This week saw a lot of on-track action as F1 found itself down under for the Australian Grand Prix, but there was also no shortage of action off the track as well. There are plenty of headlines to catch up on in this edition of the Weekly F1 Recap.
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FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been cleared of any wrongdoing. An investigation being conducted by the FIA’s Compliance Department concluded on Wednesday, with the six-person Ethics Committee ruling unanimously that there was “no evidence to substantiate allegations of interference of any kind”. The allegations were made by a whistleblower who claims that Ben Sulayem interfered with the stewards’ decision to reverse Fernando Alonso’s penalty at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and that he attempted to prevent the Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit from being certified.
Susie Wolff, managing director of the F1 Academy series and the wife of Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has filed a criminal complaint against the FIA in the French courts. The complaint stems from a media storm in December last year regarding a potential conflict of interest and suggestions that confidential information was being shared between husband and wife, with reports suggesting the teams had complained to the FIA. As a result, the FIA issued a statement saying they were aware of the allegations and that the Compliance Department was looking into the matter. This led to all F1 teams releasing identical statements denying they had complained and subsequently forced the FIA to drop the matter without a formal investigation. Wolff feels she has endured reputational damage and is disappointed by the lack of transparency and accountability within the FIA.
Former Haas driver Nikita Mazepin has successfully overturned European Union sanctions against him after a lengthy court battle. The 25-year-old Russian driver was set to continue his racing career for a second year at Haas in 2022 but was fired by the team as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Due to his father Dmitry’s close connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nikita was included in an EU sanctions list that prohibited him from entering EU member countries, killing his motorsport career. In September last year, the sanctions against him were loosened to allow him to enter the EU only for motorsport-related activities. A court ruled this week that Nikita no longer fits the “association” criteria of the sanctions, which requires more than just a family relationship. Mazepin has been racing with 99 Racing in the Asian Le Mans Series since 2023, with some success. He won 2 of the 3 races he entered this season and finished on the podium in all but 2 of his races in the series.
Former four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel will be getting behind the wheel of a car again very soon, working with Porsche to test their 963 hypercar. He will participate in a 36-hout test at MotorLand Aragon in Spain, having already had some time behind the wheel at Porsche’s base. While Vettel, who hung up his F1 helmet at the end of 2022, insists he has “no further plans” to race in the World Endurance Championship, he has previously been in preliminary talks with Jota last year to drive one of the Porsche 963 in the championship.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has signed a contract to remain in his position until at least 2030. He has been with the team since 2016, replacing McLaren Group founder Ron Dennis. Since that time, he has led McLaren into a stronger position, including expansion into IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E.
The Bahrain sovereign wealth fund has completed a full takeover of McLaren Group, the parent company that owns a majority stake in McLaren Racing. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a large financial hardship for the company, forcing it to accept a £150m loan from the National Bank of Bahrain, cut 1000 jobs, arrange a leaseback deal of its iconic factory in Woking, and sell a stake in its F1 team. The Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company has owned 30% of McLaren Group since 2007 but has now purchased the remaining stake in the company. McLaren Group currently owns 67% of the McLaren racing branch, having previously sold 33% to the American company MSP Sports Capital.
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has become a co-owner of the French semi-professional football squad FC Versailles 78. Gasly is the third member of a joint shareholding with club president Alexandre Mulliez and Fabien Lazare. The football club is part of the French Football Federation and currently participates in the Championnat National, the third tier of the French football league.
The family of the late Sir Sterling Moss will hold a service of thanksgiving on May 8 at Westminster Abbey, four years after the death of the racing legend. Moss died at the age of 90 on April 12, 2020, but restrictions during the pandemic prevented the family from holding a memorial. Moss is widely considered to be the best F1 driver to never win the championship title. He raced in Formula One from 1951 until an accident left him hospitalized in 1962. Speakers at the service will include Sir Jackie Stewart and the family has also arranged for some of his most iconic cars to be displayed. With an attendance of 2000, the family has made 722 tickets available for the motorsport community.
