 14, 2022

Even the television commentators were having trouble keeping up with the fruit machine-like nature of their timing screens at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix as driver after driver was pinged for track limits offences. Some, the more frequent transgressors, incurred time penalties. Then, a few hours after the race had actually finished and Charles Leclerc had taken a victory which pushed the Monaco-born driver right back into the thick of the drivers’ title fight, there was another missive to say that the top three finishers in the race – the Ferrari man, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton – were in breach of a protocol directive that said they should not have “interacted” with their physios before the podium ceremony. Track limits is always a hot topic (please don’t mention it to British…

The age-old motor racing cliche, to finish first, first you have to finish, was never more true than in the dying laps of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. Race leader Charles Leclerc was in a commanding position when he suddenly saw his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz on fire at the side of the track. The Spaniard was on course to overtake second-placed Max Verstappen to make it a comfortable Ferrari 1-2, but a dramatic engine failure now made the scarlet pitwall – and Leclerc – very nervous. There were just 14 laps to go when Sainz retired and at around the same time, Leclerc reported an issue with his throttle saying that it felt a bit “strange.” A few laps later, he was more agitated on team radio: “What’s happening with the throttle?!” A…

Austrian Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc says that his victory will give him fresh impetus in the second half of the Formula 1 season. The Ferrari driver had not finished on the podium since the Miami Grand Prix in early May after a catalogue of problems for the Italian team. There were rumours of discord between the driver and team boss Mattia Binotto after a blundered strategy call at the recent British Grand Prix, but these were played down by the driver. He admitted he and Binotto had frank talks after Silverstone, but there was accord in the team and he was optimistic over the remaining 11 races of the 2022 campaign. Leclerc is now back up to second place in the drivers’ points, 38 adrift of table-topper Max Verstappen. After his…

The Alfa Romeo team has said that the impact suffered by Guanyu Zhou during his horror crash on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix recently was more than double the energy that F1 cars are built to withstand. While the Chinese driver was uninjured in the shunt, the car flew upside down across the gravel trap before coming to rest between the back of the crash barrier and the metal retaining fence. The current regulations stipulate that cars must be able to withstand impacts of 60kN laterally, 70kN longitudinally and 105kN vertically. However, the energy released in the crash meant that Zhou’s car had gone way over those limits. Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur told autosport.com: “The first consideration is that the crash was something like two times more than the…

Formula 1 bosses will launch an investigation into abuse by fans that was reported in the wake of the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend. The Red Bull Ring hosted a record crowd over the three days of the meeting but several fans posted disturbing images on social media describing racist and sexist attitudes of some others in the crowd. In a statement issued before the race on Sunday, F1 said it would take the matter seriously and launch an enquiry. It said: “We have been made aware of reports that some fans have been subject to completely unacceptable comments by others at the event. “We have raised this with the promoter and security and will be speaking to those who have reported these incidents and are taking this very seriously. “This kind of behaviour is…

A rule tweak means that the budget cap in place in grand prix racing this season has been increased to cope with the global rate of inflation. F1 bosses confirmed ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix that an extra 3.1% would be added to the allowed spent for this season. The figure had originally been set at $140 million. Several teams had expressed concern about making it to the end of the season, saying the restrictions were too severe. In other regulation announcements, ,the FIA has said that it will introduce its measures to stop the cars bouncing at the Belgian Grand Prix in late August, rather than the initially mooted move at the French Grand Prix later this month. A statement from the FIA following the recent F1 Commission meeting – which includes…