Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i AUTOSPORT

Time was when politicians and other public figures touched by the merest whiff of scandal would make a principled resignation and shimmy out of the public eye for a while. That was then; this, indubitably, is now. Over the past couple of decades compromised politicos from Peter Mandelson to Boris Johnson have shamelessly clung on to the trappings of office – and even when they’ve been flushed down the pan, vexatiously and disobligingly they bob back to the surface. I was moved to think along these lines when Formula 1 appeared as item three in the BBC’s 10 O’Clock News at the beginning of the Saudi Arabian GP weekend. Not in its customary position after the stick-and-ball sports, nor even P3 in the sporting round-up, but sitting with DRS activated…

AN UNCIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT FOR RED BULL’S REINS 01 The start of the new F1 season has clearly shown that the winter wasn’t enough for Red Bull’s rivals to catch up and establish a challenge to the dominant force. The team itself, however, seems to be doing everything possible to destroy itself from within. Over first few months of the new year a scarcely credible civil war has unfolded within the camp. There is every reason to believe the spark that eventually ignited the flames came back in December, when a grievance filed by one of Red Bull Racing’s female employees against her boss, Christian Horner, reached the human resources department at the energy drink manufacturer’s headquarters in Austria. In early February the details of the dispute, which at…

A DESIGN FOR LIFE? NOT ANY MORE… While we absorb the revised car liveries (or, rather, colour splashed on naked carbonfibre) now the season is under way, there’s also the fun of seeing different helmet designs. Individual paint schemes have always mattered, particularly when identifying which driver is which within a team. Nowadays a driver’s choice of artwork is sometimes seen as less distinctive and much more changeable than it used to be. That is confirmed by Mike Fairholme, a helmet artist at one time responsible for 12 F1 drivers in the 1990s. Having trained as a graphic designer, he has seen a major shift in design and technique. “The process of painting a helmet is different today,” Mike says. “It’s a form of art, not a graphic. In a…

Analytics and the science of marginal gains drives performance in a plethora of professional sports – including stick-and-ball pursuits as well as ones relying on wheels. SAP joined McLaren as a sponsor in 1997 and has now joined Mercedes – formerly a customer of its HANA software – as a partner with a mandate to help optimise resources, maximising development while remaining within the budget cap CV 2005 – present Head of Sports and Entertainment, SAP 2001 – 2008 Platinum Consultant, SAP 1997 – 2000 Consultant, SAP US 1993 – 1996 Project Manager, SAP Implementation, Colonia Axa Insurance AG 1989 – 1993 Deputy SAP Project Manager, Lufthansa AG GP Racing: What was your background before you joined SAP? Fadi Naoum: I studied economic data processing at the University of Cologne,…

SIX racing drivers are playing beach volleyball – and it’s painful to watch. Gabriele Minì, who will spend the 2024 season racing for Prema in F3, wins six points in a row for his team through only his serve. And it’s not that his serve is that good – it’s because the other team is that bad at intercepting the ball before it hits the sand. This is one of the activities in the Alpine junior team training camp in Tenerife, ahead of the racing season. Minì is teamed up with fellow F3 driver Nikola Tsolov and F2 driver Kush Maini, while on the other side of the net are Victor Martins, Sophia Flörsch and Olli Caldwell. But even if this volleyball match looks like madness, there’s methodology in it.…

Ayao, how many meetings did you have with Haas F1 staff before the season started? Loads. As soon as it was announced on the 10th of January, in the next few days I just tried to have as many one-on-one meetings at our UK base with as many managers, key people as I could – just to get some honest feedback and a feel for it. Then I went to Italy and did the same thing, trying to organise my day so I could do both group sessions as well as individual meetings, to get an understanding of what the difficulties are for these people and what I need to do to help. What was the main takeaway? The great thing is that I haven’t had to convince anyone to…

