Hello, welcome to This Week, you’re Sunday round-up of the biggest stories from F1 and analysis. This week, did Mercedes lose their final chance to win as Red Bull looks unstoppable, could the final two weekends be the continuation of Red Bull winning every race in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
This edition due to other commitments this week is slightly shorter and our Sunday magazine I hope gives you insight and an overview of the last week as we head to the final races of 2022.<\/p>\n
F1s third quarter results continue to show the sport is continuing to recover healthy following the pandemic. However, the change was not as dramatic as in previous quarters because income in the latter part of 2021 was not impacted as dramatically by the pandemic, as last year race attendances began to return to normal levels and the lucrative Paddock Club got back up to speed.<\/p>\n
Figures for July to September show revenue was up from $668m to $715m although operating income was only up from $80m to $82m thanks to increased costs. The 10 F1 teams shared payments of $370m, up from $338m in 2021.<\/p>\n
Six events were the same across both seasons, while the major difference was that the first year featured the more lucrative Russian GP, whereas France fell into the same period in 2022.<\/p>\n
Because of that change race promotion income was actually slightly down, but that was offset by increases in broadcast and sponsorship revenue.<\/p>\n
Explaining the figures, F1 noted: \u201cF1\u2019s results in 2022 are not being impacted by capacity limitations, and throughout the first nine months of the 2022 season F1 has seen strong growth in attendance in the grandstands and the Paddock Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrimary F1 revenue increased in the third quarter with growth across media rights and sponsorship, partially offset by a decline in race promotion revenue. Race promotion revenue decreased due to lower fees generated from the different mix of events held, with one additional race held outside of Europe in the prior year period.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton has criticised Mercedes’s decision not to split his and his team-mate George Russell’s strategies, after finishing second to Max Verstappen at the Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Last weekend was seen as the team’s best chance to challenge for victory with three races to go. However, when Red Bull switched to a two-stop strategy with Verstappen\u2019s tyre management being better, he was able to control the race from then on to take a comfortable win.<\/p>\n
Hamilton meanwhile could not risk putting on softs, that would likely not have lasted until the end, with his sole pit stop five laps later, and put on harder tyres on which he was unable to remain close to Verstappen. Asked by Sky Sports, whether things could\u00a0 have turned out differently if he had have started on softs, Hamilton said: “I think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
A frantic opening lap saw Russell drop from his starting position of second to fourth, as he was forced off track in a battle with Hamilton, before consequently losing another place to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. The poor start scuppered Russell’s hopes of a podium, extending his streak of the rostrum to four races.<\/p>\n
Mercedes are in a position to challenge for wins and you could argue that they could do with one just to reward the hard work they have put in this season. However we know how strong Red Bull has been both on track and operationally this season, they maybe need to be both smarter and hope Red Bull runs into difficulties.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen feels \u201cincredibly proud\u201d to have claimed F1\u2019s season win record with his fourteenth win of the year in Mexico despite being \u201cnever really interested in stats.\u201d His win last weekend in Mexico City saw him break Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel who had previously tied with. Verstappen paid tribute to his Red Bull team for \u201canother great race\u201d after picking up its sixteenth win of the year and ninth in a row.<\/p>\n
I think this has been an incredible season for Verstappen as I have written before he appears to be going from strength to strength. The \u2018downplaying card\u2019 as we often see drivers use in the run up to potential records, but I think getting these records make the exceptional drivers stand out from the good drivers.<\/p>\n
Red Bull has settled on a succession plan for the operation of the energy drinks group, including its F1 teams, following the death of co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz. The role of CEO will be spilt between three people his son Mark announced in a letter sent to staff.<\/p>\n
he explained that a solution “proposed by my father” and “supported by our Thai partners” would be put in place. The latter comment is a reference to the Yoovidhya family of entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
The business will be run by \u00a0a so-called Board of Directors, consisting of Franz Watzlawick (CEO Beverage Business), Alexander Kirchmayr (CFO) and Oliver Mintzlaff (CEO Corporate Projects and Investments). The division of responsibility means that F1 teams Red Bull and AlphaTauri will fall under the responsibility of Mintzlaff, who counts sponsorship among his new tasks, and Kirchmayr from now on.<\/p>\n
This announcement was obviously coming, but I see it as modernisation similar to the structure put in at McLaren after Ron Dennis left or Mercedes. This gives a clear line of command and hopefully, it allows the team to continue to be successful and also shows they remain successful in the future.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc says he was \u201churt\u201d by Ferrari\u2019s performance last weekend in\u00a0 Mexico City. The Monacan was sixth behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, as the team’s lack of pace became clear in Friday practice, which wasn\u2019t helped by him crashing out of FP2.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cwe are one minute away from Max, a huge difference. We need to look into that and make our bad days better, mostly because whenever we have a bad day on the Sunday it seems to be a really bad day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sainz indicated that the team knew about the ‘compromises’ they would have to endure coming into the weekend though, with the race being held in different conditions to the majority on the calendar. he said, \u201cWith the altitude, we knew we were going to lose quite a bit of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question is all to familiar and one I think Ferrari still hasn\u2019t answered or doesn\u2019t know how to answer, \u2018how do they not pitter out\u2019 and \u2018stop making the mistakes\u2019 if we are to se them challenge for wins.<\/p>\n
Ferrari designer Mauro Forghieri has died at the age of 87. The Italian was an iconic figure who oversaw four drivers’ championships and seven constructors’ titles in his 27 years with the team.<\/p>\n
Forghieri was a true engineering all-rounder, creating innovations in chassis, engine and gearbox design. He designed some of Ferrari’s most famous cars, including the 312 T series that won three drivers’ and four constructors’ titles from 1975-79.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris has confirmed he spoke to Red Bull, and several other teams, before signing a long-term contract extension with McLaren earlier in 2022. You need to think this isn\u2019t really a surprise given his value but we know his contract with McLaren lasts until 2023.<\/p>\n
Asked on Thursday, ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, whether his comments had been accurately understood and translated, Norris confirmed the talks had happened, and provided further context. This to me isn\u2019t a surprise as he is a driver who has good market value, we normally see these types of things as bargaining chips,<\/p>\n
He told Sky Sports, \u201cIt’s more just I was coming to the end of my contract, and it wasn’t like we (Red Bull and I) were talking heavily. I literally said, it was just, everyone always tries to speak to all teams at some point, so I spoke to them, I spoke to a few other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris insists that he prefers the “security” of a long-term deal over the excitement of talks as a soon-to-be free agent.<\/p>\n
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer is confident that Renault made the right choice in pushing for power unit performance in 2022, even if reliability was compromised. The French team has had more reliability issues which despite performing better than McLaren, has seen the gap narrow to seven points.<\/p>\n
In Mexico, Fernando Alonso lost seventh place in the closing laps after suffering a cylinder issue that obliged him to stop. Szafnauer insists that problems have largely resulted from a general push for performance with the power unit, and that they can be resolved over the winter.<\/p>\n
Szafnauer said, \u201cWe mustn’t forget that at the beginning of the year we set out – and this was before I was here, but I think it was the right decision on the powertrain side – to err on the side of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the powertrain was going to be frozen. So we made a conscious decision to push the performance envelope and fix reliability issues as we got to them because the FIA allows that. So that was a conscious and strategic decision.\u201d The problem is for all the manufacturers is they can only do reliability fixes as these engines and this potentially could cost them in the constructors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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