Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i AUTOSPORT

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Seldom has the aphorism coined by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (or, for that matter, Jon Bon Jovi, if you’re feeling lowbrow) been more true in the Formula 1 world. Let’s start with the cover price of this issue of GP Racing, £7.99. We hope the product’s additional girth – an extra 24 pages of season-preview wholesomeness – offsets any fury you may have experienced when you clocked the price label. Imagine how much Ferrari will have to whack on the sticker of an F8 to claw back the additional financial load of Lewis Hamilton’s annual stipend… Don’t worry, we’ll be back to the regular price and page count next month. Phew! I write this in the immediate aftermath of the team…

STIFFNESS: THE ANSWER IS IN THE RIGGING We have discussed in this column previously the importance of ride quality even in a stiffly sprung racing car, but the current Formula 1 aerodynamic regulations have led to teams getting maximum performance by running the cars very close to the ground. This very limited ground clearance leads to needing extremely stiff springs to maintain the low ride heights under the immense downforce that’s trying to compress the springs and tyres, and push the plank and the skids into the track. These very stiff springs lead to a very harsh ride. Now the total vertical stiffness of a car is not just a function of the suspension springs. Any vertical load, whether it comes from the aerodynamic downforce or bumps in the road,…

You won the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award in 2021 – it was you where the presenters had a Terry-Wogan-and-Scooch moment, wasn’t it? [Confusion briefly reigned when he was accidentally announced as ‘Zak Martin’, with the surname of one of the other candidates] Ha ha! It was – but I was born in 2005 so that reference is a bit obscure for me… Welcome to GP Racing! How valuable to your career was winning AMABA? Very valuable – and not just in terms of the money [besides a test in an Aston Martin F1 car, the prize includes £200,000 to help fund the next step of the winner’s racing career], it’s a massive thing to win, because it places your name alongside some of the most successful British racing drivers of…

He’s quite a character. Since his predecessor. In fact, he makes it pretty clear that he’s not too impressed with what he’s inherited. taking office, Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been nothing like his predecessor. Whereas Jean Todt preferred to keep a low profile and shunned the media, the new FIA president isn’t afraid to speak his mind – not least when it comes to the patrimony he was handed by his predecessor. In fact, he makes it pretty clear that he’s not too impressed with what he’s inherited. His style is not to everyone’s taste. And it’s fair to say that in the two years he’s been at the helm, he’s upset quite a few people in the F1 paddock. There are those who believe that the championship will be…

After chalking up 21 of the 22 victories on offer in 2023, Red Bull has set itself a stratospherically high bar to leap over this season if it is to replicate the same level of crushing dominance. Ominously, it has the platform to do so. While other teams have spent the off-season navigating the minefield of concept changes for a more competitive 2024, Red Bull’s mission has been less perilous; its RB19 proved malleable across most conditions experienced over last season. Its low-speed handling was the comparatively worrisome trait, which culminated in its failure to secure a clean sweep of wins as it was distinctly off-colour in Singapore. Everywhere else, it was putty in the hands of Max Verstappen, who very seldom had to face serious competition. Through Max’s 10-win…

The greatest comeback since Lazarus? McLaren’s transformation from its Bahrain down-and-out performance to frequent podium botherer certainly suggests as much, although the early struggles had been forecast as early as 2022’s French GP. An underwhelming update package there was the catalyst for the internal review which led the team to conclude its development direction was flawed and needed a course correction. Although the MCL60’s early showings were distinctly duller than its papaya livery wanted to portray, a series of upgrades turned the tide in battle. The first of those, in Baku, redefined its baseline, but the aerodynamic changes introduced in Austria were transformational. It was the shot in the arm that Lando Norris needed to snatch the lead from Max Verstappen at Silverstone, ultimately yielding the Briton’s first podium of…

