2024 Formula 1 Season thread

[pachyderm]

The thing is, if Ferrari do sign Newey and he is allowed to have minimal time in Italy, how is this going to sit with the rest of the design team who was probably asked to relocate to Italy? Especially if there are some who wanted to work in their own country and fly to Italy from time to time but were told 'Sorry, if you want the job you must move to Italy'. Will the other designers be happy if Ferrari give Newey special treatment just so they can get him in the team?. There is no doubt Newey brings something special to the team he works for. He did it when at Williams, they became an all conquering team until he left in 1997. He's done it at Red Bull, they became an all conquering team and I therefore have no doubt the next team he moves to will do the same.

It's Adrian Newey though... where he goes championships follow...

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The thing is, if Ferrari do sign Newey and he is allowed to have minimal time in Italy, how is this going to sit with the rest of the design team who was probably asked to relocate to Italy? Especially if there are some who wanted to work in their own country and fly to Italy from time to time but were told 'Sorry, if you want the job you must move to Italy'. Will the other designers be happy if Ferrari give Newey special treatment just so they can get him in the team?. There is no doubt Newey brings something special to the team he works for. He did it when at Williams, they became an all conquering team until he left in 1997. He's done it at Red Bull, they became an all conquering team and I therefore have no doubt the next team he moves to will do the same.

Unfortunately it’s down to the person to negotiate their terms and considering Newley’s contract is likely to be in the millions as opposed to the hundreds of thousands, he’ll likely get to choose how he works compared to general designers and engineers. John Bernard worked from Surrey, England when designing Ferrari’s, admittedly they were not that successful, but he was doing that 30+ years ago. The company I work for is Dutch and so is my boss. I get by designing in the UK and popping across to the Netherlands a few times a year just fine. I can also appreciate it’s much better to collaborate in person and F1 cars are complicated innovations. I’m sure Newey and Fred will work something out (should he end up there).

 

[Glideslope]

Not sure retirement is the decision. If retirement was a real consideration, either nothing would have been said and Newey would just play out the rest of the season and retire or announce that he was retiring at the end of the season. To take gardening leave ASAP to be able to work on a 2026 car was the biggest thing to take away from all of this. We have to assume Newey looked for a workaround in his contract or requested this himself.



I think Ferrari has "loosened" up a bit on how they want their outfit to be run and I think the signing of HAM changes a lot. That's not to say HAM is going to come in and do whatever he wants, but you would have to assume that HAM will still be respectful of the culture and history of Ferrari in F1 but at the same thing have a bit more freedom. I would also make the same assumption if Newey ends up at Ferrari. At the end of the day, this is the time for Ferrari to be back in the spotlight as a winning OEM and if that means giving up on how they typically do things, Ferrari should be on board.

I'm not as certain about retirement as I was 2 days ago. Gardening Leave has been waived as part of his exit.

He is dedicated to the W17 WEC car until he leaves in 2025. He will still be attending the majority of F1 races in 2024. My understanding is to follow through on the upgrades he has already developed for this year.

So, yes, looking like Ferrari early 2025 at this point. He has a full year to negotiate will all interested parties.

 

[headlessmike]

I don't really believe that one individual is responsible for a team's success in complex team sport like F1. But it's difficult to overlook that Newey's been highly successful whichever team he's been at and that that success tends to taper off after he moves on. This year's silly season is all over the place and quite the contrast to last year's where all drivers finishing the 2023 season were kept for the 2024 season for the first time ever.

 

[CWallace]

The thing is, if Ferrari do sign Newey and he is allowed to have minimal time in Italy, how is this going to sit with the rest of the design team who was probably asked to relocate to Italy?

The two senior members are Italian and I expect a fair bit of the technical department are also Italians. So at worse, they moved to Maranello from other cities within Italy. And for those who moved to Italy from other countries, they did so with their eyes open.

 

[CWallace]

I'm not as certain about retirement as I was 2 days ago. Gardening Leave has been waived as part of his exit.

If he is allowed to help design the 2026 car, that could be a major advantage as "active aerodynamics" look like they may be very important for the car's overall stability and performance.

 

[Glideslope]

If he is allowed to help design the 2026 car, that could be a major advantage as "active aerodynamics" look like they may be very important for the car's overall stability and performance.

We will need to look closely at the suspension on the SF-26.

