F1 - 2024

[MiniDave]

Well Audi took another step today, hiring the guy away from Reds Bull......big money right now is on Newey going to Aston or Williams, but I think it would be great if he wound up at Audi instead!

[Brit_in_TX]

I don't think Newey will got to Audi as it will be an international move for him.  One of the reasons he turned down the Ferrari move is he would have to have moved to Italy or at least that is what the folks on Reddit think.

Max must be worried with 2 senior leaders from Red Bull leaving in less than a year.  Newey is responsible for the car, but Wheatley is the Sporting Director and is responsible for everything that happens at the track.  Have to wonder if this is the fall out from the Horner story earlier this year about his inappropriate behavior with a female colleague. 

[MiniDave]

More interesting rumors.....Alpine may get sold after all, but not to Andretti. Having hired Oliver Oakes in place of Bruno Famin....Oakes is principal of Hitech racing. The rumor is that Hitech and Alpine are going to merge. Now for the juicy part, Hitech is partially owned and funded by a Mr. Vladimir Kim. Mr. Kim is bestest buddies with one Mr. Mazepin, whose son was unceremoniously dumped from HAAS when Russia invaded Ukraine......Lil Nikky drove his F3 and F2 career with non other than HiTech, leading to the idea the he might come back to F1 thru the good graces of Mr. Kim's investment and HiTech taking over Alpine. Supposedly his ban was overturned by in March 2024 and he's been driving in the Asian LeMans series and has 2 wins in 3 races.

However, he no longer has an F1 superlicense, so that will present at least a temporary stumbling block.

As usual, follow the money is always the story......

[MiniDave]

So, summer break is over and we're back to racing!

As predicted, a lot of the driver pieces have fallen into place - Alpine have announced Jack Doohan will be racing for them next season - he is a straight promotion from their F3 and F2 teams, and he's been their reserve driver this year, so that's sort of a no brainer for them.

DannyRickyBobby has decided it's Red Bull or nowhere for him, so Perez needs to have a stunning finish to this season to retain his place in the team. Liam Lawson is all but confirmed for Red Bull Vcarb next season, so either Danny or Yuki will be looking for a ride. Danny said if he's not at Red Bull he's out.

Big money is on Bottas to retain his seat when Audi takes over, which leaves Zhou out too.

The only real question left now is Mercedes, and they seem to run hot/cold on bringing Kimi in next season - he's even said himself that he doesn't think he's quite ready for the big time yet, and this season has not been stellar for him in F2. If they don't bring him in, I wonder who they might sign for a one year deal? Maybe Yuki if Red Bull keep Danny there? Maybe Perez if they let him go?

[MiniDave]

Dutch GP - Zandvoort.

Lando on pole, Max next to him, but Max got away better and took the lead. 18 laps later Lando breezed by and that was the race - he won by 22 seconds over Max. Deja vu, huh Max?

Charles drove well, starting from 5th and finishing on the podium. He never was going to fight for the lead unless the front two tangled, so that was as much as Ferrari could hope for. Carlos also moved up - he started 10th and finished 5th, Piastri between him and Charles. Then came the two Mercedes, Russell leading the Hamster.

Lots of speculation about what Mercedes will do for their driver - they prefer to put Mick Schumacher in the Williams for the rest of the season, but Red Bull thinks Liam Lawson will be driving for them. Bottom line, after his FP3 shunt, Sargeant will probably be parked, maybe for good tho he may retain a reserve driver status with Williams.

Williams just can't afford to have their cars destroyed like this, they're on one of the smallest budgets as it is and this really sets them back as it also destroys their new upgraded parts. I don't know why Logan hasn't been able to do better and it's sad for him to miss his opportunity.

Kimi keeps saying he's not ready to jump into F1 but it seems Mercedes thinks he is - would it be better if they took Schumy and put him in the car for '25 and let Kimi get some more races under his belt before he jumps into the big time? If Schumy does well maybe he can catch onto another team then? Or maybe he stays at Merc and Kimi comes into Williams first? Of course, that would put Albon out.....could be another major silly season in the works for next year......

Alpine's driver situation is resolved with their reserve driver Jack Doohan coming aboard for 25 with Gastly. I hope they get their house in order quickly.

Going to be an interesting grid next season with all these rookies coming on track.

[Brit_in_TX]

Williams finally fired Sargeant!  He is being replaced by <drum roll please> Franco Colapinto - who I had never heard of before today.  I googled and he has been racing in F2 this season, was mid field for most of the season and is currently 6th in the championship. 

At face value it seems like an odd decision. The main reason for getting rid of Sargeant is he has not scored any points this year and had expensive crashes.  So giving the seat to a rookie who is doing OK in F2 seem logical to score more points and have less crashes!

The mentioned Liam Lawson as an option, but last time Williams talked about a Red Bull driver in their car - Mercedes got upset about loss of trade secrets about their engine.

