Autobayng News Team
Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Three years since Formula 1 introduced new regulations intended to help cars race closely, is the racing really any better now?
In 2022, Brawn promised on behalf of FOM that they would keep tweaking their car concept to account for development.
Tombazis on behalf of the FIA followed up on that later, stating they had identified problems with parts of the car concept that would be addressed. That was in late 2023.
These cars are so bad, it’s hard to believe people like Brawn were involved in them beyond lending their name and credibility.
It’s a shame that it turned out this way, because they had perhaps the best chance since the late 1990s to push for some real serious overhauls. But alas.
MichaelN
Social media and links
Challenging Saturday at Spa (Mercedes)
Toto Wolff: ‘As a team, this weekend has fallen far below our standards so far. It has been our weakest performance this year and we need to quickly understand why. We have struggled with a car facing several balance limitations, losing the vast majority of our lap time in the middle sector.’
Best sprint (race) result precedes best quali result of 2025 (Williams)
‘We fixed the issue we had on Friday, which made the biggest difference. The lap felt tricky, and it was difficult to see where I could find the lap time, so I wasn’t expecting to make such a big step forward in Q3. The working window for the tyres is very narrow and we did a good job to find that sweet spot to pull it all together.’
Qualifying recap (Haas)
‘We lost out getting to Q3 by a tiny margin to Albon and he’s qualified (fifth), so I feel that’s where our potential is. The good thing is, with Ollie’s set-up especially, he’s very confident and our target is double points again.’
Sprint race: Fornaroli in control to take impressive victory at Spa Francorchamps (Formula 2)
‘The feature race ended as the Safety Car was withdrawn, giving Fornaroli a second consecutive Sprint Race victory following his Silverstone triumph, with Martins and Minì taking the other two spots on the podium.’
Sprint race: Stromsted earns maiden F3 win with dominant drive at Spa (Formula 3)
‘Stromsted went untroubled after taking the lead and dominated to earn his first F3 win by six seconds. Ugochukwu was on the podium in (second), and Wurz resisted a final lap charge from Tsolov to complete the podium in third place.’
Three spectators die after car veers off road during French auto rally (The Guardian)
‘The victims were two brothers, aged 70 and 60, and a 44-year-old man, according to the public prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation into involuntary manslaughter.’
Slog F1-stjärnans banrekord – en knapp vecka senare (SVT – Swedish)
‘F1 driver Ollie Bearman’s track record at Varberg’s go-kart track didn’t last a week before Elton Zewenwacht took it back.’
Laurent Mekies can’t replace Christian Horner in one respect and F1 will suffer for it (The Mirror)
‘Horner will be another dearly missed personality – even if you didn’t like him, and many didn’t, he made for a great pantomime villain. His replacement Laurent Mekies is an experienced and well-respected operator, but a much more dry personality.’
Grand Prix of Monterey qualifying (IndyCar via YouTube)
London race one (Formula E via YouTube)
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