When I look back over the years I’ve been involved in motor racing and in particular Formula 1, it’s amazing to see the extent of the changes. Whether those were for good or bad, or somewhere between those points, depends on your perspective. I stepped on to the employment ladder by way of a mechanical engineering apprenticeship with a company specialising in steam and nuclear boilers, a good grounding in practical engineering, but not what I wanted as a career. My training was to be a draughtsman, which helped me to hone my skills since I’d always enjoyed freehand drawing and sketching. While being able to use a computer, with programs that remove the need for a set square or an eraser, is now perhaps more of a prerequisite for…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 THE BAHRAIN GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS 1 Taking the bull by the horn(er) F1 statistician Jacques Deschenaux’s annual Grand Prix Guide lists 68 occasions since 1950 where a driver has achieved a grand chelem or, in other words, pole position, fastest lap, victory and every lap of the race led. Max Verstappen’s quest to win a fourth world drivers’ title started in earnest when he achieved the sport’s 69th grand slam at the season opener in Bahrain. For the record, this was the fifth time Max has recorded a perfect race. Only Lewis Hamilton (six times) and Jim Clark (eight times) have more. As Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez finished second – albeit 22.4s in arrears – Red Bull’s 29th one-two proceeded like clockwork on the…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 AUSTRALIAN GP 22-24 March 2024 Albert Park THE MAIN EVENT The Australian GP promoters have accepted the event’s demotion from its traditional slot as the season’s curtainraiser (logistics dictate two rounds in the Middle East up front now), but drivers appear to have been slower to catch on. A first-day-at-school vibe prevails, as evinced by last year’s event which featured three red-flag stoppages. The circuit provides other reasons for clumsy shunts and half-taken chances. Modern F1’s heavy cars are grumpy and difficult through the slow corners in the first sector, which provide the bulk of the overtaking opportunities. Only out back, as the track opens up, do the cars really start to sing. The removal of a chicane from this section has created another window…

@mattkewF1 facebook.com/gpracingonline MERC STANDS TO GAIN FROM RED BULL PAIN Toto Wolff looks increasingly likely to be the only person to emerge from the civil war at the top of Red Bull smelling anything like roses. And he’d be more than a touch fortunate to do so. Although the energy drinks company’s independent investigation into allegations made against Christian Horner by a female employee found no wrongdoing, Horner’s reputation has been damaged irreparably. Whether he harboured ambitions of taking the top job in Formula 1 or not, it’s now tough to imagine series stakeholders ever nominating him as a replacement for Stefano Domenicali. Over in the court of social media, it won’t matter if the rumours are eventually proved wrong. The internet has already decided it’s the Verstappen camp guilty…

OLEG KARPOV Oleg spent time with Esteban Ocon for an exclusive peek into his training regime (p32) and joined Alpine’s winter Academy camp (p50) ANDREW BENSON Andrew takes a look at Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 switch to Ferrari and what both parties want and need from each other (p58) ALEX KALINAUCKAS Alex analyses what Daniel Ricciardo’s plan for the rest of his F1 career is (p68). Stay at RB or push for the second Red Bull seat? TIM WRIGHT After 50 years in motorsport, the former March, Fittipaldi and McLaren man talks us through the changes he’s seen in F1 (p76) Thanks to Michel Berthelemot, Anne Bradshaw, Jess Borrell, Will Hings, Cameron Kelleher, Roman De Lauw, James Lloyd, Bradley Lord, Adam McDaid, Stuart Morrison, Will Ponissi, Cait Rust, Kevin Tee IS…

FORCE-FED: HOW A TURBO WORKS Turbocharged engines are now de rigueur as the industry adopts engine downsizing to increase efficiency. While they are thought of as a relatively new development, the first patent for such a device was granted in 1905. Although the idea was sound the materials available to engineers at the time weren’t suitable for such arduous conditions, and while a Liberty aero engine was turbocharged in 1918, it wasn’t until the 1950s that the first production turbo-diesel engine went into production. This was followed in 1962 by a pair of turbocharged petrol General Motors models (albeit running very low boost): the Chevrolet Corvair Monza and Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire. Poor reliability led to them going out of production within two years. In Formula 1 Renault introduced turbocharging in 1977…

Fashion I like fashion. I like to choose my outfit according to my mood or where I’m going. And I like to show my colours, if you like. In short, it feels good to look good. Food There’s no particular cuisine I like, but for me a good meal is a kind of tool to reduce stress and feel happier. It doesn’t matter what kind of food it is – if it’s good, I enjoy it, whether it’s tacos or sushi. I really like pasta. When I’m in Italy that’s what I usually eat. But it’s important for me, wherever we go, to find a good restaurant so I can enjoy the food. Because in a way, as strange as it may sound, it gives me the same feeling as…

“THE MOST EXCITED PEOPLE WHEN DANNY RICC CAME BACK WAS NETFLIX.” Nestling nicely in amongst Williams driver Logan Sargeant’s torturing of the English lexicon is a good point. One the American was making to a Netflix camera in the latest series of Drive to Survive. In 2023, the hit streaming show got back its undisputed biggest star, almost without him ever having to leave. You can see the production company’s delight in the sixth series, where Ricciardo’s two returns are granted two episodes. But this was no Netflix navel-gazing exercise. The Australian became one of 2023’s biggest stories with his return to replace the ousted Nyck de Vries at what was then called AlphaTauri, plus his own second return – latterly from injury following his crash and broken hand at…

IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT Lewis Hamilton’s forthcoming move to Ferrari that BBC TV felt it worthy of inclusion in the Six O’Clock News. This was welcome after grim bulletins from war-torn corners of the world, followed by the daily grind of British politicians sniping at each other inbetween bouts of self-interest and crass decision-making (all which FOM appears to have used as a role model; we’ll get onto the Andretti fiasco in a minute). As the BBC sports presenter spoke about F1, you had to wonder whether Hamilton or Ferrari – or a combination of both – had been the hook for this story. With the greatest of respect to Sir Lewis, it probably had more to do with a British driver switching to an Italian motor racing icon.…

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND THE SAUDI ARABIAN GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS 1 Bearman earns bear hugs The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was held on the same weekend as the Oscars, so it was appropriate for one standout performance to be singled out for high praise. And it wasn’t Max Verstappen’s dominant win; instead the plaudits went to the unexpected Formula 1 debut of 18-year-old Oliver Bearman. Charles Leclerc described his new team-mate’s weekend as “incredible”, team boss Frédéric Vassuer called it “mega”, while Lewis Hamilton lauded F1’s “future star” by describing his compatriot’s performance as “phenomenal.” On the Thursday of the Jeddah event, Bearman had put his Prema-run Dallara F2 2024 on pole position for the Formula 2 race. Meanwhile Carlos Sainz, who had skipped the previous day’s media…

THE FORMULA Authors Joshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg Price £22 octopusbooks.co.uk Another facet of Formula 1 to receive a boost from ‘the Netflix effect’ is the book world as publishers rush to exploit the burgeoning interest. This book straddles the divide between sport and business, tilting for the biz ‘how to’ section in bookshops. Robinson and Clegg have general sporting briefs at the Wall Street Journal and offer a different take on the F1 world. This book aims to do for F1 what the authors’ The Club did for premier league football: explain how a popular but not necessarily wealthy sport became a global commercial powerhouse. Spoilers: Bernie Ecclestone features heavily, but not always in the manner you might think. ORIENT STAR MECHANICAL MOON PHASE Price £1,699.99 orientwatch.co.uk At the upper end of…

Life is a roller coaster At night, under the lights, the Jeddah Corniche circuit can sometimes seem like a pretty surreal environment. I had in mind a shot that would evoke some of the qualities of a roller coaster ride with the car almost seeming to be on the rails. It was a tricky one to execute because the ‘window’ in the fence for photographers to shoot through – one of very few anyway on this track – had been covered over this year. So I shot through the fence and made the wires ‘disappear’ via a low shutter speed. The hard part then is getting the car (and ideally the driver’s helmet) pin sharp. Happily this one of the race winner was one such. Photographer Zak Mauger Where Jeddah,…

CHARLOTTE’S WEB OF INFLUENCE: F1 ACADEMY GETS A BOOST While Formula 1’s launch season tends to be awash with commentary about car concepts, masked innovations and garish liveries, some of us pore over the thing that fuels our sport. Money, and more precisely who has secured which sponsor and for how much. Japanese industrial giant Komatsu turning up on the side of the Williams was one example, another the decision by Italian beer Peroni to shift allegiance from Aston Martin to Ferrari. Stake with its Kick Saubers, and the Visa Cash App team, which once enjoyed more credibility when known as Minardi, grabbed the headlines. But there was so much more to unpick from across F1’s commercial landscape. Then a press release landed which announced that the F1 Academy had…

Frédéric Vasseur is an unlikely paradigm breaker at first glance. The Ferrari team principal’s somewhat grumpy resting facial expression soon gives way to a twinkling eye and a ready laugh; he’s Formula 1’s equivalent of Albert Le Blanc, the children’s story about the saddest-looking bear the other toys have ever seen who turns out to be a big roly-poly bundle of joy. But Vasseur has steel beneath the warm, avuncular exterior. It has not always been apparent in his eight years in F1, managing the Renault, Sauber/Alfa Romeo and now Ferrari teams. But it certainly is now. The 55-year-old Frenchman is the key that unlocked the biggest driver move in F1 for a decade; perhaps even ever – Lewis Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari for 2025. When…