RaceFans Round-up: F1 should stay ‘sport before spectacle’

In brief

F1 should be ‘sport before spectacle’ – Wolff

Mercedes team principal says he is not concerned about reports that F1 viewing figures have dipped slightly in regions such as the USA in second-straight year dominated by Red Bull.

“The numbers that we are seeing are strong,” said Wolff. “We’re growing on social, we see races that are packed and sold out. As a matter of fact, it is an all-around spectacle. If the spectacle is not good, our fans are going to follow us less.

“But what I always say in this sport, I like the ‘honesty’ [of racing]. The spectacle follows the sport. And the sport – this is a meritocracy. Whoever is doing the best job wins. And if somebody is doing a much better job than everybody else, then they’re winning 19 races – and you can’t stop that, as a matter of fact. So it is up to us and Ferrari and all the other teams to have to do a better job in order to compete with Red Bull Racing.”

Japan was Verstappen’s favourite victory

Max Verstappen says that the Japanese Grand Prix was his favourite race weekend of the season.

Verstappen took his third championship title in 2023 with a record 19 race victories. Speaking at the Honda Thanks Day event at Motegi, Verstappen picked the round at Suzuka as his favourite weekend of the season.

“I have to say Suzuka was really good,” he said. “We were very strong the whole weekend, the car was really, really nice to drive there. Also the track layout – it’s so much fun always to race there. It’s one of my favourite ones.”

Lack of early upgrades hurt – Zhou

Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu says his team lost out due to their relative lac of upgrades relative to their rivals.

The team fell from sixth in the championship in 2022 to ninth this season, while rivals Williams and AlphaTauri overtook them.

“A lot of our main rivals from the beginning of the season, they were able just to change massively – completely introduce a new car, or ‘B’ car over the season and made a very good step forward,” Zhou explained.

“We knew we’re going to get that plan for next season, so this year was more about suffering at the last few races. Then it’s been a little bit inconsistent, unpredictable in terms of performance track-by-track. But we definitely, in general, didn’t really have the pace, especially over the race distance.”