F1 Today – 13/03/2023
Verstappen sceptical about F1 qualifying format trials
Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez are sceptical about the planned qualifying format experiments. This year, for the third season in a row the sport is planning to experiment with the format, the first being at Imola in May, alongside the six sprints.
F1 has decided to trial a tweaked qualifying format at two races this year. As previously reported by Motorsport.com, the first trial is taking place at May’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. In a bid to reduce the number of tyres used at Grands Prix, the experiment involves reducing the number of Pirelli sets available to each driver from thirteen to eleven.
In qualifying, drivers will be forced to use hard tyres in Q1, mediums in Q2 and then softs in Q3. If any of the sessions are declared wet, then the tyre choice will be free. In total, drivers will have access to three sets of hard tyres, four sets of mediums and four sets of softs for the entire race weekend. It should ensure that drivers use a wider variety of tyres through the race weekend, so there is less waste.
This change is about improving sustainability rather than improving the show, if it does proved detrimental to the sport it will not be introduced next season. However, Verstappen reckons qualifying on the harder compounds in Q1 might prove quite tricky given their slower warm-up, especially in colder conditions.
He told Motorsport.com, “I hope it’s not going to be cold in Imola, otherwise it’s going to be quite tricky. It’s the same for everyone but I don’t think we need to actually do these kinds of things in qualifying. I don’t really see the benefit of it.”
“It’s better if we make sure that all the cars are close to each other and more competitive instead of spicing things up in that way, which I think is probably for the show.”
Apart from the sustainability aspect, the Dutchman’s teammate Perez agreed that no changes are needed from a show perspective.
Perez said, “I think we don’t need that when you see the qualifying we had [in Bahrain], how close everything was. We do not really need to change anything. But we’ll see, we’ll see once we try it but I don’t think there’s a need to change something that is working well.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc added: “I don’t feel there was a need for change, but let’s try and see.”
Having six sets available for qualifying and just five for free practice and the race means the tyre reduction will also have a knock-on effect on practice sessions.
Red Bull penalty helped ‘focus’ minds on improving
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says the wind tunnel penalty his team was handed for breaching cost cap rules helped ‘focus’ minds on improving its RB19. In Bahrain, the team emerged as still the team to beat having made another step ahead of its main rivals.
This is despite the team having extra 10% reduction in its allocated wind tunnel and CFD time as the result of overspending on its way to the 2021 world championship. When the row about the breech started last October the team claimed the sanction would be a big handicap in its hopes of finding improvements for its RB19, it has actually managed to produce a car that looks further in front than even last year’s RB18.
Horner believes that one of the upsides of being hit with the penalty was that it ensured the team sharpened its approach to managing wind tunnel time better. Speaking about the impact on the team’s mindset, he told Motorsport.com, “I think it focuses everybody’s minds, and it drives efficiency. What we lost in wind tunnel time we gained in motivation.”
But while Red Bull has appeared to suffer little from the reduction in aero development time so far, Horner still believes that there could yet be long-term consequences from it.
Adding “It is something you have to view over twelve months because it is not just this year’s car, it is also next year’s car. I think the really positive thing for us is that we are not dealing with a fundamental issue that soaks up that resource and time.”
Horner says it was vital for the team to be able to cope with the penalty to have a solid starting point. He believes that the consequences of the penalty may still hang over the team for the next nine months, and it’s something that could yet catch it out further down the road.
He explained that the team has another ten months to go with the penalty, which “a challenging, demanding and tricky circuit that often produced races of attrition, and the whole event was very popular with drivers, teams and fans.”
Horner believes that the lack of wind tunnel development could prove especially problematic if there is any significant change to the 2024 car regulations that would require some extra work. But stressed they were expecting stability in the regulations as the handicap kicks in, on top of the penalty.
In brief | Todt’s wife wins Oscar
The wife of former FIA president Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh has won the actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, with the film also winning six other awards. Yeoh becomes the first south-east Asian performer to win the award, adding to her Golden Globe and Sag awards for the role.
Todt tweeted, “Moment of pure grace and immense happiness! What a journey! So proud of Michelle who received the Oscar Academy Award of the best actress.”
Mercedes ‘won’t panic or look for scapegoats’ after disappointing start
Mercedes insists it will not “panic or look for scapegoats” after a disappointing start to the 2023 season in Bahrain last weekend. After a difficult 2022 season, which saw their eight-year streak of constructors’ titles ended by Red Bull, Mercedes had been bullish during the winter over a return to contention this year.
However, in Bahrain that optimism faded as they were outperformed by not only the dominant reigning champions but also Ferrari and Aston Martin. The fallout included Lewis Hamilton questioning the team’s decision to ignore his advice over the design of their 2023 car, and team principal Toto Wolff describing the Bahrain GP as “one of the worst days in racing”.
With speculation raging about Hamilton’s future with the team, along with other key members of staff, the team released a letter addressed to their fans on Saturday morning in an apparent attempt to calm the situation.
