Welcome to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – 2024
Mercedes in ‘no hurry’ to find Lewis Hamilton replacement
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says that the team are in “no hurry” to replace Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 season. Hamilton will leave Mercedes after twelve seasons at the end of this year for Ferrari, so the seat alongside George Russell is up for grabs.
With over half the grid including Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, there are plenty of options for Mercedes. But they have also hinted at ‘doing something bold’ next year, which has been interpreted as looking at teenager Kimi Antonelli, who is currently driving in F2 and is highly rated by the paddock.
Antonelli had a tough start to his F2 career after finishing fourteenth and tenth in the two Bahrain races but beat Prema’s team-mate Oliver Bearman. referring to Antonelli and Prema’s qualifying positions, added “A championship-winning team seventeenth and eighteenth, in F2, that’s not at all where they should be.”
“I think you can look at him against the team-mate, that is one of the comparisons, and I think Oliver Bearman is a top driver. But I think, like I always said, I’m almost guilty of talking too much. We will see how the next few races pan out.”
“I’m in no hurry for us to take a decision on drivers. I’ve been rushed in a hurry by Lewis. So, this time around I’m going to take it easy and evaluate the market.” We are only at the second race of the F1 and F2 seasons, there is a long way to go, ten months until Abu Dhabi.
The driver any team would want in their car is Max Verstappen but he’s contracted to stay at Red Bull until the end of 2028. However, the infighting following the allegations of inappropriate behaviour, which were dismissed, against Christian Horner has brought in-fighting within Red Bull into the public domain.
Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, says Red Bull are in danger of being “torn apart” if Christian Horner remains at the team. Horner denied the allegations throughout the process.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has asked Max Verstappen to publicly endorse Horner. It’s understood the FIA will not comment on the matter as it was a private conversation.
Wolff, who was pictured talking to Jos Verstappen after the Bahrain Grand Prix, was asked if there was any chance Max Verstappen could drive for Mercedes next year.
He said: “I think the driver will always choose the quickest car. That is fundamentally what it’s all about. At the moment, the Red Bull is the quickest car so that will always be in my opinion the priority.”
Ben Sulayem facing second investigation
The president of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem is reportedly facing a second investigation by the ruling body for allegedly old officials not to certify the Las Vegas circuit for its race last year.
The claim is from the same whistle-blower, telling BBC News that Ben Sulayem allegedly told officials to overturn a penalty to Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia last year. The whistle-blower says they were told “on behest of the FIA president” to find a way not to pass the circuit safe for racing.
The report comes from the FIA’s compliance officer to its ethics committee. A FIA spokesperson said: “From a sporting and safety perspective, the Las Vegas circuit approval followed FIA protocol in terms of inspection and certification. If you recall, there was a delay in the track being made available for inspection due to ongoing local organiser construction works.”
The report quotes the whistle-blower saying they were contacted by their manager, “who on behest of the FIA president instructed him to find some concerns to prevent the FIA from certifying the circuit before the weekend of the race”. It says the request was to find a reason not to grant the circuit a licence.
It adds: “Asked to be more specific, [the whistleblower] said that issues on the circuit were meant to be artificially identified regardless of their actual existence, with the ultimate goal of withholding the licence.”
The whistle-blower said they tasked an official with performing this task, and named two further officials who were in the room at the time. The report adds that officials were “unable to find any concerns with the circuit and therefore certified the circuit fit for the race”.
But what isn’t clear is which account is true, as a recollection of the events from the whistleblower. It is not clear why Ben Sulayem would wish for FIA officials to refuse to certify the Las Vegas track.
Vegas which was the penultimate race of last season, was two years of tension between Liberty Media and the FIA, in which Ben Sulayem on numerous occasions was keen to extract more money from F1 for the FIA. This conflict between the governing body and the sport’s owners dates back to the beginning of Ben Sulayem’s term as president.
He was appointed days after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when then race director Michael Masi wrongly applied restart rules gifting Max Verstappen the title. Most recently, Ben Sulayem inserted himself into the controversy surrounding Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who was cleared by Red Bull of inappropriate behaviour last week.
On the same day, Ben Sulayem posted on Instagram a photograph taken at the inauguration of the Bahrain track in 2004 of him sitting next to Prince Andrew. The Duke of York hasn’t been part of public life since 2019, following his relationship with sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
during the off-season, the FIA launched a compliance inquiry into Mercedes team principal Wolff and his wife Susie on the basis of claims in a magazine of a conflict of interest. The inquiry was withdrawn after just two days, following angry interventions from all ten teams.
Russell calls for transparency in Ben Sulayem investigation
GPDA director and Mercedes driver George Russell says F1 needs to see “all of the facts” and “have total transparency” into the ethics investigation currently concerning FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
As reported above Ben Sulayem has accused Ben Sulayem of attempting to interfere in the result of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and that later in last season he allegedly pushed for officials to find a way not to certify the new Las Vegas circuit.
