Hello, the report into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was released concluding what we all thought, Michael Masi went rouge. As the sport looks to build faith again both from drivers, fans and teams how can it move forward? This time next week we will have had our first taste of the cars on track, with the opening race a month today are we heading for another season hopefully with less controversy
General News
Bahrain signed a new deal last week to stay on the calendar until 2036, meaning it will be the first of the new generation circuits to reach its 20th and 30th anniversary in 2024 and 2034 respectively. The kingdom of Bahrain was the first country in the Middle East to host an F1 race in 2004
“I am delighted we will be racing at the Bahrain International Circuit until 2036 where more incredible racing and excitement will be on show to thrill our fans,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said. “Since 2004 we have had some fantastic races in Sakhir and we cannot wait to be back there for the start of the 2022 championship as we begin a new era for the sport.
From 2023, the region will have four races until 2030 when Qatar returns after a year off due to the FIFA World Cup.
Season four of Drive To Survive will be released on Friday 11th March, a week before the Bahrain Grand Prix. The ten-part series has helped lift the profile and drive audiences across the world, enjoying particular success in the United States. While it is device for ‘misleading storyline’s from those who follow the sport, it has been popular with maybe those who don’t watch the sport.
I think it is good, though the fact we are skipping for example Bahrain to France to Portugal it can get confusing as sometimes you lose where you are the season.
On Monday the commission met and signed off on three sprint events will be held in 2022, after the original plan called for six. Two of the significant changes are pole position for both the sprint and the Grand Prix will be decided by the traditional qualifying and the top eight being awarded points eighth
Abu Dhabi Inquiry
The commission also agreed to changes to the way points will be awarded following the controversy at Spa last year, The points rules have been broken down further, with the top five receiving points if more than two laps are completed by less than 25% of the scheduled race distance is completed.
If the race leader has completed between 25%-50% of the scheduled race distance, the top nine receive points, while if the race leader has completed between 50%-75% of the scheduled race distance, the top ten receive points. These must include ‘racing laps’ without the safety car or a virtual safety car.
On Thursday the inquiry reported with Michael Masi has been removed as F1 race director as part of a restructure at the governing body. Masi’s position had in my view, drivers and teams become untenable, with the inquiry concluding what we all expected ‘Masi failed to correctly apply the rules in a late safety car period and had a direct impact on the outcome of the title race.’
The other big thing in terms of changes is the appointment of an alternating race director Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich. The other big change is the return of deputy race director Herbie Blash in an advisory role, Blash I think is there to restore trust and use his decades of experience to restore credibility.
Nicolas Latifi has revealed following the accident he hired security and received death threats following the crash. Again it feeds into this narrative we saw throughout 2021 of not the drivers, mainly everyone around them and the fans becoming bitter. While we knew this is a reminder of how toxic social media can be, looking sometimes at replies it can seem like people are dug in.
Mercedes
The big story of the week linked to the Abu Dhabi Inquiry was Lewis Hamilton saying he never planned to walk away from the sport, but said it was important he stepped back from things over the winter. Hamilton said he quickly concluded that he would come back in a fighting mood.
The teams car was launched on Friday, as hinted by Hamilton towards the end of last year, that they would ditch the black livery. I often think one of the things which has made them so successful in the hybrid era is this mindset, ‘we start from scratch every season, and it will be the case again.
George Russell says the team are demonstrating “motivation and fire” to bounce back after Lewis Hamilton’s controversial title defeat in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Englishman added that his focus this year will be on improving his own and his car performances, while setting himself “micro targets” along the way.
Mercedes over the last decade tend to grow stronger following defeat, however, could the fact that they were beaten throughout a season and with the regulation changes this year make that harder? Russell, I think maybe realistic with his personal development as we know this year is a huge step for him, the pressure might be his biggest
Ahead of the team’s car launch, the team announced seven new signings to its junior programme including the first woman, Luna Flux. Continuing the programme is Frederik Vesti who moves into F2, Andrea Kimi, Paul Aron and Daniel Guinchard completing in various F4 or equivalent series.
Yuanpu Cui was signed by Mercedes last year and will continue to race in karting for 2022, as will Alex Powell, who is set to move up to OK full-time this year. With
Red Bull
Red Bull are the latest team to sign a sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency platform, they are teaming up with Bybit. The team need more sponsorship now the money from Honda has gone, also the deal includes ‘enlivening the fan experience in F1 through digital innovation.’