Not sure what happened to Mick Schumacher, but he has an Alpine deal for sportscars and as well as Alpine reserve driver.  Also he is hardly know as a safe pair of hands as Haas almost fired him for too many crashes.

[MiniDave]

I also had never heard of Colapinto, the only thing I read was that he is a "Williams Academy" driver, so that's why they gave him the seat. They sure won't need him next season with Sainz and Albon driving for them. So what, back to F2 or will he become the reserve driver?

With all the talent that's hovering around the edges of F1 you'd think they'd might want to have some one audition......

[Brit_in_TX]

I wonder if they gave up the opportunity as he is their academy driver, and has no hope of winning the F2 championship. 

There is a huge blockage in getting rookies into F1.  Before they fired Logan, there was no full time rookie in F1 this year. 3/4s of the grid have done more than 100 GPs.

[MiniDave]

Today was Kimi Antonelli's debut in the Mercedes in FP1 and it went really well - Toto said his pace was astonishing and it was a case of trying to slow him down rather than have him go faster - right up until he hit the wall coming out of the parabolica corner, slamming George Russel's car into the barriers in a 45G hit.

The good news is that he was OK, and they were able to get George's car ready in time for FP2, and it seemed to have suffered no permanent ill effects.

Rumor in the paddock - someone is funding Colapinto to the tune of $500K per race for the rest of the season. Vowles says it isn't true but that a number of Argentine businesses have been on the horn to discuss getting their brand on the car, so make of it what you will...

So far Mercedes and McLaren look really strong, but Ferrari is not far behind

[MiniDave]

Monza:

Yay! A really good race with incredible passes, different strategies and an unexpected win for Ferrari!

The Red Bull domination is clearly over, at least for this year

[Brit_in_TX]

The championship is looking exciting.

Constructors is looking like a 3 way fight between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.  Mercedes is to far away at this time unless they have a run of good podium finishes.

Lando is 64 points behind Max, which seems like a lot, but he only needs to out score Max by 8 points a race.  Which is very feasible if McLaren are running at the front and Red Bull at the bottom end of the points.

[MiniDave]

Yes!

Also, it looks like Mercedes has made their decision and Kimi will be driving next to George next year. So, unless Red Bull decide to send Checo packing, pretty much all of the seats are accounted for, the lone exception being Sauber. No idea who will get the second seat there, but Bottas has the lead right now, and Zhou is saying things like he'll look forward to racing in a different series next year with the hope that he can come back to F1 in the future.....however, that strategy hasn't worked for Mick Schumacher. VCarb Red Bull is also a bit of a question mark as they've said all along that they want new drivers in there, not experienced ones and both of their current guys are not newbies.

One big question mark is where Adrian Newey will land.....it seems like Ferrari is out of the running now too.

[Brit_in_TX]

Newey is probably going to Aston Martin. 

Pretty excited to see at least 3 rookies on the grid. There is a number of average drivers that have retained their seats for too long in my opinion and that is simply due to the lack of testing available to give new drivers a chance to get up to speed.

[Brit_in_TX]

And the biggest signing of the season is confirmed, with Adrian Newey being confirmed at Aston Martin.  Reportedly on $100 million over  3 years!

[MiniDave]

Yep, and poor Logan Sargeant is out for the season, and probably for good. Bearman will fill in for Kmag while he serves his one race ban. This will be a real test for him as we all know the HAAS is not the same as the Ferrari.

[MiniDave]

So, qualli at Baku and a few surprises.....

Norris in P17 to start as he caught a yellow flag at just the wrong moment.

LeClerc on pole is a pleasant surprise - or is it? He's been on pole the last three races here - and made it the fourth time this year. Carlos will start in third, right behind him, and LeClerc says he hopes they can play a team game - meaning keep Piastri behind and don't let him beat LeClerc into turn one....even better if Carlos can get ahead of Piastri too!

Two rookies in the game too - Bearman had a pretty good outing, qualified ahead of the Hulk. And Colapinto beat Albon too - except they sent Albon out for Q3 with a fan stuck in the intake......he managed to get it out just at the end of the pit lane and tossed it to a marshall but he couldn't get his warm up lap done in time to post a time at the end of Q3, so he'll start 10th, with Colapinto in 9th.

Neither Mercedes had a stellar time of it with Russell in 5th and the Haminator in 7th. Red Bull also wasn't setting the time sheets on fire, Max falling behind his teammate at the end so Perez will start 4th and Max 6th. Alonso continues to make the Aston work better than Junior, he'll start 8th and Stroll the Lessor will go from 15th.

This race always has a safety car or two so strategy will play a role, and Ferrari - surprisingly - has done a fair job of it the second half of the season, so hopefully they can get their sums right for LeClerc.

