It certainly wasn’t a slow week in the Formula One newsroom, with many major stories hitting the front pages this week, including a lawsuit against Haas and antitrust pressure from the United States Congress. There were also some regulation changes and news about the upcoming Senna miniseries. All this and more, on top of a magical Miami Grand Prix sprint weekend.
United States Congress members have demanded an explanation from Liberty Media regarding the rejection of Andretti’s application to join Formula One. In a letter signed by 12 members of Congress, the politicians have slammed the anti-competitive nature of the decision, even going as far as to suggest that it may violate American antitrust laws if it was driven by “foreign automobile manufacturers that directly compete with American automotive companies like GM.” They demand Liberty Media’s response to a series of questions in the letter, mostly relating to the rationale behind the rejection and how it complies with the American antitrust laws. The letter appears to end with a thinly veiled threat, saying “We continue to exercise oversight on this matter, and with the appropriate Federal regulators, to ensure that any potential violations of U.S. anticompetition law are expeditiously investigated and pursued.”
Former Haas F1 team principal, Guenther Steiner, has filed a lawsuit in North Carolina seeking money owed by his former employer. Steiner, who worked for the American team from 2016 until the end of last year, claims he has received entitled commissions since 2021. While the court documents do not publicly reveal the amount or nature of the commissions, it is believed they may be related to a sponsorship deal he brought to the team. Additionally, Steiner alleges that Haas F1 has used his “name, image, and likeness” after his termination.
Aston Martin unsuccessfully appealed the penalty given to Fernando Alonso during the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race. During a heated battle in the sprint race, Alonso collided with Carlos Sainz. Despite the resulting puncture taking him out of the race, Alonso was handed a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points on his licence. Aston Martin requested a right of review, as permitted under the regulations, and new evidence was reviewed in a hearing on Friday. However, the stewards stuck to their guns, deeming that the new evidence did not alter the context of the incident.
Changes to the regulations surrounding jump starts were made Tuesday to clarify how they are judged. Article 48.1a) of the Sporting Regulations has been virtually rewritten to classify a jump start as any driver who moves “after the four (4) second light is illuminated and before the start signal is given by extinguishing all red lights.” Previous wording requiring false starts to be judged by the car transponders has been removed, allowing other methods of judgment to be used. It is not uncommon for drivers to visually move before the start but not trigger the sensor. The most recent incident involved Lando Norris at this year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which should not be possible under the revised regulations.
The FIA has also adjusted the regulations to encourage teams to use intermediate tyres during wet practice sessions. Teams were hesitant to venture out on track during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, unwilling to waste a set of their intermediate tyres. To prevent this, Article 30.5g) requires teams to return one set of intermediate tyres at the end of the final free practice session if any practice sessions were declared wet. This change is intended to minimize the benefits of limited running during wet practice sessions.
Red Bull has officially confirmed that Adrian Newey will leave their F1 team early next year. News about the legendary designer’s future broke last week but had not been confirmed by either party. Red Bull said Newey will attend “specific races” with the team in 2024 and will be working on Red Bull’s RB17 hypercar project, which is set to be unveiled at Goodwood in July, “until its completion”. While no one knows where his future lies, Newey appeared to rule out retirement, saying “I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself.” He has been linked to many potential teams, mostly by speculation, from Ferrari to Aston Martin to Williams. There has been much debate over when Newey will become eligible to work for another team. The latest information indicates that his legal team has negotiated an early exit agreement that could see him on a new team as early as next year.
David Sanchez – who recently left his short tenure at McLaren – has joined Alpine as Technical Director. Sanchez will oversee the team’s new three-pronged structure: performance, engineering, and aerodynamics. Having previously worked for Ferrari, he left his McLaren gig a few weeks after just a few months on the job. Alpine has undergone a technical shuffle as they work to bounce back from a poor start to the season.
Alpine brought an upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix, now bringing the car down to the minimum weight for the first time this season. The A524 started the season overweight due to some extra bodywork required to pass the FIA crash tests. Although, according to Alpine team principal Bruno Famin, the weight reduction saves the team 0.2 seconds per lap, weight was not one of the major issues with this year’s car. Instead, a lack of downforce has been a major issue with the team’s performance and Famin insists he’s “happy with the direction of the team.”
Having been without for the first five races of the season, Williams now has a spare chassis. Production delays over the winter left the team in a precarious situation where they had no spare car. This became an issue when Alex Albon crashed heavily during practice for the Australian Grand Prix and Logan Sargeant was forced to give up his car for the weekend. Despite having access to the spare chassis, the team surely hopes they will not need to use it going forward.
A request has been filed with the FIA to grant Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli an F1 Superlicence, despite not meeting the minimum age requirement of 18. This comes off the back of Antonelli’s test in the 2021 Mercedes W12 at the Red Bull Ring a few weeks ago. Antonelli will turn 18 on August 25, but there have been rumours that he could replace Williams driver Logan Sargeant during the summer break. Sargeant, who is in his second season with Williams, has had a lacklustre showing in which he has consistently been out-performed by teammate Alex Albon. Mercedes has shown interest in recruiting Antonelli to their team and their close relationship with Williams could make it the perfect place to cut his teeth.
