Innehållsförteckning för August 2019 från AUTOSPORT

It costs an inordinate amount of money simply to compete in F1, never mind win. It’s a lesson Renault is learning the hard way as it struggles to recapture past glories in this hybrid, high-tech era. Trying to focus on the moving target of Mercedes is proving more challenging than expected, with Renault admitting even the extraordinary financial commitment it’s made since re-acquiring ‘Team Enstone’ (and its debts) at the end of 2015 is still nowhere near enough to reach the ultimate goal. Renault always intended to win while spending less, but such is the heft of Mercedes’ financial commitment – boosted by favourable contractual terms with F1 and handsome commercial rewards for ongoing success – the financial gap to Renault is growing at a rate that easily outstrips any…

01 ALONSO BACK TO FERRARI? Fernando Alonso may not even have been to a Formula 1 race since his pre-test appearance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but he could yet play a role in this year’s driver-market silly season. Most extraordinary of all is that a return to Ferrari – the team he quit in rancorous circumstances five years ago – isn’t out of the question. Alonso has kept a low profile since a whirlwind few weeks in May and June when he failed to qualify for the Indy 500 and then won Le Mans after some late-race heartbreak for his Toyota team-mates. Since then he has been pondering his next move. All the indications are that he’s waiting to see how the F1 market shakes out. One thing is…

HAS SAINZ DODGED A RED BULL-ET? Heads you drive for Red Bull Racing, tails you’re part of the emerging Renault team’s lineup. Not a bad coin toss for Carlos Sainz for the 2019 Formula 1 season. But what if it lands on its side? Then the best laid plans of Sainz and men go awry, which is why the 24-year old currently finds himself as McLaren’s spearhead. Sainz is clad in papaya in 2019 thanks to a combination of the cascade effect on the driver market caused by Daniel Ricciardo’s defection to Renault and Red Bull’s reluctance to recall the Spaniard given the way he agitated for a loan move away. McLaren was the right move on the basis of ‘any port in a storm’, and the first time he…

The role of racing apparel has evolved alongside those advances made in safety throughout the world of motorsport. Alpinestars has been at the forefront of this, introducing the airsuit in two-wheel racing that has drastically reduced serious neck and back injuries. In Formula 1 it ensures the drivers enjoy class-leading levels of flame resistance, while at the same time keeping cool in the heat of battle F1 Racing: What’s the history of Alpinestars? Gabriele Mazzarolo: The company was founded in 1963 by my parents. My father had a company that made hiking and ski boots, and in the sixties those products were made in leather and were stiff. Then in 1964/65 the technology for ski boots moved to plastics, but his factory was making leather boots. So he discovered…

CONCEPT Made at short notice after the Brabham and Alfa Romeo relationship took a turn for the worse, the BT49 featured a fair chunk of the BT48, including the suspension components. To facilitate that, Brabham retrofitted the same gearbox casing to the Ford Cosworth DFV to retain the mounting points for the rear wishbones. With the narrower DFV engine, the BT49’s sidepods and underside were more conducive to a ground effect-producing pair of venturi tunnels, which were incredibly effective when perfected by Gordon Murray’s design team. The floor geometry produced masses of suction, meaning Brabham could disregard running a front wing at most races. As with many innovations the slew of ground effect entering F1 was popularised by Lotus – but it was then leapfrogged by teams that elected to…

1 Verstappen’s hard racing avoids censure In the aftermath of Max Verstappen’s thrilling victory in the Austrian GP, a sea of orange-clad fans filled the start/finish straight, cheering and celebrating his hard-won victory. At the time, the stewards were investigating his late-race move for the lead that sent Charles Leclerc off the track. They took their time to decide; they didn’t want a riot on their hands! “It’s hard racing, otherwise we have to stay at home,” said Verstappen, immediately after he’d stepped out of his Red Bull. “If those things are not allowed, what’s the point of being in Formula 1?” From pole, Leclerc initially dominated the race, and any threat from Verstappen appeared to instantly vanish when the Red Bull driver hit anti-stall from his front row start…

JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE Our technical editor looks back on Nelson Piquet's title-winning Brabham BT49 (p84-89) and scrutinises modern brake ducts (p48-49) STEVEN TEE In his work as principal photographer for both F1 Racing and McLaren, Tee was perfectly placed to shoot new team boss Andreas Seidl (page 71) NIGEL ROEBUCK Legendary Mexican racer Ricardo Rodríguez, the younger brother of Pedro, is the subject for Roebuck's F1 Heroes this month (page 90) MARK GALLAGHER The former commercial director of the Jordan F1 team looks at the enduring earning power of one of the greats, Sir Jackie Stewart (page 31)…

DOMINATION IS STILL THE NAME OF THE GAME It’s traditional at this time of year to take stock and comment on the relative performance of the teams. Quite often, particularly over the past few seasons, we’ve been looking at a dominant team, but not since the reversion to just ten outfits have we seen the zenith and the nadir of performance so firmly anchored race after race. We have got used, since 2014, to seeing Mercedes dominate, but fans of unpredictable outcomes have always held out hope that a weakness in the team’s impressively solid armour might show. Indeed, in 2014 Red Bull and even Williams challenged Mercedes from time to time, and since then Ferrari has mounted a challenge and Red Bull stolen some wins. But the fact is,…

When you consider Formula 1 comprises 20 of the best drivers in the world, it’s natural most of them have won championships during their ascent to the top, or at least won races during that climb. They are all used to winning, but as soon as they hit F1, rookie drivers must, at least usually, contend with something new to them: a bad racing car. Last season, British driver George Russell won seven races on his way to the Formula 2 title. But now, in a Williams rooted to the back of the grid, he finds himself regularly being lapped. The hunter has become the hunted… “Russell isn’t designed to be looking in his mirror, getting out of the way efficiently,” says former F1 driver Anthony Davidson. “It’s not the…

How would you describe your season with Alfa Romeo so far? If you look at the points, it hasn’t been the best start to the season. At the beginning we had a number of issues and bad luck, so it was difficult to piece everything together. For the past two years I’ve had a development role at Ferrari where I wasn’t racing regularly and instead working in their simulator – so it was not easy to reset. In the last few races I’ve been happy in my performance and been quite close to Kimi Räikkönen. I just need to continue the hard work and the points will come. It looked as though the Alfa chassis was strong to begin with, but there has been a fall in the order for…

championship season invariably ended at Watkins Glen in October, but time was there were also non-championship F1 races, and in November 1962 most teams gathered in Mexico City for the country’s inaugural Gran Premio. Ferrari, though, did not enter, and for the organisers this was potentially disastrous: for one thing, their absence detracted from event; more fundamentally, Ricardo Rodríguez de la Vega, at 20 already a national hero in Mexico, was a Ferrari driver. Contracts were more malleable in those days. Rodríguez, desperate to race before his own people, asked Rob Walker if he could drive his Lotus 24 in Mexico, and instantly fell in love with the car, finding it way nimbler than the ‘sharknose’ Ferrari he had been driving. Fastest for most of the opening session, his time…

1 Bottas defeats himself regardless of Safety Car intervention History will record that Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth British Grand Prix victory – eclipsing Jim Clark’s 52-year-old record – by a 24.9s margin from his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. But an already entertaining race could have been even closer had a third party not got involved at the crucial moment, enabling Hamilton to maximise the advantage of only making one pitstop. It was Bottas who secured pole position with his first Q3 effort on a blustery Saturday. His second flying lap might have been even quicker but he fluffed it early on. Hamilton, desperate to perform in front of his adoring home crowd, fell 0.006s short. Bottas made no mistakes getting away from the line on Sunday, converting pole seamlessly…

What’s your favourite part of the track? The double chicane of Turns 3, 4 and 5 is incredible. To see 20 F1 cars fly through this complex at full speed is an amazing sight. What’s the best thing to do away from the track itself ? I would recommend gearing up for a Texan Saturday night on the town. There’s always a lot of live music and loads of bars and restaurants to explore. If your guests are celebrating, how could they make their experience more amazing? There are some great restaurants in Austin. Jeffrey’s and Wink are some of the city’s finest, and Lenoir in the south of the city can make for a special occasion. Any local food or drink to recommend? There is a fantastic craft beer…

