In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo says he isn’t backing either world championship contender, but believes one would make a more popular winner.
In brief
Verstappen would be popular champion – Ricciardo
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Ricciardo, who was Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull from 2016 to 2018, thinks Verstappen would likely be the more popular champion this year compared with Lewis Hamilton, who has taken the last four titles.
“I think just kind of ‘may the best man win’,” Ricciardo said when asked if he had a preference between the title contenders.
“Their rivalry this year has been fantastic to watch as a fan. They’ve both given everything and it’s been really close, so I don’t have a preference. People do like to see a fresh face, so maybe Max would be the more popular vote because it would be his first title and a new chapter for everyone — a feel-good story. But as long as it’s decided without misfortune, whoever wins will deserve it.”
Formula 2 to help teams meet cost of record calendar
Following the announcement of the longest Formula 2 calendar in the 17-year history of the series and its GP2 predecessor, CEO Bruno Michel says organisers will support teams facing higher costs. Next season F2 will switch from triple-headers to double-headers, while the number of rounds will rise from eight to 14.
“Many circuits expressed interest in adding our championship to their race weekend programmes, but for cost reasons we could not increase the number of rounds further,” Michel said. “This calendar will of course increase teams’ budgets, but we will support them so they can manage the extra costs.”
Ricciardo’s NASCAR run confirmed
Ricciardo will take a promised run in team CEO Zak Brown’s ex-Dale Earnhardt 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at next week’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. Brown offered the opportunity as a reward for Ricciardo’s first podium for the team, which came with his win at the Italian Grand Prix.
- “I was crying”: Ricciardo recalls Earnhardt’s death, 20 years on
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Add the dates for all 23 races on the 2022 #F1 calendar to your calendar here:https://t.co/neMZ3KxpYD
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) October 15, 2021
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
DAZN steps up BT Sport takeover – and wants F1 too (The Times – subscription required)
Reports say DAZN is pursuing top-tier sports rights across Europe, with football as a priority and motorsport remaining popular in many markets.
W Series’ top eight go through to 2022 (W Series)
Reserve driver Abbi Pulling could qualify for next year despite competing in only two rounds so far, keeping her in contention as the season progresses.
Indy 500 Rookie Orientation Program with Andretti (Romain Grosjean via YouTube)
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
Is Formula 1’s sprint qualifying format designed for the American market?
I’m from the US. Long events like F1, soccer, rugby don’t play well in our market.
All of our popular TV sports are short bursts of action – golf, basketball, hockey, football. Even baseball is a new ‘event’ with each pitch.
NASCAR now runs several races broken into ‘stages’ and run at fewer laps with the total equalling the original race distance. The teams stop between stages and then line up and race again with each stage based on the previous result.
US football fans will watch three or four college football games on Saturday and then three or four pro games on Sunday. These are different teams so there’s ‘variety’ to the day. US fans will watch but they want variety and the possibility of ‘action’ all the time.
This is the market Liberty are trying to woo. I’m different. I like bike racing, F1, track and field.
Dale
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On this day in motorsport
- Ten years ago Sebastian Vettel passed Lewis Hamilton to win in South Korea while Michael Schumacher was taken out by Vitaly Petrov.