Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Alex Albon continued his impressive start to life at Williams Racing, after finishing in ninth-place at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. On the other side of the garage, Nicholas Latifi continued to struggle and languished in fourteenth.

Albon performed valiantly at the Miami International Autodrome despite having started in eighteenth-place. The Thai driver worked his way through the field and did well to capitalise on others misfortunes.

The Williams driver was in a battle at the end of the race with Esteban Ocon, who was holding up the pack as his team-mate ahead had a five-second penalty.

Albon initially crossed the line in tenth but was promoted to ninth, hours after the race had finished. Fernando Alonso was awarded a second, five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage off the circuit.

Albon was very happy with his second points finish of the season after finding “the pace that I knew we had”.

BWT Alpine F1 Team CEO, Laurent Rossi, was delighted with the performance of Esteban Ocon following the Miami Grand Prix. The Frenchman was the only Alpine to finish in the points at the Miami International Autodrome, after team-mate Fernando Alonso received two, five-second time penalties.

Ocon recovered brilliantly in Miami to finish in eighth-place, having started from the pit-lane following a big crash in Free Practice 3. The Frenchman ran deep into the race on hard tyres, hoping that a late safety car would occur allowing him to get a cheap pit-stop.

The Alpine driver got just that, after Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly collided on the exit of Turn 7. The crash came as a result though of Alonso dive-bombing Gasly at the start of the same lap, resulting in damage for the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver.

Alonso was awarded a five-second penalty for the collision, which he accepted full blame for. This penalty meant that despite crossing the line in eighth, he was demoted to ninth.

Rossi spoke after the race, about how pleased he was with what he thought was a double-points finish for the team.

Esteban Ocon was the sole BWT Alpine F1 Team driver to finish the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in the points, despite having started from the pit-lane.

Ocon drove one of the best races of his Formula 1 career so far, after finishing eighth at the Miami International Autodrome. The Frenchman who missed Qualifying following a heavy crash in Free Practice 3, started the race on the hard compound and ran deep into the fifty-seven lap race.

Ocon was one of a few drivers to capitalise on the race’s late safety car, which was brought out as a result of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly colliding on the exit of Turn 7. With the safety car out, Ocon lost very little time during his pit-stop, putting him in ninth spot by the time the safety car period ended.

Initially Ocon crossed the line in ninth but inherited eighth-place, after Fernando Alonso was awarded a five-second time penalty for a collision with Gasly.

The Alpine driver was delighted with his performance and is hoping the team can “keep that momentum”.

Frédéric Vasseur admits the disappointment that Valtteri Bottas finished seventh rather than fifth in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday shows just how far the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN have come in 2022 compared to in recent FIA Formula 1 World Championship seasons.

Bottas was on course for a top five only to make a mistake late in the race whilst defending from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, which meant the Finn ended seventh at the chequered flag.

Despite losing four points due to the mistake, Vasseur, the Team Principal at Alfa Romeo, says the six points gained will go a long way towards the Constructors’ Championship in 2022, and they know there is still improvements to come with the C42-Ferrari this season.

“It shows how much progress we have made this year that we’re actually a bit disappointed with P7 – which is a really good result in itself,” said Vasseur. “We were really strong out there today and we ran most of the race comfortably in P5, just behind the two Red Bulls and Ferraris: the timing of the Safety Car really affected us, nullifying Valtteri’s advantage over the two Mercedes’.

“Still, bringing home six points is a positive result and another gain for our championship standings, but we know we can improve even more.”

Valtteri Bottas was content with his seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, but he knows that for the timing of the safety car and a small mistake, it could easily have been fifth.

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver had been inside the top five all afternoon long at the Miami International Autodrome and was keeping a good distance to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

However, the crash between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris brought out the safety car and bunched up the field, with Russell taking on fresh tyres as well.  Bottas attempted to defend his position but ran offline, clipping the wall and losing enough time to fall behind both Mercedes drivers.

“I am happy with our performance, it was a strong race although, in the end, we were penalised by the timing of the Safety Car,” said Bottas. “I was managing the gap over Lewis [Hamilton] and P5 would have been possible, but once the race was neutralised, the gap was gone and George [Russell] was on fresh tyres behind us, so keeping this place would have been difficult.

“I was trying to brake late to defend my position, overshot the braking point slightly and sadly the nature of the track here means that if you go off the line a little and into the dirt, you’re off and you hit the wall. I was lucky nothing broke on the car and I could continue.

Toto Wolff believed his Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team maximised the points on offer to them in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ending fifth and sixth respectively.

