Kart – Alberto Tonti and Paolo De Conto go their separate ways

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From July, after six years of great successes together, Paolo De Conto and Alberto Tonti go their separate ways.

“I wish Paolo all the best in the world of karting and Motorsport. We have decided to stop our professional partnership because of disagreements on technical choices. There is beginning and end. I wish great good luck to Paolo, with whom I shared a lot of moments of joy and glory. Six years certainly cannot be deleted”, Alberto Tonti says.

United States GP – Drivers’ Scorecard

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Austin’s circuit is one of the most technical circuit of latest generation and it allowed us to attend a considerable Grand Prix and to evaluate reasonably well all values in the field. Besides, there have been penalties related to the use of new Power-Unit.

Mercedes – 10 They certainly deserve the highest-ever vote of the weekend, both for performances and for how they’re managing the internal fight between Hamilton and Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg – 9  Sensational race and Qualifying. Qualities and “defects” of both of them balance out. One wins the pole and the other takes the Win

Daniel Ricciardo – 9 Race with outstanding overtakings. He is always very aggressive and confirms to be the most pleasant surprise of this season. He is an authentic team-leader. 65-points lead over the four-times World Champion the first year in a top team, they aren’t a few.

Felipe Massa – 8,5 He took advantage 100% of  Williams’ potential, although, once again, he has been penalized by a pit-stop that his team-mates didn’t allowed him. Bad luck seems to not want to abandon him

Jean-Eric Vergne – 8 Despite the uncertain future, he races brilliantly, getting the most and bringing important points to Toro Rosso

Fernando Alonso – 8 He is the only real weapon of Ferrari. He managed to stay ahead of Sebastian Vettel and showed what he is made of. He remains the number 1

Sebastian Vettel – 7 Great recovery. From pit-lane to the seventh place. He is in trouble with this car, but he wants to clarify that he arrive in Ferrari thanks to his value

Valtteri Bottas – 6,5 Honestly, I didn’t like him on this occasion. He was not the usual Bottas, perky and aggressive

Sergio Perez – 5 I don’t understand him at all. This is not the first time he make such mistake of this kind and the facial expression of his Team Principal says it all. He was certainly not satisfied

Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen – 5 It’s necessary to see if it is their or car’s fault. McLaren is certainly one of those cars, like Ferrari, that doesn’t shallow certain compounds

Kimi Raikkonen – N.D Ruthless comparison with his team-mate, both for points and for positions. He has never been in the race. He cannot solve his problems and this is not a good sign, considering a future perspective

Now, we will see what will happen in less than seven days in Brazil, the penultimate round of the World Championship. The “end” word may come.

Gian Carlo Minardi

United States GP – THE POINT… BY GIAN CARLO MINARDI

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Lewis Hamilton is a “race-animal”. After losing the comparison with his team-mate in Qualifying, he was outstanding in race, scoring an overtaking that proves who’s the best team right now. The advantage points are now 24 (of 75 still to be assigned between Brazil and Abu Dhabi) and the “end” word could get in a week. It’s just a matter between them. At the moment, there aren’t other players that can bother them.

It has been a Grand Prix in which Williams has disappointed me. Honestly, I would expect to see both Massa and Bottas fighting for third place. However, Daniel Ricciardo, author of an incredible overtaking, has been fantastic on this front. He absolutely proves himself to be a team-leader, optimizing at his best this Red Bull, which never stops surprising us, “killing” – sportingly speaking – the team-mate Vettel.

Sincerely, I didn’t understand Vettel’s strategy – forced to start from pit-lane – even if he grabbed the seventh place just at the end.

Well done for Lotus, which has risen with a point of Maldonado, and Vergne. The French proved not to be scrapped. He may still be useful for Toro Rosso and Red Bull in a global context, leading important points to Faenza. The team is growing and he can be of help.

With regards to Ferrari, Fernando Alonso continues his positive trend, ridiculing Raikkonen. Unfortunately, the comparison with the Spanish is embarrassing.

As might be expected, Marussia and Caterham’s forfeit case dominated this weekend. We’ll have to wait to understand which way will take this F1, as there’s a lot of irons in the fire, considering third car and new dividing up of rights. Honestly, I don’t think that the third car is the best solution. However, I promise you to analyze problems more patiently later.

