We were young, crazy – and, yeah, we hated each other at that moment…”
Charles Leclerc is reflecting on one of many historic karting battles with Max Verstappen – one which has surfaced again as their intertwined careers have brought them back to face each other at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Wolff says Mercedes could
copy Red Bull design: 2022
Canadian GP - What you
missed
Cover story
For the first time in a decade, Red Bull and Ferrari are properly fighting it out for the world championship – and the duelling drivers are children of the 1990s who are picking up a similarly old grudge match from where they left off…
Battle renewed
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Who would you pick to win in a battle between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen? The way this year’s title fight is shaping up, this match-up – and a renewed contest between their respective teams – is going to define the first season under F1’s revolutionary new rules.
We can’t completely write off Mercedes just yet, especially after its Spanish GP breakthrough (see pages 96-99), but Ferrari and Red Bull are clearly a step (or several) ahead – and it won’t be easy for Mercedes to make up ground under F1’s budget cap.
It’s been a decade since Ferrari and Red Bull fought for the world championship, and the same is true for Leclerc and Verstappen – who were bitter karting rivals when Sebastian Vettel was just about beating Fernando Alonso to the 2012 title.
Leclerc’s and Verstappen’s paths diverged after karting, until they converged again in F1. Both are blisteringly quick drivers, but very different characters. Stuart Codling’s superb cover feature (page 32) tackles the background to these two important rivalries, and contains some fascinating insight from Xevi Pujolar, the leading F1 engineer to have worked with both drivers.
While taking a brief hiatus from the celebrity-spotting, fake marina schmoozing and iguana-management (yes, really!) he also took a ride around the track with Aston Martin reserve driver Nico Hülkenberg (page 46).
Meanwhile, our staff writer Oleg Karpov has been busy watching famed German helmet designer Jens Munser at work. While seeing Mick Schumacher’s latest paint job coming to fruition, Oleg was treated to some stories about Mick’s father Michael and his ‘brother from another mother’, Sebastian Vettel. It seems the urge to make political statements through colour schemes is another thing Vettel shares with his hero and mentor (see page 56).
Schumacher and Vettel are both renowned for being workaholics, and the same might be said of Franz Tost. In the build-up to the Emilia Romagna GP, Oleg was invited to Faenza for a guided tour of the expanding AlphaTauri factory. At a time when increasing numbers of people are deeply concerned with work/life balance and burnout – especially as F1 expands its calendar – Tost is clearly a man who lives and breathes his profession (see page 50).
How many people can truly say they’ve “never lived more than seven minutes away from work”?
This month we’re conducting a reader survey. We’d love to have your thoughts on how and why you read GP Racing, so we can do better. To take part, and be in with the chance of winning an Amalgam Williams FW28 nosecone, go to page 79 or autosport.com/survey.
RACER
Daily Bulletin
Daily Bulletin
RACER
We have had nine hours of racing now at Le Mans, and the night hours are very much underway. Night brings cooler temperatures, lower visibility and fatigue. We are beginning to see the effects of these factors on the race.
Up front, in LMH, the battle for the lead is very much still on. The tussle between the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs has been entertaining thus far, with lots of changes of lead.
The two Toyotas spent the whole hour within a handful of seconds of each other, with Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway both asked by the team to have a long hard think about tire strategy overnight. It appears that changing from medium to soft compound is the way forward.
LM 24, Hour 9: Toyota leads into the night
The headlines from Am came from runners hitting trouble during this 60-minute segment of the race. The No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin, which was spotted running slow on Mulsanne, has become the second retirement of the race, the team discovering chassis and wishbone damage on the car when Charlie Fagg returned to the pits.
The No. 93 Porsche of Michael Fassbender also had another off, this time an unprovoked spin into the Dunlop Bridge gravel trap, the car getting beached. And the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari also hit trouble, the car ending up in the garage with smoke bellowing out of it, losing water. It would appear to be in major trouble.
No. 93 Porsche
GTE Am was static during Hour 9, WeatherTech Racing holds a minute lead once again over the Northwest AMR Aston, and an advantage of over a minute on the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche in third.
Daily Bulletin
RACER
Larson crew members suspended following Sonoma wheel loss
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Cliff Daniels and two other members of his team have been suspended from the next four Cup Series races.
Larson started from the pole, led 26 laps and was in contention for the race win until the wheel came off. He finished 15th.
Daniels, Donnie Tasser and Brandon Johnson were penalized after the right-front wheel came off Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway. It happened following their pit stop with 28 laps to go, bringing out the race’s final caution.
The suspensions for Daniels, Tasser, and Johnson begin next weekend at Nashville Superspeedway where Larson is the defending race winner. The three will also miss the Cup Series races at Road America (July 3), Atlanta Motor Speedway (July 10), and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 17).