This Week – 03/04/2022
Hello welcome to This Week, with the lack of F1 Today in the last week but other things have popped up and this website outside of race weekends is secondary to everything else. We always prioritise Race coverage, analysis and This Week. as such this is a shortened version.
General News
F1 will return to Las Vegas next November with the circuit designed around some of the city’s legendary landmarks, hotels and casinos. The track design is 3.8 miles long from start to finish with top speeds estimated to be over 212 mph. There will be 50 race laps with three main straights and 14 corners, including a high-speed cornering sequence and a single chicane section.
Stefano Domenicali, president and chief executive of Formula 1, said: “This is an incredible moment for Formula 1 that demonstrates the huge appeal and growth of our sport with a third race in the US.” This is the third attempt to establish a race in the city and if it comes together we should have a better race that Caesars Palace car park.
F1 is set for a record 23-race calendar this year but the current Concorde Agreement, which runs until 2025, allows 24 races per season. I believe the argument that the US is big enough for three races is legitimate, but that cannot come at the expense of other countries or not having a race in Africa.
Saudi Arabian minister for sport Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal has announced the government is open to sitting down with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and address concerns he has expressed about racing in the country. Last weekend the Mercedes driver admitted he hadn’t changed his position over the last few months and was still feeling “uncomfortable” being there because of its human rights record.
Prince Abdulaziz said Saudi Arabia wanted to be as open as possible about addressing concerns expressed by outsiders, which is one of the reasons why it wants the spotlight on the country through major sporting events like F1.
He said, “We could have said we don’t want a headache, let the international community condemn us as much as they like and have controversy but no one interferes. That is why I openly spoke to the drivers, and spoke to Lewis directly, saying that if you want to discuss these issues, you’re more than welcome to discuss it with me because he was saying that he couldn’t find anyone to discuss it with.”
Through out the bigger picture ‘Vision 2030’ one of the challenges for Saudi Arabia is how they open up to the rest of the world, moving its economy away from oil, address human rights as well as protecting Islamic customs. There will be a compromise, but can actions like in Yemen and the history of human rights abuses, make the country a long term partner?
Mercedes
Admit their worst start to a season CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says there will be no finger-pointing at one single area of Mercedes’ car or engine amid its early struggles this season. Its clear that Mercedes are struggling and we know one of the things we know has been ‘the no blame culture.’
when asked about Mercedes’ engine performance by Motorsport.com, the Austrian said, “I think it’s important now not to just point the finger at individual areas of the car. We operate together as a team, and I think we have deficits overall that are bigger than an engine deficit.”
The question for Mercedes really remains the same if they can’t sort out these issues soon they face a long season in ‘no man’s land.’ I think they will come back in time and they can’t be too long or as I said last week they will be out of this battle for the championship.
Ferrari
Mattia Binotto believes Charles Leclerc is driving at the level of an F1 world championship contender after taking first and second in 2022’s pair of opening races. The Monacan took a commanding victory in Sakhir but had to settle for second in Jeddah following his enjoyable battle.
I think Leclerc is having a really good start to this season, the question I think is whether he has ironed out his odd mistakes and the reputation for being self-critical. The question I think remains the same will the challenge fizzle out in the latter part of the season.
McLaren
Lando Norris has described his seventh place in Jeddah as a“massive” boost that will help to motivate everyone at his troubled McLaren. While the team didn’t bring updates to the car, it may be that the team has for now figured out a way to manage the issues,
Asked by Motorsport.com, what the result would do for the team, he said, “I think it’s massive for us. It’s just for the motivation for everyone. We still have a lot of things to look forward to, it’s not like we’ve had two terrible weekends and it’s like, no one wants to smile. We can smile a little bit and we understand we have a lot of work to do.”
Alpine
Fernando Alonso says that the pace of his Alpine team is better than the results in 2022 so far indicate. In Bahrain thanks to a less than optimum race that was compromised by engine issues and his tyre strategy, he finished ninth. While in Jeddah he battled for sixth before his retirement.
He said “I think I had two great races. One in Bahrain, but unfortunately with the wrong strategy maybe with the starting tyre, starting on a scrubbed and then that compromised my whole race, and with an engine also that was not great in Bahrain.”
If Alpine want to be fighting in the midfield battle this season they need to unlock the consistency as it is could be the team to pick up big results if Red Bull and Ferrari run into difficulty.
Alpha Tauri
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has admitted that they are likely to lose Pierre Gasly when his contract is up if it cannot offer him a return to its senior team. With so many of the top drivers locked in now to long term deals its unlikely Gasly can progress despite flourishing at Alpha Tauri, back to the senior team.
There was talk in the early part of last year of him joining Alpine, but they committed to Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. He has also spoke about feeling ready for a return to a top team. This we know has to lead to suggestions he could return to the Red Bull senior team down the line, including from former Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger, who felt he was “good enough to get another chance”.
Marko acknowledged Red Bull might lose him if it could not offer a promotion back to the senior squad, but said his performances had to be compared with those of Verstappen’s current teammate, Sergio Perez.
He said, “We have to compare the performance of these two drivers, and with Checo, we still have until the middle of the year. With Gasly we still have a contract until 2023, and it’s already clear that if this contract expires and we can’t offer him a chance to move up, we will most likely lose him, and we don’t want that.”
Aston Martin
Sebastian Vettel will return to the team following his positive covid-19 test in Melbourne after missing both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The return is good news but you can’t help bur think he is on the backfoot with these cars and the team underperforming.
Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas admits that the strong early form of his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team in 2022 represents “the best case scenario” in terms of what he expected going into the season. This appears to have been a really good move for Bottas it was a gamble but the team has made a really good start to the season.
Asked about his expectations, he said, “I think this was kind of the best case scenario for our first season together that I could ever imagine with the information I had. So yeah, definitely I’m really happy with the decision I made, and I’m happy overall as well, so yeah, enjoying it.”
“If we can keep improving the car there’s no doubt we should be still able in future to always fight for Q3 and top 10 places, so that is good to see.” He may be to admissions over the course of the season the challenge patters out.
Haas
Haas says that Mick Schumacher’s crash in qualifying in Jeddah only written off the cars survival cell and power unit. The team said the cost of the German slamming the car into the concrete wall at turn eleven was a million dollars, the impact hit all four corners and essentially written off the car.
Gunther Steiner said: “The chassis itself doesn’t seem to be broken. The side infrastructure yes, but you can change them. Obviously we need to do a proper check on the chassis but it looks like it is not too bad to be honest. The engine also, I was told from Ferrari, seems to be okay. The battery pack as well. But then all the rest is broken!”
While the car did what it was meant to do, this is not ideal for the team with the budget cap.