This week marked the fourth round of the 2024 season, the Japanese Grand Prix, but there were other important stories off the track as well. Such as another management shuffle at McLaren following a quick exit and a call for legal action against the accusers of the FIA president. Plus, this website celebrated its 10th anniversary!
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McLaren’s new technical director has left the team after just three months. David Sanchez left a job at Ferrari to take over the technical director role at McLaren as part of an engineering shakeup in January this year. In a statement, McLaren insisted that the decision was mutual, claiming “the role, responsibilities, and ambitions associated with David’s position did not align with our original expectations.” The sudden departure has prompted numerous changes within the team. Rob Marshall will become the team’s chief designer with Neil Houldley taking over as technical director of engineering. Meanwhile, team principal Andrea Stella will assume the technical director’s duties while the team searches for a replacement. It is not clear where Sanchez will be moving to in the future.
Emanuele Pirro has parted ways with the McLaren driver development programme after only a year at the helm. Pirro, who raced in Formula One from 1989 to 1991 and has had great success in sportscars, at the start of 2023. It has been reported that the move is a step towards McLaren moving their driver development programme in-house, which will be managed by their business operations director Stephanie Carlin.
Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli is scheduled to participate in his first Formula One test in the coming weeks. The two-day acclimatization test will be held at the Red Bull Ring starting on April 16, where he will drive the 2021-spec Mercedes W12. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the youngster, who is also competing in his first season of Formula Two with Prema, as Lewis Hamilton’s seat on the team is set to become vacant at the end of the season. Some fans have even speculated that Mercedes’ interest in Antonelli prevented the team from offering Hamilton a long-term contract, which is believed to be a factor in his decision to move to Ferrari in 2025.
Lewis Hamilton has lost his first engine of the season, as Mercedes cannot revive the one used during the Australian Grand Prix. The power unit in Hamilton’s W15 lost power in the early stages of the race at Albert Park, forcing the seven-time World Champion into his first retirement of the season. After flying the power unit to the Mercedes engine facility in Brixworth, the team discovered the issue was a one-off quality issue. Although this means that the other engines in their allocation are unlikely to be at risk of the same failure, it does mean that Hamilton has lost one of the four engines at his disposal. This puts the team at risk of taking an extra power unit later in the season.
George Russell called for the FIA to implement an automated safety system to suspend the race when cars are stuck on track. This comes in the aftermath of his large accident at the end of the Australian Grand Prix, in which his crashed Mercedes came to rest in the middle of a blind corner. It took a while for race control to deploy the virtual safety car. Lance Stroll, who was roughly 10 seconds behind the accident, was warned by his race engineer over team radio before arriving at the scene. Russell believes an automated system should detect when a crashed car has stopped on the racing surface and instantly deploy a VSC, citing the fatal accidents of Anthoine Hubert and Dilano van ‘t Hoff at Spa. The FIA is currently reviewing the incident and future changes may be implemented to improve safety.
Some FIA Member Clubs have recommended the FIA take legal action against “those who, without cause, slander the FIA and its leadership”. The suggestion was made in a letter signed by representatives of 34 Member Clubs in response to the vindication of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem in two alleged interference scandals. The letter also suggests that the accusations against the president were “propagated by some members of the print and digital media were intended for the sole purpose of causing harm to the FIA and its leadership.” The FIA has not revealed any intent to take legal action.
Max Verstappen set the pace in the first practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday. Temperatures were cooler than predicted for the race. Logan Sargeant brought out the only red flag of the session, crashing heavily in Dunlop Curve when he dipped a tyre on the grass. Williams is still without a spare chassis, meaning the mechanics would have a lot of work to do to repair the car. When the session resumed, drivers switched to the soft tyres. At the end of the session, the two Red Bulls were on top of the timing sheet with Carlos Sainz and the two Mercedes drivers making the top five. Ayumu Iwasa, who made his F1 practice debut, finished P15.
As rain fell, Friday afternoon’s practice session saw limited running. Teams weren’t willing to waste sets of intermediate tyres, thanks to the newly restricted allocation of wet tyres for each team, a topic that Pirelli has asked the FIA to reconsider. Of the drivers who ventured onto the circuit most only conducted exploratory runs. Only five drivers managed to set a time in the session as the circuit dried near the end of the session. Oscar Piastri set the fastest time ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, and Daniel Ricciardo also setting times.
Order was restored during the final practice session on Saturday morning, with Max Verstappen resuming his position atop the timing charts. Many drivers rushed out at the start of the session to make up for lost time from Friday’s poor weather conditions. Once teams had finished experimenting with the available tyre compounds, drivers were free to set fast times. Sergio Perez was behind his teammate and ahead of the two Mercedes drivers. Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five in an upgraded Aston Martin for this weekend.
Max Verstappen earned his third consecutive pole position in qualifying, narrowly beating his teammate by just 0.066s. Mercedes picked up a fine after releasing George Russell into the path of Oscar Piastri in the pit lane at the start of the session. Lance Stroll was the shock exit from Q1, despite Alonso’s strong pace in the other Aston Martin. Mercedes was under threat in Q2, having completed their laps on used tyres, forcing their drivers to return to the track near the end of the session. Daniel Ricciardo was narrowly eliminated by home favourite Yuki Tsunonda. Charles Leclerc struggled to find pace in the final qualifying session, only managing a P8 start. Lando Norris made it to the second row alongside Carlos Sainz.
Race day saw the fourth 1-2 finish this year, with Max Verstappen leading his teammate. Daniel Ricciardo brought out the red flag on the opening lap when he crashed into Alex Albon in the ‘S’ Curves, treating fans to a second standing start. The race was primarily fought on the pit wall with tyre strategy, although some midfield drivers provided entertaining overtakes. Charles Leclerc recovered well from his poor qualifying performance by taking the alternate tyre strategy. He finished the race in P4 behind his teammate, who stood on the podium for the third time this year. Click here to read a full recap of the race.
Next up on the calendar is the Chinese Grand Prix, returning to the schedule for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. The race will be held on April 21 in two weeks.
On a personal note, Racing Clothesline turned 10 years old this week. Sunday officially marked 10 years since I published predictions for the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix. Although the race results did not come to fruition, the article sparked more than 1,100 articles on this website. I want to thank everyone who has supported this website during that time and I hope you will continue to enjoy it.
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.
