4-time world champion Max Verstappen provoked rampant intrigue within the motorsport group final weekend when he drove a Ferrari – of all issues – in a take a look at on the Nurburgring Norschleife. Now, Haas staff boss Ayao Komatsu has put his foot down and says his staff’s driver’s gained’t be following the Pink Bull racer’s instance.
Verstappen took benefit of the hole between the F1 Miami GP and this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna GP to have some enjoyable beneath the pseudonym “Franz Hermann.” Underneath the guise, he examined a Ferrari 296 GT3 on the Nurburgring, elevating just a few eyebrows within the course of.
The Ferrari 296 GT3 was run by Emil Frey Racing, which operates Verstappen’s personal staff within the GT World Problem, and was bedecked in Verstappen’s livery, so it didn’t stay secret for lengthy. However the clandestine nature of the preliminary entry, and rumours that Verstappen broke the lap report, nonetheless created greater than a small ripple of curiosity.
However whereas it’s believed to be enshrined in Verstappen’s contract that he’s allowed such hobbies, different drivers are much less lucky.
“No,” was Haas staff principal Ayao Komatsu’s unequivocal response when requested if he would allow Oliver Bearman or Esteban Ocon to observe swimsuit.
“Step-by-step,” Komatsu instructed Motorsport.com forward of the Imola GP. “Max is a a number of world champion, proper? Oli is a rookie.
Max Verstappen, Emil Fray Racing Ferrari 496 GT3
Picture by: Max Verstappen
“Even Esteban, he is bought nonetheless tons to show. He is targeted. What’s the good thing about them racing in one other race?
“I believe they’re fairly fortunate that they are driving an F1 automobile for his or her job. That is numerous enjoyable, I believe.
“Truthfully, it’s busy sufficient, actually. , in between these 24 races – it is not like we’ve not bought sufficient races, proper? – they should take care of their bodily situation, psychological situation.
“In between, they should work with engineers, simulators. It isn’t like they’re sitting at house fascinated by what to do. So, I believe they have a lot on their palms.”
Participating in extracurricular racing additionally has its dangers. As Verstappen identified throughout his take a look at, he had the good thing about a whole bunch of hours of sim racing in his spare time, so had the required expertise of managing the presence of slower automobiles and figuring out the place to go. And he was in the appropriate automobile.
“It is positively extra harmful for me to sit down in a slower automobile and be depending on the quicker automobiles,” Verstappen stated throughout his Thursday media session at Imola.
Whereas F1 drivers in earlier many years raced each weekend, usually in a broad number of classes – Jim Clark was as fluent and spectacular in a Lotus Cortina as he was in a Lotus grand prix automobile – the character of motor racing has modified.
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Fernando Alonso, Andretti Autosport Honda
Picture by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Photos
The F1 calendar has expanded, its drivers have turn into extra skilled they usually not want the cash that, say, sportscar racing would deliver. What’s extra, contracts and branding considerations militate towards driving automobiles from completely different producers.
Within the fashionable period, some drivers have been capable of negotiate racing in different classes into their contracts, however the destiny of Robert Kubica looms giant. Among the many most promising drivers of his technology, he was hurling a Skoda Fabia Tremendous 2000 automobile across the hills of Liguria within the 2011 Ronde di Andora rally when he speared off the street and a guardrail penetrated the cabin, partially severing his proper hand.
Fernando Alonso had sufficient contractual weight for McLaren to excuse him from the 2017 Monaco GP so he may contest the Indy 500, however even that might most likely not have come to go had Bernie Ecclestone nonetheless been pulling F1’s strings on the time.
In 2015, the Canadian Grand Prix didn’t conflict with the Le Mans 24 Hours and Nico Hulkenberg took benefit of this to race for Porsche within the legendary enduro. Since he raced with Pressure India on the time, there have been no producer clashes to behave as obstacles.
However when Hulkenberg returned to the F1 paddock in Austria, broadly feted as a Le Mans winner, there have been ructions on the prime. Ecclestone discovered all the eye directed in the direction of the world of sportscars and the then-new World Endurance Championship commercially vexatious and bothersome.
As such, Hulkenberg was duly summoned to the ‘Bernie Bus’, instructed to place a sock in it, and emerged from the smoked-glass environs of Ecclestone’s cloister with moderately much less of a spring in his step.
Head right here to remain up to the mark with the most recent F1 Imola Grand Prix information, skilled evaluation, photographs and movies.
Learn Additionally:
On this article
Stuart Codling
Formulation 1
Esteban Ocon
Oliver Bearman
Haas F1 Group
Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information e mail updates on these matters
Subscribe to information alerts