Russell, who was briefly promoted to third in the 2023 Jeddah event by a post-race penalty initially handed to Aston Martin racer Fernando Alonso for his team having touched his car during a penalty pit stop before that sanction was overturned in a right of review re-examination of the incident.
Speaking as a union official, asked if he had any concerns given his position as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, Russell replied: “We want to see all of the facts and just have total transparency, really. We’re all racing here, we all want a fair and level playing field for us to showcase what we can do. I can’t really comment further.”
But Russell went on to add that his team was “surprised a year ago when the result got overturned, as the legal team at Mercedes thought they did a great job of presenting our case and initially winning the case, and then losing it thereafter. We just want to see transparency and have that opportunity to race on a fair playing field.”
Alonso was also asked about the reports, with the Aston driver initially suggesting in his reply that the topic was only coming up due to Red Bull’s current domination of F1.
Alonso said, “There is too much talk off-track because on-track activities are not very exciting at the moment. There is one car winning for the last 72 grand prix, more or less dominating three years. So, when this happens in a sport there is always a lot of activity off-track. It’s more an FIA investigation that we have to respect and see the outcome.”
Lando Norris said of the allegations around the FIA president: “You never want that sort of thing to happen at any point”.
This was after Norris initially said he does not think F1 should be “interrupted by what happens away from the circuit”, which relates to the current focus on Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Norris said, “[The FIA ethics case is] a bigger topic. Again, it’s not something that directly involves me. And I’m sure there’s the investigations going on and all of that, and I don’t know everything about it.”
Horner meets Verstappen’s manager amid rising tensions
Red Bull CEO and team principal Christian Horner staged a face-to-face meeting with Max Verstappen’s representative in Dubai on Monday in a bid to iron out rising tensions at Red Bull.
On Sunday, Verstappen’s father Jos said following a leak of alleged messages between Horner and a woman who accused him of ‘inappropriate and controlling behaviour’ which an internal investigation cleared him of, ‘risked tearing Red Bull apart.’
Last week, Horner came under renewed pressure on Thursday as material purporting to be the alleged evidence in the investigation into his conduct was leaked to numerous media organisations and F1 team principals from an anonymous email account.
It’s understood FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem – who is being investigated for alleged race interference at the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP – has asked Max Verstappen to publicly endorse Horner, which he refused to do.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 if he still expects to be in charge at this week’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Horner said: “Yes, absolutely. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
On whether Red Bull was unified he added: “Yes absolutely. We are a very strong team. We have got tremendous support, tremendous partners and great shareholders behind us as well. You don’t achieve this kind of result by not being united.”
Vasseur changing Ferrari faster – Leclerc
Charles Leclerc says he thought Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur would have needed more time to enact his vision and change the team after taking the top job. Vasseur was appointed as team principal after the resignation of Mattia Binotto.
During his tenure, Vasseur has confirmed Enrico Cardile as Ferrari’s new technical director, replaced Laurent Mekies as racing director and, most notably, lured seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton away from Mercedes to join the famous squad from 2025.
Vasseur has also seen a huge shift in culture at the team, with Leclerc saying it didn’t take the Frenchman long before stamping his own identity.
Asked about how much Ferrari has changed under Vasseur, Leclerc replied: “A lot. When Fred arrived, I was expecting him to take a bit of time before actually setting up in this new position It’s a huge team with so much history – there are things that have been done exactly the same way since fifteen to twenty years.”
“So, when you get there, you need to understand how people work, the Italian people, and just the way that a team like Ferrari works. I think Fred understood very, very quickly, and put his vision into the team very quickly, and has very clear ideas on what he wants to achieve and how to achieve those things.”
Vasseur, who ran the ART Grand Prix team with which Hamilton won the GP2 Series crown in 2006, also enjoys a long-standing relationship with Leclerc. Leclerc also won his GP2 title with ART, before reuniting with him at Sauber upon his 2018 graduation to F1.
Leclerc added that this rapport allowed the pair to enjoy an honest working relationship and that he was “fully aligned” with Vasseur’s plan to bring about success.
I think Ferrari are trying to recreate a kind of dream team like we had with Schumacher/Brawn etc and there’s a shared vision between them to change the culture and fortunes of Ferrari thus leading back to title-winning ways.
Ricciardo & Tsunoda clear the air
Daniel Ricciardo says he and Yuki Tsunoda held clear-the-air talks in the wake of tensions between the RB teammates on track in the closing stages of last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
In the closing stages of Saturday’s race when Tsunoda was angered by a call from the team over the radio to let Ricciardo, who was on quicker soft tyres, through with five laps of the race to go.
On-board footage of the cool-down lap after the race showed Tsunoda diving in front of Ricciardo, and then locking up his car’s brakes, with the latter heard criticising his teammate over the radio with some choice language.
