Charles Leclerc’s sensible dwelling win for Ferrari and questions over McLaren’s lack of crew orders dominate this week’s Autosport journal, out at this time (5 September).
Even for non-Ferrari followers, a victory for the legendary crew within the Italian Grand Prix is particular. Whereas we’ll need to see whether or not the SF-24’s newest upgrades have really put it again within the frontrunning body on extra typical circuits, the Monza occasion raised a couple of queries about McLaren, now that it arguably has Formulation 1’s quickest automobile.
On the duvet, we’ve requested if McLaren received it incorrect at Monza. We expect the crew did, however not mainly due to the choice to go for a two-stop technique as a substitute of the one-stopper that Leclerc used to win. As Alex Kalinauckas investigates in his column, permitting Oscar Piastri to assault Lando Norris on the opening lap not solely risked contact, however allowed Leclerc into second and made it a lot tougher for McLaren to regulate the race.
No one likes crew orders, and quickly rising star Piastri is actually no quantity two, however circumstances generally make them a smart possibility. With the factors hole between Norris and Max Verstappen nonetheless 62, the Briton may do with all the assistance he can get – that’s one thing he hasn’t at all times had to date, however McLaren might have to rethink that place sooner somewhat than later.
Ferrari’s glorious weekend received even higher when late drama helped Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman beat Toyota in Austin’s World Endurance encounter. Gary Watkins was there to see how they did it – and Aston Martin take a dominant LMGT3 win.
In UK motorsport, Rali Ceredigion introduced top-level rallying again to Wales final weekend. Tom Howard was there to report on Hayden Paddon’s first European Rally Championship victory of 2024 and to see how far the occasion may assist get Britain again on the World Rally Championship schedule.
We additionally report on Motorsport UK’s U-turn on proposed collection adjustments and the outstanding comeback of Cedric Bloch three years after his life-changing bike crash.
The Goodwood Revival takes place this weekend. We pick the highlights and concentrate on two of historic racing’s 2024 successes. Our full occasion report will seem subsequent week (12 September).
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