Shanghai looking to return after changes in Covid policy
Organisers of the Chinese Grand Prix have started talks with Formula One about reinstating this year’s race after the government announced the lifting of the country’s zero-covid policy.
The race was cancelled in November because of the restrictions and quarantine measures and was not replaced. However, the government announced it would end quarantine for travellers coming into the country from 8 January, as part of the country’s shift from its zero-COVID policy.
It’s understood by Autosport, that talks between organisers and Liberty Media will start this week following the Christmas / New Year break. The date of the race on 14 – 16 April has not been filled but a decision will need to be made by the end of the month to meet the freight deadline.
Several sporting events are returning to the country following the pandemic, the ATP announcing the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament will come back in the Autumn and the Asian Games in Hangzhou is set to take place in September.
The Shanghai International Circuit last held an international motorsport event four years ago, the 2019 Chinese GP, which marked the 1000th F1 world championship race.
If the race returned to the calendar, it will be the fourth race of the season, between Melbourne and Baku.
Verstappen doesn’t understand clashes with Hamilton
Max Verstappen says he cannot understand why he and Lewis Hamilton have repeatedly crashed into each other during the last two seasons. The two multiple champions have collided several times in the last two years including during their title fight in 2021.
Most of the incidents occurred during 2021, but at the penultimate round of the 2022 season, which Verstappen had dominated while Hamilton was largely absent from the lead fight due to the deficiencies of the Mercedes W13, they crashed again in Sao Paulo eventually won by George Russell.
The crash in Sao Paulo was almost a year since their last crash, but Verstappen did have a clean battle with Charles Leclerc and Russell throughout the year. The only incident where questions about his tactics were his defence against Mick Schumacher at the closing stages at the British Grand Prix, as he drove a car hobbled by floor damage.
Asked by Motorsport.com, if it was accurate to describe his racing style as “uncompromising”, but particularly with Hamilton given their run of incidents. Verstappen replied, “Well, I have to be careful what I’m saying here, but with everyone I’ve been fighting this year, it’s been really hard, aggressive battles and we never really came together. Somehow, with Lewis, it’s a different story. And I honestly don’t understand.”
“Like, this year, ok we haven’t really had a lot of battles. But Brazil we got together, it was not my intention [that we crashed]. I got the blame for it, which I didn’t find fair. If it would’ve been more of a racing incident that I could live with.” Verstappen says it could be a generation thing and he doesn’t feel as if he is doing anything different compared to Leclerc or Russell.
Saying in Sao Paulo, during both in the sprint and Grand Prix, he had an incredible fight with Russell, ‘closing the door, defending, out-braking each other.”
Outlining why he feels he needs to be careful discussing the topic of racing Hamilton, Verstappen said: “Because in England this can very quickly be received as criticism, and then I’m being called out on it.”
“I always respect Lewis a lot for what he has achieved in the sport, but that’s why I don’t really understand why we cannot really race like I’ve been doing with the others.
Red Bull braced for toa ugh fight in 2023 – Newey
Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey is braced for a tough year against Ferrari and Mercedes, believing they will “be right back” in the championship fight. The team took his first double drivers championship in a decade and their first constructors since 2013, last year in Suzuka and Austin respectively.
Max Verstappen, who took his second championship, setting a new record for number of wins in a season and points scored. But that was not without controversy. after they faced further questions about the legitimacy of its 2021 title win after they were found guilty of breaking the budget cap.
As Red Bull prepares to defend its titles this year, the team has to contend with an additional limit on its aerodynamic testing as punishment for breaching the budget cap in 2021.
It was already set to receive the least amount of time in the wind tunnel as a result of its championship win, but was hit with a further 10% drop for the breach, along with a $7 million fine. Explaining what that meant, Newey told Motorsport.com, “The reduction in wind tunnel testing means we can therefore evaluate less different components, less different ideas.”
“If we’re really smart and always putting the right things on the model, then of course it doesn’t make much difference. Ferrari won’t be resting, they’ll be sorting out their weak areas. They had a couple of reliability problems. They made a couple of pit-wall mistakes. So they’ll be right back.