When James Vowles walked through reception on his first day as team principal at Williams, it became apparent that the creature comforts he was used to at Mercedes weren’t necessarily present at Grove. He estimated that some equipment and software in use were almost two decades old, hardly befitting a team that had once perched upon F1’s technological cutting edge. Years of underinvestment had taken their toll, but recovery signs are increasing in strength. A successful rally against capital expenditure rules gave Williams more leeway to pump cash into overhauling its geriatric systems, but there’s also been important movements on the personnel side. Ex-Alpine man Pat Fry was swayed by Vowles’ ambition (and Alpine’s apparent lack thereof) to head up the engineering department. Given the team’s track record with a…

Here today, Guenther ’ morrow; Haas embarks upon its first season without Guenther Steiner at the helm after a decade at the team. Owner Gene Haas, feeling that the team could be doing more with the resources it already had, has split with the irrepressible Steiner and his Netflix-curated aura of f-bombs and outspokenness. Ayao Komatsu now steps up as team principal, having agreed with Haas’s vision of retaining its Ferrari links and relying on the current structure rather than investing into its own. Steiner, as an advocate for the team becoming more autonomous, found his contract unrenewed. After a dismal 2023, something had to change. The car was decent in qualifying, especially under Nico Hülkenberg’s superintendence, but the VF-23 burned through tyres pretty early on during the races. The…

OLEG KARPOV This month’s fare: an exclusive with the FIA president (p30), Zinedine Zidane and the Alpine drivers (p54), and a look at Sky Sports F1 (p76) ANDREW BENSON Despite McLaren’s great second half of 2023, Lando Norris feels he could have done more. Andrew asks how Norris goes one better (p24) ALEX KALINAUCKAS Alex analyses the dynamic between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in a crucial season ahead for both of them (p38) MARK SUTTON Mark went behind the scenes with Oleg in Abu Dhabi to capture how Sky Sports F1 puts its GP coverage together (p76) Thanks to Sophie Almeida, Rebecca Banks, Anne Bradshaw, Connor Bean, Jess Borrell, Will Hings, Roman De Lauw, James Lloyd, Bradley Lord, Adam McDaid, Stuart Morrison, Will Ponissi, Dieter Rencken, Kevin Tee, Tom…

WHO YA GONNA CALL? RENT-A-BOSS It’s the morning after the shock announcement of Gene Haas’s appointment of Ayao Komatsu as team principal of Haas F1 when my phone pings with a message from Guenther Steiner. I’m in Australia and enjoying my first coffee, but it’s the previous day for him thanks to the time difference. At this point I should declare an interest, since my company works with Guenther and we enjoy a good relationship. Once he realises that’s it’s not late at night for me, we jump on a call. He is, as always, positive, bullish and pragmatic. It’s Gene’s team and he can call the shots. After a decade of bringing Haas F1 into the world and leading it through times both good and bad, Guenther’s experience of…

The 2023 and 2016 Formula 1 seasons share a notable aspect: in win-percentage terms a single team in each – Red Bull and Mercedes at 95.5% and 90.5% respectively – achieved dominance comparable with McLaren’s 93.8% strangling of the 1988 campaign. But surely for all apart from the most ardent of Max Verstappen fans, last season offered precious little intrigue. With no title battle beyond the early rounds of a very long season, it became historically repetitive. The 2016 campaign isn’t viewed as such – even though by then plenty of fans were tiring of Mercedes’ dominance. This is because, unlike Sergio Pérez’s short-lived challenge to Verstappen last year, both drivers from the Silver Arrows squad had a shot at title glory. Lewis Hamilton versus Nico Rosberg was compulsive viewing.…

An open letter to fans between the early rounds of 2023 laid bare just what Mercedes thought of its regression from title winner to scrapping for podiums. The selfflagellation from the team’s key figures became admittedly tiresome, but it at least acted as a precursor for some progress on track. Like a lost wayfarer at sea, Mercedes had to plot a new course and divert away from its radical-but-fruitless ‘zero-pod’ aerodynamic solution. The Monaco facelift updated the car with a more conventional set of sidepods, taking that perceived weakness off the table. But as the team has admitted, the majority of the gains came through optimisation at lower ride heights (see p46). Performance improved but not enough to prevent 2023 becoming Mercedes’ first winless season since 2011. Brackley’s finest didn’t…