From twelfth on the grid, Russell started on the hard compound tyre and took his pit stop behind the safety car late in the race, and with the chance of running fresher tyres was able to jump both Valtteri Bottas (after the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver made a mistake) and team-mate Hamilton to end the day fifth.

Hamilton survived first corner contact with Fernando Alonso and was running sixth at the safety car restart, and although he fell behind Russell, he too was able to capitalise on Bottas’ mistake to end the day in sixth.

Wolff says both Oracle Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari are currently ahead of them in the pecking order in 2022, and they will be doing a lot of research before the Spanish Grand Prix later this month to understand why the pace they showed on Friday did not translate into a strong weekend at the Miami International Autodrome.

“We maximised our points today – with George’s starting position, we could afford to roll the dice on a long stint on the Hard and it worked out for him with the safety car, while it was unfortunate for Lewis,” said Wolff.

George Russell says there are mixed feelings to take away from the Miami Grand Prix despite climbing from twelfth on the grid to finish fifth on Sunday afternoon.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver believes the disappointment comes from the failure to convert the pace the W13 appeared to have on Friday when it matters, with a lowly grid slot meaning a recovery drive through the field rather than a battle for the podium.

Russell knows the team still have work to do in order to unlock the true performance of their 2022 car, but the failure to truly understand the problems makes for a potential long job ahead.

“It’s mixed feelings to be honest because obviously based on where we were yesterday, today was a good result but if you’d told me after Friday we’d finish P5 and P6 and that far behind P1, I’d have been pretty disappointed,” said Russell.

“We have a fast race car in there, we just don’t have the key to unlock this performance. And we don’t really understand why that is so there’s work to do.”

The Checkered Flag got to speak with Amy Lerner, off-road racer and director of the film One More Win, on 29 April. The documentary profiles the legendary career of Rod Hall and his aspirations of running the 2017 SCORE International Baja 1000, which would be his fiftieth start dating back to the inaugural event in 1967.

Provided below is the full transcript of the interview. Some text has been altered from the original dialogue to improve readability and remove verbal pauses, though an audio version is available at the bottom.

An article summarising the interview can be read here.

Transcript

TCF: How did you get to know the Halls, and where, when, and how did the idea to create a documentary come to mind?

AL: I first met Rod Hall about a dozen years ago. I had read about this thing called the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, or the Gazelle Rally, in the newspaper, which was a nine-day, all-women’s navigation rally, and it just kind of sounded fun. It wasn’t anything that I had ever done. I had never driven off-road and I was having a moment, and decided to see if I could go and compete.

“There might be people that do fifty Baja 1000s, but not the first fifty. You never win enough. Always one more win.” — Rod Hall

Rod Hall is a venerated name in the desert racing community. He raced in the legendary SCORE International Baja 1000 from the inaugural event in 1967 to the fiftieth in 2017, a feat that will never be matched, winning the overall in 1969 and his class twenty-five times. Getting to #50 was no easy task, especially as he was in his late seventies and managing Parkinson’s disease, yet he aimed to achieve this virtually impossible goal until it finally became a reality.

Hall’s efforts to run the fiftieth Baja 1000, as well as the final stages of his racing career, were the topic of Amy Lerner‘s documentary One More Win, which was formally released in January. It was a years-long production that profiles Hall’s life on and off the track, featuring interviews with family members and following his participation in races like the NORRA Mexican 1000 and two Baja 1000s. Lerner, an off-road driver herself, even teamed up with Hall’s granddaughter Shelby to compete in the 2017 Mint 400 in his legendary 1968 Ford Bronco, a segment that coincides with Hall’s health battle.

One More Win is a poignant story of overcoming difficult odds to accomplish one’s dreams, yet still remaining grounded in reality. It is easy to paint the protagonist of any film as an infallible hero and Hall might have even appeared that way throughout his driving days, but he is human like everyone else with his own challenges physically and mentally.

The Checkered Flag had the opportunity to speak with Lerner on the film, her relationship with Hall and his family, and her own racing career.

Mattia Binotto admits there is some disappointment for Scuderia Ferrari to take away from the inaugural Miami Grand Prix despite both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. finishing on the podium on Sunday.

Leclerc started from pole position with Sainz alongside him on the grid, but Max Verstappen was able to pass both of them before the end of lap nine to take over the lead, a position he would hold on to until the chequered flag.

Binotto, the Team Principal at Ferrari, says both drivers drove as well as they could have done during Sunday’s race at the Miami International Autodrome, but the pace of Oracle Red Bull Racing’s RB18 was just that little bit stronger than the pace of their F1-75, something they will look into addressing in the upcoming races.

“We can’t be completely happy with today’s race because, although the F1-75 was competitive, our rivals were a few tenths per lap quicker than us,” said Binotto.  

