In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo made huge progress between his first simulator run on his return to Red Bull and the test for the team which secured his racing comeback, says his former race engineer.
In brief
Ricciardo impressed engineer with F1 comeback test
Simon Rennie, who was Ricciardo’s race engineer when he drove for Red Bull, said he was “definitely not as confident” as he remembered when he began simulator sessions after returning to the team earlier this year. “Just like a little bit hollow in a way.”
The pair were speaking together in an interview for Red Bull conducted before Ricciardo broke his hand at Zandvoort last month. Rennie told him: “It felt like you were doubting yourself a little bit. And you were a bit concerned about whether you could do it again. It didn’t necessarily click straight away in the simulator and it took you – that first day that we did together, you still seemed a little bit unsure of it all.”
However Ricciardo’s first drive back at his old team for a Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone left Rennie in no doubt he was back to his best. “You couldn’t really tell that he hadn’t been in the car for eight months,” he explained. “The first run, maybe on the installation lap you were reminded how quick the cars were. But after that, within a few laps it was just like you were driving a car the last week, not last year. That was quite – I don’t know if you were surprised about that, but I was quietly impressed about that.”
Hamilton lucky to escape serious damage in Piastri clash
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says Lewis Hamilton was fortunate to avoid any significant damage from his clash with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during the Italian Grand Prix. After the incident, which occurred while they were fighting for eighth place, Hamilton made several passes to finish sixth.
“We were quite lucky because the contact was all on the wheel rim and the tyre,” said Shovlin. “There is a little bit of damage to the rim, there is a little bit of damage to the wheel cover on it, but nothing that would have affected the performance of the car.”
Pirelli finish Italian tyre test
Pirelli concluded their two-day Formula 1 tyre test in Italy on Wednesday, with running at Monza and Ferrari’s test track Fiorano.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly did 122 laps of Monza, with a 1:24.971 being his fastest lap, as he tried out slick compounds. Charles Leclerc clocked up 130 laps of Fiorano on intermediate and wet compound tyres as the track’s sprinkler systems were put to use. Combining the two days of action, which included Red Bull joining Alpine at Monza on Tuesday, there was 2922 kilometres of testing.
Pirelli is bidding to remain as F1’s official tyre supplier after 2024 against competition from Bridgestone. Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola said: “Our goal during these two days was to finalise some of the choices for next year but also to work on the long-term future, even though we do not yet know whether we will continue to supply F1 from 2025. We don’t get that many chances to test on track so we need to maximise every single one.”
Myles Rowe secures his 2024 Indy Nxt seat
Myles Rowe, winner of this year’s USF Pro 2000 championship and a protege of IndyCar champion Will Power, has signed with HMD Motorsports to race in Indy Nxt in 2024.
The 23-year-old won a $664,500 (£569,936) scholarship to step up to the next level on IndyCar’s support ladder by claiming the USFP2000 title last weekend at Portland. During the season he won five races and took four pole positions.
Rowe’s car will be backed by Penske Entertainment’s Race for Equality and Change initiative. It will be entered as a ‘HMD Motorsports with Force Indy’ – the latter programme having supported his career since 2021.
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