In the round-up: Alpine team principal Bruno Famin says that he has “a lot to do” to help turn the team’s fortunes around
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In brief
Famin has “a lot to do” to rebuild Alpine
Alpine team principal Bruno Famin says that he has “a lot to do” to make his team more competitive in the future.
Famin took over leadership of the team following the departure of Otmar Szafnauer last year and was named permanant team principal at the start of the season. He formerly worked as the executive director of Renault’s power unit division at Viry-Chatillon in France.
“[My] role is to restructure the team,” Famin said. “I was in Viry for the two last years, now I am in Enstone mainly and we need to really change the way we are working in order to develop better our car – to be more agile, to be more efficient.
“There’s a lot to do. We have started to make some changes in our technical organisation, as you have seen in the last weeks. And my role is putting everything together, changing what we need to change. Of course, to change the mindset of the guys, to have the motivation of all the staff, but also having a better process and a better organisation.”
Bird breaks hand in practice crash
McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird is recovering from a broken hand following a crash in practice for yesterday’s Monaco Eprix.Bird hit the tyre barrier in the runoff at Sainte Devote during the opening practice session. The low-speed impact caused his steering wheel to jolt violently – similar to the accident Daniel Ricciardo suffered in practice for last year’s Dutch Grand Prix – injuring his hand and forcing him out of the event while reserve Taylor Barnard raced in his place.
In a statement on social media, the team confirmed that Bird had suffered a broken hand in the accident.
“Unfortunately scans have confirmed that he has broken one of the bones in his left hand and will require further treatment,” the team said. “Sam’s injury will be treated further upon return home to the UK.”
First autonomous AI race held
The first ever race of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League was held at the Yas Marina circuit yesterday.
Featuring eight teams running modified autonomous Super Formula SF23 cars, four teams qualified for the main race. After the race was suspended in the early laps after a single car spin at the end of the back straight, the race was resumed and won by a team representing the Technical University of Munich.
Former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat also participated in a ‘human vs AI’ demonstration prior to the race.
Free BTCC Donington Park tickets available
Will has two adult general admission e-tickets available for today’s event. These e-tickets are being offered completely free to two RaceFans readers – one ticket each – on a first-come, first-served basis. Please understand that priority will be given to regular commenters.
If you would like one of these etickets, please declare your interest in the comments below. Will will then send one e-ticket in PDF format to the email addresses of the two RaceFans readers who request them first. Please only request them if you would genuinely intend to attend today.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'He must be the worst liar I've ever known!' | Box Of Bluffs (F1)
Daniel Ricciardo and Alexander Albon play a game heavily inspired by 'carrot in a box', popularised in the UK comedy show '8 out of 10 Cats'.
So, you want to be an F1 data engineer? (Aston Martin)
'There are tools you can access, such as FastF1, which is a Python API, and provides you with F1 telemetry data – not to the same extent as what we have here at Aston Martin Aramco, but it's a great way to begin immersing yourself in the kind of data we work with. With a bit of simple plotting, you can gain some further insight into the relative performances between teams and understand the circuits the various teams are stronger or weaker at in terms of quali and race pace, among many other insights.'
James Hinchcliffe picks five US-based racers who deserve a shot in F1 (Formula 1)
'This season there's one American driver on the Formula 1 grid, with Logan Sargeant in his second year with Williams. But there’s a host of talented drivers Stateside enjoying success in plenty of different racing series. We asked IndyCar star and F1.com analyst James Hinchcliffe to pick five US-based racers who deserve a shot in Formula 1.'
HP, Visa, Aramco: Who are the main sponsors of each F1 team? (CityAM)
'The names of F1 teams are getting more and more difficult to remember given the endless number of sponsorship deals within the sport. Here City A.M. has broken down who partners with who, and what that has done to each of the team’s names. '
IndyCar leadership explains its handling of Penske P2P scandal (Racer)
IndyCar president Jay Frye: ''We think the penalty was addressed. It was, we think, severe. And it’s been handled and going forward (we’re) treating (them) just like we always treat everybody else.''
Formula E round 8: Monaco (Formula E via YouTube)
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
FIA Race Director, Scot Elkins, explains a scenario in which a lap time would be deleted on a Formula E street track. 💭#Motorsport #FormulaE #MonacoEPrix #FIA #Racing #Speed pic.twitter.com/k4whDz7i7o
— FIA (@fia) April 27, 2024
Completed @Swartberg100 ✔️
170km 2900 elev gain gravel race. What a stunning route! Hard but scenic. I finished 6th in my age group meaning I qualified for the @UCI_cycling gravel world champs. And the hero of the day @tiffanycromwell won the women’s race 💪
Four pictures isn’t… pic.twitter.com/ux1vXVz4uI
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) April 27, 2024
Finally I earned my champagne.
