🌞🌞The Drivers Are Away

Happy Friday. It’s Officially Summer break for the boys on the grid. For 14 consecutive days, the teams can’t test, tweak, or even send an email. By sporting regulation, the teams are required to take this break and only the marketing, finance, and legal teams can do some work.

I know, you are thinking how nice it would be to have a forced vacation but think of how necessary this break is. The teams face a 24 race calendar this year and still have to pack in development and testing after a short winter break. This is a year round gig.

-Jake Williamson

📊 Let me Introduce you

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Jacob Williamson, I am the owner and editor of Racing Recap. Since the grid is going on a much-needed Summer Holiday, I wanted to take some time in this edition of the newsletter to introduce myself and keep you informed of what is to come for the Recap community.

Who I am

I’m just a guy in front of an audience asking them to trust him and if you are going to trust me, I want to make sure you know what I’m about.

Firstly, I’m 31, I live in Austin Texas, and I like sunset walks on the track.

Second, I am a racing fan and a racing driver. Like you, I closely follow Formula 1 but unlike many people in the world of racing media, I am a racing driver. I’m not a pro but I do take my driving very seriously. From Mazdas to Prototypes, I am steeped in the world of amateur and semi-professional motorsport. In fact, I will be racing a series or two in Europe in 2025, which you will learn more about soon!

So why am I telling you this now?

Well, this is the fun part. I recently acquired this publication to take my love for motorsport and fast cars to a whole new level. There are several great motorsport news organizations out there, but I believe we can do it better. I want this to be the greatest motorsport community on the planet and I think we can get there.

With that said, the first thing I noticed from this community is the absence of the human element. You guys need to see and like the people behind the news and content. So here I am, step one complete!

What’s to come

I have big plans in store for this community, but it will take some time. Right now, I can tell you the newsletter will stay in its current form and will be published twice each week (Monday and Friday and 8 am Central Standard Time). This will be the backbone of keeping you informed about all there is to love about Formula 1.

In addition to the newsletter, I will be ramping up Recap’s presence on all the socials. This is my opportunity to fill you in on rapidly evolving news and trends in motorsport. So, join us over there.

You can also expect:

• Video content on Formula 1, other racing series, and my team racing across the world.

• Race Companion videos livestreamed so you can watch with us.

• Exclusive merch

• Original reporting

• And much more!

 So why keep following along? That is completely up to you to decide but I would love to keep you as a part of our community and help spread the love of motorsport to fans of all shapes, colors, and creeds. I know a lot about some things, I know a little about other things, and I don’t know Sh*t about much much more. I think this represents a lot of you as well. Whether you’re a Netflix F1 fan or you’ve been practicing trail braking since you were a baby, I am on a mission to bring you the news, facts, and entertainment that you deserve.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] with questions or comments. You can also find me on all the socials.

🌎 Another American Team…Not Andretti

Former Alpine boss, Otmar Szatnauer, seems to be hard at work on some interesting projects. Most interestingly, he may be in talks with a potential 11^th team on the F1 grid from the US of A and it isn’t Andretti, gasp!

Speaking with James Allen on his podcast, Szafnauer spoke at length about his ambitions in F1 and his desire to rejoin the grid. "I'm a competitor and the one thing that I like more than anything is the competition," said Szafnauer.

Apparently, it’s difficult to be racing at the pinnacle of motorsport and go back to “normal life”. Although he has been working on some side projects, like his itinerary management app, he seems to have his sights set on returning to F1 with the likes of the Americans.

Szafnauer divulged, "I've been working with some organisations in North America that have the funding to start an 11th team.

Another American prospect that isn’t Andretti is an interesting twist to an already complex story involving the FIA and Liberty media. The question is, can Otmar usher in an 11^th team? We think having an F1 insider to navigate the ugly politics of this international sport could help make this a reality.

So what does a team need to do to get in?

In short, a team needs to be vetted by FIA on their “technical and sporting merits” whatever that means. Furthermore, F1 (which is Liberty Media) needs to approve the team’s proposal based on the overall impact on the championship. Meaning a new team needs to be an overall value add to the championship and they must be competitive to do so. In its statement, F1 outlined the need for a new entrant to be fighting for podiums and race wins to be valuable. Read more about their decision here.

Lastly, consideration must be given to the multi-billion dollar gorilla in the room. The teams split prize money at the end of the championship and an 11^th team would dilute that prize money. A point that the Andretti team made very evident during their proposal evaluation period. Many of the teams currently on the grid expressed, let’s say, concerns over having an 11^th team and the dilution of the winnings.

Now, there is a solution to the prize money dilution. Any new team entering the championship must pay a $200 million “dilution fee” to maintain the prize split. However, this fee was set before the boom in F1 interest in the last few years and some teams suggest that this number must triple.

When will we see new teams?