“And then of course, you saw Mercedes starting with a car that was quite a long way off the pace, and evolving it to the point that it won the last race but one. You know they will be right there. So it’s going to be a tough year, for sure.”
Mercedes made significant gains in the second half of the season of the season and were the only team to beat Red Bull. Newey said that Red Bull could be “very proud” of what it achieved with the RB18, saying it focused on ensuring there was decent scope for development – something evident as it pulled clear of Ferrari through the second half of the year.
Ferrari on course to hit weight target
Ferrari appears on course to hit its weight target with its new 2023 car, as all teams push hard to eradicate excess weight. The Italian team has said that one of its targets over the winter has been reducing the weight and airflow for this year’s car, which will both improve downforce and airflow.
Ferrari also wants to reduce the weight of its new challenger, actually aiming to get below the 796kg limit which will then give it the option to add ballast to the car to help improve its balance and optimise tyre behaviour.
Ferrari is set to launch its new car, codenamed the 675, on 14 February, but work is already advanced on its pre-assembly with the concept having long been signed off. Weight saving is one of all the team’s aims, as they all struggled with the heavier cars at various points last year.
While Red Bull was able to make significant gains through the course of the season, which played a part in the step forward in form that helped it later dominate, neither it nor Mercedes was able to reduce the weight as much as they wanted.
That effort has instead been focused on their 2023 cars, with rumours swirling at the end of last season that Red Bull had already homologated a new lightweight chassis that was around 3kg under the championship-winning RB18.
According to Motorsport.com’s sources, Ferrari have made gains in this area which in turn will improve lap time and tyre life. This allows Ferrari then to have more flexibility in where they can place the ballast in the car.
The Ferrari having chased shaving off every gramme of weight possible, the success of its efforts will not be known for definite until the new F1 car is fully assembled and finished.
Mercedes sceptical about 2023 changes
Mercedes remains sceptical about their 2023 title chances despite the strong finish to the “complete disaster” of a 2022 season. After dominating the sport for a decade they finished third in the constructors after openly admitting they got the concept wrong following last year’s regulation changes.
But following their turnaround and beating Ferrari in the second half of 2022, they have been tipped to be title contenders once again this season. However, they remain as they have done consistently throughout the last decade cautious, given how far they were behind until the victory in Sao Paulo.
Mercedes insist they are not getting their hopes up for this season given the gap that still remained between themselves and Red Bull, who won every other post-August race, at the end of 2022.
technical director Mike Elliott in a season review, with team boss Toto Wolff and powertrains chief Hywel Thomas, “I think the interesting thing is how we move forward from here. I think we’ve got to maintain that scepticism and be honest with ourselves that we were behind at the end of the year.”
“And while I think that we’ve made good progress through the year and I am really pleased with the culture I have seen and the attitude, we will only see the return on that next year,” added Thomas. Wolff described 2022 as a “complete disaster” but there were positives.
CEO and team principal Wolff added, “I would like this team to constantly develop to be chasing for race victories and championships every single year but not taking it for granted, not having any sense of entitlement and if I hear us talking it almost sounds like the complete disaster of all seasons… it felt like it and I think this is the right feeling.”
Mercedes have spoken about changing the DNA of the car, there are no major changes to this year’s regulations. Wolff says the team will be pushing flat out to achieve the best possible result with the same kind of scrutiny on our performance will help us going forward.
While that mostly affected the aerodynamics and speed, Wolff, who also highlighted the engine freeze (which prevented performance updates) as a hurdle, revealed that the bouncing was “breaking” the team’s Power Units.
Speaking to Thomas and praising his work in the circumstances, Wolff said: “We came out at the beginning of the season with some wobbles on the power unit as well. We didn’t like certain aspects of the deployment or the drivability of the Power Unit.
Explaining that the bouncing was ‘breaking the engines,’ adding “We didn’t like certain aspects of the deployment or the drivability of the Power Unit.”
