F1 Today – 20/01/2023
Mercedes hopeful of having fastest development rate
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff is hopeful that the team can develop this year’s car at a faster rate than Red Bull and Ferrari. After eight consecutive constructors championships, last season saw the team suffer with severe porpoising and bouncing for most of the year.
They did, however, close the gap in the final four races and take their only win in Sao Paulo. But with a month to go until the Bahrain Test and Grand Prix at the start of March, Wolff is optimistic the team will be able to compete for wins. He told Sky Sports, “We have no doubt when you are starting behind by half a second, it’s going to be difficult to catch up to great organisations like Red Bull and Ferrari.”
“Having said that, we are super determined in doing just that, but we need to set our expectations at a realistic level. If we perform in the way we hope, then we’d like to be part of the racing at the very front. I think that would be a starting point, but we don’t take that for granted, it could well be that the gaps are like they were at the end of last season.”
Wolff believes there is still more potential within the car and concept, meaning the development slope will be steeper over the next few months. Mercedes will also have more wind tunnel time, because of the sliding scale that is dictated by the previous season’s results, while Red Bull received an additional 10 per cent reduction for breaching the sport’s budget cap in 2021.
That gives Mercedes seventeen percent more aero testing time, a significant advantage over Red Bull. The Austrian is also admits they will only know for sure when testing begins in Sakhir in a month.
Wolff adding, “I think we have understood how we fell back and where the shortcomings are. We have gaps in understanding and we’re working hard on putting a car on the ground that has addressed all of that.
F1 looking at active aero for 2026
F1 is looking at using active aerodynamics under the 2026 technical regulations to make up for the downforce lost when behind another car to improve following performance. The regulations introduced last year were designed to reduce downforce allowing cars to follow more closely thus allowing more overtaking.
Active aerodynamics are being evaluated as a way to improve the efficiency of the cars, but they could also be used to influence the competition on track and stop runaway wins.
Speaking at Autosport International last week, F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds said the following performance of the 2026 cars would be “even better than the ’22 cars”.
DRS is to remain part of the rules package, but Symonds explained how the active aerodynamics could be used to augment downforce and make up for the amount lost when it is closely following a car in front. Symonds added “We won’t lose DRS, because there’s totally active aerodynamics on the ’26 car.”
“DRS is drag reduction. What I’ve always felt we should do is have downforce augmentation. Because what does the car behind do? Yes, it loses some drag, but what really holds it is the fact it lost downforce.”
He says the idea now is to put the downforce back where it should have been if it were it should have been if the leading car wasn’t there. The whole aim is to create even closer on track fights leading to more overtaking, creating some unpredictability. The idea could also lead to the phasing out of DRS.
Teams are set to be presented with a first look at the planned chassis regulations for 2026 at a meeting later this month. Although Symonds said the 2026 car would be “quite conventional”, he revealed the technical team started with a blank canvas that saw it explore a number of radical avenues
Giovinazzi & Shwartzman to share Ferrari reserve driver
Ferrari has announced that Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman will share the role of reserve driver this season. Giovinazzi continues in the role for a second season while Shwartzman steps up from a position as development driver.
One of them will attend each race this season as well as helping car development in Ferrari’s new simulator. Italians Antonio Fuoco and Davide Rigon will be development drivers.
The quartet will assist race drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as the team seek to improve on a 2022 season that started with great promise after Ferrari produced their first competitive car for four years, but which saw Leclerc’s title challenge fade as a result of strategic errors and reliability failures.
Ferrari said Fuoco and Rigon had “proved their worth in terms of providing the engineers with precise and reliable feedback, a skill that’s even more important given that actual track testing is extremely limited, so simulation is now a vital tool, not just in preparing for each race but also in terms of car development”.
Giovinazzi and Fuoco will also compete for Ferrari in the world endurance championship in the new 499P Hypercar. Shwartzman and Rigon will race in the GT endurance category in the 296 GT3. Their season will begin in Florida with the 1,000 miles of Sebring in March.
Chadwick remains with Williams Academy
Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick will remain as a member of the Williams academy in 2023 as she looks to “keep that Formula One dream alive.” The Englishwoman has been with Williams since 2019, her three W Series titles has made her the highest-profile woman in motorsport.
This year she will race in the rebranded Indy NXT series with Andretti Autosport. Although the move puts her on the IndyCar junior ladder she will continue with Williams as development driver. It could potentially also open up the route into F1 with Andretti if they are granted an entry for 2026.
As part of the relationship, Chadwick will complete “a personalised simulator program to aid in her progression as a driver and provide valuable support to the team’s race preparations.”
Chadwick said, “To be continuing my relationship with Williams is amazing, I’ve had their support since 2019. Having the opportunity to immerse myself within the team and keep that Formula 1 dream alive is very important. I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together.”
