In the round-up: The Miami Grand Prix promoter warned a supporter of Donald Trump not to proceed with plans to hold a fundraising event for the former American president who is seeking re-election.
In brief
Trump Miami GP fundraiser blocked
The Washington Post reported Steven Witkoff was warned by the race promoter in a letter that “it has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 [£200,000] per ticket, which clearly violates the… suite license agreement.”
“If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full,” it added.
Trump was elected president in 2016, lost his re-election bid in 2020 and is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying financial records.
Magnussen eyes ‘even better Miami than 2023’
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen says he is eager to improve on his team’s 2023 showing at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.Magnussen secured his best grid position of the season in Miami in 2023 before taking one of his three points finishes in the grand prix. With Haas scoring five points already in 2024, Magnussen hopes to emulate that success this weekend.
“Miami is a big event for us, the first of three home races,” he said. “It’s a great event, great track, and I personally like the circuit – it’s a hybrid street, road course, track, but it has some really good high-speed parts there. It was one of our best weekends last season, and hopefully with our car this year we can have an even better race.
“It’s a good track for racing – you have the back-straight which is super-long and then a hairpin leading on to the main straight, so whatever battle you’re in, it tends to continue into turn one with another DRS zone there. Of course, the US races are busy for us as we’re an American team with a lot of American sponsors, so I’m looking forward to the whole week.”
McLaughlin was “a little mad” after mannequin moment
A life-sized doll named ‘Georgina’, one of the many art installations around Barber Motorsports Park, fell onto the track during Sunday’s race. A caution period came out soon after, but was instead triggered by Sting Ray Robb crashing out.
“I was a little mad,” McLaughlin said. “Then I realised that someone else had hit the fence. That wasn’t what the yellow was for.
“I love the artistic stuff, but it probably doesn’t need to be above the track to cause a yellow like that. It’s probably what will change next year maybe. I do love that part of this. It’s unique. It’s just a fun track. I thought it was a matter of time.”
Eminem to headline US GP concert
US Grand Prix organisers have announced that legendary hip-hop artist Eminem and Police singer Sting will headline the concerts that will form part of the event’s festivities in October.
Sting will perform at the circuit’s amphitheatre on Friday evening, while Eminem will take to the stage after qualifying on Saturday night. Previous headliners for the event include Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars and Billy Joel.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'Red Bull said this year that a barrister had cleared its Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner of claims of inappropriate behaviour towards a female employee, but refused to name the lawyer or publish their conclusions. Such cases have underlined the fraught nature of internal investigations, which must balance a corporate’s imperative to show it has properly probed an allegation with its desire to avoid greater disruption or reputational damage than necessary.'
Norris suffers nasty facial injury while partying in Amsterdam before Miami (Independent)
'McLaren driver Lando Norris’ participation in the Miami Grand Prix is not at risk despite injuring his face on holiday in Amsterdam. While in the Dutch capital, pictures of the British driver spread on social media with a bandage wrapped across his face after reportedly cutting his nose on broken glass while celebrating Koningsdag (King’s Day) with DJ Martin Garrix.'
IndyCar cheating scandal risks sullying Roger Penske’s perfect image (Associated Press)
'It’s simply not believable that one of three cars owned by series leadership thought a major rule had been changed without any public announcement. Newgarden and the No. 2 team also didn’t bother to talk over any suspected rule change with their team mates.'
Motorsport artist Alan Walsh says having F1 star clients is ‘dream come true’ (Indy100)
''It’s a dream come true as a kid who loved racing. While I can’t ever race in the Monaco Grand Prix, me doing an exhibition where I’m (doing) it, is just as good. It really is. It’s something that I’ve worked really, really hard for for many years and I’ve made lots of sacrifices.''
Arvid Lindblad: ''I have two or three years to make it to F1' (BBC)
'I’d say I have two or three years now to make it and that’s my window – if I don’t make it now I won’t get another opportunity in Formula 1. All I’m thinking about at the moment is Formula 1 and wanting to be a world champion.''
F2 champion Drugovich: ''I couldn’t hold myself anymore'' (Formula Scout)
''After one year stopped, I couldn’t hold myself anymore. I needed to do something. So (ELMS) is a good opportunity for me just to keep driving and keep sharp. After one year not racing, you can test as much as you want. It’s never going to be the same as racing. So that’s pretty good here.''
F1 24 – First look at gameplay (EA Sports via YouTube)
EA Sports have revealed the first extended raw gameplay footage of the upcoming official F1 game.
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Miami bound 🌴
Ready for the next round of F1 Academy ✌️#F1Academy pic.twitter.com/Yw9umoMrEA
— PIN DORIANE (@DorianePin) April 29, 2024
Austin and São Paulo, 2023 🌎
Last year marked the first step on our mission to empower young people facing social injustice around the world.
At the US and Brazilian GP, we met many inspirational young people excited to pursue careers in STEM and change the world they live in. pic.twitter.com/6w4QtcSYtx
— Mission 44 (@mission44) April 29, 2024
A picture is worth a thousand words.
