Race Debrief

Can Ferrari Finally Challenge Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix?

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:03:40 GMT

At the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari surprised everyone by securing a 1-2 finish. Carlos Sainz delivered an impressive performance after having undergone surgery to remove his appendix just two weeks prior. This has left many fans wondering whether Ferrari is a legitimate threat to Red Bull, which has dominated the grid for the last two years. To answer this question, let's analyze their performances this season. With that, we should be able to come to a more accurate conclusion.

Bahrain Grand Prix

Max Verstappen ahead of Charles Leclerc at the start of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix

In Bahrain, Charles Leclerc qualified on the front row, but was disappointed with the result. He believed he could have taken pole position, but due to having a poor final run was unable to compete. Was this true? Did the Ferraris have the pace to compete with the mighty Red Bulls in Qualifying truly? Ultimately, the answer was yes, as Charles Leclerc's time in Qualifying 2 was faster than Max Verstappen's pole time. Unfortunately, during the race, Leclerc faced a brake issue that caused the temperature of his brakes to fluctuate between one another up to 200 degrees. Ferrari reported that this issue slowed Leclerc's lap times by about seven tenths of a second per lap from the start of the race.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, also experienced a brake issue, which was less severe than Charles'. Sainz finished in third place after overtaking his teammate and George Russell's Mercedes, finishing just five seconds behind Sergio Perez in second.

So, while Ferrari appeared to be fast in qualifying, were they anywhere close in the race? In terms of the results, no. However, if you read between the lines, the average race pace in Bahrain showed that the Red Bulls were about four-tenths of a second per lap quicker than the Ferraris. If you subtract the seven-tenths of a second that Leclerc lost every lap, we can see that the finishing results could have potentially been different. Without the issue, Ferrari could have potentially challenged the Red Bull for the victory in the race. It's impossible to say with any certainty, but it is certainly possible that without the brake issues, Leclerc and Sainz might have finished on the podium and been much closer to Verstappen than the final results suggest.

Race Pace Analysis for the Bahrain Grand Prix (Average of Laptimes with Outliers removed from the dataset)

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The Race Start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

In Jeddah, the Ferraris displayed a different qualifying pace than in Bahrain. Although Leclerc qualified on the front row again, he was almost four-tenths slower than Max, who secured the pole position this time. Unfortunately, Sainz was unavailable for the weekend, so we cannot make a representative comparison for Leclerc. However, Oliver Bearman, who replaced Sainz, made a commendable result and put his car in the 11th position for the Grand Prix.

Perez overtook Leclerc early on during the race, and the positions remained unchanged until the end. On the other hand, Bearman made his way up to a fantastic 7th position due to strategic blunders by the 4 and 44 cars. The finishing gap of 30 seconds to Ferrari was repeated; however, Ferrari did not face any issues that had troubled them in Bahrain. This should have definitively indicated that Red Bull is the faster car and has a chance of winning every race again, right? Not exactly.

Jeddah is a very high-speed circuit and is one of the, if not the fastest, circuit on the entire calendar, especially regarding high-speed corners. In 2022 and 2023, Red Bull found its most significant advantage in high-speed corners, which was evident in races like Japan and Qatar last year, where Max finished over 40 seconds ahead of anyone in the field and over a minute ahead of any non-McLaren (who is also very strong in high speeds). This explains why Red Bull had a much faster pace than Ferrari that weekend since Ferrari gained most of its advantage from low-speed corners, of which Jeddah had only one.

The race pace seemed similar to what we had seen in Bahrain on paper (see below). The biggest surprise to me was McLaren's lack of speed during the weekend compared to Ferrari. Last season, McLaren was typically the second-strongest team, particularly on high-speed tracks. However, Ferrari was still about three-tenths ahead.

Race Pace Analysis for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (Average of Laptimes with Outliers removed from the dataset)

Australian Grand Prix

The Race Start of the Australian Grand Prix

During practice, the Ferraris seemed to perform better than the Red Bulls, with Leclerc topping every session except for one, which his teammate won in FP3. However, during qualifying, Leclerc reported feeling less comfortable in the car than he had during practice, and this showed in the timing sheets, as he ended up behind his teammate in P3. On the other hand, Sainz managed to secure P2, just behind Verstappen and only two-tenths off the pace of the Dutchman. Many people expected Verstappen to dominate the race again, with the Ferraris falling behind as usual, but this time, they were wrong.

Verstappen held onto his lead going into Turn 1 on the first lap, while Sainz remained in P2. Leclerc fell back to P4 after being overtaken by Norris. It only took Sainz one lap to take the lead from Verstappen, who suffered from brake issues. However, these issues did not affect how much faster the Ferrari was early in the race. Max's brake problems became more significant when he was stuck behind Sainz, creating turbulent hot air, exacerbating the problem and forcing him to retire from the event.

Ferrari undercut Norris and took P2 in the race, and that's how the top three finished, with Ferrari securing its first 1-2 since Bahrain 2022. In the second Red Bull, Perez was hindered by a tear-off on his final stint, which prevented him from catching Piastri and Norris. However, this damage cost him around a tenth at most, and he may not have caught up anyway, finishing in P5.

Ferrari topped the Average Race Pace chart, with McLaren coming in second, just a tenth off Ferrari's pace. Red Bull, on the other hand, was half a second behind Ferrari in this race. Although Verstappen did not finish the race, and the data comes from Perez, it is unlikely that Max is half a second per lap faster than Checo would have been. Regardless of Verstappen's DNF, Ferrari had the better car in Australia. It is impossible to say whether they would have won the race, but it is also impossible to say that Ferrari would not have won the race, even if Max had no issues.

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Race Pace Analysis for the Australian Grand Prix (Average of Laptimes with Outliers removed from the dataset)

The Future of the Scuderia

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Ferrari plans to introduce a significant upgrade to their package for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix. This upgrade has been rumored to be worth upwards of 3-4 tenths per lap. However, these estimations are typically exaggerated as it is very hard to find the peak performance of a car. This upgrade, however, should provide Ferrari a much more competitive package than they had in Jeddah. Japan is full of high-speed corners similar to Jeddah, which means this circuit will likely favor the Red Bull concept. If Ferrari can maintain a similar level of performance as they did in Australia or Bahrain, it would show they have made significant progress with their car already in such a short time. As of now, Red Bull is still the team to beat, but Ferrari may have a slim chance of causing an upset this season.

With Ferrari's upward trajectory, for the first time, there seems to be that slim hope that Ferrari fans have been clinging to for nearly the past 20 years. With seven-time WDC Lewis Hamilton pairing superstar Charles Leclerc, their lineup couldn't be stronger on paper. Their car development has progressed leagues ahead of any other team over the winter, and it also continues as the season progresses. Last year, Ferrari finally realized the fatal flaw of their design after over a year of searching. This has led Ferrari to push toward the front once again and Mercedes to remain fighting for 3rd in the WCC as they have still yet to find their fatal flaw. Time will tell if this upward trajectory will continue, but for the first time in forever, there is hope for the Tifosi. Can they live up to the newfound expectations?

Tales from the Tarmac: The Battle for Survival at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 13:16:59 GMT

What if I were to tell you that one of Formula One's most prestigious and pensioned teams was on the brink of ruin and only two weeks away from potentially being forced to fold entirely?

The Risks and Rewards

At the back of the grid, Sauber spent most of its weekends running near the bottom of the order alongside rival team Manor Marussia. Going into 2016, FOM and the FIA wanted to ensure that there were more than 20 cars on the grid for the season, so they rushed in a very young team in Haas, which had only a year and a half of preparation before making the jump into the top flight of Motorsport. However, due to the team being rushed into the sport, the Concorde Agreement that the teams signed in 2015 was used, which meant that only the top 10 teams would receive any prize money at all. If you were to finish in 11th, or last, then you would receive nothing. This was detrimental to teams like Sauber, Manor/Marussia, and Force India who had minimal funding in the sport and their entire future depended on receiving the prize money. This meant that going into the season, there was massive pressure on these teams to ensure they didn't finish last.

The Contenders

Manor

Manor was a team that had been having a hard time qualifying for races within the 107% rule for years. However, things started to look up for them when they partnered with Mercedes, who provided them with powerful engines from 2014-2018. These engines were more potent than any other engines on the grid, which helped Manor improve their position on the field, even though they were still at the back of it.

In order to seal the deal, Mercedes also put their young development driver, Pascal Wherlein, in the car. This decision made sense because Pascal was already known as an emerging superstar in the Junior Formula, and he was also being paid to drive for the team. Manor had always struggled with funding, so bringing in a driver who was both talented and being paid to drive seemed like a smart move. Alongside Pascal, Ryo Haryanto, a pay driver, was also part of the team. However, his main contribution was providing money to a team that was already struggling financially.

Sauber

Sauber entered the 2015 season with three drivers on their roster: Giedo van der Garde, who had performed well for them in 2014 and had also shown his skills in previous seasons with Caterham; Marcus Ericsson, who had driven for Sauber in both 2014 and 2015; and Felipe Nasr, a Brazilian driver who was announced as the team's newest addition just a month before the Australian Grand Prix. In that race, Nasr impressed by finishing in fifth place, which remains the highest debut finish for a Brazilian driver in Formula One history. His performance earned him a spot on the team for the following year.

Despite the promising start, Sauber encountered a setback when van der Garde, who had a contract with the team for the 2015 season, took legal action against them. The dispute resulted in the team having to pay out van der Garde's contract and additional damages, which significantly impacted their funding for the 2016 season. As a result, their car was slow and uncompetitive, and it was widely regarded as one of the weakest on the grid.

The Skirmishes

To start the year, neither Sauber nor Manor were anywhere close to finishing in the points (despite Wehrlein running in P2 after a hectic qualifying in China put him inside the top 12, the only time Manor ever accomplished this, and a chaotic start which led to both Ferrari's and Kvyat being involved in an incident). However, one weekend in Austria would change that. Going into the weekend, the Red Bull Ring had changed massively to suit the new series racing at the MotoGP track. This led to much more runoff, massively altered curbs, and the track completely resurfaced. In Austria Qualifying, Pascal Wehrlein put his Manor Marussia into a spot that had only been once before: P10.

In its entire history that goes back to the Virgin Racing era, Manor Marussia had never achieved a top 10 qualifying result, except with Pascal. However, Wehrlein was determined to change that by driving his Manor into 10th place on the grid for the Sunday race in a wet qualifying. Nevertheless, things got complicated when Pascal came to a halt in the wrong grid slot after the formation lap. Pascal mistakenly took Massa's vacant spot, while Massa was starting from the pitlane. Just half a second before the start light procedure began, Wehrlein was able to reverse into his correct slot one row behind. This quick-thinking move by Pascal saved him from incurring a penalty. In the end, retirements from Vettel, Kvyat, and Perez, along with Hamilton's failure to score due to a late incident with his title rival Nico Rosberg, put a battle for the 10th position on the table.

Nasr in the Sauber had benefited from a late Safety Car, which put him ahead of Pascal. Due to Perez' late retirement and the incident between Rosberg and Hamilton, their fight was for an all-important point—a point that could play a significant part in who finished ahead, cost millions in prize money, and even mean the entire team would survive.

On lap 62, Pascal attempted an overtake on Nasr by moving to the inside. Nasr tried to make a switchback on the exit of Turn 3. As they approached Turns 4 and 5, Pascal had the advantage, but Nasr had the inside line, causing Pascal to be pushed into the dirt. Pascal had to back off and the overtake failed.

However, on lap 65, Wehrlein had another opportunity to overtake Nasr. This time, Wehrlein was successful and managed to overtake Nasr into T5. With this, he secured a single point for his team, Manor. This point is significant for Manor's survival in the competition.

A Contentious Drivers' Market

During the summer break, Manor and Mercedes made a deal to replace Pascal Wehrlein with fellow Mercedes development driver Esteban Ocon in the middle of the season, after Ocon showed great promise in GP2. Ocon performed well enough compared to Wehrlein, and Mercedes wanted to give him a chance in a more competitive team. So, in 2017, they moved Ocon to Force India, where he was paired with Sergio Perez. Meanwhile, Wehrlein remained with Manor to continue his development.

This left a vacant seat at Manor, which was filled by Felipe Nasr, a driver from one of Manor's rivals. Nasr had shown solid promise compared to his teammate in 2016, and he demonstrated his potential in 2015 when he beat Ericsson easily. However, Nasr and Ericsson had a few collisions, on and off the track.

Felipe Nasr signed his new contract with Manor ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, his home race. At that time, Sauber was in a precarious position as they weren't even sure if they could compete in 2017. Finishing 10th would provide them with the prize money they needed to make ends meet, however with two rounds to go, they sat precariously in P11 with no points on the season.

The Battle of Interlagos

Going into the Brazilian Grand Prix, the Manor pair of Wehrlein and Ocon qualified in P19 and P20, ahead of the two Saubers in P21 and P22. However, something seemed different today. The weather in Sao Paulo was unpredictable as always, and spit out a massive storm that meant the race was forced to start under a Safety Car until the start of Lap 8. Due to many cars attempting to pit for Intermediate Tyres, both Manors and Saubers ran briefly inside the top 10. Marcus Ericsson, however, crashed on lap 13 on the pit straight bringing the safety car back out once again. This propelled Nasr into 6th, Ocon 8th, and Pascal 9th. After 6 laps of running under the safety car, we saw around 3 seconds of green flag running before Raikkonen had an incident almost identical to that of Ericsson, spinning across the track before hitting the wall. This meant that Nasr was in P7, Ocon in P9, and Wehrlein in P10.

The race was red-flagged, and there was a 35-minute delay before restarting again behind the safety car; however, seven laps later, it was again red-flagged as the conditions were deemed still too dangerous (see, it isn't just the new management.) This propelled Nasr into 6th, Ocon 8th, and Pascal 9th. After 10 laps of running, Pascal was struggling and dropped back into 14th, and Ocon was still running a brilliant 9th, meanwhile Nasr was holding steady in P6 in the Sauber, which this late in the race was probably starting to get a nosebleed. It was abundantly clear that this was going to be the race that decided the future of these two teams. On lap 49, Felipe was in the wall. Not our Felipe, it was Massa who was in what was supposed to be his last ever Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Manors were starting to fall back. Ocon was in 12th and Pascal was in 14th, but Nasr was holding strong in P7 as the Safety car was deployed. On lap 56, the race restarted, and Nasr was into P6 behind Vettel after Verstappen pit for Intermediates under the Safety car. There was no holding off Max, as he drove past Nasr quite easily. Hulkenburg and Ricciardo followed shortly thereafter, but Nasr was able to hold onto 9th. A P9 finish. After what was a long and grueling race, Nasr was able to hold onto P9 in his home race, scoring his and his team's first points of the season. This result was enough to put Sauber ahead of Manor in the standings, and a deficit eventually too much to surmise as Abu Dhabi had its typical boring race, and the Manor and Saubers had no chance at a good result.

Into the Sunset

At the season's end, it was announced that Manor was forced to close their doors due to finishing last and receiving no prize money for the season. In an ironic twist of fate, Manor was forced to close its doors due to the driver it had employed for 2017, Felipe Nasr, who also had his Formula One career end abruptly solely due to him having an incredible drive. Sauber, a team that has existed since 1993, fought for their life to remain in the sport, and due to the brilliance of Felipe Nasr, a driver whose career ended one race later, lived to see another day. If it wasn't for this, Manor likely would have replaced their spot and probably would be around even today.

These stories matter.

Most people may only focus on the teams and drivers at the front of the field, but in my opinion, some of the greatest racing moments and battles in history happen in the middle and bottom of the field, just below the public's view. This story shows and highlights that in a way that is unparalleled to most others that happen at the upper end of the grid.

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Aston Martin's Magical Start to 2023

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 17:46:42 GMT

AI Summary

Aston Martin's 2022 concept drew attention due to its similarity to Red Bull's RB18, leading to suspicions of a potential transfer of secrets.
Fernando Alonso joined Aston Martin after a heated season with Alpine, and expressed optimism in the team's plan to fight for Championships in the near future.
Aston Martin showcased innovative designs during the season, including a double T-tray and a unique rear wing design, which were later outlawed in the regulations for 2023.
Aston Martin surprised the paddock with their strong performance in the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Fernando Alonso finishing in third place despite being hit by Lance Stroll.
The team's history includes successful periods as Jordan Grand Prix, Force India, and Racing Point, with Lawrence Stroll taking over and rebranding the team to Aston Martin in 2021. They have set ambitious goals and made significant investments to accelerate their path to championship contention.

A Rather Interesting 2022

When Aston Martin brought a significant overhaul to their concept in Barcelona during the 2022 season, it drew quite some attention from the other teams in the paddock, most importantly because of its remarkable similarity to Red Bull's RB18. Considering that Red Bull's former Head of Aerodynamics Dan Fallows had just joined the team a month earlier as the Technical Director at the end of his gardening leave, there was a bit of suspicion and around the paddock of a potential transfer of secrets. Red Bull's pitwall even featured green cans of their drink, which was probably either a coincidence or a clever gag by the ever sassy marketing team.

While the allegations would be quelled after an FIA investigation that would reveal that Aston Martin had worked on a similar concept since late 2021, it did put Fallows' name out there as someone to look out for. In interviews that he'd go on to give that season, Fallows stressed that the team's 2023 contender would be much better as the team would gradually move into and adopt its new state of the art facility in Silverstone with all new equipment and resources, bankrolled by team owner Lawrence Stroll.

After Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement midway through the season, the seat would be taken up by Alpine's Fernando Alonso after a rather heated season with the team based out of Enstone and Viry. It did set off a particularly ridiculous chain of events with Piastri's contractual situation, but on the other hand, it was a move rather widely criticised for being a downgrade from the team that had been P4 in the Constructors' standings. It was reported that Nando (short for Fernando) wanted a longer contract than Alpine were willing to sign with him, and it played a key role in him making a switch. In a statement to the press, he expressed optimism in Aston Martin's plan and vision to fight for Championships in the near future and a willingness to play a key role in that transition.

While it lacked pace compared to the rest of the grid, the team did show some awe-inspiring innovation throughout the season, include the double T-tray and a rather peculiar, more traditional rear wing design which teams praised but were hesitant to copy due to the budget cap, and which would later be outlawed in the regulations for 2023.

The Turnaround in 2023

Most teams worked hard over the winter to adjust their cars to the modified regulations for 2023, the most important ones being a significantly higher ride height which would reduce the significance of the ground effect in producing the car's downforce and move it back to the wings, and allowing a bit more leeway in terms of aerodynamic outwash.

Most analysts expected a continuity of the 2022 pecking order once again, with a little rearrangement around the rather close lower end of the midfield. There were a few murmurs of major engine gains and of a much faster car from Maranello, but when do they not?

Car launches began in late January, with some teams like Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Aston Martin choosing to show their real cars while others like Red Bull preferred to don a veil of secrecy. But all most people could do was speculate until the cars hit the track at Bahrain for the year's pre-season testing.

Astonishment in Bahrain

As the teams arrived in Bahrain to set everything up, there was a rumor floating around the paddock that alleged that Lance Stroll from Aston Martin had suffered a wrist fracture, only to be confirmed in the leadup to the test and was replaced by 2022 Formula 2 Champion Felipe Drugovich, one of Aston Martin's reserve drivers.

What most teams didn't expect is the blitzing pace from the Aston Martin AMR23, which was on par with the Ferraris and Mercedes on race pace simulations. Many chalked it up to low fuel runs (because a lighter car is faster) and so on, but one man in that garage was beaming. A man who had spent a decade away from the top step of the podium, Fernando Alonso. They had everything to fight for in the first Grand Prix, and to convert the hype into something tangible.

Coming into the first race weekend, Alonso was P2 in Free Practice 1 and P1 in Free Practice 2 and 3, setting the Formula 1 fandom ablaze with hype. Come qualifying, Fernando would only be P5 with Lance in P8, but the Aston garage was full of optimism since this was much better than most of their results in the previous season, and with promising race pace from the long runs in free practice.

Fernando has always been great at race starts, and Bahrain was no exception. While he was hit by Lance at Turn 8, he used the Aston's amazing race pace to overtake other cars one by one, and could extend his stints with significantly lower degradation. A couple of clever overtakes past Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz saw him finish P3, with Lance in P6 despite all his injuries.

The team that fought to just be in the points in the previous season was now on the podium on merit. And it was just a sign of things to come.

It wasn't a one show wonder. So far, the team has been scoring consistent points and podiums with Fernando and a few points with Lance as well!

A History of the Team

The team based out of Silverstone has quite a long history of punching above its weight. Founded by Eddie Jordan in 1991 as the Jordan Grand Prix team, the team scored 13 points in its debut season, finishing fifth in the constructors' standings, a remarkable achievement considering there were 12 teams on the grid back then, and only the top 6 cars were awarded points. While the lack of capital or the resources compared to that of a works team kept them away from championship contention, the team had its moments in the sun with Rubens Barrichello's podium at the 1994 Pacific Grand Prix in Aida, Japan and a race win with Damon Hill at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, the best result in the team's history, being a 1-2 finish with Ralf Schumacher in the other Jordan Mugen Honda. An eccentric character, Jordan was the team principal to give Michael Schumacher a debut in Formula One at the behest of Mercedes in 1991 at the Belgian Grand Prix, and later negotiated a deal with Benetton to transfer Michael to their team. (And he took a payday for both!).

Prior to the 2005 season, Jordan sold the team to the Midland group, and the team retained the Jordan name for another year before rebranding to the Midlands F1 (MF1) team in 2006, only to be sold to the Dutch company Spyker for the 2007 season. Later that year, the Spyker F1 team was sold to a consortium named "Orange India" led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol. The team was renamed Force India for the 2008 season, and Otmar Szafnauer was brought in as the team principal in October 2009.

Under the Force India banner, the team was known as one of the most efficient teams in terms of money, pulling out some special performances from the bag on their day, and consistently fighting in the midfield. The 2016 Force India season was the most successful season in the team's history up to that point, as they finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 173 points.

Team co-owner Vijay Mallya, was not so efficient with his spending, and was found to have financed his extravagant lifestyle on debt from multiple Indian banks, and was embroiled in multiple lawsuits regarding the same, resulting in the team entering adminstration in 2018, threatening the livelihoods of over 400 team members in the process as well as the existence of the team. However, given the team's rich history of success, it found many potential buyers, including consortiums led by billionaires Lawrence Stroll and Dmitri Mazepin, with both having a vested interest in owning a team to give their respective sons Lance Stroll (who was an F1 driver with Williams) and Nikita Mazepin (who was competing in GP3). Ultimately, the consortium led by Stroll outbid the rest, rebranding the team to Racing Point. Lawrence moved his son over to his own Formula 1 team, from his place at Williams, replacing Force India driver Esteban Ocon who was basically forced out of the grid.

Under the leadership of the fashion tycoon, the team saw a significant increase in funding. They finished seventh in the standings in 2019, but would see a turnaround in 2020 with their now infamous "Pink Mercedes", a near part-to-part clone of the 2019 championship winning Mercedes AMG W10. This caused quite a ruckus up and down the grid, with many teams protesting the move. While most of it was quite legal, they were found guilty of copying the brake ducts used by Mercedes in 2019 and were therefore fined £400,000 and stripped off 15 points in the Constructors' championship. Despite that, they finished fourth in the constructors' standings, with a remarkable P20 to P1 win for Sergio Perez. During the same year, Lawrence Stroll would lead another consortium to take over the Aston Martin Lagonda brand and would become the Executive Chairman, only to brand the team to the Aston Martin Formula 1 team for 2021. They signed Sebastian Vettel alongside Lance for the 2021 season, leaving Sergio without a seat, being the second time they'd do this to a driver in 3 years. However, it turned out to be quite lucky for Sergio as he got a seat with the Red Bull team, who were gearing up for championship contention the next year.

Frustrated with the rather outdated infrastructure, the team also began work on a state of the art $200M factory in Silverstone in 2021, with a brand new wind tunnel to go along. While this would not impact their 2021 season, where they would finish P7 in the standings despite a podium at Baku and almost another one at Hungary before disqualification, it showed the team's vision to build up to championship contention.

Ambition and Targets

(Partially Opinionated)

Formula One is primarily an engineering exercise, but like most sports, advertising pays the bills. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" has been a popular summarisation of this phenomenon for decades now, and it remains true to this day... Or does it?

With the current Concorde agreement, there can only be 12 teams on the grid, with the current grid consisting of 10 teams. With F1's recent rise in popularity, that has given each team a considerable amount of visibility. This has opened a window of opportunity for teams lower down the pecking order as they've gained some brand value as well. One of the teams that has perhaps best capitalised on this wave has been Haas, who are content with just surviving as a (lower) midfield team as long as they get enough brand visibility that the CNC/Industrial Equipment brand also run by Gene Haas benefits off of the global advertising.

For some teams, this has waned off the motivation to win on Sunday. Participating in Formula 1 is expensive, and winning, significantly so. So why spend more when you can achieve much of what you desire for much lesser? The Alpine (aka Renault/Lotus) team has a history of setting ambitious targets without adequate funding or a proper management structure to back it up, which always results in the fabled "5 year plan" getting a renewal or an extension.

Aston's strategy, it seems, is to accelerate the revival of the car grand by the marketing themselves using their success (instead of just a presence) in F1. It helps that Lawrence has been a racing enthusiast for decades now with close ties to Ferrari (he has owned a Ferrari dealership in Quebec), and as the owner of Mont-Tremblant circuit in Quebec since 2000. Earlier this year, Lawrence told investors and media that introducing the Aston Martin Vantage as the alternative Safety Car in the sport already drove up sales for the on-road model.

Investment and Talent

With their ambitions set, the team went on a hiring and retooling spree, including a new factory, a new wind tunnel, and poaching top talent from various teams up and down the grid. They hired multiple talented engineers and staff from higher up the grid, including Mercedes' Eric Blandin and Red Bull's Dan Fallows as the Chief Aerodynamicist and Technical Director respectively. Fallows could only join a couple of months into the 2022 season since he was put on a gardening leave by his former team, a period of time during which an employee is still under contract but not working, which prevents them from working for a competitor. According to Fallows, Aston quadrupled his salary.

The Path Ahead

The team had set its sight to be ready for championship contention by 2025/26, but were in for a pleasant surprise earlier this year. Having moved into the new factory, they will probably accelerate those plans a bit further if they can afford to under the cost cap. They benefited from the wind tunnel advantage for the first half of the year as well, which will wane significantly as the ranking and allocations are reset for the second half of the season. However if the current trajectory is any indication of what's to come and their new upgrades end up performing well, Red Bull might finally see some competition.