F1 PACK RIVALS  iOS & Android Price: Free (in-app purchases) f1packrivals.com A mobile game seemingly designed to while away a long car or train journey, F1 Pack Rivals is essentially a card-collecting exercise. Up to 700 different cards are available and each one has different qualities, such as a greater value or power. You can trade or buy cards and the officially licenced collection includes F1 circuits, drivers and teams. The key gameplay involves racing a car around a circuit while activating your ‘card’ through gates on the racetrack. This is a test of both reactions and strategy. The better your reactions, the more rewards you will gain. Judging by the look and feel of this app, it’s probably targeted at a younger market. The designer, Avid Games, has previously…

Orange army cheer in uniform One of the more unusual aspects of the Austrian Grand Prix is the bespoke Max Verstappen grandstand situated in the centre of the circuit. Normally, when you photograph a grandstand there isn’t a central focus. People are moving about, getting to their seats or there are large gaps in the stands. But with the Dutch fans there is an incredible uniformity since they are all wearing the same thing. This is about an hour into the race and they are looking directly at a giant TV screen opposite them and cheering on Verstappen as he charges through the field. Photographer Steven Tee Where Spielberg, Austria When 4.10pm, Sunday 30th June 2019 Details Canon EOS-1DX MkII, 600mm lens, 1/1000th @ F6.3 A picture only tells part…

THE BUSINESS OF LONGEVITY IN F1 IS HARD WORK With Sir Jackie Stewart recently turning 80 it is worth reflecting on the business career of a driver who has never stopped working and earning in Formula 1, 46 years after hanging up his helmet. While three world titles, 27 race victories and 16 other podiums from 99 starts are one measure of success, his 40-year ambassadorships with Ford Motor Company and the Moet & Chandon champagne house have always shown him to have an appeal far beyond the cockpit. In his 2007 autobiography, Winning Is Not Enough, Stewart wrote about how a truly motivated driver can ‘add value’ to commercial sponsorships. On the back of creating Stewart Grand Prix, later sold to Ford, he nurtured deals with companies including banking…

Age 25 Nationality Italian 2019 F1 with Alfa Romeo 2018 F1 testing for Ferrari and Sauber (5 days), FP1 outings with Sauber (6 GPs): Le Mans 24 Hours 2017 F1 with Sauber (2 races), FP1 outings with Haas (7 GPs), F1 testing for Ferrari and Sauber (3 days) 2016 Second in GP2 with Prema, 5 wins; WEC in LMP2 class (2 races); Euro LMS (1 race) 2015 Second in European F3 with Carlin, 6 wins; DTM with Audi (2 races) 2014 Sixth in European F3 with Carlin, 2 wins 2013 Second in British F3 with Double R, 2 wins 2012 Champion in Formula Pilota, China, 6 wins…

THE MAIN EVENT The Hungarian Grand Prix is a popular fixture on the F1 calendar and marks the last race before the enforced factory shutdown in the August summer break. Due to its sinewy characteristics, the Hungaroring has been dubbed ‘Monaco without the houses’. The difficulty in following another car and overtaking puts a premium on qualifying. The other side effect of the circuit’s tight and twisty nature is that tyre strategy is often more important than outright race pace. Budapest in August can be very warm and hot track temperatures can lead to a high rate of degradation. If their rear tyres overheat, drivers risk losing traction and a slow exit out of the final corner can make them vulnerable to an overtake in the DRS zone located on…

RICH ENERGY: A PR OWN GOAL? There are those who subscribe to the belief that any publicity is good publicity, as well as its close cousin, Oscar Wilde’s bon mot that there’s only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Even so, who can fathom the thinking – if indeed there was any – behind Rich Energy’s approach to public relations during its intersection with Formula 1? The company’s hirsute CEO William Storey specialised in a certain type of bombast from the off, declaring the carbonated beverage “better than Red Bull”. I’d have put that claim to the test if I could ever have got hold of a can of the stuff. Indeed, when finding against Storey, Rich Energy and its web designers…