Elkann “couldn’t be happier” about pathway back to the top
Ferrari chairman John Elkann says he “couldn’t be happier” about the prospect of the team returning to the top in F1 under Frederic Vasseur. Elkann, who picked Vasseur to replace Mattia Binotto as team principal last year, says Ferrari is “100%” moving in the right direction, and he has “definitely” seen the positive change he was hoping for.
The team are “much tighter, much closer” under Vasseur, Elkann says, and “so many incredibly talented people want to come to Ferrari, and that’s a very strong sign”.
In a rare interview with BBC News about the manufacturer F1 team last weekend published this week, Elkan who sacked former team principal Mattia Binotto after. Three difficult years. 2022 was the final straw despite strong start, the year saw a series of operational errors and reliability failures, before the car fell from competitiveness.
Those failings were the final straw for Elkann when it came to Binotto, who had presided over a controversy about the legality of Ferrari’s engine in 2019, and a 2020 which was the team’s worst season in 40 years. The trauma of 2020 clearly still haunts Elkann as he brings it up numerous times during the interview.
He said, “What’s really important, and this is the thinking we had, is that accountability is really one of the biggest determinants in what our competitors have achieved well. “And also nimbleness, despite their larger organisations.
“They tend to be nimbler, faster. And Fred had those attributes, having been working in motorsport all his professional life and having been very successful in different categories, but also in F1 having managed a smaller team [both Renault and Sauber/Alfa Romeo].
This season has seen a change by Vassuer within the team, he has. In my view, done the biggest job within Ferrari was to change the culture. He, I think, has tried to introduce the mindset of a smaller team to get the most out of money because the budget cap.
2024 should see the full effect of Vasseur’s leadership with the team hoping to challenge Red Bull along with Mercedes for the championship. While There has been steady progress all year. Ferrari is the only team other than Red Bull to win a race – thanks to Sainz’s victory in Singapore. And Leclerc might well have added another victory in Las Vegas but for the unfortunate timing of a second safety car.
In average points per race, they were scoring 15.7 in the first half of the year, against 20.5 in the second. That represents an increase of 30.5% – a figure beaten across the field only by McLaren.
FP1 sees a record number of rookies
Several leading drivers including Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris will miss FP1 on Friday as their respective teams fulfil the regulation to give rookies one practice session in each car during the season.
Challenging venues where the full-time drivers need to get up to speed, such as Singapore, Suzuka and Las Vegas, plus Sprint weekends in Qatar, USA and Brazil, have contributed to ten rookies running this Friday in Abu Dhabi. McLaren and Williams fulfilled the regulation using one of their sessions in Bahrain when Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant made their debuts.
Neither Verstappen nor Sergio Perez will be competing in FP1 as Red Bull has not run a rookie this year. Liam Lawson is no longer allowed to do rookie sessions having taken part in four Grands Prix with his FP3 session at Zandvoort counting for Alpha Tauri.
That means Isack Hadjar and Jake Hadjak will drive for Red Bull, alongside Britain’s Jake Dennis. Dennis is the reigning Formula E world champion and has been Red Bull’s development and simulator driver since 2018.
Frederik Vesti will take over Hamilton’s cockpit, having driven George Russell’s car in Mexico City. Vesti finished that session in nineteenth but didn’t do any flying laps. The Estonian is currently second in F2 going into this weekend’s final round in Abu Dhabi.
Robert Shwartzman was at the wheel of Carlos Sainz’s car in FP1 at the Dutch Grand Prix and was last of those with a lap time on the board. He also drove in Abu Dhabi FP1 last year and was half a second behind Charles Leclerc. Shwartzman is allowed to compete under his Israeli licence, following sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Pato O’Ward takes over Norris’ seat in first practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in his second F1 outing on a race weekend. O’Ward finished eighteenth in Abu Dhabi FP1 last year and was fourth in the IndyCar championship this season.
Felipe Drugovich will remain as Aston Martin’s reserve driver for 2024 and drove at Monza in September, where he was eighteenth. Drugovich is the 2022 Formula 2 champion and was linked to a potential Williams seat for next year, but that will not happen. The Brazilian will be in Fernando Alonso’s car on Friday.
Jack Dohan, son of MotoGP 500cc world champion who is fourth in F2, will replace Esteban Ocon, and Zak O’Sullivan runner-up in F3 replaces Alex Albon. Theo Pourchaire had a nightmare in Mexico City as he didn’t even complete a timed lap due to a mechanical issue. He’s back for Abu Dhabi though in Guanyu Zhou.
Pourchaire and Vesti are fighting for the F2 title this weekend separated by twenty-five points. Oliver Bearman was arguably the most impressive of the five rookies who drove in Mexico City FP1 as he finished fifteenth and got plenty of praise from Haas. Bearman replacing Nico Hulkenberg.
