RaceFans Round-up
In the round-up: Red Bull team principal Christian Horner will receive the Commander of the Order of the British Empire honour.
In brief
Horner to receive CBE
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner will be made a CBE as part of King Charles’ New Year Honours.
Horner, who has been team principal of Red Bull’s F1 team since the team joined the grid in 2005, has led Red Bull to six constructors’ championship titles and took Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen to seven drivers’ world titles between them. Red Bull enjoyed their most successful ever season in 2023.
Having already been awarded an OBE (Officer of the order of the British Empire) in 2013, Horner will receive the higher honour of an OBE in the New Year. The honour is noted for Horner’s “services to motorsport”.
Haas “got away” with being slow early on
Nico Hulkenberg says Haas were fortunate that their rivals struggled more for pace then they did in the early part of the 2023 season.
Haas rose as high as seventh in the constructors’ championship at the mid phase of the season but fell to finish last for the second time in three years. But Hulkenberg says their earlier success was down to their rivals failing to capitalise.
“The signs were there early in the season and we got away with it because other people were struggling more,” he said. “Once they cleaned up and brought some real developments, that’s when we started to pay the penalty and the second half of the season was really tough.”
Palou doubtful of more dominance
IndyCar champion Alex Palou says he does not expect to have more seasons as dominant as 2023.
Palou won the title with a round to spare after five victories over the season. However, he believes 2023 was an exceptional year.
“I think IndyCar has always been super, super hard,” he said. “Especially nowadays with now the points system – it’s really hard to win it before the last race of the season.
“But we had an excellent season overall. Our worst position was eighth, I believe. We had five wins. We were always running up front. We just felt like it was our year. It was one of those years that everything went well.
“I don’t expect to have a lot of years like that. Hopefully we get some more, but it’s not going to be 10 more years like that obviously.”
Two weeks before Steve Nielsen resigned, the head of the FIA’s commission for women, Deborah Mayer, quit. Both departures were preceded by what had already had been an embarrassing end to the year for the FIA. It had caused consternation by launching a conflict of interest investigation into the Mercedes principal, Toto Wolff, and his wife, Susie, who runs the sport’s all-female series, the F1 Academy.’
Rivals, commercial rights holders Liberty Media and millions of fans are all hoping to see more of a battle for the top of the podium when the racing starts again in Bahrain next March. Whether that will happen is the question nobody really has the answer to before the new cars and tyres are put through their paces in testing, and the uncertainty creates some suspense going into the winter break.’
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‘Buoyed by the SEMA tradeshow and the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, the city set a record for average daily room rate (ADR) across its hotels last month. According to a report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the ADR of $249.31 was an all-time best and it marked a 33.7% increase from the same period one year ago. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) was reported at $204.18, a 34.8% year-over-year rise.’
The first of the modern Silver Arrows F1 cars to be sold outside of the Benz empire, this 2013 car was driven by Lewis Hamilton in 14 of that year’s 19 races, and took first place at Hungary. It’s also the last of the V8 grand prix cars – F1 switched to hybrid-assisted V6s in 2014.’ ‘See which drivers charted from 20th to 11th in the penultimate part of our ranking of the most impressive performers in junior single-seater racing in 2022.’
Jordan would move on to television duties after his team was sold at the end of the 2005 season, and continued to bring an Irish flavour to his broadcasts with the BBC. Speaking on the first episode of Formula for Success earlier this year, Jordan recalled meeting Michael Fassbender on the grid ahead of the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix. Jordan said that he would end up in hot water with the BBC producers for speaking Irish during his live-on-air interview with Fassbender:’
