🏁So hot right now

This is The Gravel Trap. We condense F1 news so well you could read it during a Red Bull pit stop.

- Ryan David

Indy drivers in F1

IndyCar. It’s all the rage in F1’s this week.

Andretti Autosport wheelman Colton Herta made headlines when McLaren announced a 2-day test in Portimao. After the test, Colton (an American) said he feels fast enough for F1. In the past, he’s said F1 is a “serious ambition” of his.

But the real drama involved another IndyCar star—last year’s champion, Spaniard Alex Palou.

At 3:55 PM on Tuesday, Chip Ganassi Racing announced they had extended Alex’s contract. At 7:22 PM, McLaren announced they had signed Alex. Just 7 minutes earlier, Alex tweeted that he had not re-signed with Ganassi and his quote they included in the release was fabricated.

• 5 minutes later, Alex retweeted McLaren’s announcement and said he’s excited to join the team.

Signing with McLaren doesn’t guarantee Alex an F1 seat. They’ve got an IndyCar team too. But it’s certainly interesting. Former F1 driver Romain Grosjean said he’s excited to see IndyCar drivers trying out F1 cars.

How much has everyone spent on damage this year?

Source: @formula_statanalysis on Instagram

Where's Michael Masi?

Michael Masi hasn’t direct an F1 race since the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Abu Dhabi was the final GP of 2021 and decided the world championship. Towards the end of the race, Nicolas Latifi crashed and caused a safety car.

Masi let lapped cars between Max Verstappen (P2) and Lewis Hamilton (P1) pass the safety car. Shortly after, the safety car went in, Max passed Lewis on fresher tires. Lewis didn’t have DRS because there’s a 2 lap delay after safety cars.

• As a result, Max won the Grand Prix and more importantly, the World Championship.

The FIA removed Masi as race director, he got death threats (so did Latifi), and Masi hadn’t spoken publicly since. Until this week.

It’s unclear what he’s been up to for the last 7 months. But this week the FIA confirmed he’s no longer with the organization. Masi said he’s moving home to Australia to be closer to his family.

Want to sleep at the Mercedes factory?

I don't want to share this because I want to win. But I'm a nice guy.

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The prize even includes airfare to London! Try your luck.

Danny Ric's F1 future

He’s the smiliest driver in F1, but Daniel Ricciardo’s far from the fastest. He’s currently twelfth in the driver’s championship with 17 points. If nothing changes, he’ll finish outside the top 10 for first time since 2013.

F1’s a high pressure sport. And Danny’s performance is causing doubt in his ability to compete. Our own podcast host, Philippe, shared his thoughts on Danny last week:

“He sucks.”

Much of the hype is driven by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown’s comments on Sky Sports in May, “Short of [Danny’s victory at] Monza and a few races, it’s generally not met his or our expectations.”

Zak recently said his relationship with Danny is better than ever and Danny tweeted yesterday that he’s committed to McLaren through the end of next year. That’s when his contract ends.

You can’t say that

In a Belgian broadcast of the Austrian GP, commentator Lionel Froissart called Lance Stroll “the autistic.” The context? “[Aston Martin] want to keep Vettel, it’s not Lance Stroll the autistic who is going to understand anything about cars.”

Fellow commentator Gaetan Vigneron challenged Lionel but Lionel insisted his words were true.

RTBF Sport has suspended Froissart pending a full investigation. They also apologized to the Aston Martin team who is reportedly “pleased” with the apology.

Bad news Bernie

Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone is in hot water. Again.

He’s being charged with failure to declare over 400 million Euros of overseas assets to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs department. Ecclestone—and likely an army of lawyers—are scheduled to appear in court August 22.

The most Formula 1 driver pic ever

Meme lane

Thanks

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