Hello, This Week F1 has been I feel in an assessing mode as the European season has finished while the drivers’ championship is realistically wrapped up there is the question when does Max Verstappen wrap up his third world title and can Red Bull do the clean sweep? 2023 is not the best season ever, but it will be remembered for Red Bulls record-breaking run of wins
General News
The FIA has announced that all ten teams have filed their 2022 accounts within last year’s budget cap. Each team will receive a certificate of compliance for meeting the cap between 1 January and 31 December 2022, which stands at a base of £108 million plus extras.
This time last year accusations started flying around that not all teams were within the cap, most noticeably 2021 drivers champions Red Bull. Who were fined £1.5m and given a ten per cent reduction in their allotted aerodynamic testing? while Aston Martin were also fined £388,000 for a procedural breach
The governing body stated that: “The FIA Cost Cap Administration has issued certificates of compliance to all of the ten Competitors. The review has been an intensive and thorough process, beginning with a detailed analysis of the documentation submitted by the competitors.”
“Additionally, there has been an extensive check of any non-F1 activities undertaken by the teams, which comprised multiple on-site visits to team facilities and careful auditing procedures to assess compliance with the Financial Regulations.”
Mercedes
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has said Lewis Hamilton’s honesty in owning up to his mistakes stands out among his rivals. The seven-time champion made a rare error last weekend, resulting in contact with Oscar Piastri at Ascari when that made contact.
The incident damaged Piastri’s front wing, forcing him into the pits for a replacement, and it earned Hamilton a five-second penalty for having caused a collision. Hamilton came on the team radio to explain that Piastri had been in his blind spot on the approach to the corner, after initially being unclear about how the clash came about.
Wolff said, Hamilton’s maturity in being able to put his hand up at errors was a quality that stood out for him among the crop of current F1 drivers. I think that Hamilton is bound to make mistakes, we all are, he has for the first time in his career been fighting in the midfield which is not something he has experienced
He said “He’s very sportsmanlike with these things, and he is the only one that I see out there admitting and saying: ‘I got this wrong. We just had a chat and [he said] he didn’t see him on the right and: ‘It goes on me.’ I think that kind of sportsmanship is what you need to admire with him, as pretty much everyone is always complaining and moaning just to try to not gain a penalty.”
Hamilton himself said there was no second thought given to saying sorry once he realised he had made a mistake. he said, “I apologised because it was obviously my fault. It naturally wasn’t intentional. I got up alongside and just misjudged the gap that I had to the right, and clipped him.”
Piastri said after the race that he accepted Hamilton’s apology. the Australian explained, “I think [he] just moved a bit too far to the right,”. “But I think it’s very easy to do in that corner. It’s very narrow. He came and apologised, so I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.”
Hamilton says he wants to “improve the pipeline” for children from diverse backgrounds to work in industries around science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Speaking to BBC News he said the aim of The Hamilton Commission, designed to addressed the lack of diversity in UK motorsport.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Hamilton added: “I want to be part of changing the world and it starts with the kids. We’ve got to improve the pipeline, and it starts with right down at primary school giving these kids access.”
Via his Mission 44 charity, the seven-time world champion’s latest initiative is supporting the Young STEM Futures Programme in his hometown of Stevenage, while drawing on his own experiences as a child and in motorsport. Hamilton himself struggled at school describing it as “not a happy experience,” and his brother Nic with his cerebral palsy
Adding, “There are thousands and thousands of jobs, over 40,000 jobs within the industry [motorsport], and only 1% for example, come from black backgrounds and there are very few women in the industry, which is also not enough.”
Red Bull
Red Bull team principal l Christian Horner says his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff showed “a total lack of understanding” of car development in recent comments made about the RB19.
Following last weekend’s race at Monza and the margin between Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez, Wolff questioned whether the Dutchman’s “ability to create a car around himself that is just very tricky to control but fast if you can” was the explanation.