The letter said: “Bahrain hurt. It hurt each one of us, who head into every season determined to fight for world championships. It hurt the team as a whole, after pouring so much hard work into a car that hasn’t met our expectations.
“The situation we face right now isn’t the one that any of us wanted – but it’s the one we have. That’s the reality of it. And the simple questions are: what can we do about it, and what will we do about it?”
“We won’t panic or make knee-jerk reactions. In a spotlight as fierce as F1, people are quick to point fingers, or look for scapegoats. But you know us better than that. Inside the team, we talk about having the courage to fail, the character to be accountable and the strength to see failure as an opportunity.”
Mercedes reiterated the open and honest culture of the team, as well as urgently and calmly working on a recovery plan. Adding that they already working on a recovery plan in the short, medium and long term, while also reiterating there are no silver bullets.
Hamilton, who finished fifth in Bahrain ahead of team-mate George Russell in seventh, has repeatedly expressed a desire to remain with Mercedes in F1 beyond the end of the season, when his current contract expires.
Both the thirty-eight-year-old and Wolff had previously suggested agreeing to an extension would be a formality, but the team’s apparent failure to provide him with a championship-contending car for a second straight season has led to speculation over whether he could choose to retire or look for a move elsewhere.
The statement continued: “We will keep our heads held high – and take this journey step by step, together. We are Mercedes. We know the standards we aspire to, and nobody is flinching when we look at the mountain we must climb. It won’t be easy – but where’s the value in something easy?”
Andretti reportedly signs Chester to head up technical
Motorsport.com says it has learned that Andretti has signed Renault’s former technical director Nick Chester to its attempted entry into F1, following his departure from McLaren’s Formula E team.
Chester, who took over from James Allison as technical director at the Enstone team in 2013 when it was known as Lotus, remained in charge of the teams technical operations until 2020. He then joined Mercedes Formula E team where he was part of the team’s back-to-back drivers’ titles in 2020-21 and 2021-22, and remained there for its initial transition to McLaren.
In Andretti’s hunt for F1 experience, a source has confirmed to Motorsport.com that the team has managed to lure Chester from Formula E to head up its technical operations as it continues its expansion plans.
However, while Andretti has made their intention clear to enter the sport clear over the last eighteen months, the response from other teams has been cool. They have been attempting to cement their franchise value by pushing the entry fee up from $200m to $600m.
To bolster its chances of securing an entry, Andretti has linked up with General Motors to introduce the Cadillac brand into F1, although this would not involve the American marque producing its own powertrain.
Despite this they continue to expand both their US base in Indiana and UK base in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The expansion of Banbury suggests that a potential F1 entry could be based alongside the FE operation. But no comment has been made following the report by Motorsport.com.
Chester started in F1 with Simtek in 1994 before moving to Arrows in 1995, later becoming the engineer for Damon Hill in 1997 before working with Mika Salo and Pedro de la Rosa.
He then moved to Benetton, currently Alpine, in 2000 to join its test team, staying with the team Enstone for almost 20 years.
In the meantime, McLaren has recently signed Chris Dyer, Michael Schumacher’s race engineer at Ferrari during many of his F1 title-winning years, from Alpine to bolster its Formula E and Extreme E technical departments.
Williams makes second biggest step forwards – Albon
Alex Albon believes his Williams team has made the second biggest step forward behind Aston Martin at the start of the season. Last year the team was one of the teams who struggled following the regulation change, they lacked downforce and suffered from poor low-speed balance.
That left the team to prop up the constructors’ championship with just eight points, compared to thirty for next-worst AlphaTauri in ninth. This year’s car has proved more stable which allowed Albon to score a point in Bahrain while his teammate logan Sargeant impressed with twelfth.
That step forward, with Sargeant also logging the seventh-fastest race pace, has left Albon to heap praise on Williams for making gains over the winter second only to Aston Martin, which bagged a podium courtesy of Fernando Alonso in third.
The Anglo-Thai driver said: “We were running low downforce, which was even trickier. So, to have the pace we had under the circumstances, I have to say I’m super proud. Everyone I’m sure is looking at the Aston Martin on the podium and thinking what a step they’ve done. But we’re second.
“Where you look at us from last year to this year in this position, 12 months ago, I have to say, we’ve done an amazing job. Of course, we were reliable, which helps. But we got points on our first race.”
Team principal James Vowels has already said the team are open to sacrificing the development of the 2023 car to bring longer-term success. But Albon believes that following Bahrain the team could score more points than in 2020, while saying he didn’t want to be overly optimistic he says they know where to push forwards.
Albon also reckoned the team already knew which areas to target to find immediate lap time gains if it sticks to developing the FW45. He said: “We need to assess our weaknesses, that’s the main thing. We know in terms of downforce level where there are advantages.”
He says it could take a bit longer to resolve the problems with the characteristics of the car, but in the short term, we know where the team can improve.