Ricciardo “confident” Australian Grand Prix will go ahead after cancellations

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In the round-up: Daniel Ricciardo is confident the Australian Grand Prix will go ahead in April as planned following its cancellations in 2020 and 2021.

In brief

Ricciardo confident Australian Grand Prix will run in April

The Australian Grand Prix did not take place in the last two seasons due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 race was cancelled on the morning of first practice, while the 2021 race was initially postponed and then later dropped entirely.

After tennis star Novak Djokovic was refused entry into the country for the Australian Open in January over his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid, as per the Australian government’s policy, Ricciardo says he does not expect that Formula 1 will have similar problems.

“I think that was, hopefully, a bit of a unicorn of a situation,” Ricciardo said. “I’m confident that we’ll be back in April. I’m excited.

The Albert Park has been revamped for F1’s first race since 2019. “There’s a new layout, so I think that’s exciting in itself,” he said. “I’m definitely excited to get home.

“The new layout should be cool and if it is promoting more overtaking and these cars make it easier, then we’ll have a very different Melbourne Grand Prix to what we’ve had in previous years. And as long as you’re vaccinated, I guess we’re all good to go.”

Alfa Romeo shake down C42 in Fiorano

Alfa Romeo have run their 2022 car, the C42, for the first time at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track in Italy.

The team confirmed that they had completed a shakedown of their new car for the upcoming season at the circuit owned by Ferrari, the team’s power unit providers. Valtteri Bottas drove the car, decked out in a special camouflage livery, on a wet track in the morning as new team mate Guanyu Zhou watched on.

Alfa Romeo will not be revealing their race livery for the 2022 season until after the first three day test in Barcelona that begins next Wednesday. The team will instead run in a test livery before revealing their new racing livery on Sunday 27 February.

Marco Andretti to race one-off Indy 500 entry

Marco Andretti will compete in this year’s Indy 500 with Andretti Autosport, it has been announced, after securing a sponsorship deal with KULR Technology Group.

Andretti, son of Andretti Autosport team owner Michael, has not competed full-time in the IndyCar Series since the 2020 season. As with last year, in which he finished 19th after starting 21st, he will compete in the Indianapolis 500 in 2022 with the number 98 entry supported by the Andretti team.

Should he qualify for the race on 29th May, the Indy 500 will also be Marco Andretti’s 250th race of his IndyCar career.

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Comment of the day

After Williams became the latest team to reveal their 2022 car yesterday, reader ‘I luv chicken’ has noticed a trend with team launches this season…

We need to get up a collection for all F1 teams, to install lighting at their launches. Did I miss some FIA directive that limits the amount of light? Was there a budget cap on light bulbs?
I luv chicken

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Plutoniumhunter, Haggle and Colin Forsyth!

On this day in motorsport

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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24 comments on “Ricciardo “confident” Australian Grand Prix will go ahead after cancellations”

  1. With international borders open and lockdowns over, I really cannot see how the Australian GP won’t take place this year.

    1. It depends. If Albert Park says anything remotely anti-vax then the race will be deported back to korea.

      1. @peartree The only way for another cancellation is quarantine requirement for all arrivals returning & since Victoria doesn’t require isolation for fully vaccinated ones, so no stumbling blocks for AusGP going ahead as scheduled.

        1. @jerejj do you ever get humour? Half the time I’m being facetious.

          1. @peartree Usually, yes, but telling sarcasm & seriousness apart is difficult occasionally.

    2. I’m sure it will take place.

      I’m also sure that any driver or team member that is not fully vaccinated (or chooses to not provide information) will be refused entry to the country.

  2. After tennis star Novak Djokovic was refused entry into the country for the Australian Open in January

    Djokovic wasn’t refused entry into Australia. He was allowed entry but was thrown out some time later prior to the start of the Open. It was all we heard about for days.

    1. And why was he denied entry? Because he wouldn’t do what every other visitor, citizens included, were required to do; get a vaccination. Won’t do it? Can’t come in. Seems pretty straightforward to me; our country, our rules; don’t like it don’t come.

