Welcome to Saturday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
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The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X (Global Player)
Jack Whitehall: ‘It was heavily policed, my script, for that F1 thing. They went through everything and they were like, ‘Right, no Bernie Ecclestone jokes. You can’t talk about Flavio Briatore.’ So they all got cut. There was this one George Russell joke and they were like, ‘Yeah, you can’t do that.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m sure that it’s fine. He’s going to find that funny.’ They’re like, ‘You can’t do it.’ I was like, ‘Well, is there any way around it?’ And they were like, ‘Well, unless he gave you his permission.”
Aston Martin chair explored buyout of carmaker with Saudi fund (Financial Times)
‘(Lawrence) Stroll led a £540m rescue package in 2020, promising to restore Aston Martin’s place as “one of the pre-eminent luxury car brands in the world”. Despite repeated fundraising and multiple changes of leadership, the company continues to be saddled with high debt and has issued two profit warnings this year as sales declined. Shares in Aston Martin are down 99 per cent since its disastrous initial public offering in London in 2018.’
$7m spend on WrestleMania, F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix approved by LVCVA (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
‘The $1.25 million in Las Vegas Grand Prix tickets will allow the LVCVA to bring in key customers and collaborate with partners and stakeholders in the city to highlight what a major event weekend in Las Vegas is like. They include paddock tickets and skybox hospitality tickets to the race. This year’s ticket purchase by the LVCVA was less than the $1.7 million spent last year, which was significantly less than the $7 million spent for the inaugural 2023 race.’
From ‘Last Century’ to F1 precision – Ratcliffe’s backroom overhaul (BBC)
‘Michael Sansoni’s arrival from the Mercedes F1 team as director of data (at Manchester United football club) in April wasn’t a surprising move. Sansoni has completely revamped United’s data capabilities, which are now being used extensively across performance, recruitment and training.’
Fillon: No exception for Porsche in Hypercar entry requirements (Sportscar 365)
‘While exact details of Porsche and/or Penske’s discussions with the governing bodies are unclear, they are believed to have centered around the question on whether Porsche Penske Motorsport would be able to take up its auto-invite for Le Mans, awarded by IMSA for winning its GTP championship, if the manufacturer is unable to have two full season cars in the series.’
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Loki, Tom Watson, Deej92 and ForzaRogo!
On this day in motorsport
Lewis Hamilton became Formula 1’s second seven-times world champion today in 2020