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F1 is not anti-America
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has rejected suggestions from some United States senators that there’s a concerted and deliberate effort to keep American companies out of F1.
F1 has caught the eye of key bodies in the US following its rejection of Andretti Global’s bid to join the grid in 2025.
That has been taken as a slight against General Motors, which has partnered with the Michael Andretti-led operation, and therefore, America in general.
“I don’t think there’s an anti-American culture within Formula 1 at all,” Brown told ESPN.
“As it relates to America, Liberty’s American; we’ve gone from one race to three races in America, including the single largest investment Formula 1 has ever made in anything, in Vegas.
“You have Ford, who have recently entered the sport. You have myself running one of the top teams in the sport.
“You have Netflix, which has been fantastic for the sport globally but specifically North America.
“And now on the tail end of that we have Brad Pitt, who’s going to do a global movie that is U.S.-based, which will do wonders for the sport.”
Montreal resurfaced
Resurfacing work in Canada will see teams presented with an all-new track surface when they land in Montreal for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Track works have extended to the addition of new kerbs though Pirelli’s tyre engineers will only get their first chance to assess the surface later today.
Despite the new tarmac, graining is not expected to be an issue as the weekend progresses given the lack of lateral force the tyres are put under around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
According to Pirelli, “Montreal is one of the easiest tracks of the season on tyres,” with the softest end of its range in use this weekend.
Resta leaves Ferrari
Simone Resta has officially left Ferrari after more than two decades with the Scuderia and is poised to join Mercedes.
Resta had been seconded to Haas, where he was technical director, but left that position following the exit of Guenther Steiner at the end of last year.
His departure from Ferrari was announced in March with his tenure in Maranello having now formally concluded.
He’ll take up the role of strategic development director at Mercedes in early 2025 following a period of gardening leave.
Pirelli working on C6 compound
Pirelli is working on developing an all-new ‘C6’ compound tyre for 2025.
The intent is to add it at the softest end of the current range as it notes the addition of low-grip street circuits.
We collected quite a lot of good information — we finalised more or less the construction of the 2025 slick tyres,” Pirelli Motorsport boss Mario Isola told Racer.
“We have very promising compounds to reduce overheating for 2025.
“The idea is to also introduce a new C6 compound, a softer one, because in the calendar we have more and more street circuits and we need softer compounds.”
In Monaco, drivers were able to complete almost the entire grand prix distance (bar one lap) on the medium compound tyre.
F2 youngster lands Aston Martin F1 test
Jak Crawford will take the wheel of an Aston Martin AMR22 at the Red Bull Ring later today in what will be his first experience of F1 machinery.
Crawford is test driver for Aston Martin, having joined the squad’s driver development programmer earlier this year.
“Testing with Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team is more than just a dream come true; it’s an important and exciting step on my motorsport journey,” said Crawford.
“I’m incredibly grateful for this chance to drive an F1 car, learn more from the team and push myself even further.”
Crawford sits 11th in the F2 standings with second place in the season-opening Spring in Bahrain his best result of the campaign.