Valtteri Bottas starred in some humorous advertisements for Uber Carshare. The ads were filmed shortly after the Finn arrived in Australia for the Grand Prix weekend. The ad shows off Bottas’ “second car”, a 2012 Holden Ute (which you can book on the platform). The car features numerous premium features including a freshwater shower, meat pie oven, lazy passenger neck pillow, budgie smuggler clothesline, driver’s arm tan protection system, and mullet aeration technology.
The Australian Grand Prix race weekend started with an extremely close free practice session on Friday, with Lando Norris setting the fastest time of the session. His lead was narrow, and the top six drivers were all within 0.1s of his pace. There were plenty of drivers who spun or ran through the gravel traps around Albert Park while they struggled to find the limits of their cars. The biggest shunt was Alex Albon, who ran wide over the kerb in turn 7 and crashed heavily into the barrier, bringing out the red flag with 20 minutes left in the session. He was forced to sit out the second free practice session in the afternoon.
The second free practice session on Friday was much more orderly, as Charles Leclerc set the pace by nearly 0.4s over Max Verstappen. This is despite a delayed start for Verstappen, who was stuck in the garage as the team worked to repair floor damage sustained during the morning session. Both Aston Martin drivers performed well to make their way into the top five behind Carlos Sainz, who returned to action following his appendix surgery two weeks ago.
By the end of Friday, it became clear that Alex Albon’s badly damaged Williams would require a new chassis. Without a spare chassis on hand, the team made the controversial decision to withdraw Logan Sargeant from the rest of the weekend, handing his car to Albon in a bid to score points in the race.
Saturday morning marked the start of the final free practice session, which was nearly as closely contested as Friday morning. Charles Leclerc set the pace, but Max Verstappen ended the session only 0.02s behind his rival. The top four drivers were all within 0.1s of the leading Ferrari’s pace. Mercedes was able to recover from a poor start to the weekend, seeing both drivers make it into the top five.
Max Verstappen went three for three this season, scoring another pole position start during qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Carlos Sainz was close behind and Sergio Perez was behind him, although the Mexican was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in Q1. Lewis Hamilton was the shock exit in Q2, having been bumped out when Yuki Tsunoda bettered his time at the end of the session.
But it was Carlos Sainz who finished the weekend on top, leading Ferrari to their first 1-2 finish of the season. Max Verstappen started well but was not able to get out of DRS range of Sainz on the opening lap. This allowed Sainz to take the lead from the Red Bull on lap 2, almost certainly helped by a brake issue on Verstappen’s car that saw the reigning champion retire for the first time in 43 races. Lewis Hamilton’s car stopped on track a few laps later, bringing out the virtual safety car, which played well into Fernando Alonso’s hands and allowed the Spaniard to get to P5 after a cheap pit stop. There was no real challenge for the Ferrari and McLaren cars out front, as Sergio Perez struggled to advance from his P6 starting position. The race ended with drama as George Russell crashed heavily while trying to pressure Alonso on the penultimate lap. This created more drama in the post-race, with the stewards penalizing Alonso 20 seconds due to what appeared to be strange braking into turn six. Click here to read a full summary of the race action.
After the race, Sauber was fined €5000 for a pitstop safety violation. The team has struggled with pit issues in every round of the 2024 season and Australia was no different, despite efforts to prevent issues from happening. On this occasion, the team seemingly struggled to keep the wheel nut on the tyres, with the nuts falling during pitstops on both cars. On one occasion, a mechanic was able to stop the loose nut from leaving the pit box, but during Valtteri Bottas’ pit stop, the loose wheel nut scampered across the fast lane. This was reported to the FIA for safety reasons, leading to a financial penalty being applied to the team. Although the team did make modifications to prevent issues with cross-threading wheel nuts, race director Xevi Pujolar denies that the incident in Australia was caused by any of the changes.
Next on the calendar is the Japanese Grand Prix, which has moved to its new slot on the spring schedule. The race weekend will start on April 5 and the race will be on April 7.
The Weekly F1 Recap on Racing Clothesline is a series published every Monday. Each article breaks down the previous week's Formula One headlines into bite-sized pieces, perfect for casual fans to keep themselves in the loop.