It took little time for Aston Martin to become the Isle of Fernando, after replacing one world champion [Sebastian Vettel] with another last season. When Alonso made his F1 comeback with Alpine in 2021, moments of brilliance had been too often restricted by the French team’s inertia and unreliability. There might have even been doubts that Alonso no longer had “it”, but those murmurs of dissent were quelled once he stepped into Aston’s AMR23. The Silverstone squad, in its third year under the guise of Britain’s premier sportscar brand, had become a vastly improved force in 2023 – particularly in the first half of the year. The technical leadership of ex-Red Bull aero pharaoh Dan Fallows had helped birth a benign handling car which enjoyed great performance in slow-speed corners.…

So long, AlphaTauri. The team formerly known as Minardi has now assumed its third new guise since Red Bull bought out the Italian squad at the end of 2005; it spent 14 seasons as Toro Rosso before the Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri fashion arm became the garb of choice for the cars from 2020 through to 2023. The rebranding exercise appears to have been a case of selecting short and generic to cram as many title-sponsor nouns in as possible: Visa Cash App RB F1 Team appears on the official entry list – or RB for short, if you don’t wish to give the finance giants too much credit. The new name will invite myriad puns over the season, especially if one driver doesn’t make it through the year contactless… Although…

ROUND 1/24 Bahrain Sakhir, 29 February-2 March NEED TO KNOW This year will mark 20 years since Bahrain held its first grand prix in 2004. In that time, the island Kingdom has established itself as a welcoming venue to host the season opener. One week after the threeday test in 1 Sakhir, this year’s race is scheduled for Saturday night, which will synchronize neatly with the Middle East weekend. Just remember to tune into practice on Thursday afternoon. Drivers need to manage their rear tyres on this traction-limited layout and be conscious of the strong gusts that can blow sand onto the circuit, making it slippery off-line. RACE DATA Circuit name Bahrain International Circuit First GP 2004 F1 races held 19 Laps 57 Circuit length 3.362 miles Race distance 191.530…

TONIGHT YOU ARE THE SPECIAL ONE Lewis Hamilton isn’t short of a quid or two so moving to Ferrari for what are likely to be his final seasons in Formula 1 isn’t about topping up his nest egg. He won’t have lost much sleep over deciding whether a guaranteed pension in the form of a long-term Mercedes ambassadorial role plus a lifetime supply of company cars is worth years of attending tedious sponsor events. Of course, Hamilton will get paid handsomely for his time in Rosso Corsa and Ferrari will invest generously in his charitable foundations, but money is not the motivating factor here. If Hamilton is honest, nor is competitiveness. He will have assessed whether Mercedes is in one of two places. Perhaps, at the time of his decision,…

WHY HAMILTON KICKED MERC INTO TOUCH 01 Few were expecting the pre-season to kick off with the driver market in sudden ferment. This was, after all, the first year in the history of the world championship in which absolute continuity had prevailed from one season to the next (see p34). And even if it was an open secret that this situation wouldn’t last, the prospects of something as jaw-dropping as the most successful driver in championship history moving to its most successful team ever seemed unlikely. It was almost a foregone conclusion that Lewis Hamilton, who had signed a new contract with Mercedes last summer, would end his career with the team which delivered him to his greatest successes – and that he would do so having made all of…

PEOPLE POWER: THE SECRET OF NETFLIX’S SUCCESS As interest in a new F1 season ramps up, it’s the perfect time to go behind the scenes to last year’s record-breaking championship. Season 6 of Drive To Survive is ‘dropping’ on Netflix thanks to production company Box to Box Films and its team of producers, editors and experts. Many of those involved have learned about F1 by working on the series but co-executive producer Tom Rogers, who was engaged from the beginning in 2017, carries his own faithful memories of camping at Silverstone as a kid and developing his passion many years ago. Success of the series has led to a growing fanbase around the world, yet there were some tricky aspects when filming began – including two of the top teams…