 

[Glideslope]

Reliable source on this. I'd love to see it.

Exclusive: Williams in talks to sign Newey

Despite all the speculation linking Adrian Newey to Ferrari, he could yet make a remarkable return to Williams.

racingnews365.com

 

[CWallace]

Dorilton has been investing heavily in the team, spending right up to the cost cap and taking advantage of every increase they have been granted. And James Vowles has been working hard to restructure the team's technical and production sides (which were laughably behind the times when he took over). So while they cannot match what Ferrari (much less Aston) can offer for a salary, maybe Newey favors a challenge again.

As for Sprint Qualifying, looks like only Max and Charles can make the Soft Tires work over a single hot lap, as everyone else was significantly slower over one lap in SQ3 on Softs than they were in SQ2 on Mediums (especially the McLarens). Max was surprised to be told he was on pole because he had to back out on his one hot lap due to messing up the corner, but he still pipped LeClerc.

 

[Glideslope]

Dorilton has been investing heavily in the team, spending right up to the cost cap and taking advantage of every increase they have been granted. And James Vowles has been working hard to restructure the team's technical and production sides (which were laughably behind the times when he took over). So while they cannot match what Ferrari (much less Aston) can offer for a salary, maybe Newey favors a challenge again.

As for Sprint Qualifying, looks like only Max and Charles can make the Soft Tires work over a single hot lap, as everyone else was significantly slower over one lap in SQ3 on Softs than they were in SQ2 on Mediums (especially the McLarens). Max was surprised to be told he was on pole because he had to back out on his one hot lap due to messing up the corner, but he still pipped LeClerc.

He was down almost .3 going into sector 3 ending .2 up on Charles. Quite the effort. It's hard to know how hard they push in these Sprints though.

Was nice to see Daniel improve a bit.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Reliable source on this. I'd love to see it.

Exclusive: Williams in talks to sign Newey

Despite all the speculation linking Adrian Newey to Ferrari, he could yet make a remarkable return to Williams.

racingnews365.com

Now that, I would love to see. It’s just sad it’s not the true Williams team anymore, just the name.

 

[Glideslope]

Now that, I would love to see. It’s just sad it’s not the true Williams team anymore, just the name.

Another good article on the-race.com this morning........................................

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Well that was fun. Lewis taking out two, or three effectively. Naturally didn’t get a penalty for that. But did get a penalty for speeding in the pitlane. At least he was fast somewhere 🤣🤣

Loved the defending by Magnussen. Ok costed him 35 seconds in penalties but it’s worth it 🤣

Daniel, wow!! Now let’s keep it up.

 

[CWallace]

Yeah that was a pretty exciting 19 laps.

After all the penalties, Sargeant was elevated to P10 and Daniel legitimately held P4 at the end. DRS seemed to matter little at this track as only Perez was able to effectively employ it, so Sunday might be DRS Train-o-rama.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I’m afraid you are right. Qualifying later on will be very important.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Lewis laughing his head off in the interview after that, what else can he do? lol He’s just enjoying it this year knowing he’s not in anything for wins, reminds of Raikkonen towards the end. On to 2025 and then 2026 in a Newey influenced Ferrari, or perhaps not lol.

Interesting to read Eddie Jordan was involved with getting his friend Newey out of his contract early at Red Bull.

 

[CWallace]

This track is weird. Nobody improved on their final Q3 lap.

 

[pachyderm]

1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:27.689	1:27.566	1:27.241	18
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:28.081	1:27.533	1:27.382	21
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:27.937	1:27.941	1:27.455	21
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:27.772	1:27.839	1:27.460	18
5	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:27.913	1:27.871	1:27.594	21
6	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:28.032	1:27.721	1:27.675	19
7	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	1:28.159	1:28.095	1:28.067	21
8	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:28.167	1:27.697	1:28.107	21
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	1:28.383	1:28.200	1:28.146	21
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB HONDA RBPT	1:28.324	1:28.167	1:28.192	21
11	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:28.177	1:28.222		15
12	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	1:27.976	1:28.324		15
13	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:28.209	1:28.371		15
14	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:28.343	1:28.413		15
15	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:28.453	1:28.427		15
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	1:28.463			6
17	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:28.487			8
18	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB HONDA RBPT	1:28.617			9
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:28.619			9
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	1:28.824			9

 

