In the round-up: Esteban Ocon says that Alpine’s performance, relative to the rest of the midfield, has been “very positive” so far in 2022.
In brief
Alpine performance “very positive” and “progressing” – Ocon
Alpine are fourth in the constructors’ championship after two rounds, the team with the most points finishes except Mercedes and Ferrari.Esteban Ocon said he was pleased with the team’s performance, after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “I think it’s been two very strong weekends,” he said, calling team mate Fernando Alonso’s retirement “a shame” and saying that the team could have otherwise continued a perfect points-scoring record.
“We’ve been progressing, we’ve been faster than Bahrain, so that’s very good, it’s very positive,” said Ocon, emphasising that “it’s only race two of the year. There’s more for us to come as well. I’m pretty pleased with coming with that many points at the start of the season.”
Bearman fastest on first day of Formula 3 Jerez test
Ferrari Driver Academy member Oliver Bearman has topped the times on the first day of F3’s in-season testing at Jerez. Bearman has started his rookie campaign in F3 strongly, with a podium in the first race at Bahrain and is currently third in the standings behind fellow Ferrari junior Arthur Leclerc and Alpine’s Victor Martins.
Leclerc topped the rain-soaked morning session with a 1’40.202 but Bearman set a 1’33.009 in the afternoon to take the overall fastest time.
Russian racer Alexander Smolyar, who is competing in F3 as an Authorised Neutral Driver this year, was scheduled to participate in the test but did not set a time.
McLaren to run logo of indigenous Australian charity in Melbourne
McLaren’s sponsor SmartSheet has donated its position on their cars to show the logo of education charity Deadly Science, which provides science books and early reading material to remote indigenous communities in Australia.
ABC reported that initially the deal was only to show Deadly Science’s logo on the sides of the cars but that McLaren has agreed to also run it on the cars’ halos.
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
‼️ BBC F1 ‼️
I can’t quite believe that I’ll be making my #F1 debut this weekend at the #AustralianGP
Honoured to be leading the coverage for @bbc5live @BBCSport
I used to be the runner! 🏃♂️
A big thank you to @IMG + the BBC.
Bring on Friday and FP1 in Melbourne 🏎#BBCF1 pic.twitter.com/2t4wxI1QoE
— Harry Benjamin (@imharrybenjamin) April 5, 2022
Energy Management is the key in #FormulaE!
Did you know that during a race 30% of the energy comes from the regeneration created, for example, with the braking before a turn? 🏎️#DSTECHEETAH #DSAutomobiles #ElectricRacing pic.twitter.com/4ids6pWhup— DS Performance (@DS_Performance) April 5, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Time getting tight for organisers of Vancouver's Formula E race (Vancouver Sun)
During the course of the hour-plus conversation, concerns were raised about unpaid deposits, missed deadlines and contracts not yet executed, according to people on the call. The call included people from city hall and local organisations including suppliers and property owners.
Things you may have missed from the Snetterton GB opener (GB4)
Graham Brunton Racing’s Chloe Grant made her first single-seater racing appearance in the GB4 opener, and she impressed by gaining a combined total of six places on the opening laps of the first two races. In race one she went from 11th on the grid to eighth on the first tour, and she did exactly the same in the second contest, showing excellent judgment in the heat of the battle.
It's an extensive and vital role, one that a lot of people won’t realise doesn’t actually involve touching the car, at least not often. And if King does have to get his hands dirty, then it’s because something has gone wrong, an ‘all hands-on deck’ scenario that arises only when there is a problem and a short space of time to solve it.
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
As F1’s popularity booms in the US and more lucrative broadcast contracts compete to show it, Leroy points out that F1 chasing money over quality of broadcast and visibility hasn’t always worked out.
As an American, this fills me with dread. Currently ESPN is the broadcast partner, but that doesn’t mean every race is on ESPN. Some are on ESPN 2, ESPNU, or ESPN+. My cable package doesn’t include all the ESPN channels, it only includes EPSN and ESPN 2 so I am not able to watch everything.
“The opportunity to capitalise more” to me says they will find someone who will pay a lot but doesn’t really understand the sport or the fans and they will break up the races with ads like NBC used to do and ESPN did initially. If they own multiple channels, they will split the property across as many channels as possible to spread out the “halo-effect” of having a premier motor racing category on their network. This will be a regression rather than a progression.
The other option is for some streaming company like Apple, Amazon, or Netflix to buy the rights. I don’t know if F1 would do that given F1 TV, but Apple and Amazon have been attempting to buy sports programming quite a bit lately and Netflix seems like a likely candidate as well if F1 were to go in that direction.
I think the other thing that they should be considering is that right now Miami and Las Vegas are unknown quantities. To me these races look like they will attract a lot of attention for the first few years, but once the novelty wears out, they will struggle mightily because the tracks are not going to lend themselves to great racing. Liberty seems to be counting it’s chickens before they hatch and using them to drive the price up, which is not great business for any broadcast partner.
Leroy
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Lak!
Jere (@jerejj)
6th April 2022, 7:52
I hope Alpine keeps progressing, although reliability could prove a weakness moving on, which hopefully won’t be the case.
jff
6th April 2022, 8:33
My bad: I read this as Alonso announcing his retirement from F1. I immediately left the round-up and tried to find the main article.
Of course I didn’t find it and when returning noticed that it was merely a retirement from the race two weeks ago.
It does though support my view that the round-up is no longer the leading daily summary of what happened the previous day in F1.
Is it really headline newsworthy if a driver says it’s “a shame” that his team mate retired in a race?
The CotD was more insightful and worthy to lead the round-up. Or otherwise the birthday of Lak.
Happy birthday, Lak!
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
6th April 2022, 11:55
Alpine really have been a bit of a surprise for me. I really didn’t expect them to be near the front of the midfield.
Good for them. Not so good for Piastri – I was hoping Alonso would get the hump about having a crap car and retire but that’s looking unlikely.
Dex
6th April 2022, 12:35
I wasn’t hoping that. Why would we want to lose an interesting driver, both as a driver and as character, for another “ordinary” figure? F1 is very unpredictable, Piastri may get his seat elsewhere. These things are rarely planned on long term, but rather happen as a chain reaction. His contract to Renault doesn’t have to mean anything. Red Bull driver ended up in Williams, similar with Sainz (and Renault) before, etc., etc.
Leroy (@g-funk)
6th April 2022, 14:25
Thanks for the CotD, @hazelsouthwell!