“If you consider how many points we are taking home from here, we can’t be too disappointed, given that we are leading both championships, but it’s clear we now need to respond. We are keen to get the job done and there are still a lot of races to go.

Charles Leclerc admitted he was disappointed to miss out on victory to Max Verstappen in the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Monegasque racer felt he had a good weekend overall in the Florida city.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver started on pole position at the Miami International Autodrome and held onto the lead at the start, but he fell behind Verstappen on lap nine as the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver made better use of his starting medium compound tyres.

Leclerc did not let Verstappen get away from him and challenged him again at the restart following the safety car, but he did not have the straight-line speed necessary to be in with a chance of repassing the Dutchman.

“All in all, we had a good weekend here in Miami, so of course I am disappointed to miss out on first place,” said Leclerc. “While we had good pace on the Hard tyres, it was more tricky for us on the Mediums which our competitors were just faster on today, so we couldn’t close the gap in the first stint.

“I thought we’d have a shot at taking back the lead after the Safety Car, but it just wasn’t enough today.”

Christian Horner felt Oracle Red Bull Racing were lucky that neither Charles Leclerc nor Carlos Sainz Jr. pitted when the safety car was deployed at the Miami International Autodrome on Sunday, with Max Verstappen going on to claim his third victory of the season.

Verstappen had passed Sainz at the start and then Leclerc on lap nine to take over the lead in the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, but the safety car was deployed late in the race following a crash between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris that left the latter stranded on the track with damage.

However, neither of the Scuderia Ferrari drivers pitted, allowing Verstappen to be able to defend from Leclerc on used hard tyres rather than fresher medium or soft compound tyres.

“It was a real tactical race today and we threw everything we had at it,” said Horner, the Team Principal at Red Bull.  “We were quite lucky that Ferrari didn’t pit under the safety car.

“Max was under so much pressure from Charles Leclerc but he kept focus and didn’t make any mistakes and was gradually able to break the DRS, which was very powerful today and manage the victory from there.”

Ferrari Driver Academy racer Dino Beganovic continued his superb start to the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season with a win and second place at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari last weekend.

Beganovic, racing for Prema Racing, finished second on the road at Imola in Saturday’s opening race, but he moved up to the race win once the ten-second time penalty for on-track victor Gabriele Minì was applied after the Italian had jumped the start.

The Swede had made the decisive move on ART Grand Prix’s Mari Boya early on to move into second, and he was content thereafter to hold position knowing the leader was carrying the time penalty.

“It’s a really good start of the season, I couldn’t have hoped for a better one,” said Beganovic. “Race 1 with the victory, and Race 2 with P2 brought really good results and we are coming away with the championship lead once again.

“In race 1 I had a great run starting from P3. I got around [Mari] Boya, and after that it was just managing as we got the message quite early that Minì had the time penalty. I’m really really happy with the victory, it’s a great start for the championship.

Gabriele Minì admitted winning race two at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Sunday was far from straightforward, with the Italian claiming his maiden Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine victory amid changeable weather conditions at Imola.

Having been penalised for a jump start in Saturday’s opening race that prevented him from standing on the top step of the podium, the ART Grand Prix driver fought back superbly on Sunday, taking pole position in the morning before leading all the way in the race.

This was despite a mid-race rain shower and a red flag, and conditions being completely different in the final sector compared to the first two.  He, like most of the field, fitted wet tyres for the final few laps, but the final sector was drier than the rest of the field, making it a tricky conclusion to what appeared to be a dominant display by the Italian.

“It was a tricky race and winning was not easy,” admitted Minì.  “We found very different conditions, starting to race with slicks on a dry track.

“Then it started to rain in some parts of the track and I was the first one to notice these differences as I was in the front. It was not easy because it became wetter and wetter.

Gabriele Mini put the disappointment of losing out on his maiden Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine victory due to a penalty on Saturday to finally stand on the top step of the podium in race two at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Sunday.

The ART Grand Prix driver was adjudged to have jumped the start on Saturday, with the subsequent ten-second time penalty relegating him from first place on the road to twenty-eighth in the final result.

However, after claiming pole position for Sunday’s race, he did not put a foot wrong despite a race full of disruptions, including a red flag and mid-race downpour.

Rain before the race had seen drivers go to the grid on wet weather tyres, but with the track drying, everyone started on the dry weather tyres, albeit behind the safety car due to the track being wetter on one side of the grid compared to the other.

After two laps behind the safety car, racing finally got underway on lap three, with Mini getting a superb jump on second placed Tim Tramnitz, the Trident driver having impressed in Qualifying earlier in the day to join the Italian on the front row.