In Quali not good set up but much better for race. Behind Michael I saved fuel for extra 2 laps. https://t.co/AxBxzlxS8Z— Heinz Harald Frentzen (@frentzen_hh) April 27, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali asking “why not?” to more sprint races in F1, AlanD is getting fed up of the sport chopping and changing its race format…
Sprint races have problems with a lot of fans, me included. F1 changes every year. Refuelling became dangerous. Refuelling was banned. It was allowed. It was banned again. Tyre regs change. Wing regs change. The interpretation of fair driving changes. Just like any other sport, F1 evolves. Perhaps it evolves at a greater rate than most sports, but all sports review their rules and interpretations and evolve to remain relevant. Sprint races are not an evolution. They are the result of a marketing committee sitting down with the mission to jazz up F1 with any radical idea they could come up with.
It just seems absurd to mix formats like this. It would be like football announcing that each team, in addition to its 38 normal matches would also play seven five-a-side matches each year, with those points counting towards the championship. It doesn’t enhance the format, it devalues it. But like so many high-profile ideas, people won’t say they’ve got it wrong, and instead tell us it just that we need to move with the times, that we’ll get used to it, that it is our fault for not liking it.
AlanD
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Russell G., Varun, Krtekf1, Muz and Tez!
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th April 2024, 2:00
Will Renault let them use a Ferrari power unit ? thats probably worth at least 1/2 a second at least.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th April 2024, 6:35
If you mean Andretti, they should instead of trying to force something against will.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
28th April 2024, 2:14
At this point, sprint races are here to stay. Does it really devalue a grand prix? I don’t really see how. Now that it’s decoupled from qualifying, I have no problem with the sprints. If you want to watch them, great! If not, great! You do you. I just see it as a way to make the sport more accessible to those who find it hard to commit to 2 hours on a Sunday. I’d only have a problem if the sprints started replacing GPs.
Ohm (@attakorn)
28th April 2024, 3:41
Problem is as Nico Rosberg showed in the Chinese GP commentary, it is very hard to not mention the form from the sprint sessions during race quali and the GP because it is relevant information for the pundits so unfortunately even if you decide to not watch the sprint because you don’t want a spoiler, you can’t avoid it. Plus, not to mention the championship standings impact.
Jay
29th April 2024, 9:32
Spoiler free weekends are the responsibility of the viewer and that’s it. If you don’t want spoilers, watch the sessions in the proper order. I’ve been doing it for years and very rarely get spoiled and when I do, its nobodies fault but my own.
It’s like watching FP2 and saying the commentators shouldn’t mention FP1. Get real!
notagrumpyfan
28th April 2024, 7:52
The only problem I have with the sprint race is that the points count towards the general World Championship.
Just make it a separate championship and for all I care call it Sprint Cup of the Universe.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
28th April 2024, 3:51
A meeting with Bruno won out over a tempting dinner invitation for Gasly, as he had to choose between feast or Famin.
…… oh, sorry. Not a camtion comp is it.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
28th April 2024, 4:03
…or even a ‘caption’ comp for that matter.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th April 2024, 6:34
But still fitting for the top image.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
28th April 2024, 8:50
Oh ok in jest you made a meal of that. Does that need waiting appr too. Seriously
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
28th April 2024, 4:18
Yet another restructure at Alpine.
That’s how many in the past few years?
In the business world, that many restructures generally means the company has no idea how to improve its fortunes and ultimately their last restructure is done to trim everything ready for sale.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th April 2024, 7:47
all Renault have to do is admit the most expensive power unit in 2014 was/is the worst.
SteveP
28th April 2024, 8:13
I don’t know about you guys, but every time we’ve had someone who spouts the “agile” and “restructure”(right after a restructure) all my colleagues have muttered about “business bollox” and largely ignored the source since they don’t have a clue.
The best thing they could do is get rid of problem people.
Like the guy that was in charge of building a seriously under-performing PU…
Jere (@jerejj)
28th April 2024, 6:33
I watched the Autonomous AI livestream a bit & seeing racing cars literally driving themselves definitely felt weird, but perhaps F1’s eventual or even inevitable future.
Box Of Bluffs is yet another series addition for F1’s official YT channel, but with drivers from different teams paired rather than teammate pairs.
Anyway, good acting by both, especially at the beginning.
Regarding COTD, I agree with the part about changing & evolving at a greater rate than most sports, & not necessarily always to remain relevant.
Also on this day: On this day five years ago, Valtteri Bottas won the first April Azerbaijan GP.
SteveP
28th April 2024, 8:23
I’m missing something here, I’m sure.