No question the points tallies are getting interesting, it's possible that McLaren can come away from Baku with the lead in the constructors's.....not likely, but possible.

Should be an interesting race, especially if they can all stay out of the walls - but that's not likely either!

[MiniDave]

Wow! What a race!

Too bad about the finish.....but great racing thru out the whole race....congrats to Oscar for a great run.....

Another terrific finish for both McLarens puts them into lead of the constructor's championship by 20 pts, and Ferrari in third only 21 pts behind Red Bull. Due to the crash between Sainz and Checo, both rookies finished in the points, Colapinto in 8th and Bearman in 10th.

All three drivers cringed watching in the cool down room as they replayed the Sainz and Checo wreck.

And we get to hear yet another new anthem played - Australia this time! Fun to see George standing on the smallest step on the podium yet still taller than Charles.... 

[Brit_in_TX]

That was an intense race.  The crash at the end, Checo was more at fault than Sainz in my opinion.  Checo was behind and had room to his left to move over and for them both to get to the next corner, you cannot just see some one moving towards you and just let that happen to you.

Oscar really showed he is the real deal!

And Mclaren is leading the Constructors championship for the first time in a decade!

For the drivers championship, it is really whether Max can hang on.  He has a lead of over 60 points and with 7 races to go it is going to be hard for Norris to overhaul that with out winning and Max is significantly down the order. 

[MiniDave]

Singapore:

Looks like a pretty good fight between McLaren and Ferrari, with Vcarb and Williams as dark horses. Mercedes and Red Bull both are having a miserable weekend so far, but you can never count either team out.

Qually tomorrow should be fun!

[MiniDave]

Typical race in F1, but with new players - Norris got the lead from pole and never looked back, putting 20 seconds on Max in the #2 spot by the end of the race. The two Ferraris were on the back foot from the start as LeClec's time was deleted for exceeding track limits and Sainz crashed in Q3.....so they started 9th and 10th.

It's interesting to me that Colapinto is driving, as the seat he's in will not be available to him next year, but he's doing a terrific job, far better than Sargeant did in his almost 2 years with Williams. Some one will need to snatch him up but the only seat available is at Sauber, and I don't know if they're wanting a rookie - I think they're going to sign Bottas. But the number of experienced, name-brand drivers that he beat in this race is impressive, and I think he's earned a spot on the grid.

Everyone is saying that DannyRickyBobby is done, and Liam Lawson will take his seat at the next race......that the fastest lap he did in this race was a parting gift from the team.

Mercedes finished better than I expected, but I still don't see them as a front row team - but they're always there if someone makes a mistake or something happens to one of the lead cars. Mercs finished 4th and 6th, Ferraris 5th and 7th.

[MiniDave]

So, one of the absolute worst kept secrets in F1 came true today as Danny Ric was relieved of his driving duties, to be replaced for the rest of the season by Liam Lawson.

It's possible he could find a drive in 25 or 26, but I think it's very unlikely.....I expect he'll head into sports cars or maybe even NASCAR? A number of F1 drivers had successful careers in other series after their F1 days ended.....

[Brit_in_TX]

The way it has been handled is a joke by Red Bull's management. However, he has not been performing so they needed to do something. Liam Lawson is getting a lot of shit online, but this decision is nothing to do with him. 

Danny Ric will have plenty of opportunities elsewhere, Indycar, NASCAR or Sports cars.  Red Bull have said they want him to be an ambassador, not sure he will want to do that.

[MiniDave]

I don't remember another month long break in the schedule after the summer break?

CoTA weather is looking perfect for this year's race, should be dry and warm. Remember the year when it rained so hard the teams were having rowing races up the pit straight?

Unless something drastic happens, it looks like we'll have a split championship, with McLaren winning the constructors and Max the driver's. The only mystery left is whether Ferrari can come 2nd and demote Red Bull to third in the constructors. Who would have thought Red Bull would have this big of a drop off in performance after the start they had? Reminds me of Aston's fall off last season......and they really haven't recovered from it have they?

I know Daddy BigBux wants Junior to play with his race cars, but at what point does he get serious about all the money he's throwing at his son's career and realize that money could be far better spent somewhere else? Either by selling the team or getting a better driver? Especially with Newey coming on board, won't he want to maximize the team's potential behind the wheel too? I think they should be lining up their next drivers now - no disrespect to Alonso, but his final sell by date has to be coming  up soon, and there is a lot of talent already waiting in the wings for a shot at the big show......seems like you'd want to get at least one rookie on board for next season and maybe get a Sainz caliber driver signed up for '26? Point being, I think they're leaving it too late if they're going to make a change, and if they're not - well it seems a waste of Newey's talent and Pop's money.

And what of Alpine? They've scuttled their engine program, but claim they're emphatically NOT selling the team, but switching to Merc engines for 2026. I wonder how all those Hollywood investors feel about throwing so much cash at this team now?