Disclaimer

The AI summary is the only LLM (AI) generated content in the article. The rest has been written (and titled) by a human (i.e, the author).

Uncovering the Team Principals' Silly Season

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 10:21:45 GMT

Setting the Stage

To analyze this chaotic sequence of events, we must go back to the first domino that set it all off.

Scuderia Ferrari is known for their extremely political environment, with the team's intricate connection with the road car brand leading to an executive-controlled organizational structure. They rarely seem to rely on the team principal's judgement, and that is reflected in the history of that position. The office of the Scuderia Ferrari team principal has seen many occupants including Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci (for just 6 months!), Maurizio Arrivabene, and Mattia Binotto up to 2022. However, Mattia's tenure came to an end as he announced his resignation (on 29th November 2022, just a bit more than a week after the season ended) from the position of team principal after what was a very disappointing year for the Scuderia despite having a car that could mount a challenge for the championship.

Mattia's resignation opened a floodgate of rumors regarding possible replacements, with the names of Andreas Seidl and Frédéric Vasseur speculated to be in the mix, albeit already being in charge of other teams down the paddock. Vasseur's name was corroborated by many sources and he was speculated to be the most likely replacement with Sauber's close working relationship with Ferrari.

The next major announcement, and perhaps the most unexpected one, came from Williams Racing on 12th December, when they announced the exit of Jost Capito, their team principal and CEO since 2021, and FX Demaison, their technical director. While there were rumors surrounding Ferrari and Alfa Romeo Sauber, there were none about Williams. Jost's exit sparked many rumors around the reasoning for his departure and his replacement. While the announcement from Williams made it seem like he'd retire given the fact that he delayed that for taking the helm at Williams, many speculated that he'd be a likely candidate to replace Vasseur at Sauber given Audi's takeover of Sauber and his history with the Volkswagen group.

The very next day, the F1 community would be bombarded with articles as the team principal silly season went into full swing, with various transfers and promotions. Alfa Romeo Sauber announced the exit of Frédéric Vasseur, confirming the rumors. Half an hour later, the Scuderia announced his appointment as their Team Principal and General Manager from the 9th of January, 2023.

Nearly 2 hours later, there was another unexpected piece of news as McLaren Racing announced that Andreas Seidl, team principal of the McLaren Formula 1 team, would be leaving, with Andrea Stella, former Ferrari engineer & currently McLaren executive director, replacing him as the head of the organisation. The motivation behind Seidl's move would become clear soon as Sauber announced that he'd be joining them as CEO (and notably, not team principal, yet) as Audi welcomed their move.

On 13th January, 2023, Williams announced that James Vowles would be their new Team Principal and would join the team leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

On 26th January, 2023, Alfa Romeo Sauber announced that Alessandro Alunni Bravi would be their "Team Representative", while continuing to be the MD of the team.

This image is unavailable.

The Announcements regarding F1's biggest team principal shake-up in a long while | Via @F1

The Team Principals Involved

Jost Capito

(CEO and Team Principal, Williams Racing → Exit)

History

Jost Capito, who's German by birth, has a rich history in the world of motorsport, with almost 30+ years of experience in this domain. Having started with BMW as his first foray into the sport in 1985, he worked with their high-performance engine development department for a few years, including being a part of the crew that won the Paris-Dakar rally in the truck class. This was followed by a move into Porsche's Racing Division in 1989, which would see him gain his entry into the Volkswagen family, with whom he'd go on to spend a significant portion of his career. He switch to Sauber in 1996 as a member of the executive committee, his first outing that'd bring him close to the Formula 1 paddock, only to move into Ford, overseeing the development of the Focus Mark 1 RS for the WRC, a car that'd go on to win the manufacturers' championship in 2006 and 2007. He returned to Volkswagen in 2012 and was the Director of Motorsport for a team that dominated WRC for 3 years.

Jost Capito at a WRC event | Via WRC.com

He announced a surprising move to the position of McLaren Racing's CEO in January 2016 after being appointed by then McLaren chairman Ron Dennis, but his move would be delayed to 1st September as Volkswagen asked him to stay until they could appoint a worthy successor. He finally joined the team for the 2016 Italian Grand Prix. However, his tenure at McLaren would be cut short as Dennis would be ousted from the team, with Zak Brown taking over Capito's role as the CEO.

Tenure at Williams

That was not the end of his tryst with F1, though. Williams, once a championship-winning team and a force to be reckoned with, perhaps most notably for their FW14B (one of the most successful active suspension cars in F1), was in a dire condition. Dorilton Capitol's purchase of the financially struggling team from the Williams family resulted in the exit of Claire Williams as the team principal as the new owners sought to restructure the team for an aspirational return to their winning ways of yore. They brought in Jost to lead the team as the CEO, given his experience and success across various levels of motorsport, and Jost agreed to delay his retirement, joining the team for the 2021 season.

Jost Capito at Williams Racing | Via williamsf1.com

Jost's tenure at an ailing Williams team wasn't off to the smoothest start as he saw the lacklustre condition of the team's infrastructure, organization and development. Simon Roberts was appointed the role of Team Principal on September of 2020 when Dorilton took over to oversee the transition to the new owners, but following an internal restructure within the team, Jost took that role upon himself in June of 2021 as Roberts left. He also brought in former colleague Francois-Xavier Demaison to oversee all engineering and take on the role of the Technical Director. According to the BBC, Capito found that there was a severe lack of communication between the racing and design teams, with both of them reporting to different heads, a problem that FX would now work on resolving. His 100-day analysis of the flaws and functioning of the team brought many internal issues to light.

Circumstances of his exit

Jost was not known for being an easy leader at any organization he worked at, having built a reputation for running a tight ship with an eccentric style and a serious attitude. He saw that the team had a long and hurdle-laden path on their quest to return to race wins and championships, and that it required drastic changes. However, many of these changes weren't appreciated by the "old guard" of the squad, as this article by reputable journalist Chris Medland suggests. Apparently, he faced a lot of resistance to every change and learnt that the team lacked a sense of unity.

Jost Capito at Williams Racing | Via williamsf1.com

One can't help but think of what Adrian Newey wrote about a similar tale during his first days at Red Bull.

It’s strange – and apologies if you hail from the area – but it seems to be a Midlands thing, this arrogant assumption that the way we do things is best, despite all evidence to the contrary. This is the culture that had brought us such great products as the Morris Marina, Austin Allegro and Norton Commando, and here it was alive and well and flourishing at Red Bull. The fact that certain members of staff were still proudly referring to the team as Jaguar was as big a clue as any that a far-reaching cultural change was in order.

Chapter 62, How to Build a Car, Adrian Newey

Later, Adrian hired an HR manager to confirm his suspicions and the subsequent removal of those at fault resulted in a drastic improvement of the environment and results of the team. Capito clearly doesn't seem to have gone that far, and maybe, that came back to bite him. It was clear that his removal of the Senna "S" from the car and going against Dorilton’s wishes by taking Frank Williams’ name off a door in the motorhome didn't help his cause, either. According to Medland, he refused to let most of the team attend the Dorilton-hosted gala in Miami due to a poor qualifying result on Saturday. He was too results-oriented, and maybe, that dragged him down as many others within the team didn't appreciate his vision, and Dorilton clearly seemed to have found his style unsatisfactory.

His tenure at the Grove-based outfit would come to an end on 12th December as he "stepped aside" and subsequently, his co-worker from his Volkswagen WRC days and the technical director of the team, FX Demaison, who he'd brought along with him left his post.

Read Williams' official announcement here.

The Future

As of writing, Capito hasn't announced what his future might hold. From the statements of him delaying his retirement to join the team, it does seem that he might retire after a very successful career in motorsport.

Mattia Binotto

(Managing Director and Team Principal, Scuderia Ferrari → Exit)

History and Origins

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Mattia Binotto graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Lausanne Polytechnic and then studied for a Master's in Automobile Engineering at the DIEF (the Enzo Ferrari engineering department), at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. From the very beginning, his fate was intertwined with the Scuderia, and it's not surprising that he joined them in 1995 as an engine engineer on the test team. (Back then, Formula 1 teams had one crew for races, and one for specifically testing their cars at upcoming tracks to optimise setups and operational details).

From 1997 to 2003, he worked as an engineer in the Formula 1 race team for their engine department, under the leadership of Jean Todt as the team underwent an operational overhaul to find championship success in what would come to be known as the Schumacher era. (Here's a clip of Schumi interviewing Mattia for fun!) 2004 saw his promotion as the head of the trackside Engine Department for the race team, and a subsequent promotion in 2009 put him in charge of Power Unit operations. His prowess saw him rise through the ranks, as he took over the role of the Deputy Head of the Engine and Electronics department in 2013 and went on to be the Chief Operating Officer for the Power Unit division.

Mattia Binotto with Michael Schumacher

In 2016, he took on the role of Chief Technical Officer of Scuderia Ferrari, a much bigger role than what he previously managed, and a high-pressure one as the team had a poor start to the Turbo Hybrid era. However, after the exit of Maurizio Arrivabene, he took over as the team principal of the entire Formula One team in 2019.

A strenuous tenure at the helm

Mattia's promotion to the role was extremely convenient for him because of his detailed knowledge of the team's operations. Having led development for decades now, he knew the car inside out and it'd be up to him to lead the team to championship victory against Mercedes with the only other engine on the grid fast enough to challenge them.

Their 2019 car was extremely rapid on the straights, sometimes suspiciously so. Many teams were wary of a potentially illegal engine, and Red Bull asked the FIA for clarification over 3 methods that'd make an engine extremely quick but would potentially be in violation of the regulations. Later, the FIA clarified the meaning and permissible interpretation of the rules. Shortly after the Technical Directive, Ferrari signed a confidential settlement with the FIA regarding the investigation into the Power Unit and in subsequent races, their pace was much lesser than what they began the season with. It has been theorised (not proven, atleast until the FIA/Ferrari release details of the investigation) that Ferrari was bypassing the fuel flow limit of 100kg/hr by supplying extra fuel when the official FIA sensor wasn't checking. The FIA updated their processes to close this loophole for future seasons. Mattia Binotto came under fire for this scandal, given his work on PU development before becoming team principal.

Mattia Binotto at the Italian GP | Via Scuderia Ferrari

2020 was an extremely difficult year for them as the car was extremely off pace as they could only manage a measly P6 in the Constructors' Championship, a far cry from P2 in 2019/18/17. Later that season, Ferrari took the decision to fire 4-time WDC Sebastian Vettel to replace him with McLaren driver Carlos Sainz, another move that was highly criticised but one that he says was probably the most difficult one of his career. 2021 saw a return to the "best of the rest" as the team fought McLaren to secure P3 in the standings in a decent recovery.

The 2022 season, however, is what sealed Mattia's fate, as the team lost the championship by a huge margin despite having a competitive car at the beginning of the year. Despite a great engine, a fast car and two extremely capable drivers, especially Charles Leclerc, the team was marred by poor communication, strategy, reliability and high degradation throughout the year. Charles, who had a 46-point lead after Bahrain found himself 146 points behind after Abu Dhabi. RaceDebrief covers Ferrari's abysmal 2022 season in detail here. Mattia's lack of acknowledgement of issues within the team didn't help, and he probably took his "no-blame" policy a little too far for the brand's liking. Read Ferrari's official announcement here.

Ferrari Chairman John Elkann with Charles Leclerc | Via Scuderia Ferrari

The Scuderia has a reputation for extreme corporate oversight and intervention in the everyday operations of the team. The best example of this is probably John Elkann's (Chairman of Stellantis, and by extension, Ferrari) presence at multiple Grands Prix this year. While John's ventures look over a much bigger sporting and automobile empire, he took a personal interest in the Formula One team. This tends to take away from the autonomy and unilateral decision-making freedom that many other team principals enjoy, and this is not new. With the Jean Todt era being a rare exception where he somehow managed to keep corporate out of the team's operations, external forces have always been too influential at Maranello, including the Italian media. It was no surprise then, as rumors of Mattia's exit from Ferrari emerged before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, when he announced his departure from Maranello.

Read Ferrari's Official Announcement here.

His Future

From his education to his career, Binotto has been a Ferrari loyalist through and through, and after 28 years of working for the same team, he'd perhaps like to take a break as he's been put on a 12 month gardening leave. But Formula 1 engineers are innovators, and they'll need something to satiate their desire for competition and pushing the limits. While he hasn't announced his plans for the future, he'll likely return to motorsport (and perhaps Formula One) in some capacity.

Frédéric Vasseur

(CEO and Team Principal, Sauber Motorsport AG → Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari)

History

Vasseur, like many others on this list, has a long history in motorsport. He graduated from ESTACA, a French engineering college where he studied aeronautics and engineering. With a keen interest in motorsport, he founded the ASM F3 team in partnership with Renault and led the team to a championship in 1998. He then took the ASM team to the F3 Euroseries championship, where they marched to 4 consecutive titles with Jamie Green, Lewis Hamilton, Paul Di Resta and Romain Grosjean, 3 of whom went on to be Formula One drivers. He had a knack for spotting talent, made evident by his statements; “I have always chosen the fastest drivers to the detriment of financial considerations," "Success called for success. The best drivers wanted to come, the manufacturers wanted to join us."

Parallelly, he co-founded the ART Grand Prix team in 2005 with Nicholas Todt (son of former Ferrari team principal and FIA president Jean Todt) to compete in the new GP2 series (which would later be rebranded to Formula 2). They hit the ground running as they won the championship on the inaugural year with their contender, Nico Rosberg, who'd go on to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 2016. The very next year, he'd promote Lewis Hamilton to the team, who'd secure the drivers' and teams' titles for themf. He'd go on to win another title with Nico Hulkenberg before moving his attention to securing the contract for making the chassis for the inaugural Formula E season through his new venture Spark Racing Technology.

It was no surprise to many as he was appointed Team Principal at Renault in 2016 after his partnership with them through the feeder series and his ART Grand Prix team running Lotus-themed liveries in 2011 and 2012. His tenure at Enstone didn't last very long as he had multiple disagreements with Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul over the team's operations, which saw him leaving the team at the end of the year. Renault, like Ferrari, was notorious for team principal changes and a snoopy corporate side, and his exit came as no surprise.

Tenure at Alfa Romeo Sauber

That wouldn't be the end for him, however, as he'd been approached by the Sauber Motorsport team to lead the Hinwil-based outfit as they took on the Alfa Romeo moniker. With much more freedom relative to his time at Renault, Vasseur quickly learnt the ropes of F1, while managing to keep the financially weak team out of bankruptcy. The team onboarded a young, talented rookie Charles Leclerc in 2018. Charles was no stranger to Vasseur, having raced for ART during his karting days, and they'd form a close bond as Il Predestinato would be promoted to the Scuderia as Kimi Räikkönen would come to the Swiss outfit.

Vasseur at Sauber | Via Sauber Group

The team persevered despite financial troubles, and 2022 would finally see their luck bloom as they finished P6 in the Constructors' championship because of their light, rapid car early on in the season, despite being marred by the most reliability issues of any team. 2022 would also see the Volkswagen group's announcement of their arrival in F1 in 2026, as Audi worked on making Sauber their works team. Vasseur knew his time would likely come to an end at the team with Audi preferring someone they were familiar with, and he was right.

Vasseur at Ferrari | Via Scuderia Ferrari

The Future

After Mattia Binotto's resignation from Ferrari, he was promoted to the role of the Ferrari Team Principal and General Manager. It will not be an easy challenge for the motorsport veteran as he takes the seat that many have struggled to hold on to or perform well in with the tremendous pressure and expectations it beholds. As the team looks to fix fundamental issues with the communication and strategy as well as the reliability of the car, he will not have much time to adapt if the team desires to put forward a championship challenge in 2023. With the divisiveness and politics in Ferrari, it'd be interesting to see how much autonomy he gets. His role is already a shift from Binotto’s role as Team Principal and Managing Director, a distinction that indicates that he would have lesser influence than his predecessor as the Ferrari corporate continues to extend their control and influence over the race team. Steve Nichols, the race engineer for Alain Prost during his tenure at Ferrari, has highlighted how chaotic Ferrari is, and the we-know-best attitude prevalent at Maranello. That will be something Vasseur will have to be delicate with.

Read Ferrari's official announcement here.

Andreas Seidl

(Team Principal, McLaren → CEO, Alfa Romeo)

History

Before finishing his course for his diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University in Munich (which he would complete), Seidl already got his first job in Formula One in the BMW Formula 1 engine development program after convincing former BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen. In 2003, he'd get the opportunity to work as Mark Webber's Power Unit engineer for the race team.

He would move to Sauber for the first time as they became the BMW works team, becoming the head of track operations. Under him, the team would go on to win the 2008 Canadian GP with Robert Kubica. However, as BMW left F1 after 2009, a disappointed Seidl left Hinwil to compete with the brand in other avenues like the FIA World Touring Cars Championship before taking on the challenge of leading BMW's DTM team in 2012. Despite their 20-year hiatus from the championship, they won both the drivers' and constructors' titles in their year of return under Seidl's skillful leadership.

Andreas Seidl at Porsche's LMP1 program | Via Porsche.com

In 2013, he'd have his first tryst with the Volkswagen Group as he'd joined Porsche's LMP1 program as the director of race operations, only to be promoted to Team Principal in 2014. He took the challenge of building the team from the ground up and led the team to a Le Mans win in 2015, with Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel of their Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid. The team would go on to secure two Le Mans victories, two WEC Manufacturer's Championships and two WEC Driver Championships under his tenure.

Tenure at McLaren

His fate would change again as he'd returned to his first home in motorsport, F1, as he was approached by McLaren CEO Zak Brown to be their team principal in 2019. As a team that was still working on sorting its issues out after a disastrous start to the turbo hybrid era with Honda. He'd play a crucial role in ensuring that their rookie Lando Norris would not have much trouble adapting to the team, and his effort paid off with a P3 in the Constructors' Championship in 2020. In 2021, they'd fall down to P4 as they returned to Mercedes Power Units, reminiscent of the time in the 1990s and early 2000s when they were a works team for the German brand. He oversaw McLaren's return to contending for the best of the rest, as McLaren narrowly lost out to Alpine in 2022.

Andreas Seidl at the MTC | Via McLaren.com

The Future

According to McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Seidl told him that he'd go elsewhere when his contract would up in 2025. It was no surprise to anyone when they knew where he'd be going given his ties to the Volkswagen group, and as Vasseur left Alfa Romeo Sauber for Ferrari, McLaren decided to release Seidl early as he returned to Sauber, this time as the CEO. The path ahead won't be easy as he has to get the team's infrastructure ready for Audi's entry in 2026, while also working on improving the team's performance leading up to that. With their increasing manufacturing capability and decision to move away from Ferrari-bought parts, he should have a headstart in that direction.

Read Sauber's Official Announcement here.

Andrea Stella

(Executive Director, Racing, McLaren → Team Principal, McLaren)

History

A graduate in Aerospace Engineering from the La Sapienza University in Rome with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Andrea Stella began his career by joining the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team in 2000 as a performance engineer on Ferrari's test team, before being promoted to Michael Schumacher's performance engineer in 2002. He also went on to be the performance engineer for Kimi Räikkönen till 2008 after which he joined Kimi and Fernando Alonso as their race engineer, working alongside them as they fought for championships.

Andrea Stella at Ferrari | Via Motorsport.com

Tenure at McLaren

In 2015, he joined Fernando Alonso and moved to McLaren as the Head of Race Operations before being promoted to the role of Performance Director in 2018 and the team's Executive Director for Racing in 2019, directly under Andreas Seidl in the team hierarchy with a broad view and control over the team's day to day operations.

Andrea Stella at McLaren | Via McLaren.com

The Future

It'll likely be a seamless transition for Andrea as he was already at the highest position below the team principal before assuming his role at the team. In a press conference McLaren held after the announcement of his promotion, he said that he wants to keep the continuity and preserve the progress that the team has made. As the team gets their new wind tunnel ready halfway through next year alongside other infrastructural upgrades to prepare for championship contention, Stella has an incredible journey ahead.

Andrea Stella with Zak Brown | Via McLaren.com

Read McLaren's Official Announcement here.

James Vowles

(Chief Strategist, Mercedes AMG F1 → CEO and Team Principal, Williams Racing)

History

Born in Britain, Vowles graduated from the International School of Geneva in 1997, and obtained a degree in Computer Science from the University of Anglia. He went on to secure a Masters' Degree in Motorsport Engineering and Management from Cranfield University in 2001, having secure the ProDrive Award of Excellence in the process.

He joined Formula 1 as an engineer on the the BAR (British American Racing) team, 45% of which was purchased by Honda in 2004. In September 2005, Honda would go on to purchase the rest of the team, making it the Honda Racing F1 Team as James stayed on. Honda would eventually leave the sport following the 2008 global financial crisis and the team would be taken over by Ross Brawn, who was the team principal at the time, to become Brawn GP, a team that would only compete in Formula 1 for one season. Vowles would be promoted to the role of Chief Race Strategist in 2009, playing a key role in securing the World Championships for the Brackley based outfit that year.

Tenure at Mercedes

As Mercedes looked to rejoin the pinnacle of motorsport in 2010 with their own works team, they'd buy Brawn GP from Ross Brawn and most of the staff would continue under the new ownership, with Vowles carrying on as the Chief Strategist. While the team would grab a win or two on the odd day from 2010-2013, they'd have a great turbo hybrid era as the team turned up with an extremely dominant power unit in 2014, one that would see them secure the next 8 World Constructors' championships in a row, and 7 World Drivers' Titles. The team would go on a run of domination, with competitors being left to scrap for the last podium in most races, and a race win in few others.

James Vowles with Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff | Via Mercedes AMG F1

Vowles is, perhaps, most famous for his quote "Valterri, it's James", used when Mercedes used team orders to swap the cars for a tactical advantage. While Vowles has seen some unpredictable and strategically poor races like the German GP in 2019 and the Mexico City GP in 2022, he has had a rather accomplished career across the Brackley team as it changed hands multiple times over the last two decades.

The Future

As he leaves for Grove after having competed in the Asian Le Mans during the winter break, Vowles takes on a bigger role than he ever has, with a huge burden of responsibility and a pressure to perform. It remains to be seen if he will be plagued by the same issues that Capito had to face, and if he can turn the team around and have them fight for points on a regular basis. He joins the team as it onboards their rookie Logan Sargeant, with both of them having a challenge on their hands.

James Vowles | Via Williams F1

He'll have to balance the aspirations of Dorilton and the internal politics that the team has in a delicate manner. It will be quite a stark change from him, as he movies from a one of the highest performance teams in F1 to one of the lowest. By all accounts, the Mercedes team is said to be open to new ideas and is conducive to change, whilst the same has not been said about Williams.

Read Williams' Official Announcement here.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi

(Managing Director, Sauber Motorsport → Team Representative, Alfa Romeo Sauber)

History

Born in Umbertide, Italy, Alessandro Alunni Bravi holds a Honours in Civil Law. He started out as a legal counsel, which introduced him to various people and organisations in the motorsport scene in Italy in the early 2000s. As someone who enjoyed motorsport since his childhood was mostly spent near a racing track, he fit right in. He also worked as a motorsport journalist for Rombo in 2000 and as a Formula 1 journalist in particular for Autosprint. His access to various paddocks across the country landed him a role as the Managing Director & Team Manager of Coloni Motorsport's Formula 3000 team in 2002 and as the General Manager of the Europe Team Sardinia.

In the following decade, he'd climb through the ranks of motorsport, moving through various teams and leagues as a manager, CEO or sometimes just a Legal Advisor. He was the Team Principal and Managing Director of Trident Racing's GP2 team from 2005-2008, the Managing Director N. Technology (which involved him in the World Touring Car Championship and Rallying) fromm 2009-2010, etc. He was the General Counsel and Patent Attorney for Vasseur's Spark from 2010, and the General Counsel for his ART Grand Prix team as well.

Tenure at Sauber

He joined Sauber in July 2017 as a Managing Director and Legal Counsel, and as a member of their Board of Directors and their Management Committee. He worked with Vasseur who he knew from his ART Grand Prix and Spark days on operating the team well despite their financial struggles and to keep it afloat and close to the midfield. On 26th January, 2023, Alfa Romeo Sauber announced that they would be appointing him as the Team Representative of the Formula 1 team.

The Future

While other teams have Team Principals, the official announcement notes that Bravi is taking on the role of a "Team Representative" (while retaining his role as the MD). He will, according to Sauber, "work together with the technical and operational departments to continue the team’s growth and success, while delivering to internal and external stakeholders of the team the value Alfa Romeo F1 Team has been known to produce", a description that is quite similar to that of a team principal. The job title will likely remain the same till Audi's takeover is complete. Seidl will likely co-run the team alongisde Bravi.s

Alfa Romeo's light chassis earned them a huge chunk of points in the early parts of the 2022 season, which waned away by the end as their competitors caught up to them and they had a significant amount of reliability issues. While their bid to take various parts of the car in-house would have seen some progress by now, the team will still have to make significant gains in performance to remain in the midfield for this season.

It will be a nearly seamless transition for Bravi as he just takes another role in a team he's already familiar with.

Read Alfa Romeo Sauber's Official Announcement here.

Conclusion

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the entire team principal saga was the lack of gardening leaves from most teams (except Ferrari in the case of Binotto). Gardening leaves are a conditional embargo that teams often enforce on high-profile team members moving to their competitors to ensure that they don't take up-to-date information with them to their new employer, which could lead to an unfair advantage. When the question was fielded during McLaren's press conference, Zak Brown said that he didn’t want to “dissolve the relationship” by enforcing any gardening leave on Seidl. With Alfa Romeo's connections to Ferrari and their levels of performance being worlds apart, it wasn't a problem for Sauber either.

The sheer scale of change was amazing, and as Will Buxton put it, in 2023, 60% of the F1 grid will have Team Principals in just their first or second seasons in charge at their respective teams. Many teams' social media admins also joined in on the fun, as Alpine posted a tweet about Otmar being the 5th longest-tenured team principal with only 9 months in charge, while Mercedes and Haas admins just posted images of their team principals to tease their fanbases.

Stability is important for a team principal, as even a visionary and idealist can often lose their edge under immense pressure and fear of external interference. If one would pay attention to the two teams that have dominated both titles since 2010, Red Bull and Mercedes, there's a quite clear pattern of consistency. Christian Horner has been at the helm of Red Bull Racing since Dietrich Mateschitz purchased the Jaguar Formula 1 team and rebranded it, while Toto Wolff has been at the team since 2013.