I thought the point of these racing games was to entertain the players
If you don’t play, then the only aspect of interest I can see is how well rendered the graphics are and a study of the underlying programming used to render the whole sequence, and even an IT geek’s interest in those fades after a while. Honestly, it does.
SteveP
28th April 2024, 8:57
Damn, I’ve woken up properly now and realised that was an item on oversized model cars.
Constantijn Blondel
28th April 2024, 7:16
@WillWood, all the best with your pet emergency! As a proud parent of two cats, I feel for you in situations like this.
black (@black)
28th April 2024, 9:19
Honestly it seems like Renault doesn’t seem to have much interest into making Alpine into a championship team.
They had what, 6-7 different 5-year plans in the last decade or so with absolutely no sign of moving forward, they change their team principals faster than Red Bulls change their tyres, they have one of the most underwelming driver duo in the grid, they have probably the worst engine by a mile and unlike all other teams, nobody seems interested into joining them for the 2026 regs to try and build a championship team.
At this point they are just looking to unload the team to anyone who’s willing to pay the absurd amount they (and FOM) think it’s worth, probably around 1 billion – to Aramco? to a Lawrence Stroll type billionaire? who knows… – because if it was a reasonable 200-400 million amount, Andretti would snatch their spot in a heartbeat.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
28th April 2024, 9:41
I have a different view to the COTD. It costs tons more to watch an F1 race in person that any other sport. In a way, you can say attending an F1 race is more of a “once in a lifetime” experience for a large majority of people. Given the massive TV viewing figures, we tend to forget that the fans that must get priority are those who attend races in person, paying the money that keeps it going. If I was to put my TV viewing hat on, sure, just give me the usual schedule, I am happy. But if I am sacrificing time and money to attend all 3 days, I want more action. I want to see more starting grids, actual starts, more action. I don’t want to watch practice. So, in a way, I think blaming marketing departments is a little unfair. F1 exists first and foremost for the people who attend, not for those switching on the TV from their couch.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
28th April 2024, 13:52
@thedoctor03 As somebody that has attended dozens of races over the past 40 odd years I honestly prefer attending with the standard format over the sprint one.
Practice sessions been more laid back and where you don’t need to worry about lap times or anything gives you opportunities to walk around the track and watch from different places which gives you opportunity to understand the various aspects of the cars performance.
The sprint format takes that away as 1 hour isn’t enough and for qualifying sessions & races you need to be paying more attention to laptimes, positions, strategies etc.. so ideally want to remain seated in view of a screen rather than walking around.
Last year was the first year going back to the 80s (Pandemic aside) that I didn’t attend an F1 race and it was purely because COTA was a sprint weekend & with it been a sprint weekend again this year I won’t be going this year either.
I love attending race weekends & I love attending all of the practice sessions because for me there is a ton of value to it as I want to be able to enjoy walking around the circuit and I want to be able to enjoy seeing them at different parts of the circuit with ample time over 3 practice sessions to do so.
So for me the sprint format add’s nothing of value while also taking away sessions from the weekend which I have always really enjoyed attending. It’s the sole reason I didn’t attend COTA last year & won’t be attending this year.
Nick T.
29th April 2024, 4:16
Roger that.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
28th April 2024, 10:02
I’m with COTD all the way +1
And that picture of Donnington brought back a great memory … not of racing though.
I worked Security at a festival there once.
I was assigned to controlling the queues for the free bus transportation between camp site and car-parks.
The buses drove around the track for this, and when they came through those bends they were empty, having dropped off all passengers.
To say the drivers were enjoying themselves is an under-statement.
They eventually got warned to slow down and behave themselves :)
Red Andy (@red-andy)
28th April 2024, 19:25
Looks like there were no takers for Will’s Donington tickets – normally I’d say that’s a shame, but today wasn’t exactly enjoyable, with no track action possible in the morning and no racing until 1.30pm. I unfortunately had to bail out early with two very cold and wet children – although we at least got to see some good racing yesterday.
Anyway, a nice gesture from the RaceFans team and I hope all is well with Will’s furry/scaly/exoskeleton-owning friend.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
29th April 2024, 0:54
Does seem a shame. I would have been keen, but I was working. Well that and the somewhat inconvenient 30,152km round trip.
But agreed. A nice gesture from Racefans.
Nick T.
29th April 2024, 0:57
I don’t mind the sprints, but SO MANY NOT LIKING IT = plenty reason as to why not increase them. Domenicali is utterly unsuited to his position.
S
29th April 2024, 8:41
But how many actually don’t like sprints? Got some official numbers, or just anecdotal evidence?
Comments and articles on fansites are, at minimum, at least a bit biased…
Mayrton
29th April 2024, 7:14
Alpine would do best to sell to Andretti. They will never create a winning team.
An Sionnach
30th April 2024, 12:08
Good result for Bottas. It’s not just the bike!