In the round-up: Max Verstappen says his father Jos prepared him for the negative attention which has come with being a Formula 1 driver.
In brief
Dad told me I was going to be a bus driver – Verstappen
Verstappen described how his father Jos, a former Formula 1 driver, tried to motivate him to work harder at developing his racing skills.
“My dad never said I was going to be a champion,” Verstappen told Channel 4. “He was always the opposite. He would tell me I was going to be a truck driver or like a bus driver.”
Verstappen said “all the way to Formula 1 I still didn’t work hard enough in his eyes because I have a bit more of a relaxed personality compared to him in terms of how I approach a weekend.
“I was winning my races and stuff, but he said it’s not enough to be successful in Formula 1. I think that prepared me in a way very well for criticism or noise.”
Stop using sprint races to decide grid – Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen says Formula 1 sprint races should be standalone events which do not set the grid for the grand prix.
Speaking ahead of the second sprint race weekend of the season, Magnussen said he had “a good first experience” of the format at Imola but believes the format encourages conservative driving.
“I watched them last year and the big question is whether or not you want to take a risk in the sprint. If you didn’t qualify for your position in the main race during the sprint and instead the qualifying on Friday was your starting position for both the sprint and the main race, then you would be able to go for it in the sprint without having to take risks for your starting position. Maybe that could be a solution to make people go for it a bit more in the sprint.”
Van Amersfoort quits Euroformula Open
Van Amersfoort has withdrawn its team from the Euroformula Open series ahead of the championship’s fifth round in Hungary this weekend.
“It was not an easy decision to make, but we no longer see room for our team, nor for our drivers to further develop towards the goals set for participating in this championship,” said the team’s CEO Rob Niessink. “We want to thank Jesus Pareja from GT Sport, as well as Dallara and HWA’s engine program for their efforts and support over the years.”
The team supplied three of the 10 cars which took part in the championship’s last round at Spa-Francorchamps. Drivex have added a car for local racer Benjamin Berta at this weekend’s round at the Hungaroring.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Piquet: ‘There is nothing, nothing I said wrong. I am not racist’ (Motorsport magazine)
‘I am very close to president Bolsonaro and I think he is very good for Brazil. But the press in Brazil is very negative about him and anything they can do to discredit him they will do, so if they discredit me, it rubs off on him because Brazil knows we are close.’
Horner claims FIA managing Red Bull design theft accusations (Speedcafe)
‘Those comments are at odds with the FIA, which stated that there were no known investigations regarding Red Bull and intellectual property ongoing.’
Chevrolet working to solve Mid-Ohio reliability issues (Racer)
‘I guess the good and bad news is that each car that had problems was unique, so it’s not like we had a rash of failures at a certain mileage. All of these engines were due to come out after Mid-Ohio, so they were all in that 2000 mile and up range, so initially you start thinking, ‘oh, do we have some major issue around the 2000 mile mark?’, but they were all pretty unique.’
Michael Andretti calls Mid-Ohio team actions unacceptable (AP)
“Our race results in Mid-Ohio did not go as planned. Sunday’s display was disappointing and unacceptable and not the way we operate — on or off the track.”
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to John H, Mitz1111, Sebsronnie, Elliot Horwood and Isaac Mwale!
On this day in motorsport
- 70 years ago today Alberto Ascari won the French Grand Prix, held for the first time at Rouen, and took the lead of the drivers’ championship, where he remained until the end of the following season