News in Brief
Alpha Tauri set to announce new name
Alpha Tauri outfit has finalised its plans to switch to a new identity, which is set to be incorporated with two sponsors in the full official team name. The deal with the Red Bull-owned fashion brand will end at the end of 2023, it has been searching for a new name for a complete relaunch in 2024.
Rather than be committed to the branding of a sponsor as is currently the case, the team wants to return to having a generic name along the lines of Toro Rosso, with ‘Racing Bulls’ one option that has been rumoured.
Mercedes sign deal with SAP
Business software giant SAP has joined forces with Mercedes as an official partner in a multi-year deal that begins next season. SAP previously had a long involvement with McLaren that ran between 1997-2020, but has also been a supplier to Mercedes but not as an official partner.
Mercedes said SAP will contribute to improving operational efficiency, especially in the context of the cost cap and the extra layers of complexity that the FIA financial regulations have added to running an F1 team.
Drivers call for Vegas race to move away from Middle East
Several drivers have called on F1 to rejig next year’s closing triple header decoupling Las Vegas from Lusail and Abu Dhabi. F1’s inaugural provided an enthralling spectacle on Saturday night, vindicating the decision to chase a race in the gambling capital.
While drivers and team were all pleased with how the event was run, the punishing schedule was one outstanding piece of feedback. The race in Vegas effectively operates twelve hours ahead of Abu Dhabi with the Vegas race starting twelve hours before FP1 in Yas Marina.
AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo was shocked to learn that next year the Vegas race will be the start of a triple-header, with a race in Qatar squeezed in between the American race and Abu Dhabi’s season finale, and the Australian is calling for that to be changed in the future.
When told it was a triple-header, he said: “What!? No way! Yeah, that does not have my vote. And now, knowing that, they need to bring it forward, because we will be wrecked, especially end of the season.
“I’ve done like six races, and I already feel it, so hopefully they can make something work. After Thursday, after that late [FP2] session, I feel like probably all of us have been a little bit delirious and hallucinating, so it felt like a bit of a whirlwind since then.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who clinched his 18th win of the season last weekend, agreed that a new date for Las Vegas would be a plus, and suggested twinning it with another race in North America.
he added, “For next year maybe that is not possible but to maybe make it a bit better travelling also to Abu Dhabi. At the moment it’s such a big time shift that, especially at the end of the season when everyone is already a bit tired, I think it’s a little bit much.”
One solution could be swapping Vegas and Sao Paulo, which in terms of race start times is only a four-hour difference, in terms of race start time, and a seven-hour time difference, in terms of local time. While Vegas has a seven-hour difference.
Talking Points Abu Dhabi
The final race of the season brings F1 to Abu Dhabi, a circuit throughout its history has favoured that year’s fastest team. There is no championship to be decided we know that in Lusail Max Verstappen took his third title, while last weekend in Las Vegas teammate Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton secured second and third in the drivers.
Verstappen has already set a new records the most dominant season in F1 ever, with the most wins, podiums and points. But on percentages he can break the 86.3% record set in 1952 if he wins.
Another lesser-known streak Verstappen is on is the most consecutive pole position to race win conversions. This dates back to Zandvoort last year, he will also move into third in the all-time wins if he wins a fifty-fourth on Sunday, Only Schumacher ninety-one and Hamilton hundred-three have stood on the top step of the podium more than that.
However, while Red Bull are constructors champions there are only four points between Mercedes and Ferrari for second as well as nine points between McLaren and Aston Martin for fourth. This is worth hundreds of millions in terms of prize money and pride.
Mercedes’ advantage over their Italian rivals had been fifty-six points back at the August summer break and so Ferrari have given themselves the chance to complete a turnaround and, as they did last year, finish in the runner-up position to Red Bull.
Although it’s relatively small consolation for either team given their grander ambitions in F1, finishing second compared to third does come with a useful additional prize-money boost, which is thought to be around $10m. that’s a rough estimate as exact figures aren’t known, but they will also get a higher percentage of profits when the accounts are published in the second half of 2024.
Only champions Red Bull and sixth-placed Alpine are absolutely guaranteed to finish in the places they start the weekend. Fourth and fifth is another big prize, McLaren leads Aston Martin by eleven points.
Williams also look well set for seventh in what would be their best placing since 2017. Eight-placed AlphaTauri would need to score at least seven points to overhaul them, a total the Red Bull sister team haven’t achieved at a single race since June 2022.
Its not just the constructor’s championship, pride is at stake, George Russell could cinch the driver head-to-head in qualifying if he out-qualified Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Alpha Tauri battle is currently tied three all, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo could take it.
Alex Albon could do a clean sweep if he out-qualifies Williams teammate Logan Sargeant.
The battle of the Spaniards is for pride, both tied on two hundred points Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso whoever scores the most will take fourth, if neither score Sainz will take it having won in Singapore.
Intra-team bragging rights meanwhile, will be at stake for eleventh and twelfth places where Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are separated by just four points after the latter’s fine drive to fourth in Las Vegas.
