Welcome to another edition of This Week your Sunday morning round up and analysis of the week’s news and what it could mean. The week has again been focused a month on from Abu Dhabi what does that mean for the futures of Lewis Hamilton and Michael Masi.
Well, two futures have been decided, it wouldn’t be January without a surprise departure or change of team for senior management, like buses they came in twos as first Aston Martin announced the departure of Otmar Szafnauer followed hours later by Alpine announcing executive director Marcin Budkowski has left the team with immediate effect.
As F1 looks to a new start it feels the whole world a month on from Abu Dhabi may be interested still in the saga, like parties in Downing Street, it started with one event, but we need to think about other decisions over the past few years. But we need to wait till Bahrain to get answers and let the inquiry do its work, but the politics of this could take time.
This is finalised on a Friday late afternoon of non-race weeks, so things may change.
General News
Domenicali says he is “dreaming” of more cars competing at the front of the field starts to be realised in the early years of the sport’s new era of regulations. This was the time it appeared on Monday as nearly everyone was hinting at a closer season, but we won’t know until we get to Barcelona in May.
Meanwhile, the FIA has said the inquiry into what happened in Abu Dhabi will report on the eve of the Bahrain Grand Prix, (17th March). The chair will be Peter Bayer, who was recently appointed the executive director of single-seaters, who will have two key stages.
Next week, the sporting advisory committee, made up of the sporting directors and FIA representatives, will meet to discuss the use of the safety car. In the days after that, there will be a “shared discussion with all F1 drivers”. I think next weeks meeting will be the first step in the process, everyone wants answers, so we don’t see a repeat
Mercedes
Sky Sports has said it has been told by a senior source at Mercedes Lewis Hamilton’s future remains unclear with his future likely to depend on the investigation into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The report says that “Mercedes want to see something tangible.”
Hamilton’s future is going to be a big talking point we have heard nothing from him either on social media and interviews, his silence I don’t know what to make of it. I hope for the sake of the sport he does continue, Mercedes and the sport will have a headache,
BBC News was also told, but Mercedes has denied, they agreed to drop the appeal after the FIA agreed to remove Michael Masi and FIA head of single-seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis. There needs to be a solution to this saga and quickly, but what ‘assurances’ have Mercedes been given.
George Russell has been reflecting on his time at Williams in an interview last weekend he said he believes “pretty brutal” emotional moments over the past two years helped mould him into a stronger driver ahead of his Mercedes move. I think he in the last eighteen months especially stepped up and as he said in his own words it’s been an “emotional rollercoaster.”
Ferrari
Ferrari’s sporting director Laurent Mekies says he is expecting that teams will have fewer in-season developments this season because of the constraints of the budget cap. This we know is to create closer racing as well as reduce costs, hopefully, this means we will have another close championship across the field.
Mekies also warned that if testing unearths several issues on the new cars that need to be addressed quickly, teams will be forced to dip into the development budget.
Meanwhile, Mattia Binotto will remain as team principal following the announcement of a restructuring aimed at streamlining and moving the manufacturer towards electrification. I think that was always likely, but the question I think remains whether he
Jean Todt has been rumoured to be returning to Ferrari, but this is just speculation going back to last month and there could be controversy like we saw with Marcin Budkowski joining Renault/Alpine. This politically will be good for Ferrari as we look towards the 2026 regulation changes, as well as helping Mattia Binotto.
It also opens the debate about personnel going between the governing body and a team, we could have another debate around the sensitivity of information as well as the influence that Todt could have on the FIA if Ferrari have difficulty.
McLaren
Daniel Ricciardo also reflected on his season saying that part of his struggles in the early part of last year was probably because of “homesickness.” We know as we saw Melbourne be cancelled for the last two years, Australia has some of the strictest border restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus.
He said, “We’ve normally had the quite fortunate [option] to, if I wanted mum and dad here, I’d say, ‘guys, I’m gonna buy your plane ticket, jump on a plane and come.’” Ricciardo, I believe is talking about an experience many would have felt in the last two years, there has as we know for a few years been talk about burnout because of the expanding calendar.
Zak Brown meanwhile has described 2021 as a “very successful year” for the Woking outfit despite falling to fourth in the constructors’ championship behind Ferrari. I think the battle last year with Ferrari was very tight and we continued to see the team make a step forwards on and off track, Ricciardo taking their first win since 2012.
