This Week – 04/08/2024
Hello welcome to This Week, it may be the first week of the summer break but two big moves confirmed we will look at Carlos Sainz joining Williams and Johnathan Wheatley to Sauber/Audi, causing more upheaval within Red Bull. Also, Mercedes explained why it thinks George Russell was disqualified from last weekend’s race, but now things quiet down as the teams enter the mandated shutdown. But the rumour mill never really goes quiet but will go into overdrive in the week leading up to Zandvoort.
FIA tweaks sporting regulations
The FIA World Motor Sport Council has approved an update to F1’s Sporting Regulations to allow the testing of mule cars in preparation for 2026’s technical regulation changes. The amendment to the regulation also ten days of testing between now and the Christmas break allowing teams to try and simulate the new cars.
A mule car is basically a car adapted for test running, to mimic a regulation change and that means they can differ quite drastically from the original car specification. Rules are relaxed for the mule cars, allowing teams to update their machinery in a variety of ways to greater replicate the demands of any upcoming regulation tweaks.
This is nothing new as ahead of the 2017 and 2022, which was postponed by a year due to COVID-19, teams were allowed to use mule cars with various aerodynamic devices to generate greater downforce, allowing data to be gathered ahead of time. Pirelli also use mule cars alongside ten days of in-season testing with each team to develop tyres.
These regulations state ‘Cars must include and are limited to the minimal modifications necessary for the purpose of testing development tyres or for testing components or systems on behalf of the FIA for future Championship seasons, as determined by the FIA.’ The new regulations also dictate that no test items can be used during the running, meaning teams won’t be able to find any advantage in present-day competition.
The amendment to the regulation took effect on Thursday, meaning any car from the four seasons prior to the current term available for modification, teams will be given a choice.
They could select a chassis from the old generation of car pre-2022, which is smaller and therefore closer to the dimensions specified in the 2026 regulations. Whilst this is a clear advantage, a lot of the downforce generation on the 2020-21 cars was from top-face components, rather than the ground-effect philosophy of the new generation cars.
The meeting also approved a clarification of the sporting regulation, which takes effect from the Dutch GP. During qualifying in Shanghai, Carlos Sainz sent his Ferrari into a spin damaging his front wing. Having remained stationary for a prolonged period of time, race direction threw the red flags to bring a halt to the session.
But the Spaniard was able to get back going under his own power, return to the pits and complete the session, ultimately advancing to Q3 and qualifying seventh. Aston Martin protested believing under Article 39.6 Sainz was in breach of the regulation which stated “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
Critically, under the revised regulation, Sainz would not have been in breach and would have been free to continue in the session, having returned to the circuit under his own power. This clarifies the regulations.
A second tweak made in light of events in China will see penalties picked up in sprint races carried into grands prix. Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso collided with Sainz at Turn 9 in an overzealous overtaking attempt, earning himself a time penalty.
Yet because the two-time world champion had already retired from the sprint, he effectively received no further punishment. But with the tweak to the Article 54.3.d, Alonso would now face a carryover of his penalty, served as a grid drop for the next race.
The revision reads: “If any of [the above] penalties above are imposed upon a driver, and that driver is unable to serve the penalty due to being unclassified in the sprint session or the race in the case of a) or b) or due to retirement from the sprint session or the race in the case of c) or d), the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next race.”
Red Bull
Red Bull sporting director Johnathan Wheatley is to leave the team at the end of the year to become the team principal of Audi. The Englishman has been with Red Bull for eighteen years but on Thursday the team announced his departure which caught Audi by surprise, but they confirmed Wheatley’s appointment more than three hours later.
Wheatley will have a period of ‘gardening leave’ next year, according to Red Bull, and Audi said he would join “by July 2025 at the latest”. The wording of the two statements indicates Red Bull and Audi have not yet agreed on the terms of Wheatley’s move.
Audi has taken over the Swiss-based Sauber team and will officially enter F1 with its own car and engine in 2026. Last week Audi confirmed former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto as chief operating and technical officer, replacing Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann.
In a statement that Binotto and Wheatley would “jointly take responsibility for the success of the racing team” and that there was “a clear division of duties, and responsibilities have been individually defined”.
Binotto will lead “operative management” of the team’s base at Hinwil in Switzerland and “technical development of the future racing cars”. Wheatley “will focus on the racing performance of the F1 factory team, operational management at racing events and representing Audi at team principal level in matters relating to F1”.