      1. @SteveR
        You speak like I disapprove of the government’s decision to boot him. Au contraire, I applaud it. Rules are rules.

      2. I’m an un-vaxxed working citizen of Australia for 35 years.
        Should they throw me out as well because of my personal medical decisions?
        I mean being such a severe danger to society it only makes sense.

    2. Well, in fact, RIC is correct & NOVAX was refused entry.
      A Victorian court judge [IMO correctly] approved his entry on the basis of a CoVid exemption.
      A Federal court bench then quashed an appeal against the Federal Immigration Minister’s decree that he be deported on the basis of a lie on his immigration application. Yes, he did not personally complete said application, but clearly the accountability stops with him.
      IMO, deportation = refusal to enter/remain.

      1. That would be Novax Djocovid, thank you very much.
        And yeah, aside from semantics being stuck in an immigration asylum isn’t exactly the same as entering the country anyway

  3. In an emailed response to a query by Bloomberg News Tuesday, McLaren Racing confirmed the termination of its relationship with Bitci.com. It did not give reasons for the termination and neither did it make mention of a fan token.

    Maybe, just maybe, not sign up for Rich Energy type deals…… That’s not too tough to understand.

    1. Stay away from crypto Ponzi schemes altogether, I would say.

    2. At least Rich Energy had a couple of pallets of actual product, lol.

  4. Couldn’t agree more with COTD. It can’t have been to hide technical detail, so i’m guessing they were going for some kind of ‘moody theatrical mise en scène’. Especially Williams, just makes you want to yank up the dimmer switch a bit.

  5. George Russell seems to be the complete opposite of Hamilton, the complete poster boy doing all the PR shots and more. Their marketing department must be over the moon and I bet Hamilton loves it and says, “you carry on chap, I’ll just hang around at the back wearing my dodgy clothing”.

    1. Their marketing department loves Hamilton all day long, don’t worry.

      Showing up to sponsor pr shoots is nice goodwill, but Hamilton sells to an enormous audience worldwide even if he never does another sponsor day in his life. Him tweeting “blessed” with a picture of his feet up on a yacht somewhere is more marketing reach than Russell will ever get, no matter how successful he might be in the future.

      1. Hamilton actually has charisma though, Russell is bland as paper

      2. I doubt this comment will age well. Hamilton will stay popular for a few years, but once the retirement is active, his star will fade (just like all the others in many different sports,) because his entire popularity is based off of winning. Before he was winning constantly, he was a complete nobody that no one outside of for hard core F1 fans cared about. If, and it’s a big if, Russell starts clocking up wins, he will quickly gain the same type of popularity. If he hussles social media well, it will snowball, until he retires or stops winning. Hamilton has been winning for years, the new fans haven’t seen him drop off the podium and be lapped yet. The shine goes off the ball once you stop winning. As all drivers come to realise.

        As far as popularity, Hamilton has a decent reach for a sportster, but there are teenagers with more reach and influence than he will ever have. That isn’t a slight on Ham, it’s a reality. F1 is only kicking off it presence, once they start really pushing stars, it will change fast.

        The next generation will make Hamilton’s popularity look miniscule, F1 is the ticket to fandom, once a charismatic new kid with talent turns up, clocks in a few wins and has that X factor, they will have grown up with social media, already gained an audience before entering F1 and smash it, then get the company PR teams to extend it.

    2. The scale goes from Kimi to Instagram model.

  6. AusGP most certainly won’t get cancelled anymore, especially now that the build-up process has been ongoing for half a month.

    I wouldn’t mind if Alfa Romeo’s camouflage livery became their regular one.

    Nice helmet design.

    COTD’s joke is decent.

  7. Is the Alfa Romeo shakedown really only worth a few lines in the round up? No stand alone article with pictures?

    Plenty of other websites featuring this. Their gain I guess.

  8. I am not confident that the AusGP will be held. Australia is in the southern hemisphere. It is currently summer and will be fall when the race takes place. They will be entering their cold and flu season not exiting the season as the northern hemisphere will be.

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