Verstappen, who claimed a record tenth successive Grand Prix victory in Monza on Sunday to move nearly six wins clear of Perez at the top of the world championship, dismissed Wolff’s comments, insisting that “it’s not like that”.
Agreeing with The Dutchman, he said, “It shows a total lack of understanding of how a race car and team develop, if Toto thinks that we’re developing a car around a single driver. You develop a car to be as quick as you can and sometimes quick cars are difficult cars – that’s what’s historically been the case.”
I think that’s partly true, teams tend to gravitate as the season go on towards the faster driver and Verstappen is the driver to beat. What is true is any team wants to ‘develop a car to be as quick as you can and sometimes quick cars are difficult cars.’ Verstappen as well is a very adaptable driver and one as we seen when they get momentum behind them are unstoppable.
Ferrari
Carlos Sainz has thanked Milanese police after he was reportedly the target of an attempted theft after the Italian Grand Prix. Its been reported that the Spaniard r and a bodyguard chased down thieves who targeted the Spaniard’s watch. They were then helped by members of the public before the police arrived.
Sainz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Many thanks to all the people who helped us, to the Milan police for their quick intervention and thanks for all your messages. The most important thing is that we are all OK and this will only remain as an unpleasant anecdote.”
Its been reported by Spanish sports daily Marca and Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport that robbers ran off with Sainz’s watch, reportedly worth at least 300,000 euros (£256,440), before they were stopped.
In last Sunday’s race in Sainz and teammate Charles Leclerc were running third and fourth after Red Bull’s Sergio Perez had passed both drivers and moved into second. Vasseur opted not to tell the drivers to hold station and bring home the points and instead, the message was passed on that they could continue to race each other to the flag, but with the proviso of “no risk”.
But that “no risk” condition appeared to be ignored, with Leclerc appearing to hound Sainz even locking up at the first corner at the start of the final lap, but in the end, Sainz stayed ahead to claim the podium spot.
Vassuer explained, “For sure it’s much easier to comment when you have it at the end, but I think it was also the best way to thank everybody, the support of the tifosi and so on, and I was not that comfortable to freeze something five laps before the end.”
“I trust them, but I told them no risk at all. It’s always relative, and I think that the notion of no risk is relative. But it’s an opinion, and I’m quite proud of the decision, and of the job done by the drivers today.”
Vassuer insisted that it was his was his decision to let then race, and he was more comfortable with that than freezing the situation. I think this is another sign of the wider culture change we are seeing at Ferrari.
McLaren
Lando Norris believes that his McLaren has made progress on its low-downforce form despite a difficult weekend at Monza compared to its rival. At Spa before the summer break, the team’s weakness at high speed circuit with Norris being unable to fend off the top three teams before finishing seventh.
At Monza, Norris qualified ninth and finished eighth having been stuck behind the Williams of Alex Albon for many laps. Although the final outcome was actually a place lower than at Spa, Norris felt that the car was more competitive overall and that he could at least fight with other cars.
When asked by Motorsport.com if the result represented damage limitation, he said, “I think I’m still happy. It was P8, some points. And maybe we were hoping for a touch more. But also at times, we were expecting not to even be in the points. So I’m happy with it. I think it was damage limitation.”
‘‘At the same time, good to see the progress we made on a low-downforce circuit. I know there wasn’t a lot, and a bit of is just things you have from last year, and trying to optimise them for here.” I think McLaren are going in the right direction, but. Its not good enough given Williams have made a big step, they are becoming regular scorer making it harder for them to score points.
IndyCar driver Alex Paulo says after leaving McLaren his chances of getting into F1 are “really, really small.” In a press briefing, He explained how his attitude towards F1 has shifted in recent years, given his age and the lack of a cast-iron guarantee of a racing future there.
He said “There’s no hiding, like, if you look at my interviews until ’21, I was saying that I was not focused on F1 at all. “And that was totally true, but things changed when I won the championship just because I was 24.”