Moreover, some of the leaders in those outfits have equally long tenures, with Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley and Paul Monahan having been on the team since 2006, while Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin being at Mercedes since its rebranding from Brawn GP and Peter Bonnington has had an ever longer tenure with his tenure at BAR Honda, which would evolve into Brawn GP, the predecessor of the Mercedes-AMG F1 team. Even Vowles had an extremely long tenure with the same team, spanning over two decades. Toto has a significant ownership stake in the team, while Horner has had the unanimous trust of Mateschitz (who passed away on the Saturday of the US GP, 2022) to take the best decision for the team, no matter the cost. It helps if one person can take long-term, strategic decisions without the worry of being fired before they can execute it.

Dorilton's haste to bring Williams back will probably not help their cause, since the team has fallen back quite a bit in the past few years and rising back up the order as other teams are also reinvesting in themselves, à la Alpine, McLaren and Aston Martin, will not be easy. Alpine has been trigger-happy with team principals too, and excessive corporate intervention is prevalent in Enstone, the results of which gave the sport one of its weirdest contractual shakeups since Jenson Button's BAR-Williams saga and the signing of multiple drivers at Sauber. Due to confusion with terms of contracts and their terms, Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as their driver for 2023 as Fernando Alonso left for Aston Martin, while Oscar denied the claims, which were later revealed to be due to his new contract with McLaren. Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was caught by surprise in both cases as the team showed a clear communication gap.

The days of owner-led teams like Ron Dennis' McLaren, Eddie Jordan's Jordan, Frank Williams' Williams and Enzo Ferrari's Scuderia Ferrari are mostly over as the sport evolves into a more complex corporate structure, with teams adapting in the process. Often, a board of shareholders cannot make a good long-term decision as they look for short-term profits, but sport requires a long-term vision that many lack. A good, strategic and qualified leader can go a long way in bringing victory to a team, and there is no better example of this than Brawn GP's domination in 2009. Hopefully, as teams restructure, they give their team principals more freedom and control, which helps their own brands evolve as a result, with multi-way championship battles following in their stead.

Disclosure

How a Cigarette Company shaped Formula 1

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Disclaimer: RaceDebrief.com condemns production, sale or consumption of tobacco-based products.

The Origins of Cigarette Advertising 🚬

It's no surprise to anyone that Formula One is an incredibly expensive sport, and it has always been that way, with extremely high research and development budgets as multiple teams up and down the grid compete to make the fastest cars possible. While the earliest teams bankrolled themselves through pay drivers and other businesses, this quickly became unsustainable as the sport began to gain popularity. Teams would need money for better R&D as they looked to weasel out every edge over the competition.

During the sport's early days, car liveries used to represent the country of the manufacturer, Green for Britain, Blue for France and Red for Italians. Teams used to sport the driver's number and sometimes name as the only painted designs on cars. It was quite simple, really, and rather elegant. But that would all change because of, as was the case with many things about the sport at the time, one Colin Chapman.

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The British Racing Green and French Racing Blue cars preparing for the 1950 Silverstone Grand Prix | Via "JustACarGuy" Adarn Gawliczek

Colin was rather unique, responsible for both management and engineering at the team, and a pioneer behind revolutionary designs in the sport. The team pushed the boundaries in terms of manufacturing and aerodynamics, securing multiple championships for those racing in the iconic British Racing Green. But to support the costs of the race team and reduce its liability on the production car side and technical partners like fuel suppliers, Lotus changed Formula 1 forever. They brought in cigarette sponsors. In 1968, the Lotus team added the Gold Leaf brand (of the John Player & Sons group) to their sponsor roster. Moving away from the traditional green livery, their car now bore a red, white and golden design, similar to the packaging of the aforementioned product, making the car look like, as Bernie Ecclestone put it, "a movable cigarette package".

The 1968 Gold Leaf Lotus 49B

And with that, the floodgates were open. Money started pouring in as tobacco advertisers saw an opportunity to get their brand some exposure on fast racing cars in an ever-growing sport. Cigarettes were extremely popular back then, despite some knowledge of the cancerous consequences. Lotus would later change their livery to a black and gold one as the John Player group decided to change the branding on the car to advertise another sub-brand of theirs.

The 1982 John Player Special Lotus 91/5 | From Dave Adams at itracing.com

The Arrival of Philip Morris International

Cigarettes were an incredibly profitable business, and bigger brands poured a lot of money into advertising just because they could. It helped if the C-Suite would prefer the avenue they would be advertising in, and sometimes it just was worth it committing to a sport or two. One such company was Philip Morris, whose owners enjoyed Formula One and found it worth investing. They decided to enter the sport in the early 1970s and shake it all up.

The brand they decided to promote was Marlboro, their most influential division. They held extravagant parties, sponsored events, races, drivers and teams. You'd be striking gold as a 1970s constructor if you just got Marlboro's branding on your car. They ventured into the sport through a sponsorship for BRM (British Racing Motors) in 1972, and had their first taste of success with BRM's victory at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix. They liked the prospect, and would scale their advertising a lot for the following year.

The 1972 BRM P160B with Marlboro branding at Monaco

In 1973, they decided to sponsor Frank Williams Racing Cars, branding them Iso-Marlboro (partnering with Iso Rivolta) until 1974. They would continue with BRM but also become sponsors for the drivers of Scuderia Ferrari and appear on their helmets and suits but not the car, as the team wasn't accepting non-supplier sponsorships yet.

The 1973 Iso-Marlboro IR1 at the Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder

They looked to expand more the next year as they got in talks with Brabham through Emerson Fittipaldi over a possible sponsorship deal, but that'd end up not going through as it turned out that they were using Brabham as leverage to secure McLaren, the brand they actually wanted to be on.

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Stills from the Bernie Ecclestone Docuseries "Lucky!" by Jiva Maya Productions

Success and Sponsorships in Formula One

This subsequently saw the exit of Emerson Fittipaldi too, as he moved to McLaren alongside the brand in 1974. The team won their first Constructors' title and a Drivers' title with Emerson that year, a good start to the partnership. They would win another title with James Hunt in 1976, a rather fitting ambassador for the brand as Hunt was a prolific smoker himself (which would end up being a contributing factor to his premature death in 1993). They would end their partnerships with BRM and Frank Williams Racing Cars in '74, sending the latter into a death spiral as it'd end up losing money becoming Walter Wolf Racing in future years as a disillusioned Frank would move away from the team to start Williams Grand Prix engineering (which continues on as Williams Racing today).

The 1974 Texaco-Marlboro McLaren M23 | Via McLaren Racing

While they would have a dry run in terms of championships until Ron Dennis would come to McLaren, they enjoyed the attention they were getting and increased sponsorship investments up and down the grid. They would go on to sponsor Merzario from 1977 to 1979 and Rebazio in 1979 in the same decade. They would also start sponsoring the British Grand Prix from 1979, a partnership that continued till 1985. In fact, they were instrumental in bringing Ron Dennis (and engineer John Barnard) to the team, orchestrating the merger between McLaren and Project Four, the latter being Ron's own junior formula team. The brand had already established a great working relationship with Ron with both his Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams being backed by Marlboro.

Ron Dennis would take over the reins of McLaren in 1981, a team principal who'd revolutionize the sport having risen through the ranks of the sport, leading Marlboro-McLaren into an era of domination with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, whilst producing one of the dominant cars of the era, the MP4/4. The brand also played a major role in bringing Prost to the Woking-based team after being his personal sponsor at Renault as well. The red and white livery would become extremely popular with the Marlboro chevron becoming an iconic piece of branding. They would also become a minor sponsor for Scuderia Ferrari in 1984, one of the first non-technical sponsors on their car. They would sponsor Alfa Romeo, no longer in their heyday, from 1980 to 1983 with the team only securing one pole position, one fastest lap and four podium finishes in that stint. They would also sponsor the Dallara-partnered BMS Scuderia Italia team from 1988 to 1992. Minor sponsorships would include a partnership with the Fittipaldi Automotive team (1981), the Spirit Racing team (1983-84), the EuroBrun team (1988), the Rial Racing team (1988-89) and the Onyx Grand Prix team (1989-90).

The 1988 Marlboro McLaren MP4/4 | Via AMuS

Marlboro McLaren would not win a race again after Ayrton Senna left the team in 1993, followed by the brand's departure from the team in 1996. However, they would become the main sponsor of the Scuderia Ferrari team in 1993, and a title sponsor in 1997 as the team became Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. They continue to sponsor the team in some capacity. They would also sponsor the Footwork F1 team (aka Arrows; 1994), Minardi (1995) and the Forti F1 team (1995-96). They'd also be the title sponsor for the Hungarian GP from 1991–2002, the Spanish GP from 1993–2005, and the Brazilian GP from 1999–2004.

When they couldn't or wouldn't want to sponsor teams, they would sponsor drivers, especially notable ones like Prost, Senna and Häkkinen (the latter having his junior career funded by the brand). Tracks would be laden with a lot of banners for their brand, including branded umbrellas, press conference areas etc. They poured a lot of money to get their brand out there for the world to watch as the sport gained international popularity year over year.

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Alain Prost and Mika Häkkinen with personal Marlboro Sponsorships | A "Marlboro Pit Girl"

They were also known for bring "Marlboro girls" to the track, similar to grid girls but donning Marlboro branded merchandise as the brand would parade around the track for advertising and distribute free samples.

Power and Politics

As one of the biggest investors in the sport, Marlboro gained quite a bit of prominence on the political side of the sport. When the FISA (which would become the FIA) and the FOCA (a sort of a precursor to FOM) were at loggerheads when the FISA tried to gain extreme power over both the sporting and commercial side in the early 1980s, the brand played a crucial role in orchestrating negotiations between the two organizations. They had a lot of leverage on the list of tracks that F1 would race at alongside other decisions that the sport's governing bodies would take.

It is perhaps unhealthy for one sponsor and by extension, their industry to have such incredulous amounts of influence, and F1 would find that out rather soon.

Sanctions and Malicious Compliance

As the medical ramifications of tobacco and tobacco-based products gained the attention of multiple legislators across the world, many countries tightened their regulations around the consumption, sale and advertising of these products, most notably across Europe. With the first wave of regulations being relatively lax around advertising, they just had to remove the name from their branding in most regions. To comply, Marlboro used their iconic chevron logo and used the team's or driver's name instead of theirs. Sometimes, they just advertised through colors, like at the 1986 Portuguese GP, where Keke Rosberg's car was yellow and white to advertise Marlboro Lights.

The yellow 1986 Marlboro McLaren MP4/2C

As extensive research brought the carcinogenic nature of the substance to light, the EU decided to supersede regional bans and began work on a blanket EU-wide ban on tobacco advertising across various forms of media including sport in 1997. This was quite a substantial threat for motorsport which relied on cigarette advertising for a large chunk of revenue, with most of the Formula One grid relying on the industry for some share of their revenue. It was rather inevitable, but considering the bill proposed an immediate ban which would be disastrous for many teams, especially the smaller ones who would be at the risk of going out of business entirely, the FOM (mainly Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley) intervened and got in talks with UK and EU legislators to work something out. After multiple rounds of negotiation, they were allowed to carry tobacco advertising for nine more years. Local prohibitions would still be in effect.

This period saw the sale of many teams as without tobacco sponsorship, it would be rather unsustainable for the backmarkers to keep going. Many considered exiting the sport entirely. While many brands looked at reducing their investments as their time in the sport came to an end, the bigger ones like PMI weren't ready to leave just yet.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro - A story of Subliminal Advertising

According to Merriam Webster, subliminal is defined as "existing or functioning below the threshold of consciousness". Subliminal advertising is an attempt to replicate the same scenario, making people aware of a product and making them want to buy it without explicitly being told to do so.

Tobacco advertisers tried various forms of subliminal advertising in Formula One, like the early 2000s McLarens sporting their drivers' names instead of the West title, or like the McLarens mentioned above. Marlboro and Ferrari tried many different things to get by these rules as well.

In 1993, they used their chevron with their drivers' names in the races where advertising was restricted.

The 1993 Ferrari F93A with Gerhard Berger's name but no Marlboro branding

From the 1980s to 1996, team members' clothing would have a white square with a red stripe and the driver's name on their uniform instead.
From 1994-1999 and 2005-2006, Ferrari ran a barcode design instead of the Marlboro logo.

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The 1999 Ferrari F399 with barcodes instead of the Marlboro logo.

From 2000 to 2004 (and sometimes in 1988 and 1989), their logo was either removed or replaced with a white space.

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The 2004 Ferrari F2004 with a white space instead of the Marlboro logo.

While tobacco advertising had been completely banned in the EU by then, Ferrari extended their sponsorship deal with Marlboro in September 2005, that'd ensure their partnership would continue till 2011. They continued sporting the barcode design as a way to skirt by the rules, a move protested by prominent doctors at the time. This was because it was considered that at very high speeds, the weighted barcode logo would resemble the Marlboro logo, with its red stripes up top looking similar to the chevron and the black ones looking like the brand's name. Even if it was not interpreted that way, it'd be in the same place as the logo, causing people to correlate it with the brand.

From 2008, the Marlboro logo would never be explicitly seen on the car again, even in middle eastern races like Bahrain where tobacco advertising was not restricted. PMI decided to move to the barcode livery entirely to establish their identity in that regard. It also invoked a strong relationship in viewer's minds as an alternate logo for Marlboro without saying so outright. But they would end the barcode logo in 2011 as the Scuderia Ferrari team would undergo a change in their logo that'd be rather similar to the top-left corner design of a Marlboro cigarette pack (succeeding one that included the barcode, which succeeded the one with both brands side by side). This logo would take the position that the Marlboro logo once did. It was designed by CountryLab. In fact, PMI were also closely associated with the Ducati MotoGP team, who underwent a similar logo change during that period.

The 2012-2018 Ferrari Branding and Design Development | Via CountryLab

This was not the first time PMI had demonstrated such control over the team's design decisions however, as the team went from a blood-red livery to an orange-red one in 1996, rather similar to the Marlboro color scheme. In fact, they would pay a sum for their space on the livery and then, because of their unique agreement with Ferrari, lease sponsorship rights to their space on the livery to other companies, sometimes for a profit! These "sub-sponsors" would vary from race to race, region to region, according to their deals with PMI. The brand had much more control over the team than one might imagine, with Maurizio Arrivabene having arrived from his marketing executive role at PMI to become the Team Principal of the team from 2014-19. Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and by extension, Chairman and CEO of Ferrari, was a non-executive director of Philip Morris and held a significant amount of PMI shares (with a value of around 5.2 Million USD in 2015, according to Bloomberg).

In 2018, PMI would launch their Mission Winnow brand, a "charity" with a missions statement that says that their goal is to "drive change by constantly searching for better ways of doing things". It was basically a proxy brand with a multi-chevron logo, probably intended to invoke familiarity with their old chevron logo. At the same time, Scuderia Ferrari changed their logo to their original badge style one without any reference to PMI, probably as a branding shift. In 2020, they would become a title sponsor for the team and have their logo prominently displayed at their favorite location, near the engine cover, in a contrasting bright green that did not really blend in with rest of the colorway, but did complete the colors of the Italian flag.

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The 2021 Ferrari SF21 with a green Mission Winnow logo.

Mission Winnow would leave Ferrari (and Ducati, ending their motorsport presence) at the end of the 2021 season only to re-sign with the team a couple of weeks into the 2022 season, albeit as a second tier sponsor after being their title sponsor for two decades.

Ferrari's list of F1 Sponsors | January 2, 2023

Conclusion

Philip Morris has been the longest major cigarette sponsor in this sport, and holds the top 2 positions for the longest title sponsorships with McLaren and Ferrari respectively. With their influence over the sport in the late 1900s, it's fair to say that they have had a huge role in shaping the history of the sport. The FOCA-FISA fallout could have been much worse if not for them, perhaps prompting the Brits to actually leave Formula One like they threatened to start their own open wheel racing series. They had enough influence to get entire regulations delayed by getting the FOM to lobby for them and continue to have a significant influence in the scarlet Italian outfit. As Bernie Ecclestone once said; "Formula One is Ferrari. Ferrari is Formula One." They continue to be the only staying tobacco sponsor in the sport despite their Mission Winnow brand being under immense scrutiny be regulators. It'd not be an overstatement to say that they changed the course of the sport.

Today, one thinks of Formula One as a technical, precision driven sport. However, public perception of the sport was very different in the 20th century, where it was seen as a sport of daring, "crazy" people who'd risk everything just to go fast. While the sport has been rather safe for the last few years, deaths were not rare in the early days of the sport. The cigarette-smoking, fit and smart playboy athlete was something that Formula 1 was associated with at the time, but as the sport has evolved in the last few decades, that has obviously changed quite a bit. While we may look back at such advertising as being rather absurd, it was quite commonplace at the time and it fit right in.

There's no doubt that tobacco sponsorships gave us the most beautiful liveries in the history of the sport, like the Marlboro McLarens or the Camel Lotuses. They have, perhaps, have also been instrumental in keeping the sport up and running for decades, as they were one of the most stable sponsors for decades. However, the money that they invested comes off of millions of individuals addicted to their carcinogenic, extremely unhealthy products that are responsible for millions of deaths. Even today, these brands try to evade regulations restricting their advertising and sale using various methods. It's rather surprising, however, that the original EU ban (which the FOM protested) exempt TV advertising from the ban. Governments still allow the sale of these products at extremely high tax rates to earn money off of them. It's a similar story with alcohol sponsors, who are still permitted in the sport, despite having to adjust their logos in various countries.

Various logos used by Alcohol sponsors to skirt regulations | Via Decalspotters

Vaping sponsors are also rampant in the sport, offering tobacco companies a way around most international regulations. British American Tobacco now advertises on McLaren cars through their "Vuse" vaping brand, which they sometimes have to replace with local retailers or blank spaces to comply with certain regional regulations.

Formula One seems to have found a new tobacco in cryptocurrency platforms, however, with almost every team sporting at least one cryptocurrency sponsor in 2022, sometimes multiple. There are no regulations against them yet, so they've been indulging in extravagant deals just like Tobacco brands once did. However, they haven't been the most stable sponsors economically. Perhaps the best example of their volatility was demonstrated by the collapse of FTX (who were Mercedes' sponsors for a large part of the 2022 season), which caused a lot of instability in the crypto market.

F1 will always need some industry that infuses large amounts of money into it, as the sport remains rather expensive despite the cost cap. Unfortunately, the richest companies that desire advertising also tend to be ones involved in harmful or addictive products like tobacco, vapes, alcohol, gambling and speculative investments or in exploitative industries like oil.

Disclosure

RaceDebrief.com condemns production, sale or consumption of tobacco-based products, especially those designed to addict people. We also encourage people suffering from said addictions to work on quitting their habits and get medical assistance if needed. This article was intended to bring awareness to this cause and not glorify or advertise any aforementioned products.

OPINION: Sprints can work... Or can they?

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 22:00:17 GMT

Understanding the Format

Sprints are the FOM's (Formula One Management, the commercial entity that runs the business and show side of F1) attempt to spice up the F1 weekend a bit more. Fridays were, in their opinion, rather boring with Free Practice sections.

Launched in 2021, it's still experimental, with F1 modifying the rules every year. It is a radical change from the standard weekend of yore, that had Free Practice 1 (FP1) and Free Practice 2 (FP2) on Friday, Free Practice 3 (FP3) and Qualifying on Saturday, and the Grand Prix on Sunday.

In 2021, Sprints were introduced as an extension to the qualifying system under the moniker Sprint Qualifying. It would be the fourth on-track session on a weekend, following FP1 and Qualifying on Friday, and FP2 on Saturday. Under the Sprint Qualifying moniker in 2021, the winner would be awarded the "pole position" award, instead of the driver who'd have set the fastest lap in the race (without any grid penalties).

In 2022, this was changed as FOM dropped "Qualifying" from the name to make the Sprint its own format, with the pole position award being rightfully awarded for Qualifying and not the sprint.

Sprints are a shorter race preceding the Grand Prix on Sunday. While a Grand Prix is a 305km race (or the closest distance to it; except Monaco which is 260km long), Sprints are 100km races. There is no rule for a mandatory tyre change in the sprint format and therefore, no one pursues pitstops. The result of the Sprint on Saturday determines the grid for Sunday, whilst the result of Qualifying on Friday does so for the Sprint. Most notably, engine penalties are only applied on Sunday, and not on Saturday.

The Incentive for Sprint Weekends

According to the FIA and FOM, the purpose of a sprint weekend is "seeking new ways to engage with its fans and enlarge the spectacle of a race weekend". Instead of 3 boring Free Practice Sessions, they wanted an exciting session on each day.

However, the biggest motivator is probably the money. There is clearly more demand for a race than a practice session amongst general fans, and it's what they are capitalizing on. Choosing overtaking-friendly circuits helps in this regard, as there is usually some action to be had on there, making the race worth it.

Therefore, the profits outscore the costs of having a sprint rather than another free practice session, leading to the advent and growth of this format.

Why do people dislike it?

During Qualifying at the Austrian GP in 2022, Sergio Perez was disqualified from Q3 after he violated track limits during Q2, but this was done after he had already taken part in Q3. He was dropped down to the grid slot which was allocated to him based on his fastest legal lap in Q2, that being P13. As he was starting out of place in accordance to the pace of the Red Bull, with his teammate on pole, he put in an impressive show of overtakes during the sprint to end up P5 by the end of the session.

The biggest complaint about Sprints is that they tend to normalise the grid, and nullify the action that'd have occurred during the Grand Prix on Sunday, as the case of Perez in Austria clearly suggests. It's unlikely he'd have gained more than a place on Sunday if it was not for his crash with George Russell in the opening stages of the race, given the degradation the Red Bull of Max Verstappen faced throughout the race. They simply have too much influence over the starting grid on Sunday.

They also tend to limit practice and setup optimization time a lot. (Here's a great video from the Williams Racing team that explains that.) Since teams often have only one Free Practice Session before Parc Fermé sets in, they are often forced to accelerate schedules and skip some programs, resulting in sub-par setup optimization, the results of which can effect the whole weekend. While it affected Red Bull in both Austria and Brazil, it tends to have a worse effect on teams lower down the grid whose processes might not be as refined as their competitors.

The 2023 season will have 24* races. With limited power unit allocation (3 ICEs, 3 Turbochargers, 3 MGU-Hs, 3 MGU-Ks, 2 Energy Stores and 2 Control Electronics), the wear will already be high across the season, only accentuated by the Sprint sessions.

*As of the time of writing this article, the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix has been cancelled, but FOM state that they are looking for replacements to fill its void on the calendar.

Conceptual variations of the Sprint Format

Many want the Sprint Weekends to be abolished altogether, but maybe, there are other alternatives that can be considered.

Formula 2

Formula 2 has a unique Sprint format, quite different from F1. Instead of simply setting a Sprint grid based on Qualifying, the grid is determined by reversing the top 10 finishers of Friday’s Qualifying session results. This prevents the drivers from simply setting extremely slow laps to qualify lower and gain a headstart for the sprint. Moreover, since pole position is rewarded with points in F2, drivers are incentivised to secure it. The best part, however, is that the Sprint has no effect on the Feature Race (F2's equivalent of the Grand Prix, albeit being 170km long) on Sunday and that its grid is determined entirely by Qualifying on Saturday (and subsequent engine penalties, if any).

This format could, with some adjustments, be adapted to Formula 1, and would alleviate many complaints about the format.

Reverse Championship Order

Another potential path would be to pursue reversing the drivers' or maybe even constructors' championship order, with the Qualifying grid determining the starting order for the Grand Prix on Sunday, independent from the Sprint. This would mostly put cars in an ascending order of pace, with faster cars behind the pack having to race through the field, providing lots of action and overtaking as everyone tries to achieve points.

For the backmarkers, they would gain track position that they often don't have and would therefore have an opportunity to score points that they'd never likely get the chance to. With the current generation of cars which are more adept at racing closer together, it'd be a strategical and skill-based challenge as the slower cars race to defend their position as faster teams drive through the pack to score crucial championship points for the battle at the top.

Different Parc Fermé Rules

In the current Sprint Weekend format, Parc Fermé goes into place at the beginning of Qualifying, just after Q1. Instead of that, Qualifying could be moved to Saturday where it usually is, and the Sprint can replace Free Practice 2. Since a single FP1 session is often not enough for track acclimatisation and setup optimisation, having the data from a shorter (i.e, one-third) version of the race would go a long way in helping teams determine strategy and other adjustments for the cars. This would only work if the Sprint was independent of Qualifying, like in the case above.

So... Why was Brazil fun?

Brazil was perhaps one of the best weekends in terms of racing this year, alongside Silverstone. The weekend was off to a chaotic start with a wet Friday with Qualifying held in chaotic conditions, which saw the teams go from inters to slicks to inters again. Many teams were out of their usual place, with a Haas pole and Leclerc qualifying P10 because Ferrari put him on inters while everyone else was on slicks. Saturday's sprint gave them an opportunity to claw back through the ranks to secure a good starting position for Sunday, whilst awarding them some points in the process.

Saturday was chaotic in its own way, though, as the Red Bulls suffered from high degradation despite being on mediums and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso had damage from a collision with each other. As drivers travelled up and down the order as the grid "normalised", there was a lot of overtaking down the main straight and into some slow corners. (Read Race Debrief's coverage of the Sprint Weekend here).

However, it really made a difference on Sunday, as various crashes saw multiple safety cars and strategy gambles, with some teams much better on the track than orders, most notably Alpine, with Fernando Alonso going all the way from P18 to P5, finishing ahead of his the two Red Bulls! With Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc falling down the order due to their respective collisions, viewers got to see some amazing recovery drives as the teams salvaged as many points as they could.

Conclusion

So... Brazil was fun because it was chaotic. Chaos is organic, and it's not something the FIA/FOM could induce on a race weekend. Formula 1 teams are built around surgical precision and extreme attention to detail. They like to eliminate variables, and thus, they tend to calculate their way around a circumstance to minimise risk. But the current format is probably too intertwined with the rest of the weekend to help. Separating it and giving its own part of the weekend whilst not disturbing the proceedings of Saturday and Sunday would add to its charm, all the while preserving a level of competition as points would still be on the line.

F1 can and should shuffle the order a bit more, and considering that they have largely taken an experimental approach with the format, it might be worth being a bit less conservative with their approach to it, while staying true to the legacy and core values of the sport. Maybe an extra Power Unit could be added to the roster that teams can only use for Sprints, or maybe engine penalties greater than the amount of the cars on the grid have to be spread throughout the weekend, with a 40 place grid penalty putting a driver on the back of the grid for both Saturday and Sunday!

While many fans have been skeptical and perhaps even hostile towards the format, it's clear the FOM and the FIA want to go ahead with it. They've been looking to increase sprint weekends, with 2023 having six of them! It's a venture that would benefit them economically and would add some entertainment value for newer fans. It's safe to say that Sprints aren't going anywhere any time soon, so maybe it's time for the FIA to modify the format enough that both new and old fans can embrace it alike.