[JustinePaula]

I am really struggling to understand the point of the Sprint, here you have yes it was exciting, as drinking alcohol is, but it can quickly become serious, and yesterday this was just that, there is no time between the end of the 19 lap farce and the start of Qualifying, so you end up with sub standard cars going for pole etc.. It just makes no sense that there is no FP2, between Sprint and Qualifying, what should be the schedule is ..
FRIDAY: FP1 AM
FRIDAY: SPRINT QUALIFYING PM

SATURDAY: SPRINT AM
SATURDAY AFTERNOON FP2

SUNDAY QUALIFYING AM 10AM
GAP:2 HOURS 11AM-1PM
SUNDAY RACE PM

This schedule gives teams time to fix any car damage, to freight in parts, in time for the 2PM Sunday Race..

 

[Zest28]

It's Adrian Newey though... where he goes championships follow...

But with the budget cap in place, it is more difficult for Adrian Newey to build a new car that is faster than his current Red Bull car which has many years of huge sums of money poured into it.

Ferrari will get closer to Red Bull, but Red Bull will still be the dominant car as Andrian Newey simply was able to do more work back then for Red Bull.

 

[JustinePaula]

I doubt with all the best intention Newey will be successful, not with new regs, he is 65 yrs old, and time for him to bugger off quite frankly, time for him to enjoy the successful build of his boat, take the time to visit France, give up F1, he has had his time, and time for noobs to make a name.. The last thing we want is for him to go off to some team, Williams and it is slower than frozen mushy peas.. It could happen, here is a bloke that had success, then goes to Williams/Ferrari, and the team is useless.. He is blamed, when it is 99.99% the meat in the seat... After all Newey is just 1 tooth in the cog, many folks with better PHD's and faster brains than him, he can only do so much.. Him to another team is a mistake.. Retirement at 65 should be mandatory, he turns 65, end of the season, he turns in his ID card, his parking pass, his laptops/desktop passwords expire... Gone..

 

[Apple fanboy]

I doubt with all the best intention Newey will be successful, not with new regs, he is 65 yrs old, and time for him to bugger off quite frankly, time for him to enjoy the successful build of his boat, take the time to visit France, give up F1, he has had his time, and time for noobs to make a name.. The last thing we want is for him to go off to some team, Williams and it is slower than frozen mushy peas.. It could happen, here is a bloke that had success, then goes to Williams/Ferrari, and the team is useless.. He is blamed, when it is 99.99% the meat in the seat... After all Newey is just 1 tooth in the cog, many folks with better PHD's and faster brains than him, he can only do so much.. Him to another team is a mistake.. Retirement at 65 should be mandatory, he turns 65, end of the season, he turns in his ID card, his parking pass, his laptops/desktop passwords expire... Gone..

Wow. Couldn’t disagree more. Retirement should be mandatory at 65? How ageist.
He has plenty to offer any team in F1. It’s up to him if he wants to retire.

 

[Apple fanboy]

But with the budget cap in place, it is more difficult for Adrian Newey to build a new car that is faster than his current Red Bull car which has many years of huge sums of money poured into it.

Ferrari will get closer to Red Bull, but Red Bull will still be the dominant car as Andrian Newey simply was able to do more work back then for Red Bull.

Yes but the 2026 reset of files changes that. It’s then whoever has interpreted them the best. Hopefully it will be closer racing than the one sided show we have now.

 

[Apple fanboy]

This track is weird. Nobody improved on their final Q3 lap.

Temperature maybe? Tyre deg will be the deciding factor later. Fortunately it’s a bank holiday here tomorrow so I can watch the highlights in the morning rather than at 1 am.

 

[JustinePaula]

Wow. Couldn’t disagree more. Retirement should be mandatory at 65? How ageist.
He has plenty to offer any team in F1. It’s up to him if he wants to retire.

Great, that is your view, thank you, it has nothing to do with experience, of which he is maybe the most experienced in F1, it is more about growing the sport for a new generation of drivers.. Retirement should be mandatory at 65, that is more than 40 years, and long enough.. Sometimes taking something away is not cruel, but kind.. It grows the sport.. He was once a young 20 yr old looking to become something, so he had his time, now thanks for your service, go and enjoy the harvest of your decades of labour, he can be free to wander the pits, makes comments, be on commentary, free to enjoy the work of others..