Not in 2025. In its rejection of Andretti, F1 made it very clear that a new entrant for 2025 onward would be nigh impossible. With new regs going into effect in 2026, a new entrant for 2025 would have to build two vastly different cars. Whether you agree with the rejection or not, this would be quite a task for any new team.

The earliest we will likely see a new entrant from Andretti would be 2026 but more than likely 2028 when Cadillac can reliably produce power units for the team. As far as the mystery team that Szafnauer is working with, 2026 is not out of the question if this team finds an engine supplier already on the grid!

🚀Headline Sprint

🎯 Perez Secures His 2024 Seat: It seems that Christian Horner has decided to keep Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull seat for the remainder of 2024. “Checo remains a Red Bull Racing driver, despite all the speculation of late,” Horner said to the team at the Milton Keynes HQ. This comes as a bit of surprise after Helmut Marko’s cutting comments after the Belgium GP.

✂️ Sargeant out for Sainz: With all of the talk about Carlos Sainz signing with Williams many have wondered what Logan Sargeant will be doing next. The world of Formula 1 is cut throat and the seats are limited. So, it seems that the Floridian’s goal of becoming an American champion in F1 may be dashed for now. There are still open seats, but we may not see Sargeant on an F1 grid again. His next bet…Indy Car!

🛞 Can Lando Win? The Math…

This isn’t really news but it is an interesting mental exercise 🙂 

Ever since the Belgian GP, the race commentators starting referring to Lando as Max’s championship rival. Meaning, there could be a genuine fight for the world championship happening between the reigning champ and McLaren’s lead driver. In our view, referring to the fight between 01 and 04 as a championship fight is a bit early. There are still 78 points between Max and Lando.

So can Lando close the gap?

The short answer is yes!

With a 78 point gap to close and 13 races (10 feature and 3 sprints) to do it, the simple math says Norris needs to lead Max by over 6 points each race to clinch the title.

There are too many variations of the next 10 weekends to make an educated guess but we did a quick example for fun!

Assumptions for Max:

• P3 at all remaining feature races

• P1 at all remaining sprints

• Wins fastest lap at all remaining races

Assumptions for Lando:

• P1 at all remaining feature races

• no fastest laps

• P4 at all remaining sprints

Championship Points in this scenario:

• Norris - 464

• Verstappen - 461

Bottom Line

Formula 1 is racing. Racing is done by humans in cars built by humans. So, this isn’t a simple math problem. No racing driver is this consistent in the real world. Norris has gone from mid pack to race winner. Max has gone from track weapon to inconsistent finisher.

There is a path to Lando clinching the title but it isn’t very likely and that window of likelihood is closing.

🏎 Russell Shouldn’t Have Skipped Lunch

Mercedes can’t seem to pinpoint a single issue that caused George Russell’s car to finish underweight at the Belgian GP last weekend. But, they will be deep diving this one for some time to prevent it from happening again.

As a reminder, George Russell pulled off a P1 finish at Spa last weekend after a glorious drive punctuated by a strategy call made by the driver on the fly. Going into the Belgian GP, many of us thought that the 2 stop strategy would be the logical route for all of the teams. This came down to increased tyre wear from an almost all new track surface and the expected life of the tyre compounds for that weekend.

However, in a surprise twist late in the race, Russell radioed to the team suggesting they switch to a one-stop strategy. This all happened while cars were either pitting for the second time or planning on doing so. The team sided with Russell’s call and let him stay out on the hard tyres to finish the race P1 with 34 lap old rubber (more than Pirelli thought possible).

Russell was ultimately disqualified after the race for coming in 1.5kg beneath the weight limit.

So what was the cause of this weight loss. The obvious answer is the extreme tyre wear. After punishing those tyres for 34 laps, the amount of rubber loss would be in excess of what was initially expected. This combined with brake wear, plank wear, oil consumption, and let’s not forget the weight loss of the driver.

So this will go in the Mercedes play book as a case study for making strategy calls on the fly and we wouldn’t be surprised if part of that playbook stipulates a larger lunch for Russell at the next GP.

💨 Hot Laps

The Dutch GP has a precarious future. Rumors fly about alternating between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Make sure to mark your calendars for the remainder of the races.

If you didn’t already admire Lewis, then his thoughts on fitting Aircon will convince you.

What happens on Summer Break

Ever wonder what the last F1 drivers to leave the grid are doing now?

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅ Thinking of a Summer Vaca? Maybe go where they have the safest roads.

✅ The Netflix secret menu is your key to unlocking hard to find movies and shows.

✅ How many hours do Europeans work per week, a map.

✅ Do we change our appearance to match our names? Apparently, yes.

✅ Deadpool proves Marvel can still be a part of great movies

🤯Brain Food

Can you unscramble these F1 related words? Make sure to think about people, places, and things 🙂 

1. mraonzraft saeu

2. rfmac eper

3. iigemramala on

4. tatna oisnmr

📖Answer

1. Otmar Szafnauer

2. Parc Ferme

3. Emilia Romagna

4. Aston Martin

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