Next year, Brazil and Austria retain their spots on the calendar for Sprints, as 4 newer locations join the roster. Baku will probably be a little less exciting with others because despite its long straights, it hasn't exactly been as rich in overtakes as other locations. Spa-Francorchamps has a legacy for being great for overtaking, something fans might not be aware of if they joined in 2021 or 2022. Hopefully, it's a great race and Spa gets to secure its place on the calendar for a few more years. COTA gave us some great racing this year, and should be exciting to see next year, as teams strive to draw a balance between the optimal tyres for the sprint while keeping the tyre degradation. Qatar will probably be a wild car, with the Losail circuit having hosted only 1 Grand Prix. However, Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director at Mercedes was fairly impressed by the track, saying "“It’s a circuit that actually suits F1 cars and it’s odd that it’s taken us so long to come here”, so hopefully, we get some great racing there as well.

Sprint Venues for 2023 | Via @F1

Hopefully, FOM plays around with the format a bit while keeping the legacy of Formula 1 preserved. They might just nail the format if they try!

Disclosure

Analysing the results of the new 2022 regulations

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 08:53:00 GMT

Formula 1 underwent one of the biggest rule changes in its history in 2022, and as legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey put it, the biggest change in 40 years. The aim was to provide closer racing, make it easier for cars to follow each other and bring the field closer to each other. Did they deliver? Did they live up to the promise?

Understanding the new regulations

2022 saw an introduction of a lot of new rules, from the cars to financial and sporting regulations. These regulations were slated to come into effect in 2021, but due to COVID induced shutdowns and delays, the launch of the regulations was delayed to 2022 (except the financial regulations).

Financial Regulations

Formula One is expensive. Very expensive. In 2019, the top teams (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull) in the sport were spending nearly 400 million dollars per year to run their Formula One venture. Meanwhile, the teams on the back of the grid (like Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams) were barely afloat, spending about 100-150 Million USD per year.

In F1, more money often leads to more performance, and the gap between the top teams and the backmarkers was huge. The field was spread rather far apart and no one could challenge the stalwarts at the top. It was not very competitive and in most cases, one or two teams would just drive away from the rest of the pack.

To sort this out, F1 introduced a "budget cap" for Formula 1 teams in 2021, which would limit their spending to a certain, attainable amount for every year. The budget cap would cover costs like employee wages, design and manufacturing costs, shipping and logistics costs and on-track expenses like the paddock. It does, however, exclude the wages of the top 3 earners of a team, and the drivers.

For the larger teams, any money they earn from sponsorships that does not go towards the amount spent under the budget cap is essentially profit, which ensures that this is one of the first eras in Formula One history in which the teams are financially sustainable business entities.

There are currently only 4 engine manufacturers on the grid; namely Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine (Renault) and Honda (rebadged as Red Bull Power Trains for 2022). Engines are not under a budget cap for now, but they will be in the future.

The budget cap was 145 Million USD for 2021 and 140 Million USD for 2022 (but was extended by the FIA due to extreme inflation). It was supposed to be 135 Million USD for 2023, but that might change.

Aerodynamic Regulations

Perhaps the biggest domain of change in the new regulations, Formula One promoted the usage of the ground effect by reintroducing non-flat floors in 2022, after it was largely restricted in 1983. It was deemed too unpredictable and unsafe. To put it simply, ground effect cars generate their downforce from being close to a fixed surface (i.e, the track) and use a specific floor design (Venturi Tunnels) to do so.

This is especially lucrative since it's extremely efficient, with a very high downforce:drag ratio. Downforce is preferable, since it allows a car to be faster through a corner, but drag is not, since it slows a car down on the straights. A higher downforce:drag ratio is the goal for most aerodynamicists. This is all extremely oversimplified, and I do encourage the reader to do their own research on the topic, as it is very interesting. F1 has a great video on the basics of ground effect.

(The Venturi effect is a phenomenon that occurs when air is forced into a narrower path, causing it to travel at a higher speed and with lower pressure). This video by F1-based content creator Chain Bear, created in collaboration with Autosport, explains it well:

Ground Effect Explained by Chain Bear

But why was it banned? The 70s and 80s were a wild era in Formula One, as it spawned the era of adapting designs from other areas of mechanical and aerodynamic design into the sport in clever, ingenious ways, and with a very sparse rulebook to go along, the only limit was the imagination of the engineers (and maybe costs, wind tunnels and manufacturing capability too)! Sadly, though, safety was not a priority or even much of a thought during the era, and sometimes these wild experiments ended up costing lives.

Early ground effect cars used skirts (extensions on the side of the floor) that effectively sealed off the edge of the floor of the car, which ensured that no airflow would escape through the sides. This was extremely effective when it worked, since it made the Venturi tunnels very, very effective. However, it was terribly unsafe when it didn't work. Essentially, the seal was responsible for most of the downforce generated by the car, but if it was disturbed mid-corner by debris, uneven track surfaces or even just a pebble or two, it would lose nearly all of the downforce, sending it straight on into a barrier or even just walls (in places like Monaco) which resulted in a lot of accidents and deaths. It was deemed too unsafe to use, and flat floors were mandated. This video by Sam Collins explains the phenomenon in detail.

It must be noted that despite the flat floors, a raked floor does generate a venturi-like effect on the floor. Raked floors were seen before the reintroduction of ground effect in 2022, most notably in the high downforce Red Bull cars.

However, in the last 40 years, there has been significant advancement in our understanding of aerodynamics and the principle of ground effect. Therefore, F1 sought to return to this phenomenon in its bid to achieve its goal of reducing aerodynamic wake.

But what is wake? Aerodynamic wake refers to the turbulent air that is left behind a car as it moves at high speed. This wake can have a significant impact on the performance of the car, and in many cases it can be detrimental to its performance. One of the main problems with aerodynamic wake is that it can disrupt the flow of air around the car, causing drag and reducing its speed. This is especially true for cars that are following closely behind another car, as they will have to contend with the wake from the car in front of them.

When a car is engulfed in the wake of another car, the flow of air around it can be disrupted, which can cause the car's wings and other aerodynamic features to lose their effectiveness. This can reduce the car's downforce and grip, making it more difficult to handle and less stable at high speeds. Going to into a corner, this can result in a significant loss of downforce, causing extreme understeer and unpredictability. Content creator Chain Bear explains it well in his video on the topic.

Wake, often referred to as "dirty air", has probably been the biggest hindrances to close racing in F1. Of course, closer racing is both more fun for the drivers and the viewers, so the FIA set out to solve this problem. The aerodynamics of the cars have been simplified a lot, and curved surfaces have been prioritised.

The emphasis has been to reduce outwash, channel vortices and air around disruptive elements, like the front wheels, using the front wing endplates and elements, so that the turbulence from the wheels doesn't destroy the vortices and unseal the sides of the car. The front and rear wings have been extremely simplified, and have no flow separators between them (unlike 2017/18, when they were extremely common in the complex front wing designs of the era). This has led to the front wings being much higher than they have been in previous years, when they were extremely close to the ground.

The new rear wings feature rounded tips to create a mushroom-shaped narrow wake behind the car, which is redirected upwards due to a steep diffuser ramp, giving the car behind much cleaner air than previous generations. The front wings, meanwhile, channel the air narrowly beside the car, reducing outwash.

The new regulations also saw the introduction of over-wheel winglets and the reintroduction of wheel covers (after they were outlawed in 2009). The over-wheel winglets help control the wake coming off the front tyres and direct it away from the rear wing, while the wheel covers reduce any wake from the wheels.

All of this meant that the cars in 2022 were significantly different than those in the years before them, both in terms of how they channel air through them, and how they generate downforce.

Chassis Regulations

As F1 moved into a new era, the chassis had to be reimagined as well. F1 has been using carbon fibre composites for decades now, since they're both light and strong. At the forefront of the new chassis regulations were some essential safety improvements.

After the crash of Romain Grosjean at Sakhir (Bahrain) in 2020, the design was modified such that in the event of a crash, the power unit will separate from the chassis in a safe manner without exposing the fuel tank.

Anthoine Hubert's accident at Spa in 2019 and the subsequent investigation of the incident inspired multiple changes, including a longer nose section to help dissipate energy in a crash, together with stronger chassis sides to resist T-bone incidents.

The energy absorption requirements were also increased dramatically, requiring the chassis to absorb 48% more energy in front impact tests, and 15% more energy in the rear impact tests. Its durability would also be measured using static squeeze tests to certify the strength of the chassis.

The chassis now needs to absorb 48% and 15% more energy respectively in the front and rear impact tests, and withstand greater forces in the static ‘squeeze’ tests required to homologate the chassis and certify their strength.

The suspension mechanism was also highly simplified, to help police them better and make the designs much more adaptable to road cars. Proclaimed analyst Craig Scarborough explains it well in his Tech Talk video for the official F1 YouTube channel. Teams were also given a choice for a push rod or a pull rod suspension, as explained by Albert Fabrega. This style of suspension is best explained visually.

Powertrain Regulations

The fuel mixture was changed for 2022, raising the bio-component composition from 5.75% to 10%. The new composition is called an "E10 fuel" with the E referring to its Ethanol composition. The ethanol will be a second generation biofuel made in a sustainable way, meaning it will have a near-zero carbon footprint. This of course, is just another step, as F1 plans to use completely sustainable fuel in the future, and also works on maintaining parity with current road car fuel regulations.

More importantly, however, engine development (in terms of performance) would be prohibited after the 2021 season began. After Honda announced that they would leave F1 after 2021, Red Bull lobbied for a freeze in Power Unit development as both their team and their sister team, Scuderia AlphaTauri, would be left without a supplier and would have to take over Honda's existing project. They wanted to be a works team and not a customer team, especially after their relationship with Renault soured in the previous years.

The proposal would also save most teams a lot of money, so it was readily accepted. Later on, after Red Bull won the WDC in 2021, Honda announced that they would supply PUs to Red Bull, albeit not as a sponsor, and they would be rebadged under Red Bull's new Power Unit division Red Bull Power Trains (RBPT) whilst the latter still took over the IP and continued developing facilities for their eventual takeover of all manufacturing and development by 2026.

However, reliability upgrades would be allowed later on, but only after scrutiny from both the FIA and the other PU suppliers to ensure that these upgrades didn't improve performance by any metric. This would make the late-2021/early-2022 winter crucial as teams would have to finalise a fast power unit before the development freeze would set in.

Tyre Regulations

Pirelli was tasked with a very notable overhaul this year, as F1 moved from 13" tyres to 18" tyres after a decade on the former. Moreover, with the new regulations' intention to promote better racing, the goal was to make the tyres last longer while still having enough tyre wear to incentivise the teams to make pitstops. The tyres would also be heavier, and the reintroduced wheel covers would only add to that weight. The sidewalls on the tyres would also be significantly smaller, resulting in lower tyre pressures.

Pirelli tyres work at their optimal performance state in a very specific temperature window (80-120 °C). Therefore, the teams use tyre blankets to heat the tyres close to the required range. In 2021, the front tyres could be heated to 100°C, and the rears could be heated to 80°C. In 2022, the tyre blanket temperatures were reduced to 70°C across the board. This helps save a lot of energy, but also results in much colder tyres when the drivers leave the pits, requiring them to change their approach to outlaps. During the 2022 season, Pirelli tested 50°C tyre warmers for their 2023 prototype tyres, but with negative feedback from the drivers, postponed the introduction of these lower temperature tyre warmers as they work on phasing them out entirely.

A fact often forgotten in most discussions criticising Pirelli is that they do not actually make such temperamental, low durability tyres. These were the targets F1 set for them when they joined the sport back in 2011. F1 wants to incentivise strategy battles between teams, and pitstops are the most efficient way to do so. The regulations already mandate using at least two different tyre compounds in a single race (when it's dry). Pirelli could, probably, make a soft tyre that could last a whole race, as tyre companies inherently work on making tyres with the least degradation, but the most grip. What F1 asks Pirelli to do is unique, and rather contrary to what they actually develop for the road. I think Mario Isola (the head of Pirelli Motorsport) explains it best:

An interview with Mario Isola, the Head of Pirelli Motorsport | Via Chain Bear

Sporting Regulations

Teams use CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and wind tunnels to design and test the effectiveness, characteristics and performance of the aerodynamic parts they design. In the past, teams could run their wind tunnels for unrestricted periods of times, which saw some teams even trialing multiple wind tunnels at once. However, for the past few years, F1 limited Wind Tunnel usage to 65 runs per week for all teams.

Wind tunnels are expensive to maintain and operate, therefore, in conjunction with the cost cap, the default wind tunnel allowance has been reduced to 40 runs per week. That isn't the case for all teams though, as F1 introduced a sliding scale system in 2021 that they further modified for 2022-2025. Teams with higher positions in the constructors' standings will be given significantly less runs than those on the bottom. For 2021, the allocation for the top constructor and the one at the bottom was 90% and 112.5% of the default allocation respectively, and has since expanded to 70% and 115%. The same applies to CFD as well. The goal of this to reduce costs and further increase parity, as teams down the grid get to use the wind tunnel a lot more, and as a consequence have more freedom to develop different parts.

Wind Tunnel Allocation for 2021 and 2022-25

The FIA also introduced regulations mandating sharing of certain information by the teams to the public. From 2022, all the teams have to publish every change or upgrade they bring to the car on a given weekend, with a basic functional overview of said upgrade. The media will also be allowed to ask questions, and this will be applicable in future seasons as well.

F1 is a secretive sport, with scandals such as Spygate (2007) being some of the notable moments in its history. More transparency ensures that such incidents are unlikely, and knowledge is shared. Moreover, if eight or more teams agree upon it, they can refuse to allow a team's interpretation of the rules. Technical regulations will also be enforced based on the "spirit of the regulations", and not just the words.

Track limits were mandated to the white lines on the track, instead of the variable track limits in previous years. The FIA also introduced a double race director system, where they would switch between Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich to lead race control at a Grand Prix. However, due to inconsistent decisions throughout the year, including multiple black-and-orange flags for Kevin Magnussen, this system was abolished for the last few Grands Prix in 2022.

Analysing the 2022 Season

The effects of the regulations

While this set of regulations has been one of the most prescriptive ones in F1 history, there was some leeway for F1's engineers to innovate, and despite most spectators expecting a fairly homologous design approach, this season gave us a lot of variation, with a lot of variance in approach and design. As the cars rolled out the garages in Barcelona and Bahrain for pre-season testing, the immediately noticeable difference was the extremely different approach everyone took to sidepods. Perhaps the most intriguing ones were Mercedes' "no-pods", where they took a vertical approach instead of a horizontal one which they said would help with drag, and Ferrari's "bathtub" style pods.

Drivers took fewer risky moves this year, leading to fewer crashes. Perhaps the biggest contributor to this was that unlike previous eras, where you would only have one shot at attempting an overtake before tyres heated up and the car lost a lot of laptime, drivers could follow much closer and for longer, planning a move multiple laps in advance, pressurising the driver in front while still being able to drive consistently. Unlike previous years where drivers sometimes lost up to 70% of their downforce in dirty air, this year, they only lost around 20-30% of it.

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According to Pirelli, this season has seen 30% more overtakes than 2021, which was already one of the tightest championship battles we've seen in recent years. Perhaps the best example of this is the number of overtakes at Hungary, which has often been nicknamed "Monaco without walls". The midfield was also a wild card, with the order shuffling every race! The field was much closer together in most races, which emboldened teams to try more risky strategies and try to gain any advantage they could.

The cars this year were quick in a straight line, but lacked downforce, and with bigger wheels, heavier chassis and other contributing factors, they were 1-2 seconds off the pace of previous years' cars.

Mick Schumacher's car split in two in Monaco (as a safety mechanism) | Via @NonStopF1

The cars were much more durable this year, as evidenced by multiple incidents throughout the season. Mick Schumacher had a devastating crash during Qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and another during the race at the Monaco Grand Prix, which split the front and rear of his car in two, and that is exactly what the new regulations emphasised, as that secures the fuel tank. Charles Leclerc spun into a barrier in Imola during the final stages of the Grand Prix, but only suffered from minor front wing damage which was fixed during a pitstop, and could also continue unscathed after his collision with Lando Norris at Brazil which sent him into the barriers.

More durable cars also ensure that there are lesser DNFs, which makes the racing more exciting, and often, crashes can send top drivers tumbling down the order, giving us some great recovery drives like Max Verstappen's comeback in Brazil. The cars are also heavily reliant on the floor to generate downforce, and perhaps the best example of that was Max Verstappen losing a lot of pace in Silverstone after he had a piece of debris from the crash of the AlphaTauri's stuck under his car.

DRS has been very strong in 2022, but the FIA look to weaken it by reducing the length of DRS zones in 2023, considering drivers could really pull a significant gap while overtaking with much lower drag down the straights.

The tyres also played a key part this year, as drivers adjusted to more intensive outlaps to put heat into the tyres. Tyres are one of the variables that teams don't develop themselves, so they often push Pirelli for changes and modifications that would suit them. The lower tyre degradation also saw some valiant strategic moves by certain drivers and teams. Some of the most notable examples of tyre management this year were from Alex Albon's 57 lap stint on the hards, Kevin Magnussen pulling off a one stopper at a high degradation COTA, and Max Verstappen's medium stint at Mexico, where he maintained 1:22s for 42 laps.

Max Verstappen's stint on the mediums in Mexico | Via @F1

The new tyres are much larger than the ones that preceded them, and with the wheel covers on them, they're much heavier too. Because of that, everyone expected the pitstops to be slower, and they were at first, ranging from anywhere around 3-4 seconds, but teams got better at it as the season progressed. Red Bull were consistently the fastest at pitstops throughout the year, whilst McLaren scored the fastest and the only sub-2 second pitstop at 1.98s.

One might look at the season's results and conclude that it was a dominant season for one team, considering they've won 17 races out of 22 races this year, and secured both the Drivers' and Constructors' championships with a few Grands Prix left to go. But that is usually bound to happen. Whenever the sport has gone a major regulation overhaul, one or two teams just ace development on their cars whilst the others are left behind. In previous years, such a dominant performance by a single team would be a harbinger of an era of domination.

Stalwarts like Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes will still have a significant advantage over other teams, as they have spent years honing their facilities with the best equipment and paying lavish sums of money to secure the best engineers to build a talented workforce. Smaller teams can simply not afford to do that. Ferrari and Mercedes built their own wind tunnels as well, and whilst Red Bull has one too, it's rather old relative to its competitors, and in need of a rehaul, as Technical Head Adrian Newey has often reiterated.

With the financial regulations and the CFD/Wind Tunnel restrictions on teams that rank higher in the constructors' standings, this advantage should slowly wither away. Teams should, in theory, be able to spend more on their factory with all the profits, and develop their resources significantly. Aston Martin (formerly Racing Point/ Force India) is already building a state of the art $200M factory near Silverstone, while McLaren is readying it's own wind tunnel, which should be operational by late 2023.

Teams like Alfa Romeo Orlen (Sauber) or Haas were under the budget cap this season, but due to more aerodynamic testing allocation, they could build cars capable of fighting in the midfield, despite being way off the pace in 2021. Both of them have had an influx of sponsors since, allowing them to be at the budget cap for 2023, which should only push them up the order. Similarly, Dorilton Capital only bought Williams because spending money on F1 would be considerably more sustainable under the budget cap.

There have been some significant drawbacks, though, things that future regulations can look at improving. The cars are much heavier and larger than before, which can often be an hindrance to racing in narrow tracks. Visibility has been significantly lower too, with over-wheel winglets (flow deflectors) and larger wheels reducing the drivers' peripheral vision. Moreover, the newer, simplified suspension mechanism is not as effective, and cars are not as comfortable over kerbs as they once were.

The biggest issue, however, has been porpoising. Christened after the aquatic mammals, the phenomenon is associated with the ground effect. As a ground effect car generates more downforce at higher speeds, its floor lowers itself to reduce drag. However, if the floor goes too low, it hits the ground, which subsequently halts any air circulation and the floor goes up having lost all its downforce, only to go down again to regain it. When this process occurs multiple times, it feels very bouncy, as if the car has springs under it. This is a simplified explanation of the phenomenon of porpoising.

Chain Bear's video on porpoising from early 2022. (Some of the information in this video is outdated, but the visual representation and explanation of porpoising from 7:07 is very useful)

The most obvious solution to absolve porpoising is raising the floor. But that comes at the cost of performance, and as F1 drivers and engineers have shown time and time over, they'd rather be uncomfortable than lose crucial performance. Baku (the Azerbaijan GP) was the worst weekend in this regard, with drivers bouncing down the long straights. Multiple drivers complained about it that weekend, as many, including Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton voiced their concerns over long term effects and the pain they had to sit through. Thus, the FIA set to work on introducing an "Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric" (AOM) that set a maximum permissible limit on how much a car could porpoise.

Spray has also been a significant issue at multiple wet races this year, notably Japan. Whilst F1 has received a lot of criticism for not racing on it's full wet tyres (which can displace upto 85 Litres per second at 300 kph), some of it has been irrational since the spray generated by ground effect and the tyres can reduce visibility to an extreme extent, which is very unsafe. The F1 commission has since looked into addressing this problem. They aim to study the usage of wheel arches to reduce spray by the tyres without hindering pitstops, exclusive devices specifically attached during wet weather and additional lights on the car to increase visibility. Since the 2022 cars produce most of their downforce from ground effect, they also plan to analyze the contribution of the underfloor tunnels to the spray generated by the cars. For now, this is just research, but some of this could significantly materialise in the future.

Team Approaches

With the budget cap in place, teams had to balance how much they could spend developing the car during the winter and how much they wanted to develop throughout the season. This was made apparent by the number of upgrades teams brought to multiple Grands Prix over the season.

As this was the final year before the engine freeze, it was imperative that the teams finalise every bit of performance-centric development in the off-season. Different PU suppliers took different approaches. Mercedes focused on reliability, while Ferrari and Alpine, who were both severely lacking in performance focused on making the fastest possible power units, leaving reliability development for future seasons as those upgrades are not restricted by the freeze. Honda seemed to have found a balance between the two.

Ferrari Power Units had a lot of reliability issues across their customer teams, perhaps even jeopardising their drivers out of title contention with DNFs throughout the year. Alpine's Power Units are only used by their work team, and they were marred by reliability issues throughout the year, right from the beginning at pre-season testing in Barcelona, where Fernando Alonso's car went up in flames, which would continue to be a pattern throughout the season, especially on his side of the garage. He also had multiple issues with ERS throughout the season, most notably at Canada and Monza. Red Bull (with HRC power units) had a double DNF at Bahrain due to reliability issues, and one at Australia, but seemed to have developed their way out of their issues. Their customer team AlphaTauri also faced some issues early on, but they sorted those out as well.

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However, it was really nice to see that, for the first time in a while, nearly all teams were at engine parity, with Alpine only slightly behind their competitors. Ferrari did have a 20-30 HP advantage over their rivals when they could run their power unit at full power, but that was often not the case as they were marred by reliability. Despite that, their advantage was nowhere near the level of dominance shown by the 2014 Mercedes Power Unit.

Considering the near-engine-parity this season, aerodynamics made the most difference out on the track in terms of performance. Despite some of the most prescriptive regulations in F1 history, there was a lot of variance between the approaches teams took and the results they achieved. As the teams arrived in Bahrain, Red Bull and Ferrari looked much quicker than the Mercedes. It was a radical change for all 3 teams in terms of concepts, with Red Bull going for a low downforce car while Ferrari and Mercedes went for high downforce designs, contrary to what they had been running in previous years.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas

Mercedes, in their own words, assumed they could run the car on deck, which means that they thought they could run the car extremely low, nearly sealed to the ground, similar to the ground effect cars of yore. However, with the much weaker simplified suspension mechanism this year and the incessant porpoising, they simply couldn't achieve that. They seemed to minimise the effect of porpoising by Spain, but many race tracks, especially street tracks, have extremely uneven surfaces. While they were praised for the innovation with their vertical sidepods concept which would help reduce drag, they were still heavily marred by it, suffering on many low downforce tracks throughout the season.

Mercedes' Controversial Front Wing | Via Motorsport.com and Giorgio Piola

Moreover, their focus on reliability over performance was perhaps a wrong one, as they were not near the engine power of the Ferraris, and that can't be fixed in the current regulations, due to the development freeze. But it did pay off for them in some regards as they could nab points and podiums when their rivals had reliability issues. They tried various experimental setups and upgrades throughout the year, including double stays at Canada, and front wing slot gap separators at COTA, both of which they could not run at the Grands Prix, and were outlawed for 2023.

The Mercedes W13 on track | Via @NonStopF1

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, in an interview with Tom Clarkson for the Beyond the Grid podcast, said that the team is looking to rehaul parts of the car for 2022, and said that none of their problems could be attributed to the vertical "zero" sidepods design that raised eyebrows at the end of the season.

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari spent a lot of effort on their PU overhaul working with their fuel and lubrication partner Shell to maximise the performance out of the newly introduced E10 fuel. While they arguably had the fastest PU on the grid, it was marred by reliability, both for their works team and their customers team. Ferrari had a possible championship contender early on in the season, but they shot themselves in the foot with strategy, communication etc. Their car was notorious for its porpoising, but it was fast despite the issue. They lacked pace in a straight line compared to the Red Bulls, however, and that was a big issue for them in the early part of the season before being affected by TD039, the subsequent AOM, and having to turn their engines down so that they wouldn't blow up. They halted development after Singapore, presumably because they had spent much more during the winter, and shifted their focus to the next year as both championships slipped out of their hands. RaceDebrief.com has a complete article over Ferrari's disastrous season despite having what seemed like a championship winning car. Read it here.

Carlos Sainz looking at his burning Ferrari F1-75 at Austria | Via @NonStopF1

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Red Bull seemed to have the best car out of the pack, evidenced by a rather dominant season, having won 17 out of 22 Grands Prix this year. However, it was not an easy start to the year after their reliability issues early on, but as Christian Horner said after the Australian GP, he'd rather have an unreliable quick car than a reliable slow one. They did not have any other reliability issues after that. It was not a very dominant run like Mercedes in the early turbo hybrid era, as Red Bull had a challenger in Ferrari. However, the Red Bull Racing team worked much better together, with strategy, development and drivers in tandem, securing their best result as a team in recent history. Hungary is perhaps the best example of the team's work on strategy, while Belgium is the best example of the team's car. They seemed to achieve a balance between a high performance power unit and a reliable one. They went for a lower downforce car this year, a radical choice considering the current crop of cars already lack downforce relative to last year.