Sven Smeets, the sporting director of Williams and chief of its young driver academy, added: “We’re very excited to have Jamie continuing as a core part of our Driver Academy at Williams Racing.”
“She’s an incredibly talented driver and an important role model in inspiring the next generation of females in motorsport. We look forward to supporting her in 2023 while she takes on the new challenge in Indy NXT.”
Chadwick secured her third W Series title last autumn when the series was forced to cancel its final two rounds due to fundraising issues. It is yet to issue any updates on its future.
Jeddah set to host Saudi race until 2027
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is set to remain in Jeddah until at least 2027 as work continues on the new facility at Qiddiya. The street circuit was intended to be a temporary home until 2024 while a permeant circuit was built on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh.
But as work continues on the state-of-the-art facility, Jeddah is now expected to host the race for at least another four years, with a number of the temporary facilities at the track being made permanent.
Martin Whitaker, the CEO of the Saudi Motorsport Company that promotes the race said, “It’s important that we future-proof the Jeddah track and for this reason we have again been working with the FIA and Formula 1 to ensure that we have a circuit that will allow us to stage the sport in Jeddah while work begins on the track in Qiddiya.”
“The Qiddiya automotive centre is being designed to lead the world in Formula 1 circuit design and entertainment. A unique and exciting project, Qiddiya will be a location that everyone will want to visit.” He said the immediate future will be in Jeddah.
The circuit is to host next year’s season opener on 01 – 03 March 2024 because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which begins the following weekend. But Whitaker maintained that the exact timing of the Grand Prix and placement on the calendar was still to be confirmed through talks with F1 and the FIA.
He says it would be “impossible” to host the race during Ramadan, but when the race is held remains with F1 and the FIA.
Last year’s Grand Prix was overshadowed by safety concerns following a missile strike on an Aramco oil facility near the track during FP1, for which Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility. This prompted meetings into the early hours of Saturday morning as threats of strike action by the GPDA were made before safety assurances to be put in place and for the weekend to continue.
Talks took place between the race organisers and drivers last year to discuss the issue ahead of the 2023 race, with Whitaker saying that safety remained of “paramount importance to everyone who attends the race.”
he added, “As a promoter, it is our job to ensure that people feel safe while they are at the track and in the city. Underlining this message to the Formula One community during the year since the race last March has been a key objective.”
De Vries facing lawsuit from real estate magnate over €250k loan
Alpha Tauri driver Nyck de Vries is facing a lawsuit from a Dutch real estate magnate over a €250,000 loan used to support his junior career. De Vries will be a full-time F1 driver this season after joining the team to replace Pierre Gasly who joined Alpine.
De Vries will be one of the oldest full-season rookies in recent memory but clinched the seat after impressing upon a late call-up for his F1 debut at Monza last year, finishing ninth for Williams when Alex Albon was ruled out through illness.
But de Vries is now being sued through the Dutch courts by Jeroen Schothorst, who claims the AlphaTauri driver withheld information and breached agreements relating to a loan agreement in 2018.
The Dutch newspaper FD says that de Vries took out a €250,000 loan from Schothorst’s investment company, Investrand, to help secure an F2 seat with Prema in 2018.
This agreement allegedly came charging 3% interest per year as well as a cut of future income from F1 activities. It also stated the loan would be waived if de Vries was not an F1 driver in 2022. De Vries paid €190,000 in interest to Schothorst, but because he did not have an F1 deal in place for 2022, he was under the assumption that the loan would be written off as per the agreement.
In court this week Schothorst claimed de Vries had failed to give information about his earnings and contracts during the term of the loan and is now requesting those details, including those relating to his AlphaTauri F1 deal.
Schothorst is also contesting the definition of his test and reserve role in F1 last year, which saw him formally work for Mercedes while stepping in for its customer teams when required.
Schothorst said in a statement released to the Dutch media, “Let me, first of all, say that I think it is fantastic for Nyck that he has become successful as a Formula 1 driver and that there will be two Dutch drivers at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix in August.”
“We invested in de Vries’ career at a crucial moment and when nobody else wanted to do it anymore. We now have different opinions on the interpretation of the agreement we entered into with each other at the time.:
De Vries has denied all of the allegations, claiming that he provided Schothorst with all of the necessary information about his contract. The newspaper says that his lawyer, Jeroen Bedaux, claimed the F1 driver has proposed to repay the €250,000 loan on top of the €190,000 interest he has already paid, but this proposal was rejected by Schothorst.
“Everything shows that Investrand cannot stomach the fact that De Vries became a Formula 1 race driver in 2023, and not in the last year of the agreement,” said Bedaux in court on Tuesday.
Bedaux also claimed that another factor involved is that de Vries politely declined Schothorst’s offer to become his F1 manager. A ruling is expected from the Amsterdam court in early February.