Audi chief executive officer Gernot Dollner said: “With the appointment of Jonathan and Mattia we have taken a decisive step towards our entry into Formula One. I am convinced that with the two of them, we have been able to combine an extremely high level of competence for Audi.” This is another big departure, I think it is not only down to the controversy earlier in the year but also a natural turn over given he has been with the team for eighteen years like Newey. There have been no mentions of him being unhappy with the in-fighting but we know that was a factor in Newey’s departure.
Sergio Perez will keep his seat with the team for the second half of the season the team has confirmed. There had been speculation about his future following a run of poor results in a. season where they have been under increasing pressure from rivals.
A Red Bull spokesperson said team principal Christian Horner told employees in a speech at the team’s base in Milton Keynes that Perez would stay on. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and verified by BBC News, reported that Horner said: “Checo remains a Red Bull Racing driver, despite all the speculation of late. We look forward to seeing him perform on circuits where he has done well before.”
There will be no change to the driver line-up of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda at second team RB, either, the spokesperson said.
Mercedes
Mercedes thinks multiple factors caused George Russell’s winning car to be under the F1 weight limit after he was disqualified from his victory at Spa last weekend. The car was 1.5kg under weight which the team put down to multiple factors, but most likely caused by plank and tyre wear as well as Russell losing weight through sweat.
With tyres losing up to 1kg over the course of a stint, it is highly feasible that the extra wear on old tyres, compared to a newer set that Russell would have used if he had stuck to a two-stop, could make up the 375g per difference on each tyre that would have got him over the weight limit. But speaking in Mercedes’ regular post-race debrief video, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has suggested that other factors were also at play – which the team was now digging into.
Shovlin explained, “[It was] obviously very disappointing and unfortunate, particularly after he’d driven such a strong race to win from so far back. Right now, we’re trying to understand exactly what happened. A lot of that involves us getting the weights of all the different components.”
“The car can lose quite a lot of weight during the race. You get tyre wear, plank wear, brake wear, oil consumption. The driver themselves can lose a lot. And in this particular race, George lost quite a bit of weight.” He also said there had been no warning about the situation developing, with Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s car weight being almost identical when measured after qualifying.
Shovlin says that it looks like from the early analysis that Russell’s car lost material on the plank. We know the FIA is very strict on this kind of breach of the regulations because while it was very small it still has performance gains, though that is difficult to measure, we know how critical the weight is.
Hamilton says his victory was bittersweet following Russell’s disqualification from victory. he took to Instagram after the race and wrote, “Mixed feelings for today’s result. Obviously happy to get the win but I feel for George and it’s disappointing for the team not to get the one-two.”
“A lot of positives to take from today, though. At the start of the weekend, we didn’t expect to be at the front or the pace we had, so it’s great to see just how much progress has been made and that we are in the fight. We take all these positives with us into the break and will come back a stronger team ready to keep the momentum going.”
Writing on X Russell described the stewards decision as “heartbreaking.”
Ferrari
Team principal Fred Vasseur says the team is “pushing like hell” to get its lingering high-speed bouncing problem under control. Since Barcelona when the team introduced a new floor, through high-speed corners the team has battled with bouncing in corners, though they have a temporary fix the issue remains.
This could be a major headache for Zandvoort following the summer break at the end of August because of the high-speed sweeping corners. unless Ferrari can roll out a solution after the mandatory two-week summer shutdown. Vasseur said after Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, in which the issue re-appeared on lighter fuel loads, “Fixing the bouncing is a step in performance, so for sure we are pushing like hell to bring something and we will do it as soon as possible.”
“I think it’s quite impossible to simulate the bouncing because you can see that from session to session when the wind changes direction or whatever, that the bouncing can appear or disappear, that it’s really marginal. We are all really on the edge of this.”
Though the issue appeared to stabilise over the last two races, the big issue for all of the teams has been making significant steps forwards over their nearest rivals, this season given the tightness of both the leading and midfield packs.
He added “I think we made huge step forward, but everybody made a huge step forward on this. The issue is that we are developing much closer to the limit, and at the end of the day we are always playing with this bouncing to stay close. And if you overshoot, you have to do a step back.”