📷: Joe Skibinski / INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/EMbGKanreT
— Cassie 🏁 (@mama_gforce) April 29, 2024
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With McLaren announcing they are parting ways with the injured David Malukas before he has even run a race with the team, Radoye believes Theo Pourchaire should be a strong candidate to take his seat on a permanent basis…
IndyCar is a very different beast compared to an F2 car, much more physical with no power steering. It takes some getting used to, as many F2 graduates found out when making the switch to IndyCar. Also, Long Beach and Barber aren’t exactly the easiest racetracks to pick up on a short notice without any previous testing experience there.
All in all, Theo did reasonably well considering the circumstances. With some more time in the car, he’d do good.
Radoye
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Ccolanto, Mike Weilding, Oliver and Jake Kilshaw!
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ppzzus (@ppzzus)
30th April 2024, 0:48
surprising that Florida is on the right side of the news for once.
The Dolphins
30th April 2024, 3:04
“which clearly violates the… suite license agreement… you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full”
All bark and no bite.
MichaelN
30th April 2024, 10:04
$250k per ticket… it’s quite something. But the pay to play nature of US politics is so blatant, so brazen, that something line this barely even registers.
The Dolphins
30th April 2024, 14:53
My comment was in reference to the, “we will refund you in full” part of the letter from the race promoter to Steven Witkoff. If they were serious about enforcing the “suite license agreement” then why the offer to refund in the event of a breach?
Tristan
30th April 2024, 3:42
Financial Times article is agreeable, but very much opinion. Red Bull sure are dragging their feet on this re-investigation.
I’ve got the same questions as the first time. If there’s an investigation taking this long, how can Red Bull in good conscience have Horner at the head of the team in charge of all those people.
No boss that takes advantage of their staff should keep their job, sexual or otherwise.
ludewig
30th April 2024, 8:07
@Tristan
You are conflating the second investigation taking a long time with him being guilty. This is especially strange since he was acquitted during the first investigation.
Its truly quite shocking how many people I see reject the very fundamentals of rule of law, like innocent until proven guilty.
An Sionnach
30th April 2024, 8:25
The rule of law gives a semblance of fairness. Many just want things their way all the time and don’t see the danger of eroding or destroying the rule of law in pursuit of dominance over others (which is not something that can realistically last). Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.
Mayrton
30th April 2024, 9:09
So it would seem, unfortunately. In the era Trump all values seem to be thrown out of the window. Worrying stuff.
MichaelN
30th April 2024, 9:58
There are several layers to this.
Did Horner do something illegal? Extremely unlikely, and also not the issue at hand.
Did Horner overstep company policy? We don’t know, but apparently not such that Red Bull found it objectionable.
Did Horner create a problematic working environment? Possible, and the leaked texts don’t make him look great.
Is Horner known to cheat on his partners? Yes. This is well established.
We don’t have to ignore what we know to be true about Horner when discussing this matter.
Tristan
30th April 2024, 10:12
I disagree with that, he certainly could have. We won’t know until Red Bull re-dismisses this and it goes to court.
I don’t know why he’s being given the benefit of the doubt as some extremely unlikely possibility. More people have presumed his innocence than I see presuming his guilt.
erik
30th April 2024, 12:20
How would you even know he did something illegal, that are just your assumptions based on absolutely nothing, you’re as much of an outsider to this as anyone! How can you be this arrogant to think you actually know? Mindblowing. Like Ludewig said, you’re somebody who judges somebody guilty without any evidence, that is shocking.
MichaelN
30th April 2024, 13:58
Let me rephrase: in the context of this affair there is no hint of anything quite so extreme. Whatever Horner’s personal flaws, that’s taking it way too far based on what is currently known.
It might well be that the UK’s myriad laws open an avenue for his persistent messaging to become a legal issue. I wouldn’t presume to know.
ludewig
30th April 2024, 19:13
@Tristan
You are again saying things that suggest that you have very little clue what you are talking about.
If the lady in question believes that there is a criminal case to be made against Horner, the internal investigations of the company would be completely irrelevant. She could just go to the police and in fact, might already have done so. It’s also possible that the police is secretly investigating, or that they’ve already dismissed the criminal complaint.
After all, the police will often do investigations secretly and only announce the outcome if they believe that a decent case can be made in court. You may never hear of a dismissed complaint.
If the lady goes to court only after the second investigation has been dismissed, it is most likely it will be a civil case, probably against RB, although it might also be against Horner. But a civil case would not judge on whether criminal behavior has been committed.
But you are assuming that there will be a court case, which remains to be seen. You are presenting it as fact, even though you are speculating.
Tristan
30th April 2024, 10:05
I didn’t say he was guilty at all, but for sure he should have been put on leave until its not in doubt.
I’ve never heard of an internal workplace disagreement policy that allows for appeal, that they even dismissed it without being certain is ridiculous.
erik
30th April 2024, 12:23
You’ve never heard of it, because you really don’t know what you are talking about.
notagrumpyfan
30th April 2024, 16:47
All internal workplace complaint processes have an escalation option. Either defined (internal or external) or civil court (even if the policy defines that parties agree with the initial outcome).