After claiming the title in Portland on Sunday, when asked by Motorsport.com if he still harbours thoughts of switching to F1 at some point, Palou replied: “No, I said it many times that it was not my fully focus. Then when an opportunity came, I had to go for it, I felt.”
Palou has been instructed by his lawyers not to comment on any contractual matters, as McLaren has taken legal action against him through the UK High Court.
Alpine
Pierre Gasly says the teams poor performance last weekend made Monza “super painful,” as the team struggled for pace on Monza’s straights. Gasly and his teammate Esteban Ocon were both knocked out in Q1, they didn’t do much better in the race with Gasly fifteenth and Ocon retiring following a steering lock issue.
While Gasly explained that Alpine had expected to struggle in Monza, that didn’t make its weekend any less of a blow. He explained, “”It’s been super painful. I don’t think we have ever had such a lack of competitiveness compared to our rivals. We knew straight away from the start of the season that it would be a painful one. But yeah, it was clearly very difficult out there.”
I think what happened to Gasly explains the yo-yo effect we have talked about since last year where its so tight in the midfield. We know Alpine has its downward yo-yo at lower downforce circuits and there is also reports that the Renault power unit is 30BPH down on its rivals’ engines is one possible explanation, but is unlikely to be the only factor, with the team also lacking some efficiency.
Gasly put it well, the challenge for next year for Renault/Alpine “is really to understand and quantify where that drop of performance is coming from and come back next year with a stronger package.”
Ocon also made a good point, not just about Alpine but all the teams ‘There is a clear trend in terms of the type of tracks where we are more and less competitive.’
Williams
Alex Albon has described his seventh place at Monza which allowed Williams to move into seventh in the constructors as a “good step,” but warned that in the next few races the team “won’t really stand a chance,” in the remaining races.
Monza continued the team’s run of strong results allowing the team to double its. Points haul since Silverstone, while its rivals Haas and Alfa Romeo have struggled to score points. It looks likely that the team with seven races to go should be in a good position to hold seventh in the constructors.
When asked by Motorsport.com if he agrees the next few races, which include Singapore, Japan and Qatar, are perhaps not going to be as painful as feared, Albon said: “Exactly. For sure not. I think we still see our weaknesses, you know, we are low downforce. We are better than we were last year, but especially when the track gets hot and the degradation is high we really struggle.”
I think the team has been surprised by how good the large upgrade in Montreal and a minor upgrade in Silverstone has delivered more than we all expected. This has lead to a change and suggestions that the team may fast track upgrades for early 2024 to these closing races.
When asked by Motorsport.com if he agrees the next few races, which include Singapore, Japan and Qatar, are perhaps not going to be as painful as feared, Albon said: “Exactly. For sure not. I think we still see our weaknesses, you know, we are low downforce. We are better than we were last year, but especially when the track gets hot and the degradation is high we really struggle.
Haas
Kevin Magnussen says he had a “horrendous” weekend at Monza, but understands that he must remain patient as Haas tries to improve the difficult VF-23. The Dane qualified nineteenth and was one of only three drivers to take a gamble by starting on the hard rather than medium Pirelli tyres.
However, while Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas used the strategy to have strong races and earn points, Magnussen finished 18th and last, behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. The intention had been to run a long opening stint on the hard, potentially not stopping until the closing laps.
But the ack of overall grip meant that Magnussen pitted as early as lap 12, obliging him to switch to two stops and effectively ruining his race. He explained, “It should have been possible, but we just had no grip at all.”
“And the car was so over-balanced, there was no chance. I mean, we couldn’t even take off enough front wing. The flap couldn’t go down low enough. And horrendous, really bad. we were talking about going all the way to the end on that first hard to then maybe hope for a late safety car, or do a bit like [Alex] Albon did in Melbourne, try something like that. But no chance whatsoever.”
Haas has had a difficult history with tyres and as we said before as well as their tendance to go backwards over a course of a season. I sometimes wonder if they have learned from their previous mistakes, and why they then fall in.