Red Bull had some porpoising, but much lesser than their competitors. They were quite innovative with their sidepod and floor concept. It was not really a surprise, as their Chief Technical Officer, the legendary Adrian Newey, wrote this first thesis on the implementation of ground effect in sports cars and has had quite a substantial amount of experience with the phenomenon. They had one of the most efficient designs too, as their car was rarely held back by drag. They also found a great balance in brake cooling and front tyre warmup, compared to the quickly heating, quickly degrading tyres of the Ferrari or the slow warmup (and therefore slow qualifying) tyres of the Mercedes. This has been covered in great detail by Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola in this article. Despite some trouble like their DRS issues in Spain and their team orders debacle in Brazil (read the RaceDebrief.com analysis here) and the controversy around the 2021 budget cap breach (which brings their wind tunnel time for 2023 down to 63%), Red Bull showed why they are a team with multiple championships.

The championship winning RB18 of Max Verstappen | Via @NonStopF1

McLaren

McLaren was marred by brake issues during pre-season testing, and despite being the team with the least porpoising during the tests at Barcelona, they were generally off the pace this season, struggling to keep up with their rivals for P4 in the constructors', Alpine. However, a magnificent drive by Lando in Imola helped them score the only podium that was not by the top 3 teams. Their car was too draggy throughout the season, and a poor season for Daniel Ricciardo didn't help.

The McLaren MCL36 of Lando Norris | Via @NonStopF1

Alpine

Alpine had an extremely unreliable power unit that suffered from engine failures, cooling failures and ERS issues, but they hope to fix that. The aerodynamic upgrades they brought to their car were consequential though, as they saw significant performance improvements with each modification to their original concept, which bodes well for their 100 Grand Prix plan to challenge for race wins and championships.

Alpine's A522 in the hands of Fernando Alonso | Via @NonStopF1

Alfa Romeo Orlen (Sauber)

Alfa Romeo started the year well, with the lightest car on the grid, which gave them quite a performance advantage combined with the new, more powerful Ferrari PU. While they did have some good races at the start of the year, even challenging Mercedes on the odd day, they were largely out of contention after Canada, affected by Ferrari's unreliable power unit, and probably even because of their gearbox. Alfa Romeo (Sauber) has started reducing their reliance on Ferrari parts as they started producing many parts themselves, including the gearbox. However, having learnt the lessons they did this year, they will probably have better luck with it in 2023. The self-reliance will also help Sauber propel itself as it works on becoming Audi Sauber (Audi's works team) in 2023.

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The Alfa Romeo C42 with Valtteri Bottas at the wheel | Via @NonStopF1

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant

Aston Martin has been vying for championship contention in the future as well, with their shiny new $200M factory at Silverstone and a new wind tunnel of their own, as they also poached engineers from various top teams like Mercedes and Red Bull, perhaps most notably Dan Fallows, previously the head of aerodynamics at the Red Bull Racing. They started out the season with a fairly slow car, but it was essentially a placeholder for another concept that they'd introduce in Spain, which looked suspiciously similar to the Red Bull RB18, being a centre of controversy reminiscent of the "Pink Mercedes" scandal in 2020 from the same team.

Aston Martin's Controversial Rear Wing | Via Motorsport.com and Giorgio Piola

However, an investigation by the FIA later revealed that Aston Martin surprisingly had the concept in the wind tunnel since November 2021. Aston Martin's development throughout the year was a tad bit chaotic, as they often went with really innovative concepts that didn't really completely work with the package. Some parts of their floor design were instantly copied by rival teams too. They also brought a controversial, innovative rear wing to the Hungarian GP that would create much more downforce but also much more outwash. While the FIA allowed them to use it for the rest of the season, they have outlawed it for 2023. However, the team seem to be in a good place to capitalise on their current development.

The Aston Martin AMR22 | Via @NonStopF1

Haas

Having scored zero points and being firmly at the back of the field throughout 2021 to focus on 2022 with their much higher wind tunnel allocation, Haas brought quite an advanced car to pre-season testing, and it was a good racecar too, as evidenced by their P5 finish in Bahrain that paved the way to a good early season for them. Their development was somewhat affected by Mick Schumacher's rather expensive crashes at Jeddah and Monaco, which split the car in two. However, mid-season development has never been Haas' strong suit and they lost a lot of performance throughout the season, not helped by Ferrari's PU reliability or Kevin Magnussen's lap 1 shenanigans when they qualified well. They brought one substantial upgrade later in the season, dubbed the "White Ferrari" due to its similarity with the F1-75, but the car was quite off the pace. Haas has since hired F1 veteran Nico Hulkenberg to replace Mick Schumacher as they secured Moneygram as a title sponsor for 2023 to bring themselves up to the budget cap, and they'll also benefit from the extra money they earn after securing P8.

The Haas VF22 | Via @NonStopF1

Scuderia AlphaTauri

After battling for 5th in the constructors' with Alpine in 2021, it was a disappointing year for Scuderia AlphaTauri as they fell all the way down to P9 in the constructors' championship, having a car that was simply too slow on most days to secure any points.

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The AlphaTauri AT03 | Via @NonStopF1

Williams

Williams brought a car with very little downforce this year. While it was extremely quick on the straights, it lost a huge chunk of laptime in the corners which ultimately segregated them to a P10 finish in the constructors, lower than where they finished next year. They did bring a new spec to Silverstone, but that did not perform very well either. Alex Albon complained about extreme tyre degradation while following another car, and about the car's volatility in the wind.

However, they have the most wind tunnel time of any team for next season, which they can hopefully capitalise on. A poor year from Nicholas Latifi didn't help, but Williams will be hoping for a better result from his replacement, Logan Sargeant. It was not very surprising however, considering Williams technical boss Francois-Xavier Demaison made no secret of the fact that the team was not fully prioritising the 2022 car, the FW44.

The Williams FW44 | Via @NonStopF1

The biggest issue with a regulation change as big as this one is that there will always be a delay in development for teams up and down the grid that didn't quite figure their car out yet, including Mercedes who came into the season with title ambitions before being relegated to fixing the issues their car faced, giving teams that nailed their concept time to extend their advantage.

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Conclusion

While not the "perfect" set of regulations that we'd have wanted, the first year of the regulations did shake up the grid a bit, but perhaps not as drastically as we'd have hoped. Teams were much closer than previous seasons, and every team secured points within the first handful of races, which is a rare sight. While the results won't tell the whole story, there was a lot of action throughout the year. With Red Bull facing a 7% reduction in Wind Tunnel allocation for 2023, they will have to use their resources efficiently as their competitors work on catching up. Hopefully, 2023 brings the field closer together and ensures a multi-team, multi-driver championship battle like 2010 or 2012.

Factoid

Since you've read till here, dear reader, here's an interesting factoid. Early into the formulation of the new regulations, the technical commission considered getting rid of front wings altogether, before ultimately deciding against it. However, teams have run cars without front wings in the past, most notably in 1982, during the peak of ground effect aerodynamics.

Resources

To read up more on the topics, I encourage you to explore the following resources:

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OPINION: What is wrong with Scuderia Ferrari?

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 05:42:41 GMT

The TL;DR Version

I know most of you probably don't have the time or patience to read through the detailed review, so here's a quick summarization of the article:

The Good Things

Ferrari has faced a lot of criticism for their mistakes this year, and rightfully so. But we must also appreciate their effort that brought them close to title contention early in the year.

Engine Development: The turbo hybrid era was mostly dominated by Mercedes with their extremely powerful power unit, and everyone was left in the dust. After their engine scandal in 2019, Ferrari had the slowest PU in 2020, but they took that challenge well, and were 3rd in the Constructors' in 2021, and had the fastest PU in 2022.
A "no blame policy": Okay, maybe this one hurt them a bit. However, instead of there being no fix to a problem the team faced as blame was just tossed around, Ferrari did fix some things this year.
Aerodynamics: Ferrari had a great car in the corners this year, a long shot from their early turbo hybrid era cars which lacked cornering speed a lot of the time.

The Bad Things

It was a disastrous year, really, for a team that looked like it could end its sabbatical from the top of the world championship after a wait of 15 years for the WDC, and 14 for the WCC. But, those things were not meant to be.

Reliability: This is, perhaps, not entirely a bad thing if seen as a long term plan. The engine development freeze this year meant that teams could not work on performance anymore, just reliability improvements. Thus, Ferrari took the gamble on performance at the cost of reliability. Rumors (again, rumors, not facts) have been floated around that they ahead to run their car under their maximum performance for the latter part of the year in fear of reliability issues. However, this lost them and their customer teams a lot of points, as their engines blew up quite regularly.
A draggy car: The Ferrari, while a beast on slow corners, was left lacking on low downforce circuits, especially towards the end of the season. Belgium was particularly disastrous in this manner.
A qualifying car: The Ferrari was adept at getting its tyres into the right temperature window quicker than all other cars. As explained in this amazing article by Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola, the Ferrari's brake design meant that the tyres heated up quicker. However, this meant that they suffered from extreme tyre degradation on long stints. While track position would have been a massive advantage in most other years, the new regulations made following a lot more easier and thus, on most days, the Ferrari lost out in that regard to its competitors. This led to a pretty disappointing stat for Leclerc too. Max Verstappen is more likely to win from a Leclerc pole than he is.
Miscommunication: Communication is key within a team, and yet, this was perhaps Ferrari's most glaring weakness this year. From the Monaco pitstop confusion, to asking to pit while battling with Perez in France and the " ... question?" saga in Belgium, Ferrari's communication was all over the place.
Strategy: Ferrari using really bad strategies isn't new. It has probably been the biggest barrier to them winning championships in the last decade. And this year was no different. Wrong tyres, poor tyre management throughout the weekend, and pitstop issues lost the team a lot of points, only to be compounded by the aforementioned miscommunication. In this regard, however, Sainz did a better job by being assertive about his strategy than his teammate, Leclerc, who just followed the team's orders for the most part.

The team's preference for pre-determined strategies was also mocked this year, with the infamous "Plan A", "Plan B" etc relayed between the drivers and the teams. Having a general plan is a great idea, but adaptability is key.
Driver Priority: We don't like team orders. They take away the fun of racing between teammates, which is especially fun because it's the same machinery for both. It is where driver skill makes the difference. But perhaps, when you are marred by other weaknesses, you sometimes have to make compromises, and Ferrari could push Leclerc into title contention.

From race results to lap times, it was clear since the beginning that Charles Leclerc was a better driver, atleast with the F1-75. While Carlos seemed to get more comfortable with the car as the season progressed, he still couldn't entirely close the gap to his teammate. Sometimes, to win, you have to prioritise the better driver as well. I understand Ferrari has been marred by the memories of "Fernando is faster than you" in an era that was illegal, and perhaps doesn't want to live through those memories again. Sometimes, you just have to push to the limits to win in F1. Sometimes. Yes, what Ferrari did was the ethical thing to do, but it did not benefit them, and perhaps hurt their faster driver emotionally, who was held behind his slower teammate in many occasions, most notable Silverstone.

This was, perhaps, reflected in the development direction as well, as the car lost its oversteery characteristics that suited Charles, and moved towards a more understeery design which Carlos likes.
Ignorance: This is, perhaps, a more emotional criticism than an event-centric one or a fact-centric one. Throughout the year, both the team principal and the management constantly told the press that they weren't doing anything wrong and it was just bad luck, and that the press was over-criticizing them. That is not the right approach to have. They should look at Red Bull and Mercedes, two extremely efficient championship winning teams that are not afraid to admit fault.

Yes, a zero blame culture does mean you don't point a finger at any one, but it also means that you work on accepting a mistake and fixing it. Now, of course, we do not know anything that happened inside Ferrari, and they might have been working on solving their problems, which is good. However, denying the truth can sometimes create a wrong state of mind, a state of arrogance, which is unhealthy.

The Team Principal

As of writing this articles, rumors are afloat the Mattia Binotto, who was Ferrari's team principal this year, is likely to be replaced. However, it is my opinion that changing the team principal will not solve most of Ferrari's problems.

Ferrari's problems are probably deeper than just the team principal. They've changed team principals over the years, but to no avail. The culture around Ferrari is of pride, and rightfully so. However, the past doesn't win laurels for the present. A culture of "we can not do anything wrong" is probably not the best to have. Binotto's leadership has seen a significant improvement in the culture at Ferrari, and that is a good thing. I'm not defending him here, either, he is a man of many mistakes. But the blame for Ferrari's poor season does not lay entirely on him. The politics of Ferrari are a well known tale, and perhaps, he's just another scapegoat.

UPDATE (29/11/2022): Mattia Binotto has resigned from Scuderia Ferrari and will leave the team on December 31st, 2022 after a 28 year stint. This will likely affect their development timelines for 2023 as well.

UPDATE (13/12/2022): Frédéric Vasseur has been appointed the Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari. He will take charge on January 6, 2023.

The Detailed Version

History

The legacy of Ferrari

If you've heard of cars, you've heard of Ferrari. And when you think of Ferrari, you think of beautiful, fast cars. Beautiful, fast red cars.

Ferrari S.p.A is, if you didn't know it already, an Italian car manufacturer based out of Maranello, Italy. Ferrari, did not, in fact begin as a road car brand. It began as Scuderia Ferrari, the racing team under Alfa Romeo, but Enzo left Alfa Romeo to start his own race team. He couldn't contractually use the name for 4 years, but when he got the right to use it again, he did.

But racing is expensive. Very expensive. And then, World War II saw the allies attacking Italy, during which Enzo's factories were bombed. But it was rebuilt. And Enzo realized during the same time that he couldn't just keep the racing team going on prize money alone. It was not sustainable.

And so, Ferrari was split. Ferrari S.p.A would be the road car division, which would sell Ferrari designed road cars, while the racing team Scuderia Ferrari would take to the track. Scuderia Ferrari would join Formula One in its first ever season in 1950, and is the only team that has stayed since its inception.

In their time in the sport, they've won 16 Constructors' championships, and 15 Drivers' championships, the most of any team in F1 history. They also hold the records for the most Grands Prix participated (1054), the most Grands Prix started (1052), most wins (242), most Podium finishes (798), most 1-2 finishes (85), most pole positions (242), most qualifying 1-2s (82), most Constructors' Championship points (9266), most Drivers' Championship points (9859.79), most fastest laps (259), most consecutive seasons with at least one victory (20 [1994-2013]). To say they're the most successful constructor in the sport is an understatement.

And that's just F1. They have a widespread presence across motorsport, participating in multiple categories, and even host some of their own!

Understanding Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari is more than just a brand. They're the soul of Italy, and expectations run high. Expectations can manifest into pressure, but if you're victorious for a while, you get over-confident too, and it seems that Ferrari walked into a bit of both. There's a certain pride associated with the culture, history and emotion of Ferrari, one that drives the passion every team member shares.

Michael Schumacher with the F2004, his most dominant car | Via Scuderia Ferrari

They've had their successes, no doubt. If you follow F1, you've heard of Michael Schumacher, or as Mika Häkkinen fondly called him, "The Michael". 5 double titles together and an era of absolute dominance. But that's just one of their great successes, having won with Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter and Kimi Räikkönen. They've been very successful, but one does wonder, could it be better?

But perhaps, Ferrari the factor that limited Ferrari the most was the corporatism. It happens with all manufacturer teams, like Mercedes (Daimler AG), Renault etc, but something about the Scuderia sets them apart. Both the drivers' seats and those of team management have been a revolving door, often due to decisions that come from the parent company, not those running the team.

Some bold decisions have paid off. Mauro Forghieri, who passed away recently (in late 2022), was handed the reins of the entire Ferrari racing department in 1961 by an ambitious Enzo Ferrari, at a raw young age of 27. This was an era where the cars, engines, gearboxes were all designed by a single engineer, or a very small team around him, but nothing close to the hyper-specialized departments that exist in motorsport today. And yet, he's regarded as the most influential engineers of all time, carving a legacy for himself by the virtue of the great cars he designed.

You've probably heard of Jean Todt, the team principal during the era of The Michael, who came to the stable of the prancing horses after his stint at Peugeot. He is regarded as one of the greatest team principals of all time, and later went on to be the CEO of Ferrari and the President of the FIA. His leadership saw Ferrari winning 14 titles (drivers and constructors), and it's not without reason. Todt is said to have run a tight ship, with a tightly knit workforce independent from too much corporate intervention. He's remembered as a key figure in the Ferrari Dream Team of Schumacher, Brawn and himself. Brawn and Schumacher brought their own core squad from Benetton as well, which played a major influence on team operations.

However, since his tenure, Ferrari have only won one WDC (with Kimi, in 2007) and one WCC (in 2008). The office of the Scuderia Ferrari team principal has been a revolving door since, having seen Stefano Dominecali, Marco Mattiacci (for just 6 months!), Maurizio Arrivabene, and Mattia Binotto. As of writing this article, rumors (again, not facts) of Mattia's possible replacement by Alfa Romeo Orlen's (aka Sauber) Frédéric Vasseur have been floating around.

(If you think you've heard of Stefano, you probably have. He's the current CEO of FOM - Formula One Management, and was the Technical Director of Ferrari during the infamous Spy-gate incident in 2007.)

What went wrong? Why is Mattia at risk, and what led to this? And will his replacement fix it? Is beheading the metaphorical scapegoat the solution?

The 2022 season begins

Pre-season

As the hype for the season began to build in early February by reveals up and down the grid, Ferrari's team principal Mattia Binotto emphasized their team's work on their Power Unit over the winter to achieve parity and even outperform their competitors, especially Honda (HRC) and Mercedes (HPP). This was especially important over this specific season because in 2022, performance development on engines would be halted, and changes would only be allowed for reliability. From what we know at the end of the 2022 season, they definitely prioritized performance over reliability, and rightfully so, as this would give them time to develop. Their partnership with Shell to optimism their engines for 2022's new fuel formula (with 10% ethanol) probably played a key part as well.

Testing

As the teams arrived in Barcelona for shakedowns, the Formula 1 world was reintroduced to a word from the last time that F1 tried ground effect: Porpoising. To put it simply, ground effect cars generate their downforce from being close to the ground and passing air through a specific set of "tunnels" on the floor. However, if the floor goes too low, it hits the ground, which subsequently halts any air circulation and the floor goes up again, only to go down again. When this process occurs multiple times, it feels very bouncy, as if the car has springs under it.

Despite being a sports car manufacturer, Ferrari had presumably not seen this coming, because their car was one of the worst in this regard, porpoising a lot down the straights in Barcelona, so much so that the video of their car was the example F1TV used to explain the phenomenon. This would hurt them later in the season, as they struggled to find a solution for this.

Similar problems would continue in the second round of tests in Bahrain, but Ferrari also seemed to be on pace there, and so did their customer teams. Testing doesn't mean much (especially with the Mercedes trend of sandbagging), but for Ferrari fans this year, expectations ran high as preparation began for the season opener.

Round 1: Bahrain

As they say on season openers, you never really know the pace until Q3 on Saturday. But come Saturday, Charles Leclerc put his car on pole by a tenth off Max Verstappen, much to the pleasure of the Tifosi.

Leclerc led away from the start, and Ferrari were on a near perfect strategy too, managing degradation and pitstops really well. Then, Max appeared on the season. Eager to defend his title, Max tried to put in an aggressive overtake over Leclerc on the main straight, but Leclerc played it wise and let himself be overtaken to gain the place back in the next DRS zone, in a dazzling display of sparks.

But then... it happened again. The same sequence, with Max overtaking Leclerc before Turn 1, and Leclerc gaining his place back before Turn 4.

But then... it happened again! It was delightful to see Leclerc's wonderful race craft against Max, so well thought out and executed.

Sadly for fans, though, Red Bull suddenly had a lot of issues. Max reported a loss of his ERS system, and lost his power steering, and retired with just a few laps to go. Pierre Gasly's RBPT/Honda engine blew up in flames, while Sergio Perez's car stopped on track at turn 1 with a complete loss of power. That was 3/4 RBPT (Red Bull Power Trains - currently a Honda rebadge, not in-house) engines out of the race. It did not bode well for their reliability.

What was likely to be a Leclerc-Verstappen-Sainz podium became a Leclerc-Sainz-Hamilton podium, a long awaited 1-2 for the prancing horses, and a great start to the season. Sainz didn't seem happy about his own pace, but Leclerc was about his, and all seemed good. For now, Ferrari were leading both the Constructors' and Drivers' championships.

Sainz and Leclerc on the Podium at Bahrain | Via Scuderia Ferrari

They just had a small problem with bouncing. They could fix that, right? Leclerc even mocked the RBR retirements saying there was something wrong with his engine on the final lap. Oh Charles, if you'd have only known how that would age.

Round 2: Saudi Arabia

Jeddah in 2021 was a hectic race. It had given us some big crashes, high risk moves and lots of controversy. But 2022 would be the best Leclerc-Max battle we could see, sadly. (foreshadowing).

Jeddah was held in controversial circumstances (more about it in the season review), and team principals had to convince drivers to drive after missile strikes. Ferrari played a dummy against Red Bull's Sergio Perez, getting him to pit early, and things only got worse for Perez as a safety car came out the next lap, giving his competitors a free stop. A strategy materclass from Ferrari. Max and Charles were battling in the last laps as Max closed up the gap to him, but Max would overtake Charles before the penultimate turn, only for Charles to get DRS over the main straight, and take back the position from Max. It was almost the same as Bahrain, and it was amazing. But Max knew the premise this time, he knew what was happening. So as Max and Leclerc went to the DRS detection line at the penultimate corner on the penultimate lap, both of them braked hard to let the other one through. But Leclerc had just a little more pace and crossed the line first, giving Max DRS, and Max overtook him down the straight.

It was a fantastic Grand Prix, and one of the best Max-Charles battle this season. Sadly so.

The strategy, however, was still pretty decent, and the team's performance was great too. Carlos finished in P3 too, with a pretty decent drive, securing a 2-3 for Ferrari.

Leclerc on the Podium at Jeddah | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 3: Australia

During the FP sessions, the long straights of the Australian circuit saw a lot of porpoising from various cars. While it seemed that the Mercedes was losing pace due to this, the Ferraris seemed to fast despite it.

Australia saw Charles taking pole by 3 whole tenths, and he had a great start at the GP, with Max just behind him. However, with the heat and track characteristics of the modified Albert Park circuit, the Red Bulls saw some significant degradation, even on the hard tyres. It was not all meant to be for Max Verstappen, though, who reporting smelling something funny only to be informed of a leak in the car, and had to retire the car. It was a DNF for Carlos Sainz on lap 1 after he braked a bit too late and ran into the gravel.

Perez also struggled with degradation, and could only finish P2, a whole 20 seconds off Leclerc. George Russell secured the third podium spot, however, with a great drive, with Lewis Hamilton running experimental parts and sensors on his car. Max now had a 46 point deficit to Leclerc, and said that the championship would be really difficult for him from there.

Leclerc on the Podium at Australia | Via Scuderia Ferrari

A car that doesn't suffer with degradation, okay and sometimes good strategy, and a car that has a lot of pace. What more could you want. Right? ... Right?

Round 4: Italy - Imola; The Turning Point

Imola was one of Ferrari's and AlphaTauri's two home races, and on a track named after Ferrari's founder, Enzo Ferrari. As the teams arrived at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, they were greeted by rain and the prospects of a wet sprint weekend.

Qualifying started off dry and got progressively wetter, with Q3 being entirely on the inters. Lando Norris crashed into the barrier and beached his car, ending Q3 with a red flag. Verstappen outqualified Leclerc by 8 whole tenths, a sign of the weekend that was to come.

Leclerc got ahead on the beginning of the sprint, with a better start than Verstappen who reported clutch issues, and stayed ahead, nearly equal on pace. However, it was then that the Red Bull pitwall informed Max of significant degradation on Charles' tyres, because of which Charles could overtake Max on lap 20 of the 21 lap sprint, to start in the lead the next day.

On Sunday, Red Bull fixed Max's clutch and they were able to get a better start, and Max led away right at the beginning and pulled a strong gap over Leclerc who dropped behind Norris who he then had to overtake. Carlos Sainz had a shunt with Daniel Ricciardo which took him out of the race, and Leclerc's Ferrari was a bit off pace, but he was managing to hold on to P3, and was trying to battle for P2. But on lap 53, as Leclerc was trying to close the gap to Perez, he took a bit too much kerb. The track had dried out, but the kerbs were still wet, and Leclerc spun into the wall, damaging his front wing. He was able to pit, change the front wing and get new softs on, and put in an extremely quick recovery drive but he was only able to end up P6, many points off of where he started, while Max finished P1 with the fastest lap to score the maximum points the weekend could offer, beginning his recovery towards the top.

Leclerc and his team at Imola | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 5: USA - Miami

On Saturday, Leclerc and Sainz locked out the front row. Max, however, got a better start on lap 1 and overtook Sainz outside Turn 1, and then passed Leclerc at the end of lap 8/beginning of lap 9 down the start finish straight.

On lap 41, there was a safety car after Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris had a crash, which resulted in a safety car. The Ferraris could realistically beat the Red Bulls if they pitted for fresh softs in a free stop since they were still behind the pit entry line while Max had crossed it, but didn't, since they didn't have any softs or mediums left.

Sergio Perez had issues on his car which resulted in a 10-20 bhp deficit, but he managed to cling on to 4th place, sometimes even close enough to make a move on Sainz.

Leclerc and Sainz on the podium in Miami | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 6: Spain

It was a strong qualifying for Leclerc in Spain and a great start to the race too, pulling off a dominant gap behind him. Both Sainz and Verstappen went into the gravel and rejoined the track due to wind, losing a lot of time in the process. However, on lap 28, Leclerc reported a loss of power and had to retire the car. Later, Ferrari explained that the issue was due to their turbocharger.

Max Verstappen faced DRS issues, but managed to get past George Russell after a great wheel to wheel battle between the two. Sergio Perez also got past George and the race ended with another Red Bull 1-2.

Mattia Binotto talking to Leclerc after his DNF | Via Scuderia Ferrari

It was in Spain that the championship lead switched around, giving Verstappen a 6 point lead in the Drivers' Championship and Red Bull a 26 point lead in the WCC.

Perhaps the most important sign from this race was the issue Ferrari had with their turbocharger. This would haunt them in future races.

Round 7: Monaco

Leclerc's Poster for Monaco | Via @Charles_Leclerc

Monaco has, in simple terms, not a great weekend for Charles. He had DNF'd/DNS'd in every Formula series in his hometown (until this year), something fans refer like to call his "Monaco curse".