The sport prides itself on being on the cutting edge and that goes with sponsorship, and over the last few years we have seen these types of deals. But while these deals are good we know the market is volatile when compared to traditional markets, it’s regulated through consensus.
Ferrari
Ferrari unveiled its new car the F1-75, it was one of the more radical designs we have seen in launch week. The livery has changed to a red and black design for the coming season. The new livery features black front and rear wings as well as halo, with its 75th-anniversary logo.
When launching the car, team principal Mattia Binotto said Ferrari had taken an “innovative approach” to the revolutionary new regulations. We know since the difficult 2020, the Italian manufacturer has pinned a lot of hope on this years regulation change.
The consensus at Ferrari appears to be they have the chance to fight for its first world championship since 2008, having struggled to compete with Mercedes and Red Bull over the past couple of years. But we will not know I believe until we go back to Barcelona in May.
McLaren
Last week, Lando Norris further extended his contract by a year taking his current deal up to 2025. Norris who debuted in 2019 was one of the stands out drivers last year, I think that prompted the further extension of the contract.
He said, “I see that as a benefit, one for myself: to have this longer contract and stay here for a while, and one for the team, I do see it as a performance benefit and motivation benefit for the mechanics, for the engineers and everyone in MTC.” Norris’s performances obviously prompted interest from other teams, and McLaren might of wanted to close that off, I think that he seems happy and invested in the project.
Money wasn’t the driving force he said, although terms have not been made public he has confirmed a pay rise. Norris’ teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s current deal, which started last year, runs until the end of the 2023 season.
Alpine
After weeks of speculation and the on-going restructure Otmar Szafnauer has been appointed as team principal, as the team moves to a more traditional team structure with his de facto predecessor David Brivio has moved to a new role as Director of Racing Expansion Projects and will oversee the development of young driver talent as well as look at Alpine’s involvement in other racing categories.
Szafnauer, I think is a good appointment, he has been at Force India / Racing Point / Aston Martin since 2008, he has been really good at creating value for money and I think given the right resources can he deliver what he did at Aston. I think it’s good that a manufacture has got him, but will the politics get in the way.
CEO Laurent Rossi having been open that he wanted a restructure at the top, Alpine has moved away from a previous triumvirate system and will now have a more standard structure with a designated team boss. Whether this more traditional structure yields better results
Alpha Tauri
Alpha Tauri unveiled a tweaked livery as it released video renderings of its 2022 car the AT03 on Monday. We didn’t see the full car, the launch being more of a teaser of a white and blue livery.
Meanwhile Franz Tost expects the budget cap to close up the field this season, but he anticipates an even bigger impact to be seen in 2023. This year the cap has been reduced by a further $5 million which brings the cap down to $140m. it will be interesting to see over the next few years whether these sliding reductions in the cap will bring the teams closer, but I think we need to wait a few years.
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo was the first team to hit the track with their 2022 car at Fiorano. Motorsport.com obtained photographs of the car running in a camouflage livery that it is expected will also be used for testing. Many teams use one of their filming days to shake down the cars.
Williams
Williams gave us a first look at its 2022 livery, it appears the team have gone down the route of prompting its British roots. I believe this year the team will be hoping that the regulation changes can get them further up the midfield.
The team has also removed the ‘Senna S’ logo for the first time since Ayrton’s death at Imola in 1994. Since 1995, the first season after Senna’s death at Imola driving a Williams FW16, the team had been displayed the Senna S logo on the nose of its car to honour the late Brazilian.
Team principal Jost Capito said the team wanted to “move on” and stop reminding its drivers of what happened at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, where Senna was killed.
“We have a new era, we have a new car. And we refurbished also our museum, and where we have a special area to celebrate Ayrton. I think we had to look now in the future and not showing the drivers the ‘S’ all the time they get in the car and being reminded of what happened.
The team will however is to increase it work with the families foundation, run by Ayrton’s sister Viviane, which raises money to support young Brazilians with education and social programmes.
Capito also says that the team has a long way to go before they can return to the top of the sport. I think that the team were hit the most and slipped the most during 2017-21 regulation period, but in the last two years I think there has been shoots of recovery. The question is can they get value for money and recover?