Family At the top of the list is my immediate family, my partner and my baby daughter. Because they can bring you a level of happiness that so many other things in life can’t, and you get it for free. Well, actually that’s not true, they’re both incredibly expensive, but conceptually that’s the love you get for free, every day of your life. Flying I fly helicopters. You’re by yourself, doing something that no one else does, unless you’re a bird. And it gives you a sense of freedom. And I really like that. Music My favourite band is Foo Fighters. I mean, if you’re only meant to know one band in the world, it’s got to be Foo Fighters – the rest, don’t worry about it. But between me…

It’s Friday morning, three minutes into the planning meeting for the final round of the championship. The Sky Sports F1 production team are briefing their colleagues on the day’s programme – but a momentary distraction causes a brief pause. “Can you note that down?” asks Simon Lazenby – a presenter who has been with the Sky team since it started broadcasting F1 in 2012 – as he turns to GP Racing. “Terrible production,” he jokes, and leans back in his chair, satisfied to have provoked a burst of laughter in the room. The first, but by no means the last, joke directed at an outsider allowed into Sky’s field operations centre in the TV compound area of the Abu Dhabi circuit. On-site producer Tommy Herz and his colleague Jess Medland,…

A tactical masterclass from Carlos Sainz in Singapore provided the only break in Red Bull’s hegemony in 2023, as history repeated itself; Ferrari had also been the sole interloper on McLaren’s potential 1988 clean sweep, offering respite to those disenfranchised by foregone conclusions. And, if old F1 scripture continues to bear similarities to the current narrative, then there’s a chance of a more competitive 2024… if Ferrari can achieve greater pace on Sundays. The red cars were nifty in qualifying trim, particularly in Charles Leclerc’s custody, but the ever-present hunger for Pirelli rubber cost the Scuderia in race trim. Charles scorched to five poles, three of those in the last five races, but his miserable pole-to-win conversion rate continued to shrink as he found himself winless in 2023. As the…

After reaching the dizzying heights of fourth in 2022’s constructors’ championship, Alpine expected to climb even higher in 2023. But, instead of bridging the gap to the front-running teams, the team stagnated. A poor start to the year and internecine conflict at boardroom level rendered it a year featuring more managerial upheaval, as the power plays and under-bus hurling acts distracted from the on-track mediocrity. Former grande fromage Laurent Rossi spontaneously combusted in his own hubris, accusing the team of dilettantism before being given the boot by Renault CEO Luca de Meo, but further changes were afoot. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer was moved on after just a year and a half in the role, accompanied though the exit door by the long-serving Alan Permane. The veritable feast of management changes…

Another team to hit the rebrand button. Sauber’s Alfa Romeo deal expired last year and the team sought an interim solution before it becomes Audi in 2026. It’s trading under the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber name, but the official nomenclature will vary between events. For most it will roll as Stake but, where local legislation frowns on advertising crypto-betting, it will change identity to Kick (a streaming service owned by Stake’s founders). Following on from a bright 2022, the Hinwil outfit regressed in 2023 as the car lacked downforce and upgrades didn’t deliver the requisite leaps forward relative to other teams. The relative stagnation led to the hiring of James Key as technical chief, the Briton returning for a second spell in Switzerland after departing McLaren early in 2023.…

HOW BORING IS THIS? For the first time since I don’t know when, each F1 driver will go straight to the correct motor home when the season starts. There will be none of this wandering, through habit, into their place of work for the previous year and having to immediately reverse out with a nervous nod to the former team principal they’d spent the winter savaging on social media. Where’s the spirit of adventure these days? Everyone’s become far too formal and polite. We seem to have moved on from the time when Alain Prost publicly compared his Ferrari to a truck and found himself a spectator at the next grand prix – and for the following 12 months. Or how about Wilson Fittipaldi Senior using his daily radio show…