Going into the Grand Prix, Ferrari and Leclerc fans didn't want a repeat of that. Luckily for him, the high downforce Ferrari was well suited to this low speed, high downforce.

He had an amazing qualifying, and already had provisional pole and was on a faster lap when Sergio Perez, who was P3 crashed into the wall, and Carlos Sainz crashed into him. Max had to abort his lap as well, after a personal best first sector.

It was a rainy Sunday which delayed the race start, and in the end, it was a rolling start on the full wet tires. The rain was stopping, and the track was drying up as cars put rubber down on the track. The backmarkers took a gamble with Inters and were struggling for a few laps before conditions improved significantly, and that helped them overtake some cars too!

Red Bull's Sergio Perez pitted for Inters, and Verstappen and Leclerc followed him on the next lap. Carlos Sainz, however, wanted to stay on the Wets and go to slicks directly. However, that slowed him down significantly as the wets underwent higher degradation on the drying track.

Leclerc was comfortably leading when he was told to pit on Lap 18, and so was Sainz. Sainz was pitting from Wets to Hards, and Leclerc was pitting from Inters to Hards. However, it was mistimed and marred with miscommunication.

Xavi (Leclerc's Engineer): And box now, box now box, for hard.

(pause as Leclerc enters the pits only to see Carlos Sainz, which meant they were doing a doublestack which would lose them some time and maybe track position.)

Xavi: And stay out, stay out, stay out!

Leclerc: ****! ****! Why, what, what are you doing?!

Telling your drivers to stay out after they're in the pitlane probably isn't the best idea. They lost time on their outlap as they were stuck behind the Williams, and the top 4 all pitted for Mediums after Mick Schumacher's crash, which they would take to the end. However, in Monaco, track position reigns supreme, and Sergio Perez won the race, with Sainz P2, Verstappen P3 and Leclerc P4, off the podium despite starting from pole.

Sainz on the Monaco Podium | Via Scuderia Ferrari

This race highlighted two major flaws with Ferrari, problems that even the fastest car couldn't solve: Strategy and Communication.

Round 8: Azerbaijan

It had been established by this weekend that the Red Bull RB18 preferred long straights and high speed corners being an efficient, low downforce car, while the Ferrari preferred slow and medium speed corners.

As the F1 circus arrived in Baku, everyone was going to run their lowest downforce spec yet, to use the long straights of Baku to their advantage. Despite a somewhat draggy car, Leclerc put in a magnificent qualifying lap, leaving no inch of track or kerb unused, to secure pole position.

On Sunday, Leclerc locked up on the start and was passed by Sergio Perez. However, Sainz had a brake by wire failure on lap 9 causing a Virtual Safety Car (VSC), and Leclerc used that opportunity to gain a "free stop". He regained the lead on lap 19, when Max pitted, only for his power unit to blow up with white smoke on the next lap as he came down the main straight, which ended up gifting Max the race win.

Mattia Binotto talking to Leclerc after his DNF | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu also had Power Unit failures, and with both of them Ferrari's customer teams, 4 out of 6 Ferrari powered cars did not finish the race.

It was a terrible showing of reliability for the Italian team.

But more importantly, this event set the scene for a Technical Directive (TD) that would go on to hinder the Ferrari, as many drivers suffered from porpoising on the bouncy street track of Baku.

Round 9: Canada

With so many power units up in flames, Leclerc had to take an engine penalty in Canada, and had to start from the back of the grid.

Leclerc didn't take part in Q3, and just began at the back, as Max Verstappen took pole in a crazy wet qualifying session with Fernando Alonso qualifying second.

Leclerc started from the back and had a lot of good overtakes, but only ended up P5, because he stayed out too long on his old tyres, another strategy blunder.

Sainz was running his own strategy and did a great job at it, and was just 8 tenths off Verstappen for the last 10 laps, but they were equally matched on pace and neither driver made any mistake, so Verstappen won that race and Sainz finished P2.

Perez had a gearbox failure and Yuki had a crash, but more importantly, Mick had an issue with his Power Unit, and considering Haas is a Ferrari customer team for all parts like PU, Gearbox etc (Alfa Romeo started making their own gearboxes this year), it was another glaring reliability issue for the Italian team.

Sainz on the Podium at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Canada | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 10: Silverstone

It was a wet qualifying in Silverstone where Leclerc had a spin which caused yellow flags, causing Max Verstappen to abolish his fastest lap attempt, securing a pole for Carlos Sainz, his first in Formula One.

Silverstone had a fairly gnarly crash into turn 1 on lap 1 with Zhou Guanyu, George Russell and Pierre Gasly, and another with Alex Albon, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon. The race was red flagged and resumed soon after the debris and the cars were recovered and the barriers were fixed. While Carlos had a poor get away from the line on the first start, he had a much better one on the race restart and swerved into Max Verstappen. It got scrappy between the two of them, and it was equally if not more intense behind them with Leclerc and Perez battling each other causing wing damage for Leclerc which Ferrari chose not to fix, as they didn't seem to be losing pace. It also resulted in front wing damage for Perez.

Sainz went wide coming out of Maggotts and Becketts on lap 10, which allowed Max Verstappen to overtake him before Max had an issue on lap 12 which was later revealed to be due to piece of AlphaTauri debris stuck on his floor. He thought it was a puncture at the time and had to pit, but they could not rectify the issue and he had to go on with damage, many tenths off the pace of the leaders. He was completely out of podium contention.

Leclerc had much better pace on the hards than his teammate and asked the team to switch them as he was losing time, but the team took many laps to do that, losing Leclerc valuable race time in the process. On Lap 39, Ocon's car had a failure which caused a DNF, resulting in a safety car. The Ferrari pitwall boxed Sainz for softs as did all other teams with their respective drivers, but Leclerc was left out on hard tires.

Sainz was told to back the other cars off and create a gap for Leclerc, which would clearly risk him a little, so he refused and said out loud what has now become an iconic response to poor Ferrari strategy:

Stop inventing! Stop inventing!

Leclerc was extremely compromised on his old hard tyres by everyone else on the new softs, and the driver who was once leading the race as an amazing battle ensued between Perez, Hamilton and himself, while Carlos cruised away to victory. It was still a valiant battle by Leclerc, though, as he gave everything to hold on to his position. It was Carlos Sainz's first Grand Prix victory in Formula One, but it was at the cost of his teammate.

Celebrating Sainz's first win | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari's main faults this weekend were poor communication, strategy, and not prioritizing their faster driver who still had some shot at the championship. Moreover, they did not accept fault and somehow tried to justify their decision not to pit with Mercedes not pitting Hamilton at Abu Dhabi 2021.

Mattia Binotto was later seen wagging a finger at Leclerc, which Leclerc said was to cheer him up, but you can draw your own conclusions.

Leclerc and Binotto after the British GP

Round 11: Austria

Max Verstappen did take pole in Austria and the sprint win, but Carlos Sainz and Leclerc lost a time battling each other as well. However, Leclerc came out ahead, and while he ended the race in P2, he was confident in his radio message to the team in which he said

We'll get them tomorrow.

As it would turn out, Ferrari would nail the strategy and had much better tyre wear than the Red Bull throughout the race. However, as Leclerc passed Max and Carlos was about to repeat the same on Lap 57, his engine burst into flames, even damaging the chassis, as he stopped on the escape road and awaited the stewards to come to him and help. It was reported to be another turbocharger blowup.

Leclerc reported throttle issues on the closing laps and lost a few tenths to Verstappen, but still secured the win, his long awaited podium since Miami, which was quite shocking, considering the pace he'd had throughout every weekend.

Leclerc celebrating his win in Austria | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Turns out, altitude would be a bit of an Achilles heal for the Ferrari PU.

Round 12: France

Leclerc took pole in France as Verstappen was P2, and that was the order after turn 1 as well. Max did try to close the gap to Leclerc, but the degradation due to the heat from the car ahead was too high, and Red Bull attempted an undercut on Lap 17, to a set of fresh mediums. Leclerc was also pushing on that lap, trying to build a gap to Max so that he could pit too, and on Lap 18, Leclerc lost his rear as he put on a bit too much throttle, and despite the grippy tarmac to stop the car from crashing, he went into the barrier and his car got stuck into the barrier, ending his race. Verstappen took a dominant victory that day, 10 seconds off the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell.

It was a communication disaster on Sainz's side of the garage, with them telling Sainz to box just as he was battling Perez. They decided to sacrifice P3/P4 for P5 with the fastest lap, which was a pretty baffling decision.

This one was purely driver error, and Leclerc's radio sums it all up. He was quite disappointed in himself after the race as well.

A sad Leclerc after this DNF in France | Via Scuderia Ferrari

After winning the championship in Japan, many RBR members said that this was the race where they felt that they'd be able to carry this lead over and secure the championship, with a very good result.

Round 13: Hungary

With 10 races to go, Leclerc would have to win every single one to have a shot at the WDC. This was the last race before the winter break and before the aforementioned TD would come into effect. It was a high downforce circuit, suited to the Ferrari's characteristics, and even Red Bull team boss expected this to be an easy victory for the team in red.

A drying Qualifying after a wet FP3 saw George Russell take his first ever pole in F1 in a surprise to many up and down the grid. The high downforce Mercedes was on pace that weekend. The Red Bulls had a terrible qualifying as impeding and outlap mismanagement saw Perez knocked out in Q2, while Max had power issues in Q3 and only qualified P10.

It was a cold weekend, and not one for Hards, but putting both their cars on Hards on a low temperature, low degradation track would cost Ferrari the podium, as Sainz finished P4 and Leclerc finished P6, while Max Verstappen won the race by 7.8 seconds over Lewis Hamilton despite having a spin in a perfect showing of strategy and racecraft. It was this race that brought Red Bull's chief strategist, Hannah Schmitz, was noticed by many people up and down the grid, as the Red Bull pitwall absolutely nailed the strategy, in a race that saw Max Verstappen go from P10 to P1 (despite having a spin), a great recovery drive.

Sainz and Leclerc in the early parts of the race | Via Scuderia Ferrari

TD039: No Oscillations

Baku's porpoising set off a series of lobbying in the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association, essentially a drivers' union) and the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, F1's governing body) to address porpoising in cars.

It outlawed a "flexi plank" solutions some teams were accused of using to reduce porpoising and gain pace, while enforcing a maximum permissible oscillation formula for every race, which required a team to raise their car's ride height if they were found in breach of the metric.

Mercedes accused Red Bull and Ferrari of using a "Flexi Plank" which would be an illegal move, and Ferrari accepted they had such a solution and would change it, while Red Bull denied all such claims.

Round 14: Belgium

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc both took engine penalties at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, as it is a great track for overtaking. Max Verstappen's car was rapid all weekend, and he took the fastest lap in the garage, as his fastest lap was a second clear off any one else. He was not awarded pole position, however, because of his engine penalties.

Verstappen got a great start on Sunday as he was up to P8 on the first lap. An incident between Hamilton and Alonso saw a hydraulic failure for Lewis' W13, which sprayed the fluid all over other cars, and that required drivers' to pull away their tearoffs to have a clear view. Stroll's tearoff went into Leclerc's front right tyre, causing a fire due to brake overheating, because of which he had to pit, while Verstappen put in a dominant drive and was leading the race by lap 12, and pulled off an extremely long stint on softs while not losing pace.

Max finished nearly 20 seconds ahead of his teammate in second place, despite Perez getting a front row start.

Meanwhile, Ferrari decided to attempt the fastest lap as Leclerc could get a free stop on the penultimate lap, but he came out behind Alonso and had to pass him, losing that point to Verstappen as well. He was awarded a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pitlane which put him behind Alonso, further compounding his misery.

Carlos Sainz finished P3 with a 9 second gap to Sergio Perez, in an extremely dominant race for the team.

Sainz on the Belgian GP Podium | Via Scuderia Ferrari

However, it was quite interesting to see Ferrari trying to work on their communication by relaying multiple strategies to the drivers throughout the race, followed by "... question?". They did face criticism over being too open with the strategy and for giving rather poor options, but it is my opinion that it was a step in the right direction, at least in terms of trying to fix mistakes.

Round 15: Netherlands

Max took pole position for his home race, with Leclerc P2 by just 0.020 seconds. As good as Ferrari's pace was during qualifying, they were significantly off the pace in the race, being outpaced for the Mercedes for most of the race.

On lap 15, Carlos Sainz came into the shortest pitlane of the season for his first stop and it was disastrous. They also had their wheel gun outside their pitbox, which led to Sergio Perez of Red Bull running over it and breaking it. Ferrari had been quite nifty with most pitstops this year, but they only brought 3 tyres out for the stop instead of all 4. It only compounded his woes, after a lap 1 turn 1 scuffle with Lewis Hamilton causing damage to his floor.

However, a lap 57 retirement for Bottas brought out a Safety Car, which led to a huge mix up in the race. Lewis Hamilton stayed out as the team prioritise track position while those behind him pitted for softs. It'd be a bad decision for Lewis, who had been leading the race at the time, since his old mediums could not match the pace of the new softs of everyone else. Max overtook him at the safety car restart, and he was subsequently followed by George Russell and Charles Leclerc, who was, for once, on a good strategy!

Leclerc on the Podium at Zandvoort | Via Scuderia Ferrari

However, this was a high downforce track, and this should have been an advantageous track for Ferrari. There has been immense speculation (again, it's just speculation) that the sudden loss of pace for the Scuderia after the winter break could be attribute to TD039, while it seemed to not affect Red Bull at all.

Round 16: Italy - Monza

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is Ferrari's (and AlphaTauri's) second home race on the calendar. Having already lost Imola quite drastically, the pressure was on Ferrari this weekend. They had a draggy, high downforce car, and this was a low downforce, high speed circuit.

Ferrari knew they had a disadvantage at this track, and Italian media reported that Ferrari had turned their engines up for the weekend, and ran a special, extremely low downforce Monza wing. Stellantis CEO, John Elkann, who owns a controlling stake in Ferrari, was also at the circuit for the Italian GP weekend. Also present was the President of Italy, making it a high pressure atmosphere in the team's paddock.

Ferrari were running a special livery commemorating the Modena Yellow color that has been key to Ferrari's history with its connections to their founder Enzo. The race suits of their drivers were in the iconic Modena Yellow as well.

Sainz and Leclerc in Modena Yellow Race Suits | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Charles Leclerc running the Modena Yellow Ferrari livery | Via Scuderia Ferrari

It was a joyful Saturday for the Tifosi as Leclerc took pole from Max Verstappen by about 2 tenths, with his teammate Carlos Sainz in P3.

Many drivers up and down the grid would take engine penalties for Sunday, leading to some chaos at first, while the FIA prepared the Final Starting Grid. Carlos Sainz would start from the back of the grid as he had taken multiple new engine components, which would end up being P18.

On Sunday, Carlos Sainz would make a great recovery drive to P4, edging out bioth Red Bull's Sergio Perez who had a brake fire and Lewis Hamilton, who started behind him.

Red Bull, uniquely, chose to not go for a flat Monza wing, but a downforce-rich wing, and the reason for that was that since they already had a quick car on the straights, more downforce would help them with tyre degradation on Sunday (As explained by this brilliant article by Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola, with some great diagrams to explain it as well). Turns out, Red Bull's strategy worked as Max Verstappen could pull a one stopper while managing his tyres, while Leclerc had to take a two stopper. An engine failure for Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 47/53 led to a safety car which the race ended under, with Leclerc stuck in P2. It was a disappointing result for the Scuderia as they had tried to put in everything to win this weekend.

Many criticized Ferrari for not going for a one stopper, but clearly, they were suffering from the degradation in a sunny Monza, and that strategy would have not worked for them. There was also some criticism of the FIA for not putting out a red flag, but despite the FIA having made many mistakes this year, in my opinion, it was a good call to go by the rule book instead of prioritising the racing. Safety is more important.

Of course, many Ferrari fans were concerned about the reliability with these turned up engines, but luckily for them, that was not much of a risk this weekend. They were also pretty good with communication with their drivers.

The Ferrari Garage in their Modena Yellow team wear | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 17: Singapore

Singapore was another track suited to the Ferrari, with slow corners and a high downforce requirement, and Leclerc capitalized on it during qualifying which was wet at first, only to dry upas the session progressed.

Max Verstappen's side of the pitwall told him to abort his quickest lap in Q3, and give it another shot, but he had to abort that one as well, as he'd be short on fuel, that resulted him in finishing a rather low P8.

Sergio Perez got ahead of Leclerc on the start, and considering they were almost matched on pace, the order at the top didn't change. With a couple of safety cars due to multiple crashes on Sunday, Sergio Perez exceeded the 10 car length gap that the leader must maintain, earning him a warning and a 5 second penalty after the race. Red Bull did expect this, however, and made Perez pull a 7 second gap ahead of Leclerc at the end of the race.

Verstappen dropped all the way to P13 on the start, and put in a great recovery drive to go up to P5 and locked up trying to overtake Lando Norris losing tons of positions again.

The weekend ended in a 2-3 for Ferrari, their best result in quite a few races.

A slightly disappointed Leclerc on the Podium at Singapore | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 18: Japan

It was a wet weekend in Japan with some Pirelli tyre testing to go along, as Verstappen took pole on Saturday with just a hundredth of a second to Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc got a better start on Sunday, but Verstappen took the faster outside line on Turn 1 to go around Leclerc and take the lead as Sainz aquaplaned into the barrier. Sainz's car had a broken rear wing and that was the end of the race to him. As the rain worsened, the session was red flagged, only to begin much later, resulting in a 28 lap race. It was a rolling start as Max led into turn 1 on his full wet tires only to box for inters later as Nicholas Latifi and Sebastian Vettel who took a gamble on them early on found much more pace. RBR double stacked Perez and Verstappen, while Leclerc boxed alongside as well.

Both Max and Leclerc had the measure of the field after that, going about 1 second faster than everyone else, but Ferrari's degradation struck again, chewing away the treads on Leclerc's intermediates. At the end, Max was so much quicker that he pulled off a 25 second gap in 23 laps, putting in an absolutely dominant drive. Leclerc and Perez shared a close battle in the closing stages, but on the last lap, Leclerc cut the corner which was deemed as an unfair advantage by the stewards, securing a P2 for Leclerc.

With some confusion about the points cleared, this ensured Max won the WDC in Honda's home race.

The tyres of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen after the race

It was a decent weekend for Ferrari, but nothing very special. Tyre degradation haunted them yet again.

Perhaps the most interesting fact about this weekend was Ferrari's introduction of an automated female voice that would inform their drivers of yellow flags, VSCs, SCs and red flags.

Round 19: USA

Carlos Sainz took his second ever pole at the Circuit of The Americas, with Leclerc just behind him in P2. However, he had a collision with George Russell at the start, which resulted in a hydraulic leak for him that led to a DNF.

Leclerc had a lot of degradation throughout the race and could only finish P3, on a rather windy Sunday. A botched pitstop by Red Bull led to a great battle between Hamilton and Verstappen, but Verstappen pulled off a 5 second gap to him later on, securing a WCC for Red Bull with teammate Sergio Perez.

Leclerc driving at COTA during the dusk | Via Scuderia Ferrari

We already have weekend reviews for the following weekends, so their descriptions will just be excerpts.

Round 20: Mexico

Ferrari was a minute off the leaders on Sunday in Mexico, as they had to turn down their engines since low pressure air at Mexico's high altitude didn't provide enough cooling to their turbochargers, which have blown up many times this year.

Read the Race Debrief Mexico City GP Weekend Review here.

Sainz and Leclerc racing in Mexico | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 21: Brazil

Qualifying in Brazil on Friday was a disaster from the Scuderia as they pitted Charles to put on fresh inters, after which they decided that new softs would be a better option, but ended up giving him a set of used softs from FP1, which he duly pointed out, as chaos reigned supreme in the garage with a single mechanic then rushing in to get soft tyres one by one as Charles set out again to set a representative time as soon as he could in Q1.

In what was a rather baffling call during Q3, Charles Leclerc was the only driver on inters, with everyone else, including his teammate Carlos Sainz, on new softs, a choice that'd only really work if it began raining extremely heavily rather quickly, which was extremely unlikely. Leclerc was struggling for grip on the inters on a track where the racing line was mostly dry, and qualified P10. Sergio Perez was stuck behind Leclerc and lost 3+ seconds on his lap as well, which was only good enough for a P9.

Leclerc put in a decent recovery drive on the sprint on Saturday as he climbed up to P6. Sainz had to go from a 2 stopper to a 3 stopper after having a brake fire due to someone's tearoff, similar to Leclerc's incident in Belgium.

A shunt with Lando Norris after the safety car restart sent Leclerc into the barrier on Sunday, which he recovered from without critical damage, but had to pit. He put in a good drive to recover to P4 and asked Ferrari to swap him and teammate Sainz who was P3, so that he could edge out Perez for second place in the drivers' standings, which they denied.

This led to them being on equal points in the standings heading into the next weekend.

Read the Race Debrief Brazilian GP Weekend Review Part One here.
Read the Race Debrief Brazilian GP Weekend Review Part Two here.

Sainz on the podium at Sao Paulo | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Round 22: Abu Dhabi; The Finale

Ferrari said that Abu Dhabi was finally a race where they could run their engines at their full capabilities again. Perez struggled with high degradation and pulled off a two stopper, while Ferrari played a dummy on him early on, but put Leclerc on a one stopper. It was close to the finish line between them, as Perez finished just 1.33s off Leclerc, having to settle for P3, whilst Max cruised to a dominant victory by more than 8 seconds, having pulled off a one-stopper himself.

Leclerc scored P2 in the championship off of Perez by just 3 points but with a 146 point gap to Max, a far shot from what he'd have expected at the start of the season. But he managed to salvage something out of it.

Both Leclerc and Max performed donuts as the paddock bid farewell to Sebastian Vettel.

Read the Race Debrief Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Weekend Review here.

Leclerc on the Podium at Abu Dhabi | Via Scuderia Ferrari

Conclusion

The TL;DR at the top offers insight on the exact mistakes Ferrari made.

However, it is my opinion that the team's biggest weakness is their sensitivity to media. It leads to chaos and uncertainty, which are not good for a sport where mentality matters a lot. This is, after all, the team that fired Alain Prost for describing their car as a "tractor". Expectations run high, no doubt, but sometimes, the media must be given a deaf ear. Ferrari should not shrug away from the criticism they faced this year, but use it as a learning opportunity. They had a fantastic car this year and have a good baseline for the rest of the years with these regulations, and two great drivers at the wheel.

They need to look at what they can improve, and just changing the head honcho won't make a significant difference. They've tried that already. The strategy team is the one that needs restructuring the most, perhaps, with some new members who prefer more adaptive solutions. Having listened to multiple onboards throughout the year, it is my opinion that Leclerc should probably get a new race engineer as well, someone with just a bit more conviction and confidence.

After what most expected to be a championship winning car in 2022 that ended up only winning 4 races, I hope Ferrari can fix these issues throughout this winter so we have a fantastic and competitive season in 2022, and give their loyal Tifosi some joy.

Disclosure

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Weekend Review (2022)

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:30:14 GMT

Sebastian Vettel's last weekend in F1, Max Verstappen's 15th win of the season and the battle for P2 in the drivers' standings. The Abu Dhabi GP was an emotional one for everybody. Danke Seb.

Coming into the weekend

The lead up to the Abu Dhabi GP Race Weekend was jampacked with news as we close out the season.

Haas signs Hulkenberg

In a press release on Thursday, Haas announced it would be swapping Mick Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg. Team boss Guenther Steiner has aired grievances with Mick throughout the season, and their strained relationship was not helped by Mick's extremely expensive crashes this year, notably in Jeddah, Monaco and Japan, as he raked in the highest damage cost of the grid this year in a team that did not even meet the cost cap. Mick was only informed of the decision on the same day as the press release, sabotaging his negotiations with other teams, as he put out his own announcement expressing disappointment and a will to continue in F1 in the future.

Rumors galore at Maranello

La Gazzetta dello Sport, one of Italy's biggest sport media houses, published an article claiming that Ferrari was planning to replace current team principal Mattia Binotto with the Alfa Romeo Sauber Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur. Scuderia Ferrari alleged that any such rumors are baseless, and so did Charles Leclerc at the press conference on Thursday. Again, these are just rumors, with no evidence.

Car Upgrades

After an upgrade-less weekend at Brazil, there were 2 teams that surprisingly brought upgrades to the last race of the season. Scuderia Ferrari brought an upgraded floor edge with the rearward portion curled upwards, while McLaren also brought a floor edge with skates, only for Free Practice, to collect data for the 2023 season. They also brought circuit-specific cooling louvres to meet the requirements for the hot track at Abu Dhabi. Any on-track testing for McLaren is imperative, as their wind tunnel's completion was pushed ahead to mid-2023, instead of being ready by this winter break.

Red Bull wins the DHL Fastest Pitstop Award

Red Bull won the DHL Fastest Pitstop Award for the 5th season in a row for their class-leading pitstops throughout the year. However, it is notable that they have had a few slow pitstops at Miami, Mexico and Brazil, mainly with wheel gun issues. However, McLaren has scored the fast pitstop this year, at a super quick 1.98 seconds.

The Red Bull Pit Crew receiving their Fastest Pit Stop Award | Oracle Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel's last F1 Race Weekend (for now)

It was quite emotional across the paddock as everyone prepared to bid farewell to Sebastian Vettel who retires after this Grand Prix. George Russell swapped helmets with Seb, and Mick decided to run a tribute helmet for his father figure in F1. At the Thursday press conference, Seb, Lewis and Nando reminisced the moments where they raced each other, as Lewis said that Seb would be back. And let's hope he will.

Sebastian auctioned many square shaped sections of his helmet where people could put their images on! He ran the special helmet the whole weekend.

The drivers went to a dinner at Hakkasan on Thursday, paid for by Lewis Hamilton, and gave us some memorable images of the class of 2022, 4 of whom won't be on the grid next year.

Celebrating Sebastian Vettel | From @lando.jpg and @LandoNorris

On Friday, the GPDA convened to, in the words of Alex Wurz, Chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (an F1 drivers' union of sorts) , to say "see you later" to Mick, Nicolas and Daniel, and of course to make a special presentation for Sebastian Vettel. They could be seen posing with the signature Sebastian Vettel finger gesture later!

Celebrating Sebastian Vettel at the GPDA☝🏼 | From Alex Wurz

McLaren also gifted Daniel Ricciardo the race suit from his 2021 Monza Grand Priz win.

