F1
The former President of the FIA, Max Mosley, has committed suicide after learning of his terminal cancer. Whilst Mosley was definitely a questionable person, there is no denial that he had a huge impact on F1, and it is saddening to hear of his passing. His most well known incident was the 2005 USA Grand Prix, however, his firm stance also likely was a massive bonus at that time in a lot of scenarios. My thoughts are with his friends and family.
The cost of Schumacher’s crash has come out as $1 million, which under the cost cap era is a staggering value. Hopefully Haas had accounted for this possibility in the budgeting, otherwise it could severely hamper their development moving forwards.
There is a lot of talk about DRS, following another case of drivers trying to let the other through in Saudi Arabia. This does seem to be an isolated situation, although that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. The simplest solution would be to put the detection line on the exit of the corner, so the drivers would not want to slow down, yet I am not sure about the logistics from a technical perspective, of having the detection point so close to the activation point. If that isn’t a problem, I feel it should be done in cases where this could occur.
IndyCar
Testing of the next generation of IndyCar engines has been underway at the IMS Road Course. There have been no issues as of yet, and the sounds of the cars has not changed majorly. The Chevrolet engine at least on the first day, was able to do more mileage, but beyond that, there isn’t much to read into it yet.
Dreyer and Reinbold Racing will not be contesting any races outside the Indy 500 this year, due to their commitments in Rallycross. In all honesty, given how stacked the field is for most of the races this year, it is probably a good thing they aren’t, and speaks to the strength of IndyCar right now. That being said, it sounds as though it will be a struggle to get beyond 33 cars at the 500 this year, which is a surprise for the reason I just mentioned.
MotoGP
The Red Bull Ring has unveiled an alteration to their track for the MotoGP race, to improve the safety of Turn 2 and 3, following some bad crashes there. A chicane has been installed just before the old Turn 2, so that the bikes will not be approaching the flat out turn at the same speed. This seems to be an excellent decision to make, my only worry is it does look quite tight and could cause some dangers of its own.
Other News
On top of his commitments in Extreme E and the odd WRC rally, amongst other races, Loeb might be stepping into DTM in the near future. He has tested the Ferrari DTM car, and is linked with a possible ride in the future.
WSR topped the first BTCC test of the new hybrid cars for 2022, which is not a surprise given their strength over the past 5 or so years. Second to Turkington was Shedden for Team Dynamics, suggesting those two teams may be the front runners for the season, which would not be a surprise. Excelr8 with Ingram also were fast, as they build on their first year together in 2021.
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 