• Russian Ferrari Academy driver Robert Shwartzman (above) sealed the FIA F3 European Championship at his home event, Sochi, in the Russian Grand Prix support race. Backed by the Russian SMP concern, he is expected to contest next year’s
F2 season.
• Toro Rosso has had its request to change its name to AlphaTauri approved for 2020. This title reflects Red Bull’s clothing brand.
• At the time of writing, discussion about which four 2020 grands prix will be used for the Saturday sprint race experiment was set to be discussed at a meeting between the teams, Liberty and the governing body. The proposal is that the grid of the sprint race will be formed in reverse championship order, there will be no regulated pit stops over a distance of around 100km. The result of this race will form the grid for the grand prix proper the following day, with no qualifying as such. Shanghai, Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Spa have been mentioned as venues under consideration. Ferrari has requested that Monza not be part of the experiment. Mercedes has campaigned similarly to not include Silverstone.
• Racing Point lodged a protest against the Renault team after the Japanese Grand Prix, alleging that it was utilising an illegal ‘pre-set lap distance-dependent brake-bias adjustment system’. The FIA has accepted the protest and at the time of writing was conducting an investigation. Renault’s steering wheels and ECUs were impounded after the race.
• Robert Kubica, having announced his imminent parting from Williams at the end of the season, is expected to contest next year’s DTM series with the factory BMW team.
• An internal questionnaire among the F1 teams asking if they would prefer the proposed 2021 regulations or to retain the current rules resulted in six of the 10 voting for retaining. A further meeting with the FIA and Liberty ahead of the October 31 deadline for the publication of the regulations occurred three days after the Japanese GP.
• Romain Grosjean spent the typhooned-off Suzuka Saturday building a Tamiya kit of a Tyrrell P34 6-wheeler.
• McLaren’s return to Mercedes engines from 2021 onwards leaves Renault set to supply only its own team from that date, as things stand.
• The ousting of Renault CEO Thierry Bollore (installed in the aftermath of the arrest of Carlos Ghosn earlier this year) by the company board in favour of temporary appointee Clotilde Delbos has not made Renault’s post-2020 F1 plans any clearer.