This could be a start of a return to the front as we know despite selling off and leasing back their base, they continue to invest in the infrastructure and when in a few years the new wind tunnel comes online they could really make gains. In that interview, he says the sale and leases back of the MTC, should allow them to progress and fight for championships.
Alpine
Fernando Alonso was another driver reflecting on his comeback season, saying that it was a “luxury” to be able to leave and return to Formula One on his own terms after enjoying his comeback season with Alpine in 2021. I think he is different, and in the latter part of his career, he is still able to fight.
His teammate Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, has said he learned “quite a lot” from Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso during their first season as teammates. Backing up the analysis from above Ocon says the reparation for being uncompressing and difficult to work with, which Ocon was warned about, but once again he said they proved to be untrue.
We have seen a shift now across the midfield and the top teams over the last few years of having that older experienced driver with a younger or the first F2/GP2 from early 2010s coming through. I think, its working despite the fears about the Spaniard maybe being a disruptor.
Meanwhile the departure of executive director Marcin Budkowski, the belief is that there is going to be a wider reshuffle within the team following their first season. You had to be a bit surprised by the timing as they appeared to be making gains on the five-year plan and took their first win as a manufacturer in twelve years.
Alpha Tauri
Pierre Gasly has been reflecting on how he became Alpha Tauri’s team leader following a difficult first few years in the sport. Since being demoted from Red Bull midway through 2019, the Frenchman has started to find more confidence and consistency you need to ask was his move too soon in his career into Red Bull?
He believes in 2021 he was performing at his best level, Gasly certainly met his target of improving consistency and that saw him become a regular midfield contender. But the problem I think he had at Red Bull was being overshadowed by Max Verstappen, with the car largely being built around the Dutchman as well as potentially struggling with the pressure.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin has announced they will launch the AMR22 on Thursday 10th February, the AMR22 will give us all the first opportunity to see how the teams are going about the technical regulation change.
The following day they announced the departure of CEO & team principal Otmar Szafnauer who is being replaced by the former chief engineer at BMW Mike Krack. I think Krack has good experience looking at his CV and has worked with Sebastian Vettel before.
He said “Team Silverstone has always impressed me. It is full of talented people and real racers. That racer’s culture and values are what is required to succeed in motorsport – I know that and my new colleagues at Aston Martin know it, too.” Krack I think can combine this German/Austrian leadership with a British based team, like Mercedes and McLaren, to bring the team into the midfield.
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo had a mixed 2021 season, though they had some good results and were fighting with Williams for most of the season, team principal Fred Vasseur described the season as “good on performance” but “bad on results”.
You need to look at theire results they scored the same amount as Williams but often tenth to eight places with Williams best result, in normal races apart from Spa, being seventh to tenth. resulting in Williams scoring ten more points.
Haas
Mick Schumacher says feedback from the design has given him with “great expectations” for his second season. I think Schumacher was a driver who was overlooked and not able to show talent, but Haas took the gamble of not developing last years car because of the regulation change.
He said “The car looks to be very positive, from what I see and hear. So I have great expectations.” Haas surprised us all when they entered the sport in 2016, but since 2019 have slipped from the midfield to behind Williams they will be looking to move forward.
The Week Ahead
The week ahead we could see more on the story which isn’t going away as you would expect everyone is wanting answers to what happened in Abu Dhabi. We got the outline of the timeline of when the FIA report, but will that ramp up the pressure and unknows about Lewis Hamilton’s future.
We are beginning to get an outline of when cars will be launched, but I’m still thinking the days of the big glamours launches are over and we are heading towards the era of digital launches and pit lane. This season looks to be normal; we may start in the coming weeks.
Next weekend was due to be Autosport International, we will likely know what guests are speaking over the weekend and we will bring you the stories over the following days. That has been postponed because of the Omicron Variant and that was likely to be an event where we got to hear from at least a couple of drivers or senior personnel which sets the agenda.
We continue to wait to see whether we get any cancellations mainly Melbourne as we head closer to the freight deadline about this time. A decision needs to be made before the cut off at the start of February, we don’t know what the federal government terms of allowing people into the country will be
The Alpine story is likely to go on, at the time of writing there has been no announcement of the new structure. I think there is rumours starting that Otmar Szafnauer could end up with the French manufacturer, but we need to I think wait to hear from Renault CEO Luca de Meo or his deputy Clotilde Delbos what their plans are for a replacement.
You can see more on the stories which will shape the year ahead in Behind The Headlines – The Year Ahead (In News)
