With no racing during the week, the F1 headlines consisted of a driver lineup announcement, a management departure and some driver change rumours, as well as some news about the aftermath of the Italian Grand Prix and some new content for the F1 2021 video game by Codemasters and EA Sports.
Aston Martin confirmed they will continue with both Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll for 2022. The news was largely expected at this point, but some delays were sparking rumours of a potential driver lineup change. Aston Martin claims the delays were due to standard negotiation over the terms and clauses of the contracts.
Robert Kubica has dismissed speculation that he is a candidate for the 2022 Alfa Romeo seat, claiming there are other drivers higher up on the list. While he admitted that anything is possible, his focus will likely be on sports cars next year. Reportedly on the short-list for the seat is Guanyu Zhou from Formula 2 or the man who currently sits in the seat, Antonio Giovinazzi.
McLaren’s chief operating officer will be leaving the company at some point this year. Jonathan Neale joined McLaren in 2001 as their F1 operations director. During his time on the team, he advanced through many management positions. When Ron Dennis was ousted from McLaren in 2016, Neale was moved to position as COO for the McLaren Group. The reasoning for his departure has not been disclosed and it’s unclear when exactly he will leave, although it will be before the end of the year.
Lewis Hamilton claims he has seen a specialist to address a potential neck injury sustained from his crash with Max Verstappen at the Italian Grand Prix. He said he would probably be fine and the medical attention seemed to be only precautionary, as his neck was getting “tighter and tighter”. Red Bull management made some very bold allegations, accusing the Brit of faking his injuries. Helmut Marko claims that Hamilton didn’t require any medical attention during the race, but then “a show is pulled off that poor Hamilton is suddenly injured”.
The FIA will investigate seatbelt safety following Carlos Sainz’s huge crash in practice for the Italian Grand Prix, in which the Spaniard was thrown forward in the car. While the seatbelts are made to stretch during a crash, onboard footage shows Sainz shifting forward during the impact far more than normal. Ferrari is also conducting their own analysis of the incident.
FIA president Jean Todt took his turn expressing his concerns with the sprint qualifying format. He said that the practice session held between Friday’s qualifying session and Saturday’s sprint race may have a negative impact on the weekend format. In his opinion, the session is really irrelevant to the fans and just gives teams the ability to iron out their tyre strategies for the sprint race, making for less entertainment. Additionally, he also expressed concerns over the pole position being decided in the sprint race, which is an issue that F1 is reportedly already on track to discuss in the next meeting in October.
F1 has confirmed that plans are being made to force teams to run rookie drivers in Friday’s free practice 1 session next year. This was reported in last week’s edition of the Weekly F1 Recap as something that was under discussion. Some details still need to be ironed out, such as what is actually defined as a “rookie” and how many weekends the teams will need to do this for. Naturally, teams cannot give up FP1 on weekends that will feature a sprint race, as that’s the only practice session before qualifying Friday afternoon.
EA Sports and Codemasters have added the Algarve International Circuit to the F1 2021 game in their first large free update. Due to the rapidly evolving calendar of the 2020 season due to the pandemic, many of the circuits that were not originally planned to be included in the calendar were not featured in that year’s game. This year’s game released without some circuits as well. Players will now be able to race the Portuguese Grand Prix and another update is planned for October to include Imola into the game. Additionally, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be added to the game in November. This recent update has also added the Aston Martin safety car to the game, replacing the previous Mercedes car.
The Schumacher documentary was released to Netflix on Wednesday. The movie has received good reviews among motorsport fans.
It can be challenging for even the most avid fans to keep up with the fast-paced world of Formula One. The Weekly F1 Recap is a series published each Monday that breaks down the action, both on and off the circuit, into bit-sized pieces. It's perfect for casual and experienced fans alike.