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of this week’s Saudi Arabian GP, Ricciardo said: “I obviously said a few things on the radio and I obviously know everything is going to get broadcast, so I tried to save it for the briefing.”
“It’s hard, as soon as you put the helmet on and it’s the end of the race, there’s some frustration and you are a bit exhausted, you can always do some things which are a bit out of character. I try to take these things into account. It was something for us afterwards.”
I feel you always need to take a pinch of salt given emotions and adrenaline often runs high, but we know they will downplay it and that doesn’t always work. They are racing drivers so they will lock that away for next time, but will try to spin it as it doesn’t matter.
Talking Points Jeddah
Round two of the 2024 season brings F1 to Jeddah a high-speed street circuit under the lights. The circuit is very different to Sakhir as its narrow in places with one of the fastest street circuits on the calendar, coupled with all the challenges of a street circuit.
Last weekend, Max Verstappen took a dominant victory however Verstappen voiced his belief that it could be one of the tracks the RB20 is best suited to after taking a comfortable victory last weekend. The ongoing Red Bull dominance, it was a view backed up by Carlos Sainz, even if he wasn’t necessarily speaking about Jeddah being a venue that he’s expecting Ferrari to target as their perfect layout.
Eyes are on Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, and a Ferrari that was the closest challenger, just as it was in 2023. On that occasion, there was a reliability issue for Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso picked up a podium, but the top two produced the same result.
Last year, Perez took advantage of Verstappen’s trouble in qualifying and Sergio Perez took pole, converting that into a victory over the race distance and showing the pace to stopping the Dutchman’s hopes of challenging him after a strong recovery drive.
The feeling of many is that Red Bull has remained ahead while the chasing pace has closed up further. Both Red Bull and Ferrari are going into this weekend expecting it to be a stronger circuit for them, but the dominant win in Bahrain means Verstappen is the favourite.
It’s not just about the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari, but as Sainz says there’s McLaren, plus Mercedes and Aston Martin who have shown they can be strong on certain tracks last season. Jeddah provides the first opportunity to contrast what the relative strengths and weaknesses of each car are, compared to what we saw in Bahrain.
Red Bull’s sister team RB had its own headaches last Saturday, RB ordered Yuki Tsunoda to let teammate Daniel Ricciardo through in order for the Australian to try and overtake Kevin Magnussen ahead. P12 was the prize at the time, but Ricciardo was on soft tyres compared to hards for his team-mate and so had a tyre advantage that might help him find a way past the Haas.
Tsunoda didn’t immediately adhere to the request, and once he did he was soon on the radio criticising Ricciardo’s pace. But it was his actions after the chequered flag – when he locked up making an eye-catching overtake on Ricciardo into Turn 8 and then the pair came close to contact on the exit of the corner – that really suggested there was a problem that needs addressing.
Bell leaves Alpine advisory role
Bob Bell has left his advisory role with the struggling Alpine team. Bell was technical director when Alpine won their last world titles, as Renault with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006.
He was also made acting team principal in 2009 following the Crashgate scandal until joining Mercedes in 2010, before returning as chief technical officer in 2016, before moving into the advisory role in 2018. Bell is set to reunite with Alonso taking up a operational role with Aston Martin.
Bell had been effectively part-time, the team said, working in a non-technical role for Alpine Labs, which explores the use of racing technology in other fields. The project he had been working on had ended.
A source close to Bell described him leaving as “a massive loss” and said the move had been “100%” his decision.
It is just a latest in a string of departures over the last year, most recently technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer this week. Their leaving led to a reshuffle of the technical management of Alpine.
The French team, owned by car giant Renault, finished sixth in the constructors’ championship last year. But they have started the season with a car that is overweight and lacking in downforce after they decided to change their design philosophy.
Alpine hasn’t been stable in the middle of last year’s race in Spa, it sacked team principal Otmar Szafnauer. As we often write there appears to be no stability in the team which doesn’t help in getting them towards the ultimate goal
The Weekend Ahead
This weekend there is one big question, on track, which is the same as last week, can anyone beat Max Verstappen following his dominant win last weekend in Sakhir? It will be interesting to see how the car behaves on a high-speed street circuit, also watch Sergio Perez he goes well at street circuits.
I think there could be interest behind, last weekend their wasn’t much between Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, but Jeddah is a very different circuit a high speed street circuit. This will tell us who has the advantage on street circuits Mercedes have been hit and miss, Charles Leclerc can be quick but has been caught out and McLaren are a unknown.
Jeddah is a good street circuit because we get racing and the normal caveat apply this being a street circuit and their has been drama before. It’s a circuit drivers need to be able to build into for confidence in the car, because we can see safety cars and yellow flags on track and the banker lap comes in during qualifying if we get red flags.
McLaren are another team to watch, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri go well at street circuits and they have a much better car this year. But last weekend was defined by hundredths in the battle behind Red Bull, it’s a weekend of fine margins in the chasing pack.