In the round-up: Alpine team principal Bruno Famin expects a “challenging” start to the season after they ended pre-season testing at the bottom of the times.
In brief
Alpine “know where we stand” after “solid” test
Famin was encouraged by Alpine’s reliability during the test but indicated it may take a few races for them to get the best out of their overhauled A524.
“It’s been a solid three-day test for the team where we’ve focused on ourselves and committed to a comprehensive and important test programme,” said Famin. “We have been operationally strong all week and demonstrated great teamwork between both factories and the trackside team, which has been good to see.
“Our reliability has been good and that has enabled us to complete our test plan as expected. Now is the time to work through the data and concentrate on optimising the package we have in our hands ahead of next week’s first grand prix.
“We know where we stand. We are expecting a challenging start to the year as we continue to learn more and more about our A524 to develop it across the season.”
Wilson Fittipaldi does aged 80
Former F1 driver Wilson Fittipaldi – older brother of double world champion Emerson – died on Friday in his native Brazil.
The 80-year-old, who competed in 35 grands prix between 1972 and 1975 with a best finish of fifth in the 1973 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, died after falling into a coma from a cardiac arrest on Christmas Day.
Wilson Fittipaldi also ran the Copersucar Fittipaldi F1 team in the late seventies, which his famed brother joined in 1976. Christian Fittipaldi, Wilson’s son, also competed in the world championship for three seasons with Minardi and Footwork.
Chadwick to launch karting series
Williams junior driver and Indy Nxt driver Jamie Chadwick has launched her own all-female karting series in the UK to support participation of girls in motorsport at a grassroots level.
The Jamie Chadwick Series will provide free opportunities for karting for girls over eight-years-old and a dedicated racing series which will begin later this year.
“I actually started in, ‘arrive and drive’ kind of style karting at a pretty low level when I was 12 years old and never really had much of a career roadmap or anything to suggest that there was opportunity beyond that,” Chadwick told Sky.
“I just did it as a hobby, so I was fortunate enough there were opportunities that did come around and I had an older brother that helped the…
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