Announcements and Events

Announcements between FP1 and FP2

The Reserve Role at Red Bull Racing

Friday was full of announcements up and down the paddock. In an interview to various media sources, Helmut Marko, former F1 driver and current advisor of Red Bull Racing and head of the Red Bull Junior program, announced that Daniel Ricciardo would be Red Bull's third driver for the 2023 season, after the driver had a rather unceremonial falling out with McLaren over his performance earlier this year. He withdrew his statement a few hours later, without stating any particular reason. Later, he announced that Liam Lawson, who drove Max's car during FP1, would continue to be the reserve for Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Alpha Tauri, Red Bull's sister team, which it uses for training junior drivers.

At the press conference on Thursday, Christian Horner confirmed that Red Bull were in talks with Ricciardo and hadn't signed with him yet, and that Marko had announced it a bit too early.

The Launch of F1 Academy

Formula One announced a brand new feeder series and progression path for women drivers called F1 Academy in a press release, which is a welcome move to increase diversity in the sport and give women more opportunities in a sport that is predominantly male, with an all-male grid. The series will use a Tatuus T421 chassis, a 165HP turbocharged engine supplied by Autotecnica (notably weaker than the one W-Series, the current all-women motorsport series, uses), and tyres supplied by Pirelli, who also supply tyres to the rest of the F1 feeder series hierarchy.

F1 Academy | Via @F1

Conclusions from the final F1 Commission

The fourth meeting of the Formula 1 Commission in 2022 convened on Friday, ahead of the last race weekend in this season, and had some notable announcements. The press release included some notable changes for the 2023 season, especially highlighting that the FIA would continue to refine and review it's regulatory and judicial process amongst other technical changes.

They addressed drivers' complaints about the increased spray from this generation of cars, which was especially dangerous in Japan this year, and commenced a study to combat this problem. They aim to study the usage of wheel arches to reduce spray by the tyres without hindering pitstops, exclusive devices specifically attached during wet weather and additional lights on the car to increase visibility. Since the 2022 cars produce most of their downforce from ground effect, they also plan to analyze the contribution of the underfloor tunnels to the spray generated by the cars.

A possible update to Power Unit infringement penalties was also discussed, to deter teams from breaching the current limits on those parts, which undermines the regulations capping them and increase costs. As the plan to abolish tyre blankets by 2024 continues, the commission decided to delay any final decisions to July 2023.

The Drag Reduction System (DRS) received a slight modification. During 2023, as a trial, F1 will move DRS activation forward one lap during sprint weekends only. Currently, at a race/sprint start or a safety cart/red flag restart, two laps are run without DRS before it is activated, but the new system plans to have only one non-DRS lap. If the results meet the standards of closer racing that they accept, this will be implemented for the entire 2024 season.

The forfeit allowance for damage during a Sprint race was increased from $150,000 to $300,000, whilst other allowances for the teams under Sprint regulations will be removed. Other minor amendments in the 2023 Technical and Financial regulations were unanimously approved, and following Guanyu Zhou's crash at the 2022 British GP at Silverstone, more stringent requirements for roll hoop strength are set to be introduced in 2024.

Sebastian's Forrest-Gump-esque run

To commemorate his last F1 weekend, Sebastian Vettel held a run with all of his fans around the track on Saturday. It was a delightful gesture from the F1 veteran.

This image is unavailable.

Sebastian Vettel's Run | Via @MercedesAMGF1

Free Practice Roundup

Sebastian Vettel and George Russell swapped helmets before heading out for Free Practice 1.

FP1 for the Rookies

It was an eventful Free Practice One, as 7 rookie drivers and Robert Kubica took to the track. Lawson, Doohan, Sargeant, Fittipaldi, Shwartzman, Drugovich, O'Ward, O'Ward replaced Verstappen, Alonso, Latifi, Schumacher, Sainz, Stroll, Norris, Zhou in their respective cars.

It was a bad start to the session for Pato O'Ward, however, as he was one of the first drivers to take to the track, only to be marred with power issues on his outlap, and was instructed by the team to keep the car in second gear and bring it back onto the pits. The session also saw a lot of lockups and track limits violations as drivers took Turn 1. O'Ward's final run was blocked by Drugovich at the final corner as Drugovich moved away from the racing line at the last moment.

Sargeant also had a spin at turn 1 as he braked too late and almost hit the barrier, sliding over the high-grip tarmac which damaged his soft tyres making them unusable. However, his main objective in the session was to take another Super License point so that he can race for Williams next season, and he needed to complete 20 laps for that, which he did. He needed to complete above P6 in the F2 standings for the Super License, and he did that to secure his Williams drive for 2022.

Logan Sargeant secured his Williams seat with a good F2 weekend and FP1 outing | Via @F1

Liam Lawson, who, due to his current tenure in F2 is used to stopping further, nearly missed the RBR pit-wall and had to be pushed back to it. McLaren was also running an experimental floor as detailed above, but the intent was to collect data for 2023. Red Bull ran sensors to presumably measure upwash on Sergio Perez's car during FP1 with the same goal.

Red Bull's Sensor Array for FP1 | Via Mikołaj Sokół

Whilst their teammates were replaced by the rookies, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc were trading places at the top of the timing sheets lap after lap earlier in the session, which made for some interesting viewing, before the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell put in their soft tyre representative laps as well, topping the time sheets. Lewis Hamilton was, late into the session, impeded by Kevin Magnussen which he was visible frustrated about.

FP1 Classification | Abu Dhabi GP 2022

It was an emotional moment for Sebastian Vettel in the garage as his dad, Norbert Vettel, brought his first ever karting suit and helmet to the Aston Martin garage, a kit Seb didn't even know was preserved. Vettel later did say that it felt like he was back in 1995, and rightfully so. Thank you, Sebastian.

The return of the grid in FP2, and some representative laps.

As dusk set in and dropped the temperature at the onset of the next FP session at the Yas Marina circuit, the grip on the circuit increased considerably. Drivers who had lent their cars out to rookies for FP1 finally got some running in during this session, with both qualifying and race preparation.

Throughout the session, Max Verstappen reported brake issues and "spongy brakes", a term that is used to express that the brake feels looser and likely has some air stuck in its hydraulic system, often solved by bleeding the brakes, where the braking fluid is removed and then reinserted carefully.

Daniel Ricciardo reported feeling a slippery patch on the grid box, which the team confirmed and. It looks as if it was rebuilt/painted, and is significantly smoother than the rest of the pit-road. McLaren reported the issue to the FIA, as it could potentially hinder pitstop times giving them an unfair disadvantage over the competitors.

The McLaren Pitbox | via Albert Fabrega

With Leclerc's race pace runs significantly slower than the competition, he asked the team 'Why are we so slow' on the radio, to which his race engineer's response was 'Our pace isn't good', quite in line with the quality of Ferrari's communication throughout the season.

Turn 6 saw a lot of drivers going wide or locking up, including Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel and Alex Albon. As the session, came to an end, the top 3 positions on the chart were shared by the top 3 teams in the constructors, a promising end to the season and hopefully a sign for multi-team title fights in 2023.

FP2 Classification | Abu Dhabi GP 2022

A quick FP3, and lots of track limits violations

On Saturday's sunny, warm afternoon at the Yas Marina circuit, drivers put in their final non-Parc Fermé laps in, as they worked on refining their setups.

After McLaren's request to the FIA to sort out the slippery patch at their pitbox, the entire pitroad was modified by removing a bit of the concrete off the top, leading to there being a lot of dust on the road which caused a few drivers to lose grip on it a few times.

In an absurd incident, Pierre Gasly's over-wheel winglet (aka Flow Deflector) suddenly flew off his front right tyre, breaking the wheel rim and damaging the tyre in the process. AlphaTauri have, at the time of writing, not given the reason to why this occurred and are investigating.

The debris due to Pierre's incident meant that the session had to be red flagged, during which Lewis Hamilton did not slow down correctly at Turn 5 and was investigated for it. Lando Norris informed his team over the radio that Hamilton had also overtaken a Haas during the duration of the red flag, which is a violation of the regulations. However, from Hamilton's onboard, it's quite apparent that he could not have slowed down in time to not overtake Norris' McLaren and the Haas ahead, since he was extremely faster than them, with him being on a hotlap while the others were on cooldown laps. He was not given any penalty for this incident after the FIA reviewed it.

Alex Albon had a close call with Lando's McLaren down the straight as they almost came together. Commentators on multiple streams misjudged the driver involved since Albon's helmet had the name Latifi on it, intended by him to commemorate his teammate's last weekend in F1, as things stand.

As the session drew to a close, Sergio Perez topped the timing charts with Verstappen at a close second, with the latter having committed a track limits violation on his fastest lap at Turns 5 and 6, while the Ferraris only finished P6 and P7, with Charles Leclerc complaining about his low pace and a lot of degradation at the first 4 corners.

Free Practice data should be taken with a grain of salt, however, since we do not know what fuel weights the teams are running, what their setups are and if they're maximizing their car's potential or not.

FP3 Classification | Abu Dhabi GP 2022

Qualifying

An exciting, crowded Q1

As the cars went out on the coolest session all weekend, with a track temperature of 33°C, tyre warmup was a priority. The Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, who is driving his last F1 Qualifying (for now), went out first and had an empty track to themselves to set representative laps right at the beginning.

Max Verstappen broke his headrest during his first hotlap and had to box to replace it. Despite setting the quickest time in the session, he locked up in his last run at Turn 1, and could not set a better time.

Throughout qualifying, drivers were absolutely on the edges with track limits, with Alex Albon losing his time due to a violation.

As all the drivers went out to set their final times in the last 3 minutes and leverage the track evolution, there was a lot of traffic at the last corner, as all cars almost came to standstill trying to create a gap behind them.

An issue-rich Q2

Mercedes was the first to go out in Q2, presumably in the pursuit of clean air and no traffic. However, Lewis Hamilton complained about his brakes not being up to par on both his first outlaps, an issue the team had to fix later on.

The top runners preferred used tyres to save the freshest softs for Q3.

Max had a subpar Q2 as he was sliding around at slow corners, with his rear being especially unstable. On the other end, Sebastian found himself blocked by Sergio Perez on multiple runs, costing him about a tenth at the last corner. But he managed to finish P7, and Daniel Ricciardo managed to be P10, with Mick only P10 and knocked out again.

The fastest session of the weekend at Q3

The Mercedes pair was the first to go out first again on used softs, and set in quick times. They left a lot to be desired, so the pair swapped to a new pair later on.

Drivers were also extremely lenient with track limits, extracting every single inch they could, as this tweet from Sam Collins (the F1TV analyst) shows.

Sebastian was affected by Perez once again, and was visibly and justifiably frustrate by it, with his best lap only getting him a P9, equaling his best qualifying finish of the season. However, he did say he enjoyed every Qualifying lap he set, and rightfully so.

For their first runs, Max was supposed to give Sergio a tow but due to an issue with Max's pit exit, he was behind Perez for the first run. However, for their second runs, Max and Sergio were in the right order and Sergio got a tow throughout the lap but could only finish P2, with Max securing his 7th pole of the season.

It was quite a unique result, with Red Bull Racing locking out the front row (their first since 2018!), Scuderia Ferrari locking out the second row and Mercedes locking out the third row, with Ferrari locking out the last row. It was a heartbreaking statistic for Lewis Hamilton, though, as he missed out on pole for the first time in his career.

Qualifying Classification | Abu Dhabi GP 2022

Pre-Race

As the drivers arrived onto the track on Sunday, a guard of honor was held for the legendary Sebastian Vettel, as the grid bid farewell to the 4 time WDC who is leaving the sport (but hopefully chooses to return)! The drivers also lined up for a photograph, and gave Sebastian a warm welcome as he joined them!

This image is unavailable.

Sebastian Vettel joining drivers for the Class of 2022 photograph | Via @MercedesAMGF1

The Grand Prix

Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel swapped helmets before the race, and so did Zhou Guanyu, to bid farewell to the respective drivers.

The Starting Grid at Yas Marina | Abu Dhabi GP 2022 | Via @PirelliSport

The grid lined up for the formation lap with most drivers on new Medium tyres, with Kevin Magnussen on Hards and Pierre Gasly on softs, as they prepared for the race start, which would Valterri Bottas' 200th. As the lights went out as the sun went down at Abu Dhabi, , Max got an impeccable start and so did Perez behind him, as the 2 Red Bulls led the two Ferraris (who were running low downforce rear wings) away from Turn 1. Lando Norris took the opportunity to gain a place from George Russell, as Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz scrapped down through turn 6, where Lewis went wide like he did last year in his lap 1 battle with Max but Carlos was absolved of any wrongdoing in terms of pushing Lewis off the track, and Mercedes instructed Lewis to hand back the position while they weren't told to do so. The incident did seem to affect Lewis' car quite a bit, though, as we'd later find out.

The race also saw a lot of drivers exceeding track limits, with Gasly and Hamilton receiving black and white flags for exceeding them 3 times. Perez suffered high degradation on his mediums after fending off pressure from Charles Leclerc as Max Verstappen pulled off a huge lead early on. Perez then chose to pit, moving to a two stopper.

Pirelli's Proposed Strategies | Via @PirelliSport

It was a unique race for strategies, as the one-stopper and two-stopper were very close on pace up and down the grid, albeit working for some cars better than the others. After pitting early, Perez could achieve the last two stints on hards or softs, as he only had one medium left for the Grand Prix. Both of his outlaps were a disaster, however, as he got stuck behind other cars as he left the pits, despite having quick pitstops at 2.4s both times. He was stuck behind Lewis Hamilton for a while, with a battle that looked a lot like a shot to shot remake of Perez' defense against Hamilton last year, and

Tyre Quotas for the Drivers | Via @PirelliSport

George Russell decided to go for a two stopper, but had a slow first stop with an unsafe release into Lando Norris' way that earned him a 5 second penalty, which he had to serve at his next stop. Lewis Hamilton reported floor damage as Mercedes decided to split strategies and put him on a one-stopper. Sebastian Vettel, on his last Grand Prix (for now), also went for a one-stopper, running the longest medium stint of them all, and later lamented the strategy call as he was passed by drivers on every lap. When he eventually pitted, Sebastian had a slow stop at 4.1 seconds, and had a rear lockup at the pit exit line as he pressed the wrong button before correcting it, losing him some time.

Max Verstappen reported engine braking issues, but they did not seem to have any considerable effect on his pace. Fernando Alonso, however, was told to retire the car, in a season with a really unreliable Alpine that had a lot of DNFs.

Mick Schumacher tried to have a lunge down the apex to pass Nicholas Latifi at turn 5, but misjudged the move as he had contact with Nicholas, sending them both into a synchronized spin, a sad moment as both drivers will not be racing in F1 next year. Mick was given a 5 second time penalty for his collision. He could continue while Nicholas had to retire.

Sebastian Vettel passed Zhou to secure P11, as Stroll, who was following Vettel, tried to to pull off the same move on fresh mediums but went wide and off the road and had to return the place before overtaking Zhou again and then Sebastian Vettel.

On lap 56, Lewis Hamilton retired due to a hydraulic failure, presumable due to going over the kerbs at the incident on lap 1, but could make it back to the pits, in his first technical DNF since Austria 2018. However, this race ended his streak of winning a race in every season of F1 that he took part in.

Pit Strategies | Via @PirelliSport

The last 10 laps were tense at the Red Bull and Ferrari pit-wall though, as the battle between Leclerc and Perez raged on, with the former on a one-stopper. Max told his team over the radio radio to "tell Checo to go full send" and that the hard tyres could take it, and that's what Perez did, going almost a second faster per lap for 10 laps, as he finished just 1.3 seconds behind Leclerc, slightly impeded by the backmarkers Albon and Gasly who were fighting their own battle and delayed letting him by after blue flags. It was right down to the line as an Leclerc managed his tyres while pulling every last bit of pace out of them to finish P2 and secure his P2 spot in the constructors' championship as well, edging out Perez by a meagre 3 points, and Leclerc was visibly exasperated after that Grand Prix. Lando Norris stole the point for fastest lap and a P6 finish in the race. Sebastian Vettel finished P10, scoring a point on his final race in F1, just as he began, as Daniel Ricciardo finished P9 just ahead of him.

Verstappen crossed the line to won his 15th race of the season with a plethora of fireworks going off, breaking Vettel's and Schumacher's record of 13 wins in a season, as Sebastian won the Driver of the Day award by a record breaking 56.6%.

Race Classification | Abu Dhabi GP 2022 | (@F1 did not provide their official graphic)

In a notable addition, medals were awarded medals alongside the trophies on the podium, as drivers usually do not get to keep the trophies because the teams do.

Post Race

It was an emotional post race mood, as Max and Leclerc (who choked on water while talking to the team on radio because of pressing the drinks button by mistake) headed to the pit straight to perform a few donuts celebrating the season and to commemorate Sebastian Vettel. Max was told to take care of the car and tyres will doing so, considering the hards had significantly worn out, but he replied with a cheeky line, "A li'l smoke won't hurt anyone". Sebastian arrived onto the scene later to perform his own donuts and give the audience what they wanted!

Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo also performed donuts, as Lando bid his teammate farewell and McLaren gave Daniel a special dashboard commemorating his Monza win in 2021 on the cooldown lap!

This image is unavailable.

Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc doing Donuts | Via @RedBullRacing and @F1

Sebastian was also given a great send off by the fans as he rolled on to the grid, and stepped out of the car for an interview with Jenson Button after his donuts.

Sebastian Vettel stepping out of the AMR22 | Via @AstonMartinF1 and @F1

Mick Schumacher also performed some donuts but was told to stop by the Haas F1 team as they "just can't". Heartbroken, he responded with a "It's alright. I uh... love you too."

Nyck de Vries was "ceremoniously" delivered to the AlphaTauri F1 team by the Mercedes squad (removal of Debris, eh?) on a trolly (after being dunked in the Marina) as he prepares to replace Pierre Gasly at the team next year, as Pierre moves to Alpine to replace Fernando Alonso who moves to Aston Martin and already left for the Aston hospitality after his farewell at the Alpine garage.

Championship Standings

Constructors' Championship

It was a tight battle for the constructors' championship, a challenge worth millions of dollars in prize money as the teams headed to Abu Dhabi.

After a point-less weekend for Alfa Romeo and both Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll scoring points for Aston Martin, they were tied on points, but Alfa Romeo finished ahead due to Valtteri Bottas' P5 finish in Imola earlier this year. Sebastian Vettel did try to overtake Daniel Ricciardo which would have secured them a P6 position in the constructors, but failed to do so.

With both AlphaTauri and Haas finishing way outside the points, Haas edged their rivals out by just a couple of points to score P8 in the constructors', having a much better season than they did the last 2 years.

Alpine and McLaren were very close heading into the weekend, but Alpine edged out McLaren for P4 in the championship despite their poor reliability this season.

Mercedes were close to challenging Ferrari for P2 in the standings but Lewis' performance and underwhelming race pace saw them fall short of that target by a margin, and both teams were way off of Red Bull, who complete 205 points ahead of Ferrari. However, considering they will get more wind tunnel time next year for P3 in the standings, it'll probably be a net benefit for the team, who struggled with the W13's fluctuating pace all year.

Final Constructors' Standings for 2022 | Via @F1

Driver's Championship

Leclerc beat Perez for P2 by just 3 points as they crossed the line, while George Russell outscored Carlos Sainz by a huger margin, despite the latter having an arguably faster car this year, albeit with poor reliability. Sainz beat Hamilton out in the last race by just 6 points, but a whopping 118 points above Lando Norris, who secured the "best of the rest" result outside the top 3 teams.

While Alpine beat McLaren in the constructors' standings, both their drivers scored less points than Lando Norris, with Ocon scoring 92 points and Alonso 81, with the latter being marred by extremely poor reliability all year, with a lot of mechanical DNFs, as Valterri closed the constructors' championship at 49 points.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel tied at 37 points, with Daniel just catching up to Seb by finishing P9, and being ahead because of his highest ranking race result, with a terrible season for the McLaren driver, one that saw him lose his seat with McLaren and a premature contract termination. Kevin Magnussen outscored Pierre Gasly by just 2 points in the championship as they both finished outside the points at Abu Dhabi. Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda tied at 12 points each, ahead of Zhou Guanyu who was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" award, being the only rookie this year. Alex Albon outscored both teammate Nicholas Latifi and reserve driver Nyck De Vries, who were tied for points, with Nyck having only one outing in the car at Monza, a showing impressive enough to earn him a formula 1 seat at AlphaTauri for 2023.

Nico Hulkenberg, who will be returning to the grid with Haas next year, scored zero points after he stood in for Sebastian Vettel during the first two Grands Prix of the season, with the latter being affected by COVID during the duration.

Final Drivers' Standings for 2022 | Via the official @F1 livestream

Bonus Content

Ferrari's Gift for Sebastian

Ferrari gifted Sebastian the engine cover from his 2018 car with notes and signatures from notable team members, a great gift for a driver who poured his heart and soul into the team he loved.

Via @ScuderiaFerrari

Grazie di tutto, RAGAZZO ❤️ #essereFerrari🔴 #Seb5 #DankeSeb #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/0OQYFb2hwd
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) November 19, 2022

The official tweet from the Scuderia

Red Bull's gift for Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull gifted Sebastian an RB7 rear wing on Saturday, with notes and signatures from notable team members! Sebastian gave both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) their first wins, and scored the first 4 drivers championships for the team. With teammate Mark Webber, they also dominated the constructors' standings in the 2010-2013 seasons!

Via @RedBullRacing

Red Bull's Tribute Poster for Seb | Via @RedBullRacing

Tributes to Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian's dad, arguably Seb's biggest biggest supporter, dedicated a tribute to him at the weekend, after he brought Seb's first karting kit to the track on Friday!

(Click on the Watch on YouTube button for Norbert's and Drivers' tribute videos as Formula One Management prohibits video embed playback on third party websites.)

Norbert Vettel's tribute to his son Sebastian!

Aston Martin's Tribute to Sebastian Vettel

Driver's Tribute to Sebastian Vettel

F1's tribute poster for Sebastian Vettel | Via @F1

F1's stats poster for Sebastian Vettel | Via @F1

A poster for Sebastian signed by many people up and down the grid. | Via @AstonMartinF1

McLaren's tribute to Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren also release a touching tribute to Daniel Ricciardo, who's leaving them at the end of this year after his subpar time with him, that did not meet either's expectations with each other.

Daniel also wrote a touching letter for his fans, that you can read here.

McLaren's poster for Daniel Ricciardo | Via @McLarenF1

Alpine's Farewell to Fernando Alonso as he moves to Aston Martin

Alpine bid farewell to Fernando Alonso, as leaves the Enstone team after his 3 stints with them, and bidding farewell to the team who he won his first 3 championships with | Via @AlpineF1Team

AlphaTauri's farewell for Pierre Gasly

Pierre gifted Team Principal Franz Tost his helmet for this Grand Prix as he was given a gracious send off by the team as he moves to Alpine next year. He's spent a decade with the Red Bull family, starting his F1 career and winning his first race with them!

Pierre giving Franz his last AlphaTauri helmet | Via @AlphaTauriF1

sending @pierregasly off in style 👏 💙 pic.twitter.com/tPb0s9oFbf
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) November 20, 2022

Team Photos

Here are the trackside team photos of the teams in orders of constructors' championships. Makes you appreciate the engineering and organizational effort into running such an operation! And there are many more people back at the factory too, these are just the people at the track!

Thank you for giving us such an amazing season!

Oracle Red Bull Racing - WCC | Via @RedBullRacing

Scuderia Ferrari - WCC Runner Up | Via @ScuderiaFerrari

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | Via @MercedesAMGF1

BWT Alpine F1 Team | Via @AlpineF1Team

McLaren F1 Team | Via @McLarenF1

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN (Sauber) | Via @AlfaRomeoOrlen

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | Via @AstonMartinF1

Haas F1 Team | Via @HaasF1Team

Scuderia AlphaTauri ? Via @AlphaTauriF1

Williams Racing | Via @WilliamsRacing

The Driver's Class of 2022

The drivers together just before the Grand Prix. The F1 Drivers' Class of 2022. | Via @McLarenF1

Danke Seb. Here's to hoping you choose to return soon!

Disclosure

Brazilian GP Weekend Review - Part Two : The Grand Prix (2022)

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 06:42:57 GMT

The first Mercedes Grand Prix win in 2022, Safety Cars shuffling the strategy and a weekend to remember for George Russell. Here's part two of the debrief for this rollercoaster weekend.

Setting the Stage

The rest of the weekend had already set rather high expectations for the Grand Prix on Sunday, and this race was going to deliver. With most of the drivers using one set of softs in the sprint, only Verstappen, Latifi, Tsunoda and Ricciardo had 2 pairs of new softs, with all others left with only one set. The tyres for Aston Martin are not representative, however, since they scrub their tyres before a Grand Prix. Scrubbing is a procedure where a tyre is only taken out for a lap or two to put it through a heat cycle, but with very little wear so it is usable later on. Aston has done so throughout the year.

This image is unavailable.

Availability of Tyres for Drivers | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

Pirelli's recommended strategy was a two-stopper, and a slower one would have been a one-stopper, but considering that the track had significant degradation on harder compounds, a unique characteristic we haven't really seen many times before this year, it would end up being a two or a three stopper for most teams.

Recommended strategies from Pirelli | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

Yuki Tsunoda started from the pitlane as he changed his front and rear wings to those of a different spec. Carlos' grid penalty resulted in him starting from P7, which ensured a front row lockout for Mercedes, and a second row lockout for Red Bull. As the drivers lined up to the grid, Alex Albon stood out as the only driver on hards, which was a very surprising choice, as other drivers had already struggled on the mediums earlier.

Starting Grid Layout | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

The Grand Prix

As the five lights went out to mark the start of the race, George got away extremely well with Lewis close behind him and Max closely trailing Lewis. But behind them, Daniel tried to have a look down the inside of Kevin Magnussen's Haas, resulting in contact which sent KMag into a spin, resulting in KMag colliding with Ricciardo whose car ended up in the barrier, as both drivers DNF'd and a safety car (SC) was sent out. It was a sad end for a weekend that gave him his first F1 pole position for Magnussen.

George was quite witty at the SC restart however, as he led the pack down the main straight and only went full throttle at the start/finish line to give the drivers behind him the least amount of time to chase him down the large straight at Brazil. Alex, as predicted, did not like hards and quickly moved on to the mediums losing much lesser time under the SC than he would have otherwise.

Max Verstappen tried to go around Lewis Hamilton and was ahead into turn one but having compromised his exit was slower into turn 2 where Lewis took the racing line and had a collision with Max. Now, Max was given a 5 second penalty for the incident and it was quite reminiscent of the 2018 collision between Max and Ocon into the same turn (which earned Ocon a 10 second stop and go penalty, but Ocon was a lapped car in that scenario). The TV camera does look like it was entirely Max's fault, but being on both onboards, and analyzing them later, I personally feel that was a racing incident. This is just my opinion, though, and other opinions are also equally valid.