Neither Leclerc nor Sainz was particularly happy with Ferrari’s performance at Spa, especially because Mercedes’ strong race pace meant the Scuderia was only the fourth-fastest team on Sunday, having already lost its second place to McLaren in Hungary.
Leclerc said, “It’s good to see that everybody’s so close, but unfortunately, we are still the fourth-fastest team and the top three keeps changing. We are consistently behind them, on a par with Mercedes, so we just need more pace.”
When Sainz was asked if Ferrari had made a step in the right direction last weekend, he replied: “When you see the pace of Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren in the race, I don’t think so. I think still [we lack] two or three-tenths.”
McLaren
Oscar Piastri has told Sky Sports that the team is going to prioritise the constructors rather than helping Lando Norris in his bid to catch Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship. McLaren are forty-two points behind Red Bull in the constructors but has had a stronger car at most events in the last three months since Norris won his maiden F1 race at the Miami Grand Prix in early May.
Piastri’s second at the Belgian GP meant McLaren were on the podium for the tenth consecutive grand prix. The team has not won the constructors in twenty-five years while Norris given the way the championship has unfolded since May has given the team the opportunity to challenge for the championship
He said, “The first objective is to win the constructors’ for the team and I think we’ve got a very strong chance of doing that. We’ve been closing the gap to Red Bull in the last six or seven races. I think for me, the drivers’ standings, of course I’d like to finish as high as I can.”
“I’m not not out of the running for the championship myself, it’s a very big ask, but I want to string together good races, build consistency on that front, and really help the team to win the constructors’. If it comes to a situation where I need to help Lando later in the year then of course it is something we’ll discuss, but the first target is to win the constructors’ and try do a good job for myself as well.”
As I’ll explain hopefully next week in Behind The Headlines, McLaren have found themselves fighting for the championship, but they believe McLaren are now in a strong position going forward. Piastri says they have been quick everywhere and is growing in confidence, but says the realistic target is setting up for a strong run next year.
Norris finished behind in second in Budapest after he eventually conceded the lead to Piastri following a series of increasingly stern commands. The Briton, who dropped two points to Verstappen at the Belgian Grand Prix, insists the team are in a really good place and hopes they can continue their form.
Norris said, “We’re good and the team is in very good form, we’re trusting one another, we’re working together very well and for us, that’s the most important thing, It’s a strength of ours. It’s why we’re now doing what we’re doing and that’s performing as one of the best teams and if not the best team in F1.”
I wonder if there is a little bit of spin going on while trying to motivate the team to try and challenge for the championship as well as continue on this upward trajectory. Also to win the constructors they need to be at the pointy end in the drivers and they have a bit of luck they could win the championship having scored ten podiums in a row.
Team principal Andrea Stella believes Piastri’s mistake at the final pitstop of the Belgian Grand Prix proved “costly” in his pursuit of victory. the Australian was looking to follow in Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc footsteeps by taking his maiden and second wins on back-to-back weekends.
However while on pace with the Mercedes his opportunity to challenge for victory was lost by a slow final stop cause by him overshooting his marks leading to a four-second stop. This left the McLaren driver with a higher mountain to climb to catch and pass Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and, ultimately, more wear on his tyres by the time he arrived on the back of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Having finished on the tail of the seven-time champion, who was runner-up on the road to team-mate George Russell before the latter was disqualified for an underweight Mercedes, Stella believes the pitstop error proved pivotal.
Stella said, “Like Oscar said immediately in the in-lap on the radio, ‘apologies for the pitstop’, because I think he realises that that could have been a bit costly. Potentially, he would have just queued behind Hamilton, but he could have also been in condition to attack. So I think this 1.5-2s loss at the pitstop ultimately proved to be relatively costly.”
“Even because then you would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means you could have finalised the overtaking more easily. So a bit of a cascade. We do have to work with drivers in terms of like…even in the hot moments, just don’t overcook it at the pitstop position because it can be very costly. I think he had something similar in Silverstone as well.”
Despite the error, Piastri was in great form throughout the race, always ahead of team-mate Lando Norris and destined for the podium from early on. I think that in the first half of this season, Piastri has made that step you need in the second season and proved why he was highly rated in the junior series and why McLaren fought Alpine for him.
Alpine
Alpine confirmed that Oliver Oakes has become team principal, making him the second youngest team principal in the modern era. Oakes in recent years has been the boss of Hitech in F2 and F3 heading up their attempt to enter the sport earlier in the year.
