In the round-up: Pierre Gasly says that he wants next year’s Alpine to be less peaky than its predecessor
In brief
Gasly wants “more rounded package” from Alpine for ’24
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly says he wants a car that works more consistently across all tracks next season.
Gasly and team mate Esteban Ocon endured their most difficult round of the season last weekend in Monza, with Gasly finishing well outside the points in 15th and Ocon retiring from the race. Asked where he expected Alpine to be strong in the remaining races, Gasly suggested next weekend at Singapore.
“I think we will have another update coming quite soon, so we’ll have to see,” Gasly said. “But I think Singapore could be one, but they took out some corners which doesn’t really go in the direction that we’d like.
“Mexico potentially is another one, so we’ll see. Obviously we’ll give it our best every single weekend, but it’s a clear trend in terms of the type of track where we get more or less competitive. I think that’s something we need to work on for next year to just have a more rounded package which works everywhere.”
Toyota fastest in Fuji practice
Toyota set the pace in practice for the Six Hours of Fuji on Friday with the number eight car leading its sister car.
Sebastien Buemi’s time of a 1’29.523 was almost six tenths faster than Kamui Kobayashi’s fastest lap in the number seven car. The number three JOTA Porsche was third-fastest ahead of the number 51 Ferrari, the number 5 Porsche Penske and the second Ferrari in sixth.
Qualifying for the penultimate WEC round of the season will take place later this morning.
Lotterer retires from single-seater racing
Andre Lotterer has announced his retirement from all single-seater racing to focus on competing in hypercars in the World Endurance Championship.
Lotterer has raced in Champ Car, Super Formula and even made a single grand prix start at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix for Caterham. Most recently, he has been racing in Formula E, joining Andretti from Porsche this year. But while team mate Jake Dennis won the championship with two race victories, Lotterer finished well down in 18th place in the standings.
“It’s time for me to close my 26 year-long chapter in formula racing,” Lotterer said in a post on social media. I’ve decided to no longer take part in the Formula E world championship in order to fully concentrate on my challenge with Porsche Penske Motorsport at Le Mans (for the fourth time) and in the FIA WEC.”
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Links
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”I found it really difficult at school. I found it was not a happy experience for me. I remember vividly just how difficult it was and I have this amazing platform – and it would be a real waste not to utilise it. There are thousands and thousands of jobs, over 40,000 jobs within the industry (motorsport), and only 1% for example, come from black backgrounds and there are very few women in the industry, which is also not enough. So there’s a huge amount of work to increase diversity and gender equality and these are the things that I hope to achieve with my charity.”
Marta Garcia: F1 Academy helps female drivers get visibility (Sky)
‘F1 Academy championship leader Marta Garcia believes the F1 Academy helps female drivers get into motorsport and be seen.’
”I’m very direct, and I give people a lot of freedom. Freedom means for me accountability. If you want a job, you need to do well. Otherwise, it’s not there anymore. I don’t micromanage; I like being informed of what’s happening and being up-to-date. I don’t know all small things, but that doesn’t mean I don’t manage them. If someone does something wrong, I say, ‘hey, I think you missed this one’. I always say that let your people work for you, don’t work for them. There is no point in paying people and I’m doing all the work.”
Knowing Colin Chapman: 15 wild months at ‘madhouse’ Lotus (Motor Sport)
”Chapman would insist he wasn’t a gambler, but he was always betting. Chapman engineered Mario Andretti‘s car and I engineered Gunnar’s. He would always bet me his race car would have less fuel in it than mine – at every bloody race. I’d calculate a safe amount of fuel, but Chapman would also always put in the minimum. The boys started adding a ‘mechanic’s gallon’ to his to make sure it didn’t go dry, but then he found out and just started factoring that into his calculations!”
Growth of IndyCar Racing, Are You Ready for Some Football? (Bloomberg)
‘This week, hosts Scarlet Fu and Damian Sassower speak with Penske Entertainment President and CEO Mark Miles on the growth of IndyCar Racing in North America (and beyond).’
Would You Rather with Ayumu Iwasa (F2)
”For sure, winning your home race is better. I won the Sprint Race in Monaco this year and I was quite happy, but I’ve never raced a big race in Japan yet. So, I want to have the feeling of racing in Japan as my home race and I also want to win there because, for sure if I win there, I will be happier than in Monaco.”
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Mark Hitchcock and Prashanth Bhat!