Franz Tost is the second longest-serving team principal on the grid, behind Christian Horner, but the AlphaTauri team principal will step back from F1. He has been team principal since, its predecessor Toro Rosso, entered the sport in Bahrain 2006 winning two races both at Monza in 2008 and 2019.
Hamilton denies Red Bull talks
Lewis Hamilton has denied Christian Horner’s claims that he reached out over a potential switch from Mercedes, and says the Red Bull team principal attempted to arrange a meeting with him.
In an interview on Wednesday, Horner claimed that a reprehensive of the seven-time world champion approached Red Bull earlier this year before the seven-time champion signed his two-year Mercedes contract renewal in August.
After narrowly missing out on a record eighth world championship at the hands of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in 2021, Hamilton has watched the Dutchman make it three titles in a row in a dominant car.
This story, if true, I think is one of those games we know drivers play during contract negotiations to try and get better terms. I however believe that it would take something major or multiple things after spending his whole career in some way linked to Mercedes, that’s about twenty-five years.
Hamilton told Sky Sports, “I don’t really know where that story has come from. I mean I know it’s come from Christian. I don’t really understand what he’s been talking about because no one, as far as I’m aware, from my team has spoken to him. I haven’t spoken to Christian really in years.
“However, he did reach out to me earlier on in the year about meeting up, but that’s it. I just congratulated them on an amazing year and said, ‘Hopefully soon, I’ll be able to fight against you guys in the near future.’ That was it.”
Horner suggested in the interview with the Daily Mail Horner had also suggested that Hamilton meet with Ferrari chairman John Elkann. said Horner, “We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining. They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.”
The Hamilton-Ferrari move is not new you hear it every so often, but in May Fred Vasseur has dismissed reports that they had offered Hamilton a big-money deal to defect to the Italian team.
After the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted Hamilton needs to “make sure he has the car” to win another championship and would have “no complaints”
I think this is another game of negotiation and story from the ‘Prahran club’ and part of the spin we see, I believe no one expects Hamilton after twenty years even in retirement for him to cut ties with Mercedes. But it is not impossible, the man he replaced Michael Schumacher joined after thirteen years with Ferrari coming out of retirement.
Sargeant unsure of future
Logan Sargeant remains unsure if he will be retained by Williams for the 2024 season, as the team’s end-of-year decision deadline arrives with the final race in Abu Dhabi. The American driver has endured a tough rookie season that has included a spate of crashes, while his team-mate Alex Albon has scored a series of points finishes.
In theory, the second seat at Williams is still open, as the team has opted to wait until the current campaign has concluded before making its call on Sargeant’s future. He was promoted to F1 for the 2023 season after a year as a Williams junior driver racing in F2.
But the first half of the season saw the rookie make several mistakes, put down by the team to him trying to over-deliver rather than balancing risk versus reward, rather than overdelivering.
In the Americas, he has scored his first F1 point after being promoted to tenth in the final classification at Austin following Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc being disqualified there, and qualified a career best seventh at last weekend’s race in Las Vegas.
However, a combination of tyre management, a one stop strategy and his rivals gaining under the safety car in Vegas saw Sargeant drop down to sixteenth after struggling on a tricky one-stop strategy compared to rivals that gained stopping under that race’s second safety car period.
When asked in the pre-event press conference for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi event if he was confident of being retained for 2024 following his Vegas qualifying result, Sargeant replied: “It’s a good question – honestly, I don’t know. But for me it’s just a case of taking it race by race.”
“I feel like, from a driving point of view, everything has been getting much better in the past I don’t know however many rounds. I’m just trying to do my job to the best I can. And I think with how it’s been going recently, I don’t see any issues.”
Sargeant went on to explain that he would pick his Vegas qualifying result as the highlight of his rookie F1 season over getting his first point.
The Weekend Ahead
This weekend is the final race of the season with Max Verstappen looking to set a benchmark of nineteen wins in a season, barring a reliability or a freak result I think he can do that. The Dutchman has won the last three races in Abu Dhabi and we know Yas Marina is a circuit which tends to favour the leading team, but can he get through the whole season without retiring from a race?
Abu Dhabi is a more difficult race though we are coming from another night race, this is a twilight race which means while as not as dramatic as Vegas we will see track temperatures and thus lap times fall in qualifying. Qualifying is more important this is not the easiest circuit to overtake, but the last two years has seen improvements given the reconfiguration of the circuit.
The battle behind is again between Ferrari and Mercedes I feel, with McLaren slightly further behind however we know that McLaren are ‘the most improved’ team this season, we cannot expect anything. I don’t think qualifying will be as volatile as in recent races as we have a circuit with not many variables or the risk/reward factor like many recent races.
I think though there is this odd stat in the fifteen years we have raced in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari has never won a race here. I don’t think given Red Bull’s dominance that stat will change despite them being the only team other than Red Bull to win this season, but they need to use this race well to learn for next year