During last weekends race at Spa, it emerged that Oakes was the leading candidate to replace Bruno Famin who is stepping back into a role at Renault. He has a wealth of experience as he is a former world karting champion and, having taken the helm of Hitech, delivering victories in all levels it has competed in.
Speaking about his appointment, which was endorsed by Renault CEO Luca de Meo and F1 advisor Flavio Briatore, Oakes said: “I am extremely grateful to Luca de Meo and Flavio Briatore for this opportunity to lead BWT Alpine F1 Team back to competitiveness. The team has talented people and excellent resources at its core, and I am confident that we can accomplish a great deal together during the remainder of this season and the longer term. I look forward to getting started after the summer break.”
I hope this leads to some stability at Alpine as I think part of the reason the team has slipped back is this chopping and changing of personnel over the last year. Oakes has a good record in the junior categories, and I think he could if he is given time turn the team around with the help of Briatore who won titles with the team in the mid-1990s and 2000s. but how they come up with a plan when previous have failed I’m not sure?
Motorsport.com says it has learned that Jack Doohan is on the verge of signing a deal with Alpine to race alongside Pierre Gasly next year. The team has been looking at its options once again after Carlos Sainz signed for Williams, more in the Williams section below. Sources have indicated that it has elected to promote reserve driver Doohan, who is the son of five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick.
Although it is understood that a final contract has not been signed yet, it is suggested that the formalities will be completed imminently and an announcement could even come before F1 shuts down for the summer break. Doohan had been the favourite before the appointment of Flavio Briatore who is reported to have made a late offer for Sainz.
But Sainz’s decision to go to Williams has opened the door for Alpine to give Doohan the opportunity to make his debut. Doohan’s chances have also not been hurt by the arrival of Oakes, who he has raced for in the past at Hitech. Doohan’s chances have also not been hurt by the arrival of new team principal Oliver Oakes, who he has raced for in the past at Hitech.
This week he has been testing for Pirelli at Spa and should he be confirmed it’s highly likely he will have a testing programme in a 2022 car.
Gasly has called on the team to cut out their “mistakes” saying that the team in the run-up to the summer break. The team had a tough start to the season, where they were the slowest car though upgrades since Monaco has allowed them to move into eighth in the constructors. But at Silverstone, the Frenchman failed to start and in Budapest, he retired with a hydraulic issue.
Things didn’t get better last weekend at Spa, where Gasly was left struggling to fight for points given a lack of speed in a straightline, hampered by another issue. Gasly lamented, “It was absolutely terrible down the straights. It was supposed to be a couple of kph and I ended up losing seven-tenths every lap with some engine temperature issue.”
“It was just very frustrating, I just keep having problems on top of problems the last three weekends. The steering was bent through the race, we picked up the wrong strategies, and we just made way too many mistakes as a team. It’s been a tough start to the season. We scored ten points in the first part of the year. We must do a lot better in the second part of the year.”
We know part of the reason for management instability is those poor results the team has a change every two years on average since they returned to being a works team in 2016. They also got the regulations wrong in 2022 which sent them backwards and the changes at the top don’t help.
Williams
Carlos Sainz will join Williams next year on a “multi-year” deal, the Spaniard lost his seat at Ferrari in February when the team signed Lewis Hamilton and renewed the contract of Charles Leclerc at the start of the season. In recent weeks it began to emerge that Sainz would choose Williams over a return to Alpine or Sauber, which will become Audi in 2026.
Sainz, whose hopes of joining another top team from Ferrari were stymied when Red Bull and Mercedes made clear they would be looking elsewhere. Team principal James Vowels insisted that the was teams ‘number one target,’ as they seek to return to the front again.
Sainz said: “I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport. The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity.”
His options to join Red Bull or Mercedes were closed off as Red Bull recommitted to Sergio Perez on Monday, despite his poor form which had raised questions about his future, it is understood the team did not want to put Sainz alongside Max Verstappen.
Mercedes have set their sights on convincing Verstappen to join them from Red Bull, which if it happens is most likely to be for 2026. They are poised to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli to replace Hamilton.
Vowles, who joined from Mercedes at the start of last season charged with turning the team into front-runners, said: “Carlos joining Williams is a strong statement of intent from both parties. Carlos has demonstrated time and again that he is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with race-winning pedigree, and this underlines the upwards trajectory we are on.”