Ferrari unveiled their “blue” one-off livery ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, much to their fans’ disappointment. Many expected the one-off livery to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Ferrari’s entry into the American market, to be mostly blue, much like the one-off livery used by the team at the end of the 1964 season for the original event. Instead, the livery remains red with light blue accents on the sidepods and dark blue wings at the front and rear. The design also heavily features branding from the team’s new title sponsor, Hewlett-Packard.
RB also joined Ferrari in introducing a one-off livery for the Miami weekend. Although the team retained their blue and silver Red Bull branded engine cover, the rest of the car was painted in what the team called a “chameleon” livery. It featured a blended mixture of cool blues, warm oranges, and every colour in between.
Netflix unveiled the first trailer of its upcoming six-part miniseries Senna. Unlike the namesake 2010 documentary film, the Netflix series is a scripted based-on-a-true-story dramatization of Senna’s racing career. It will star Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone, who also played the role of Alfonso de Portago in the 2023 film Ferrari. The two-minute trailer starts with Senna preparing for the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix and concludes with his crossing the finish line to win his home race for the first time. The trailer also features a variety of small clips from throughout the series interspersed throughout. Although Netflix has yet to announce a release date, it has confirmed it will happen sometime this year. You can watch the full trailer below:
Sebastian Vettel will be driving Ayrton Senna’s iconic 1993 McLaren MP4/8 around the Imola circuit as a tribute to the late World Champion. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the racing legend’s fatal accident at the circuit on May 1, 1994. The MP4/8, now personally owned by Vettel, was the last McLaren car raced by Senna. The tribute will be held on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race day on May 19.
With Miami playing host to the second sprint weekend of the season, there was no time to waste during the weekend’s only practice session on Friday. Max Verstappen set the pace during the session, as many teams worked to evaluate and understand their new upgrades. The top five featured one driver from all of the top five teams, all within 0.222s of the pace, with most of the field coming to within a second of Verstappen’s fastest time. Charles Leclerc brought out the session’s red flags after bouncing over the kerbs on the exit of turn 16. The Ferrari driver spun between the concrete walls, creating an “Austin Powers”-like situation. He was unable to get turned around in the right direction and had to abandon the car to avoid overheating.
Max Verstappen was again on top at the end of the sprint qualifying sessions, despite an early challenge from the McLaren drivers. Oscar Piastri had a close call in SQ1 when he nearly collided with a slow-moving Valtteri Bottas who had not been warned of the approaching McLaren. Both Mercedes drivers failed to make it into SQ2, as Lewis Hamilton tapped the wall during his flying lap. Despite showing strong pace on the medium tyres in the first two sprint qualifying sessions, the McLaren drivers appeared to struggle on the soft tyres, allowing Charles Leclerc to claim a spot alongside Verstappen on the front row of the grid. Daniel Ricciardo surprised everyone by putting his car on the second row of the grid in P4 alongside Sergio Perez.
In Saturday’s sprint race, Max Verstappen maintained his lead from pole position to win, although not by the typical margin. The race saw an early safety car for a chain reaction crash in the first corner caused by a bold move up the inside by Lewis Hamilton. This ended the days of Lando Norris and both Aston Martins. Most of the race was spent watching aggressive defending from Kevin Magnussen, trying to keep Hamilton out of the final points-scoring position. In a similar fashion to Saudi Arabia, he finished the sprint with 35 seconds worth of penalties for track limits incidents. Hamilton had his own struggles in the race, being given a 20-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane under the safety car. This promoted Yuki Tsunoda, who had been overtaken by Hamilton on the final lap, to P8. Click here to read a full summary of the sprint race.
After the sprint race, Lando Norris was reprimanded for crossing the track after his turn 1 accident. Norris abandoned his car and crossed the circuit to walk to the pit lane on foot, but did not have permission from the marshals to do so. This violation is treated seriously by the FIA given the extremely unsafe situation it can create. In addition to a reprimand, Norris was required to pay a €50,000 fine.
The front row of the grid was the same at the end of qualifying as it had been for the sprint, with Verstappen leading Leclerc. The McLaren drivers faired better in qualifying, locking out the third row of the grid behind Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. Despite a strong performance in the sprint race, Ricciardo was a shock exit from Q1.
In the race, it was Lando Norris who found his way to the top step of the podium for the first time in his career. Max Verstappen got away well from the front of the grid while Charles Leclerc’s slow start prompted a dramatic lockup from Sergio Perez in the first corner, shuffling the positions of the top drivers. The McLarens seemed particularly strong, with Oscar Piastri briefly leading some laps during the pit window. A rare mistake from Verstappen saw him hit a cone. The virtual safety car was deployed, but not long enough for the top drivers to pit. Norris inherited the lead when the top drivers began to pit and a safety car for a collision between Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen promoted Norris to the net lead with a cheap pit stop. Although he was under pressure after a slow restart, he managed to get outside of DRS range. The Red Bull seemed far less strong at Miami compared to previous races and Verstappen could not find the pace to catch Norris. A late battle led to a collision between Sainz and Piastri, demoting Sainz to P5 with a post-race penalty. Click here to read a full summary of the race.
Next on the calendar is the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in two weeks, on the weekend of May 19.
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