The incident did result in floor damage for Lewis and the wheel cover on his front right tyre fell off, but there didn't seem to be a significant performance penalty from that. He dropped behind the pack but kept on going while Max had significant damage on his front wing and had to pit, losing a lot of time to the rest of the grid, despite an extremely rapid front wing change within 10 seconds, when the regular duration for the same is 12 seconds! Charles Leclerc also had a major shunt with Lando Norris which sent Charles into the barrier but with surprisingly minimal damage, Charles could continue after a pitstop.

Pit Stops | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

While Max did go on to use the medium tyres, they didn't last very long, since he wasn't getting any grip on them, just like the day before, and he pitted for used softs, and put in a rather long stint on them, during which he reported an increase in grip, which his race engineer suggested was probably due to the track temperature dropping considerably. Max's double overtake on Ocon and Bottas across the main straight was helped by the superior grip of his fresh softs compared to their worn tyres. Russell and Hamilton were both on a soft-medium-soft strategy, which worked out wonderfully for them. George held on to the lead quite well, but it was rather tight between Perez, Sainz and Hamilton for the other podium positions, with Hamilton eventually edging the two out in terms of pace. Sainz's strategy was affected by his rear right brakes burning due to a stuck tearoff. It's a weird coincidence that this has happened to Ferrari twice this year, the other instance being Stroll's tearoff in Leclerc's brakes at Spa.

Perhaps the biggest benefactor to Mercedes this weekend was their much lesser tyre wear. F1's Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola cover the different cooling and temperature management in this great article with detailed, beautiful diagrams and explain why the Mercedes wears its tyres out the least, which helped them on an high degradation track like Interlagos. George had also had a water leak in his cooling mechanism, which could have resulted in a DNF for him, but the team decided to not tell him that and have him drive on with that small risk which never came to fruition.

On lap 53, McLaren's Lando Norris retired with engine issues, with McLaren having a point-less day as both their drivers DNF'd. A VSC was then issued followed by a full SC, which had it's own small controversy during unlapping. Race Control sent a message for the lapped cars 23 and 6 (The Williams cars of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi) to unlap themselves and rejoin the pack, but they left out Car 22 (Yuki Tsunoda). The reason for this was a technical one, and is an oversight that should not have occurred. As a consequence of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the procedure for tracking cars and ensuring the unlapping of cars was automated. However, because Yuki pitted under the SC, he was in the pitlane and was faster than the other cars and technically unlapped them in the pitlane because he crossed the first safety car line, which is the metric that is the threshold for unlapping, but by the time he came back out, he was obviously behind them, lapped again. This meant that while he was still lapped, the automated race control system had him unlapped already and couldn't let him unlap himself again, leading to the chaos with him passing some cars before the restart but not others. The FIA has said that it does not think this can be rectified any time soon and will probably continue to be an issue, which is quite disappointing.

Lap Chart | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

Fernando Alonso put in an amazing drive, however, going from P17 to P5, finishing ahead of both Red Bulls after his collision with his teammate during the sprint, while his teammate Esteban Ocon also made a great recovery to P8. Stroll just edged out Seb for the last point, finishing behind Valtteri Bottas. An interesting takeaway was Alex Albon's post race radio about how his tyres were going off within 2 laps of following a car, something that the Williams has routinely struggled with this year. Speaking of radio...

Team Orders

Interlagos has seen its fair share of drama over the years, and this weekend was no exception. Be it Vettel and Webber in 2012, Leclerc and Vettel in 2019, there has been no lack of controversy between teammates in Brazil.

Let's start with some camaraderie first, as this one warmed my heart. Bottas was advising Zhou through the team that he could overtake Latifi at Turn 10 since he was braking early there, which was just such a gentlemanly move from the flying Finn.

As Mercedes seemed to inevitably be in a position to grab the race win and a 1-2, George asked his team whether the teammates had to fight it out for the win or was he going to retain the lead with team orders, and he was told they'd duke it out for the win.

At the SC restart, Ocon was also asked to let Alonso through, but he said he'd only do that once both him and Alonso got past Sebastian Vettel, and he complied later in the race.

It was the battle for P2 in the championship that got really spicy though, as Leclerc repeatedly asked for team orders to finish ahead of Carlos to gain a lead over Sergio, which Ferrari refused on the premise that it was too risky and could leave them vulnerable to Alonso and Verstappen behind.

The real headline-grabbing moment was with Red Bull Racing though, who are also gunning for P2 in the championship. However, this sequence of events has been underreported and inadequately represented on the international stream, so it'd be worth it to explore the sequence of events further and have a look on the incident from all sides. As Fernando was P5, Sergio P6 and Max P7, Sergio was told to not hold Max back and that Max would try to overtake Alonso, and if he failed to do so, he'd hand the position back. However, Max was only told that he needed to attack Alonso. Max, however, failed to do so with the handful of laps remaining. As he went across the final lap, his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told him that if he did not get Alonso by the final turn, he'd have to hand the position over to Perez, to which Max had no response. As Max went around the final turn, he couldn't do that. He was told to give Sergio the position for P2 in the championship, but even on GP asking him to do so thrice, he did not. When GP asked him why he did not hand the position back, he said:

I told you already last time, you guys don't ask that again to me. OK? Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it.

Sergio, who was expecting the position to be handed over to him, said on the radio:

It shows who he really is.

Sergio has unarguably been a great teammate to Max, most notably for his extremely impressive defensive drive against Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, taking almost 5 seconds off of his time. He has also helped Max at numerous other occasions, such as the French GP in 2021 and most recently at the 2022 Spanish GP, where he felt the switch was unfair but still gave Max a position. After his collision and subsequent pitstop, Max was out of the competition for a podium, and had nothing at stake here, championship or stat wise, having already secured the Drivers' Championship. What Max did was obviously ungentlemanly and wrong. In an interview to the press, Perez said that Max only had 2 championships because of him.

The internet was understandably outraged, but once again, people forgot that we have a lack of context here. What were Max's reasons? We'll probably not know until Max or Christian Horner write their autobiographies, or someone from Red Bull Racing leaks it. There were rumors around the paddock of this having something to do with Sergio crashing on purpose during Q3 in Monaco and admitting it to the team, and Max being understandably infuriated about it within the team. But this is, most importantly, an unsubstantiated rumor, with little to no evidence. This could lead to a controversy as big as crash-gate once again, with dire consequences. Max was duly questioned about the same by Sky Sports, and he left it open-ended. It was also reported that Sergio Perez unfollowed Max Verstappen on Instagram earlier this weekend, which fuelled the speculation even more.

However, it does seem like it was Max's way of taking a revenge of sorts, and this is purely speculation. He did say that the team got together after the race to discuss it out and settled the matter and that he would work to help Sergio secure P2 in the championship at Abu Dhabi.

There's probably a lot more about this sequence of events that we're not aware of, and there has been lots of discussion based around rumor, so please make an effort to differentiate fact and speculation.

UPDATE: Red Bull Racing has issued a statement on this fiasco on 17/11/2022.

The Official Red Bull Racing Statement on Team Orders in Brazil | Via Will Buxton (@WBuxtonOfficial)

Summary

This was probably the most eventful weekend the whole year, and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that Kevin Magnussen took pole on Friday. George Russell became an F1 Grand Prix winner for the first time, Mercedes took their first 1-2 since 2020, and their first victory this season. Thank you Interlagos.

Read Part One here, that covers the rest of the weekend.

As we head into Abu Dhabi, all the eyes will be on the battle for P2, as Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez come into the weekend with equal points. If they both DNF somehow, George could also snatch it with a win and a fastest lap! On the constructors' side, the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari is 19 points, and so is the gap between Alpine and McLaren! It's all to fight for at the Yas Marina circuit.

The Battle for Second - Abu Dhabi GP

Disclosure

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Brazilian GP Weekend Review - Part One (2022)

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 06:42:47 GMT

From Mercedes' first win of the season, a magnificent Haas pole, and some spice between the drivers, this weekend had it all. Here's part one of the debrief for this rollercoaster weekend.

Pre-Weekend News

The week began with Lewis Hamilton receiving honorary citizenship of Brazil in person, a title that was awarded to him earlier this year. Lando Norris was sick on Thursday with what was suspected to be food poisoning, and that did seem to affect him during the weekend. Nyck DeVries, who's already driven a Williams, an Aston Martin and a Mercedes this year, was McLaren's reserve driver for this weekend, and he took a precautionary seat fit just in case Lando wouldn't be able to drive on Friday. With this being Sebastian Vettel's penultimate F1 race weekend as things stand, the driver who won his 2012 championship on this very track had his achievements celebrated throughout the weekend!

A key FP1 for the drivers

With sprint weekends, drivers only have one session to tune their setup for the track, prepare for qualifying, and make any changes before the cars go into Parc Fermé for qualifying. Most teams worked on soft tyre runs during the cloudy afternoon at Sau Paulo, as Sergio Perez topped the charts, with Charles Leclerc only 4 thousandths off, and Max Verstappen another 4 thousandths off him! It was not a particularly eventful session, but that cannot be said for the rest of the weekend that was to come!

Ferrari announced that Carlos Sainz would take a new ICE, awarding him a 5 place grid penalty.

FP1 Classification | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

A damp Qualifying, and an unexpected polesitter

A qualifying session in the wet is always fun, and Brazil did not disappoint. As Q1 started on the Inters (i.e, the Intermediate tyres), drivers went early to set some representative laps in, but it was Pierre Gasly and Alpha Tauri's gamble on the soft tyres that really spiced up the session on the drying track, with drivers subsequently rushing into the pits to bolt on a set of slicks to set lap times around 4-5 seconds faster, with the last minute being extremely key, as many drivers from top teams were in the danger zone of being eliminated, with a magical lap from Lando Norris taking him to the top of the table. It was a rather disastrous delay from the Scuderia, though, as they pitted Charles to put on fresh inters, after which they decided that new softs would be a better option, but ended up giving him a set of used softs from FP1, which he duly pointed out, as chaos reigned supreme in the garage with a single mechanic then rushing in to get soft tyres one by one as Charles set out again to set a representative time as soon as he could.

As the track dried up for Q2, drivers ventured into the 1:10's, with Max leading the session. However, it was the end of the session that really set the set the strategy cogs in motion as it'd begun drizzling again, and the radar showed that Q3 could progressively get wetter and wetter.

As the drivers lined up on the pit exit for their quickest laps before the conditions worsened, Magnussen was at the front of the pack with the Haas garage's proximity to the it. In what was a rather baffling call, Charles Leclerc was the only driver on inters, with everyone else, including his teammate Carlos Sainz, on new softs, a choice that'd only really work if it began raining extremely heavily rather quickly, which was extremely unlikely.

Magnussen set a magnificent lap to take provisional pole, while Verstappen made an error and had to settle for P2. Leclerc was struggling for grip on the inters on a track where the racing line was mostly dry, and qualified P10. Sergio Perez was stuck behind Leclerc and lost 3+ seconds on his lap as well, which was only good enough for a P9.

As George Russell took a cooldown lap to attempt another run, he went off into the gravel at Turn 4 and made it to the escape road, but as he attempted to accelerate to get back to the track, his car spun and was beached in the mud, and that led to the session being red flagged, which was followed by rain, which meant that no one could realistically set a better time.

So, for the first time in Haas' history, they were on pole! With Mick Schumacher struggling with the grip in Q1, he qualified P20, which to the amusement of many, put the entire grid in a Haas sandwich. Celebrations were galore as Haas celebrated a momentous occasion, and one couldn't help but be happy for Kevin Magnussen, who had put in some amazing drives after his return from his hiatus and who wasn't even supposed to be driving the car until late February! For a team that was firmly stuck on the back of the grid for 2021, this was a huge moment.

Lando's lap to secure P4, considering he went out last and in conditions much more damp than other drivers, was a commendable show of skill and aptitude.

Qualifying Classification | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

Kevin Magnussen's pole lap made Denmark the 24th nation to achieve pole position in F1!

Kevin Magnussen's Pole Commemoration | F1

An uneventful FP2

FP2 was largely uneventful as the teams couldn't change setups under Parc Fermé, and were thus limited to only data collection and longer tyre runs. The session did give us some significant data though, most importantly that the mediums had significantly less grip around this track and that tire degradation was going to be a huge issue. Logan Sargeant, who will drive the Williams next year if he can score enough points for a Super License (SL), also got another FP session, completing 28 laps, 24 of which were enough to make his session more than 100 kilometres long, giving him one more essential SL point before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in F2, where he needs to secure a good result to drive in F1 next season.

FP2 Classification | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

The Sprint

After what can only be described as a magnificent qualifying session on Friday, Kevin Magnussen's Haas lined up on pole position on a brand new set of softs. No one really expected him to hold on that position for long, with the much faster Red Bull of Max Verstappen lining up just beside him, but surprisingly on Mediums, a gamble compared to the rest of the grid on softs, with the exception of Nicholas Latifi, who started on the mediums as well.

KMag put in an astonishing start maintaining his lead for over a lap (which is Haas' first lap led in a Formula 1 race, albeit not a Grand Prix) before being overtaken by Max. It was not all easy for Max, though, as his medium tyres struggled for grip leaving him vulnerable to George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to bring home a P4 finish. George's magnificent and clean yet aggressive drive brought him his first F1 Race Win (again, not a Grand Prix victory, yet) with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez putting in some amazing recovery drives to move up the grid for the race on Sunday, as Magnussen dropped to 8th, and Norris to 7th, positions that were much more realistic for their respective cars' race pace in the dry..

It was not a great session for the Alpine team though, as Fernando Alonso went wide at Turn 4 and tried to rejoin, turning a bit hard into his own teammate, with Fernando being affected by wing damage which required him to pit, pushing him down the pack, and Esteban suffering from a hole in his sidepod, which possibly affected the cooling, causing him to drop down the grid as he lost pace with his car subsequently catching fire at Parc Fermé, which required his team to replace the engine.

Meanwhile, Lance Stroll was overzealous in his defense against Sebastian Vettel, swerving to the left of the track and pushing Seb off into the grass, a move he was subsequently awarded 3 penalty points for. He tried the same move against Mick Schumacher later, but Mick backed off, as a crash wouldn't have been worth it, especially with the season Mick has been having. Sebastian Vettel moved up the pack in an amazing show of pace, and so did Daniel Ricciardo, Guanyu Zhou and Valterri Bottas.

Alex Albon was caught out by the debris on track and went across the gravel at Turn 4, and that was the end of the race for him. With his P11 start, he could have been gunning for points, but his DNF put him at the back of the grid for the Grand Prix.

George Russell gave us an immense show of his skill chasing Verstappen, and from Lap 12-14, he was right on Verstappen's tail before overtaking him on lap 15! As Max's tyres struggled for grip he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton and then by Carlos Sainz, with Max and Carlos having a slight contact that resulted in wing damage for Max, because of his misjudged turn-in, which the stewards deemed a racing incident.

Mercedes seemed to finally on the pace they desired to be on all season, as the secured 2/3 of the podium places, with their first time on the top step. But Sunday would only be a better day for them as they locked out the front row with Sainz's engine penalty.

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Sprint Classification | Sau Paulo Brazilian GP 2022

Read Part Two here: The Grand Prix.

Disclosure

This article is entirely sponsor-free. This website is self hosted and does not generate any revenue. The only user-data is collected by the owners except the default data collected by Cloudflare is page visit and origin country data (for analytics). You aren't and will not be served ads on this page, ever.

Mexico City Grand Prix - Weekend Review (2022)

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 17:22:00 GMT

It was the 60th year anniversary of the first F1 Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, and it was a rather special one. The higher altitude of Mexico brought its own unique challenges, and for some, unique benefits. The lack of pressure meant much lesser drag and much lesser cooling, which shuffled the order quite a bit!

The Cost Cap Saga reaches an end.

The weekend began with rumors of a possible ABA (Accepted Breach Agreement) between Red Bull Racing (RBR) and the FIA, which found RBR in breach of the 2021 annual cost cap by £1,864,000 (1.6%), but they also noted that this amount would have been £432,652 (0.37%) had their Tax Credit been applied properly. RBR were awarded a financial penalty of $7,000,000 (USD) and a 10% reduction in Wind Tunnel and CFD time. While the monetary sum is rather irrelevant for an organisation like RBR, the wind tunnel time is likely to affect them the most, with rivals Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG Petronas having a significant advantage in that regard, since they ranked lower in the constructors' championship.

Aston Martin Racing (AMR) also signed an ABA with the FIA for a procedural breach, and were awarded a penalty of $450,000 to be paid within 30 days of the ABA, which they accepted.

RBR Team Principal Christian Horner held a Press Conference on Friday where he criticised the punishment for being too harsh. Elsewhere in the paddock, team principals of various teams expressed disappointment on the penalties not being harsh enough!

A Challenging FP1 for the Rookies

Pietro Fittipaldi, Nyck de Vries, Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson and Logan Sargeant took to the tracks during FP1 this weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, in what turned out to be rather tricky conditions, with the track providing much lesser grip and cooling than other tracks drivers might be used to. A spin from Max Verstappen only proved how poor the grip was at sections on the track. Lawson's AlphaTauri and Fittipaldi's Haas faced issues causing 2 red flags in the session, and both the drivers could not complete their runs. Logan Sargeant missed out on what could have been an easy Super License (SL) point as he fell short of the 100 km required to score it. Sargeant will race for Williams Racing next year alongside Alex Albon if he scores the requisite SL points before the end of the year. Ferrari led the charts as the session closed, which looked promising for the rest of the weekend, which, sadly, turned out to be a red herring for the Italian team.

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FP1 Classification | Mexico City GP 2022

Another Pirelli Tyre Test and a disappointing FP2 for Leclerc

Pirelli ran another 90 minute tyre test for the 50°C tyre warmers and 2023 compounds, with drivers prohibited from setup changes. The drivers who lent out their cars to the rookies for FP1 got a few laps around with the 2022 tyre range and warmers before testing the new tyres as well. It was a disappointing session for Charles as he lodged his car into the barriers, inflicting considerable damage to it. Lap times for FP2 are not indicative as the data of which tyres the teams were running was not made public.

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FP2 Classification | Mexico City GP 2022

A Promising FP3 for Mercedes

Mercedes had a promising FP3 as they topped the charts, having run the soft and hard tyres for qualifying and race simulations, alongside many other teams who went down the same path.

FP3 Classification | Mexico City GP 2022

A surprising Qualifying session for Bottas

Q1 ended with Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher setting identical times with a faster lap by Mick being deleted after track limit violations at Turn 3. Daniel Ricciardo missed out on Q3 just behind the Alpines, ahead of Zhou Guanyu, whose teammate was challenging the Ferrari's in the top 6! George Russell and Lewis Hamilton put in quick laps on the softest compounds, with Lewis reporting engine issues, only for both of them to be outqualified by Max Verstappen who went quickest with a time of 1.17.755, being the lone driver the crack the 1:17's. Home hero Sergio Perez qualified P4, only missing out on P3 by less than half a tenth of a second! It was an amazing qualifyinf for Valterri Bottas as he outqualified Charles Leclerc in a customer, while being an extremely disappoiting one for the Scuderia as the car most dominant in qualifying this season only qualified a disappointing P5 and P7.

Qualifying Classification | Mexico City GP 2022

The Grand Prix Review

As the lights went out, the order for most of the race was to be set. Max took the lead on his softs, while Lewis followed closely in second as Checo overtook George across the second straight. It was largely an uneventful race on track, but that was the experience most people had watching the international stream. For anyone on the F1TV stream, there was a bit more to the race! This race was, for most teams, fought on strategy.

Proposed Strategies and Available Tyres for the Grand Prix

As Max and Checo pulled away from the starting line with the softs, everyone expected Red Bull to put their drivers on a two-stopper, as that seemed to be the obvious route with the Pirelli predictions. Mercedes were on a rather obvious one stopper with their start from the hards and the pace they showed.

Tyre Usage data for the Grand Prix

After Red Bull pitted for softs on Lap 23 for Perez (which was a bit slow at 5.0s, not a time usually seen from a crew like Red Bull's) and on Lap 25 for Max, it seemed suggestive that they'd be on a two stopper. It seemed to be a risky gamble too, with the gap Max had on Lewis being rather similar for almost the entire stint. At lap 45, the race could go anywhere. Zhou and Ricciardo had just pitted from Mediums to Softs, showing that they could go the distance, which seemed to be the motivation for Red Bull to extent their stint on the C3 compound. Mercedes' drivers reported feeling they were on the wrong tyres, only to be consoled by their engineers who were expecting a drop off on the mediums' pace, which just never came. Perhaps the most impressive feat of the race was Max putting in consistent 1:22.000s to 1:22.917s on the mediums throughout the stint, usually being at 1:22.4s. With some great tyre management from the RBR drivers, Max, Lewis and Sergio recreated the 2021 podium, with the Mexican fans overjoyed to see their local driver on the podium once again!

The midfield saw some amazing tyre management, from the likes of Zhou, Albon, Vettel, Ricciardo and Gasly. It was a disappointing end for Fernando Alonso, who faced his fourth engine failure this year whilst in the points, resulting in his fifth DNF of the season, with a lot of points lost to reliability this year. George Russell scored the fastest lap after boxing for softs on lap 70, arguably a decision Mercedes could have made much earlier with their 30+ second gap to Sainz behind them, while, on a track with rather evident track evolution throughout the Grand Prix.

The Ferraris, who have been rather close to the top for most of this season had a disappointing weekend with their pace much faster their midfield, but significantly off that of the leaders, speculated to be caused due to the inadequated cooling the thinner air at this altitude provides. It was not the best of days this season for Charles Leclerc, as he took his 100th F1 Grand Prix start, only to finish more than a minute off the leader. The McLarens found great pace on the softs this weekend, and even with the 10s time penalty Ricciardo was awarded for the shunt with Tsunoda which took him out of the race, Daniel retained his P7 finishing position by pulling away a time greater than the penalty after his soft stint being full of overtakes. For what was possibly the first time this season, he felt comfortable with the car, with the most notable move being his finger gun towards Esteban Ocon before performing an overtake on him! It was only complemented by McLaren's amazing pitstop of 1.98s, the first sub-2 second time with the 18" wheels.

The Alfa Romeos did not have the pace they had in qualifying, but still managed to salvage a point on Bottas' side of the garage, as Zhou overtook Seb to secure a P13 finish in the race. Despite Alpine's reliability woes on the other side of the garage, Ocon finished P8, outscoring Lando Norris by a couple of points in a battle for P4 in the Constructors' championship between their respective teams. Haas seemed to struggled all weekend, being way off the pace throughout all the sessions. It was a disappointing weekend for Aston Martin, who struggled for grip all weekend, summarised all too well with Sebastian Vettel's post race interview:

If you find grip, send him to us... our garage. For some reason, he's escaped!

Race Classification | Mexico City GP 2022

Max also broke the record for the most wins in an F1 season, beating Sebastian Vettel's and Michael Schumacher's 13 race record, with his 14th win at Mexico, with 2 more races to go. If Max wins the other 2 Grands Prix (yes, that is the plural of Grand Prix) as well, he will break the record for the highest win percentage in the season! The results do not tell the true tale of the season, with the RB18, atleast pre-summer break, not being anywhere close to being a dominant car like the F2004! He also broke the record for most points in a season, with his 416 points over Lewis Hamilton's record of 413!

From @F1 on Twitter.

Aftermath

For some, we got to see the Ricciardo of yore in terms of pace, despite his move on Yuki. For others, this was a battle fought on the pit-wall, with data and predictions. We didn't get quite the chase or spectacle of battle that we did at the USGP, so the disappointment from fans online was rather understandable. There was some paddock drama with RBR boycotting Sky Sports for Ted Kravitz's comments on the USGP Post Race show for Sky, but all has settled between the two parties and they'll be on talking terms again at the Brazillian GP.

Formula One heads to Interlagos next, a historically acclaimed track, one with long straights and a promise of great racing. One is only reminded of Lewis Hamilton's charge through the pack last year, as we head into the third Sprint Weekend of the year.

Disclosure

This article is entirely sponsor-free. This website is self hosted and does not generate any revenue. The only user-data is collected by the owners except the default data collected by Cloudflare is page visit and origin country data (for analytics). You aren't and will not be served ads on this page, ever.

The Launch of Race Debrief.

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 10:47:11 GMT

I'd like to announce Race Debrief, a F1 News Website that I created, for the Formula 1 community. Here's the first article: The Mexico City GP Weekend Review. (https://racedebrief.com/mexico-city-gp-2022-weekend-review/)

The paddock has its own controversies. The engineers race against time and resources to make the fastest car they can, to exploit, to gain any competitive advantage. The drivers push themselves to their limit every weekend, trying to outscore their teammate and everyone else on the grid. These are stories worth telling.

The Problem

I respect the stalwarts of F1 Journalism, and their work was really inspiring to me. However, they're businesses with targets for authors. Every single small piece of news, every single line interview is covered as its own article. They have to cover every story, every rumor as it breaks, as that is how the business works. Since media is a business driven by clicks, the most incendiary or non-representative vague headlines are the only ones that can work. That is how the internet works.

I don't even need to emphasize the increase in toxicity in this sport's community this year. Across Reddit, Twitter and Instagram, the sheer amount of hate is unfathomable. I do not enjoy that, as it can often take away from valuable discourse. Even with the recent Ted-Max incident, people started spamming hate on Ted's accounts, which is quite contrary to what Max said about the issue in press conferences. Our target should be to reduce hate.

There also tends to be some patriotism in a media outlet towards drivers and teams from their own nation, and that is a valid sentiment. However, F1 is a global sport and often, the coverage finds itself a tad too biased, which takes away from the fun.

Goals

Race Debrief is intended to only, for the time being, cover F1 stories in their entirety, without any bias. F1 is rich with many stories and I believe we can cover them well. I do not wish to use incendiary titles, excerpts that speak about the race out of context. There is a niche for stories told calmly and with passion. While we're limited to F1 right now, we'd love to expand to other forms of motorsport in the future.

Bug Reports

This website uses a self hosted instance of https://ghost.org with a customised version of the Ruby Theme, so if you face any issues, please report them in the comments.

If you've read till here, thank you. For me, this is just a creative outlet of my passion for the sport, but I believe many in this community share the same passion for the sport, and desire quality journalism. I'm burning money on this project simply out of my interest for the sport. I'd appreciate your support if you could share this.

Disclosure

This website is self hosted and does not generate any revenue. The only user-data is collected by the owners except the default data collected by Cloudflare is page visit and origin country data (for analytics). You aren't and will not be served ads on this page, ever.