Monday Pit Stop #8
For those who weren't in Australia, it was a relatively quiet weekend in the world of motorsport – after all, the action in Albert Park probably more than made up for it.
The world of Indycar though offered something radically different: the first non-championship race (which used to be a common feature of Formula 1 as well) since 2008. The $1 Million Challenge at the Thermal Club circuit in southern California resulted in Alex Palou, McLaren's 2023 reserve driver who now drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, enjoying a generous payday. The race format was also innovative, with drivers being progressively eliminated in a series of heats to qualify for the final.
The Thermal Club in the Coachella Valley is perhaps the world's most-exclusive motorsport club, containing a private circuit that winds around a park containing 70 luxury villas. To become a member, first you have to purchase a villa – but then you do get access to your very own circuit right on your doorstep. It's arguably the closest anyone can get to living in the white house at Fiorano.
The $1 Million Challenge filled a gap in the calendar for Indycar fans and certainly got everyone talking, so it was mission accomplished. Perhaps a non-championship race would be an interesting feature for Formula 1 too – if only there were a gap in the calendar…
There was plenty happening at another Formula 1 track quite close to Fiorano, with the Mugello 12 Hours that formed the opening round of the 24H series. There were a couple of star names on the entry list: namely nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, and two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas, sharing a Porsche. Perhaps the biggest news story of the weekend is that they didn't win: instead that honour fell to the Porsche crew of Lucas Groeneveld, Jesse van Kujik, Daan van Kujik, and Max van Splunteren, after a tricky event that was also characterised by wet weather – which tends to make the mini-Nurburgring that is Mugello even more challenging.
Speaking of rallying, it was also the first round of the British Rally Championship at the North West stages, which was won by former European Champion Chris Ingram, co-driven by American navigator Alex Kihurani in a Volkswagen Polo R5. Max McRae – the nephew of Colin – unfortunately slid off the road during the ninth stage on his debut.
Staying in England, Pirelli was reunited with a Grand Prix driver who only ever took part in one race, at a trade launch of the new P Zero E tyre – designed for high-performance electrified cars – at the British circuit of Thruxton. This is officially the UK's fastest circuit, with only two slow corners and a lap record of under a minute on the full 3.793km layout.
Helping to put the new P Zero through its paces, and giving high-speed passenger rides, was Timothy ‘Tiff' Needell, who took part in the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix only – but shared the back row of the grid with Emerson Fittipaldi. The Englishman was actually making good progress in the race, before being halted by an engine problem on his Ensign on lap 12. Since then, he went on to achieve plenty of success in sports cars, notably finishing on the podium at the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 962C.
The Thruxton lap record of 57.6 seconds was, incidentally, set by a Formula 1 World Champion: Damon Hill, who lapped the track in a Williams FW15C in 1993, at an average speed of just over 236 kph as part of a display run.