PS you should be a bit more careful assuming something ‘illegal’ happened, as that typically relates to criminal offences (rather than workplace complaints and unsavoury behaviour).
Jem (@j1jem)
30th April 2024, 15:52
He wasn’t “acquitted”, Red Bull GmbH stated that the “grievance has been dismissed” following an internal investigation. Those are two very different things.
The first is “we didn’t find any evidence of wrong-doing”, the second does not do that and is added to by obfuscation of even the name of the “lawyer” involved (although Horner said something typically self-aggrandising “…an independent KC, one of the finest in the land, came to a conclusion…” suggests they are from the UK) which I’m afraid gives rise to further questions, and the understandable appeal.
rsp123 (@rsp123)
30th April 2024, 10:32
This is usually reported as an “independent” investigation when it was nothing of the sort. Red Bull hired a lawyer to look into the matter. He will obviously do as he is paid to do – maximize Red Bull’s interests. This was an “internal” investigation. No wonder the woman concerned is taking the matter further. I can see a large settlement coming her way.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th April 2024, 12:23
not just a RB hired lawyer, but the long term lawyer who takes care of all business of the Thai owner who is known to be a supporter of Horner within the group, which makes it rather clear that the investigation was not independent at all.
erik
30th April 2024, 12:24
If the woman thinks she has a strong case, then tell me, why doesn’t she simply go the the courts and sue him?? The fact she still hasn;t done this tells me she probably doesn’t have much of a case to begin with.
MichaelN
30th April 2024, 14:02
It’s very normal for a case to go through all the steps on the ladder. Courts have a lot of work to do; they don’t want to be the first point of contact between two parties. It’s also not in the interest of parties to go to court every time there’s an issue. Not just because of privacy concerns, but simply because of the costs as well. None of that means there’s nothing to a complaint, it just means the people involved are taking it one step at a time.
Nick T.
30th April 2024, 4:31
Ugh. Highly embarrassing.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th April 2024, 6:22
Unsurprisingly, Norris was in Amsterdam out of all places solely to party on Kings’ Day, but his unfortunate injury shows that partying during a season can apparently also be risky, even if his participation isn’t under threat to any extent.
IndyCar may be more physical than F2, which is only natural as it’s a faster series, but neither does F2 have power steering, so they share this particular aspect.
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th April 2024, 8:00
To be honest this could happen to any of us the glass broke while taking a sip it could be much worse.. Luckly only a little cut which looked much worse then it was.
notagrumpyfan
30th April 2024, 6:59
The typical 2-week gap between races is now referred to as an ‘extended break’ ;)
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
30th April 2024, 9:29
The F1 24 game still looks so unrealistic.
The sound is awful and not even remotely close to the actual one while the wet weather at Spa is bizarre, not having enough sprays for the amount of standing water. Then the car movements doesn’t seem natural at all and AIs seem very dull, Alonso for example would not have this kind of standard lines in the wet.
Mr A
30th April 2024, 10:35
Agreed, it’s awful. It’s actually embarrassing but this stuff has been flagged since the 2011 days and they have never been interested in fixing it.
The AI is absolutely dreadful, they all drive the same, rarely making mistakes. There’s no immersion whatsoever.
The cars don’t even pitch properly, they slide over the ground instead of pitching on wheel-to-wheel contact, which is a pretty fundamental behaviour on open-wheel and they just never ever get it right. And before anyone says “oh it’s really hard to do that” – Geoff did it in 2001.
The only minor positive is the use of different drivers voices over the radio there, nice touch.
SM
30th April 2024, 11:59
Yeeees the legend Geoff! I’ve not checked but I’m sure the 2024 mod for gp4 is already out lol
Coventry Climax
30th April 2024, 13:11
– It’s embarrassing they use Spa for the first ‘incentive’ footage, while Spa is so often under threat of disappearing from the calendar altogether
– It’s embarrassing they race under rainy conditions, as that in reality hardly ever happens anymore
– It’s embarrassing there’s no spray whatsoever, despite the wet conditions
– It’s embarrassing… full stop.
Coventry Climax
30th April 2024, 13:13
On the other hand, that might just make it realistically embarrassing after all.. ;-)
Nick T.
30th April 2024, 18:58
There’s no excuse for bad graphics in this day and age. It’s hard to tell between real life and video game replays with half the games these days.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th April 2024, 11:59
I’ve been “off my face” in Amsterdam a couple of times but never injured it.
What were you doing Lando? … you naughty boy you ;)
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
1st May 2024, 12:17
Partying with Adrian Sutil, probably.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
30th April 2024, 13:05
RIP Roland.
Seems crazy that its 30 years already.
So many on the grid were not even alive at the time.
Jonathan Parkin
30th April 2024, 15:19
I was eighteen when Ratzenberger and Senna died. I can take you to the approximate place I was when I heard about Senna’s death. I say approximate because a housing estate is now built on the site of the garage that used to be there
PlosslF1
30th April 2024, 16:22
When Roland met Roland…
https://youtu.be/2EYlqZ7nDyE?si=b5BBH3ZVP5gEAG0C