Gian Carlo Minardi

F.4 – Victory and second place for Joao Vieira in the Adria Winter Trophy

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There could be no better end of the season for Joao Vieira, who waves the Brazilian flag with the national green-gold anthem at the Adria International Raceway, thanks to his success in race-2, after winning the podium with a great second place in the first race.

The 16-year-old Brazilian driver of Antonelli Motorsport ends with a win, a second place and the title of vice-champion in the Adria Winter Trophy, his first European season in open-wheels, a well-deserved result, after a year of strong growing in the Italian F.4 Championship powered by Abarth.

Back on the circuit where he opened his adventure in the Tricolor series, Joao has taken advantage of all the experience gained in a little more of four months, being protagonist of excellent overtakings and closing Rovigo’s weekend with the second place – for just a single point -. “I’m very satisfied for what gained by Joao this weekend. A second place and, especially, the victory that we’ve missed in the Italian F.4”, the manager Giovanni Minardi analyzes. “He has been the author of amazing overtakings, both in race-1 and race-2. Unfortunately, we missed the pole, that he could give us the victory of this Trophy. Apart from this, Adria weekend is the consecration of what showed in championship. A week before championship, we started from scratch, without knowing car and tracks, and four months later we got the victory“, Minardi concludes. “This was his first season in an open-wheel, coming directly from karting, and growth after each race is the most important signal of the value of this guy”.

“At last. Finally, there’s the win, that I’ve so long chased. I’m really happy for how the weekend went at Adria. Ending the season with a second place, a win and the title of vice-champion is absolutely not bad”, Joao Vieira says, smiling. “The Italian F.4 Championship was really challenging and allowed me to grow and learn a lot. I’ll certainly take advantage of this experience next year”. Now, Joao leaves Italy a few days and moves to Brazil, before leaving for Las Vegas. “I’ll go a few days in Brazil, at home, and then, prepare the Supernationals kart race, scheduled for next November 23rd”, the diver of Minardi Management concludes.

FIA WEC – Davide Rigon on podium also for the 6 Hours of Shanghai

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After the excellent second place at Fuji three weeks ago, Davide Rigon, paired with James Calado, wins again the podium, thanks to third place at 6 Hours of Shanghai, the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

With this valuable result, the 27-year-old Venetian driver confirms his feeling with China, which gave him his first victory in the World Championship just a year ago, and with his Ferrari 458 GTE-Pro #71 prepared by AF Corse Team. As planned, after giving something in Qualifying, the car of Maranello has recovered the gap, allowing the young pair Rigon/Calado to win the third podium of the season. “I’m really happy with this podium. I thank the team, because they did a great job in pits. Here in Shanghai we had a demanding race till the end and we tried to do our best“, Davide Rigon says.

There’s regret for what happened to the team-mates Brini-Vilander, forced to retirement a few laps before the green light. At the 10th bend of Shanghai International Circuit, the Ferrari number 51 of AF Corse team, led at that time by “Gimmi” Bruni, was involved in an accident with the LMP2 prototype car of KCMG Team, which had stopped because of a problem technical, fortunately without any consequences for the two drivers. It was really hard for “Gimmi” Bruni to avoid the contact, because the prototype was right on his own trajectory. “I’m really sorry for what happened to our team-mates“, the driver of Minardi Management continues.

With this new podium, Davide continues rising in ranking of his category, adding further fifteen points to his personal reward, that earn him the seventh place in world championship, maintaining Ferrari in the running for winning the constructors’ title in top races competition for GT cars. The “Prancing Horse” team leads the group with still other 2 appointments on the calendar for the month of November. “Keep it up. There are still two important appointments on the calendar“, Rigon concludes, “which, on paper, should be favorable to the characteristics of our car“.

“Another relevant result for Davide. As already happened three weeks ago in Japan, coming to race on tracks that are already known, he’s able to express 100% of his potential. This will be useful especially for the final part of the world championship. We must not forget that our main objective and task is to bring the Constructors’ title to Ferrari“, the manager Giovanni Minardi says. “I’m sorry for what happened to Gimmi and Toni, but I’m certain that in Brazil they’ll already be able to recover the payback with interests“.

Next 15th of November, it’s going to race in Bahrain, while the 30th of November, it’ll be the turn of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, for the last act of the FIA World Endurance Championship.