📜📜Hit With The Rulebook

Happy Monday. The grid is on a much needed Summer break after a showstopping first half of the season. Although this rest period is crucial for the teams to rest and relax so they can gear up for the back side of the season, this is a dour period for us race fans… We need that sweet track action!

Luckily there are other series that can scratch your itch. I know it’s blasphemous to entertain the idea of watching other race series but consider catching the next IndyCar Race or (cough cough) NASCAR event.

Give it a shot! You’d be surprised at what you can learn by tuning into other types of racing 🙂 

-Jake Williamson

🌎 When in doubt, change the rules…

A bit of a rule bombshell has hit the grid as of August 1 of this year that sees some interesting changes that will have major impacts on the season moving forward.

After a dismissed protest from Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix and the discovery of an exposed penalty loophole, the FIA has officially updated the Formula 1 sporting regulations mid-season.

A bit of context:

There were two incidents during qualifying for the Chinese GP at the Shanghai International Circuit that caused a bit of feather ruffling.

1. Carlos Sainz had a spin in his Ferrari that caused damage to his front wing and red flagged the session. Even with the damage, Sainz was able to independently restart the car and return to the pits under his own power. After the team did some quick repairs (Duct Tape can solve all problems) the Spanish driver was able to continue with his Quali session.

2. The other Spanish driver, Fernando Alonso, collided with Carlos Sainz (maybe for causing a red flag 😉 ) and received a 10-second penalty after the Sprint Race in China. A penalty that never got served.

The Rule Changes

In response to the first incident (The Carlos spin), Aston Martin lodged a protest citing Article 39.6 of the sporting regulations. This article mandated that any driver whose car stops on the track and causes a red flag should cease further participation in the session. The stewards dismissed the protest, because that’s what they felt like doing at the time. However, the FIA decided to refine this regulation to provide further clarity.

Article 39.6 now states, “Any driver whose car stops in any area other than the pitlane during the qualifying session or the sprint qualifying session and receives physical assistance will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”

So, everyone is happy now. If your car stops on the track and you need to be pushed or towed, then you can’t continue with the qualifying session.

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The second incident has forced a significant rule change that would give penalties more “teeth”.

Normally a time penalty that is handed down to a driver after a race is served by simply adding to the elapsed time of the driver concerned. This could cause loss of position at the end of a race. However, in the case of Alonso’s 10-second penalty during the Chinese sprint race, the penalty was never served because Alonso retired the car.

Basically, the FIA’s concern is this incident exposed a major gap in the penalty system that can leave a driver “unpunished” for punishable mistakes during a race session.

To address this the appropriate regulation (54.3.d in case you’re wondering) has been revised. It now allows penalties from sprint races that go unserved due to early retirements to be carried over to the main race in the form of grid placements.

“If any of [the] penalties above are imposed upon a driver, and that driver is unable to serve the penalty due to being unclassified in the sprint session or the race in the case of a) or b) or due to retirement from the sprint session or the race in the case of c) of d), the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next race.”

The first rule clarification regarding receiving assistance isn’t a huge deal. This makes sense logically. But the new rule that allows penalties from sprints to be applied to the main race or even your next race is a drastic change. This makes a driver’s actions during the sprint race more consequential. Frankly, something we have been waiting for. We still think the sprint results should set the grid for the Sunday race but this is a step in the right direction!

🚀Headline Sprint

Another Red Bull Loss: On the first of this month, Red Bull announced their sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, will be leaving the team at the end of 2024. As the Austrian team’s “Sporting Director”, Wheatley is responsible for al trackside operations for the team, a job he has done for them for 18 years. So, this is a big loss for Red Bull and a BIG gain for Audi who, we suspect, is simply throwing money at their performance problem.

Alpine is NOT for sale…right now 😉Make no mistake, Alpine leadership has outright debunked rumors of a sale. However, if you were trying to sell a company that employs hundreds, even thousands, of people, would you confirm anything? Bottom line, Alpine moving away from being a works team, becoming a Mercedes customer team, taking on outside investors, shaking up management, and shifting priorities from Alpine all point to the potential sale of the F1 project. Two buyers come to mind: Andretti Global and Hitech Grand Prix.

🛞 Who is Jack Doohan?

Alpine has been making significant changes in recent months. From the controversial addition of Flavio Briatore to shifting focus to becoming a customer (Power Unit) team, we are likely to see some interesting events unfold as this team gears up for whatever they are planning for the future (probably a sale btw)

One open issue is the seat left unoccupied by Estaban Ocon, who signed with Haas. So, who could fill this seat? The likely answer is Formula 2 driver and 2024 reservist, Jack Doohan.

What we like about mid- and back of the grid teams is that we often see young and hungry drivers make their F1 debut with them. The teams fighting for race wins and major points can’t always afford to go with young talent, with the notable exception of Mercedes selecting Kimi Antonelli to replace the Lewis Hamilton seat from 2025. These decisions just don’t provide consistent results for competitive teams. However, this means mid pack and rearward, we get to see new faces like Doohan’s.

So, let’s get some intros done so you know who you may be routing for next season.

Jack Doohan is a 21-year-old racing driver who hails from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. He started his racing career like many other high-level drivers in competitive karting. But what is unique about Jack’s start is that his first Kart was bought by 7-time world champ, Michael Schumacher, who was a neighbor and close friend of the Doohan family. What a neighbor to have right?

After a P6 finish in the Karting world championship, Doohan was picked up by the Red Bull Junior team in 2017 where he finished as the runner up in the Formula 3 championship. After departing that team in 2021, Jack went on to compete in Formula 2 with the backing of Alpine where he finished P6 and P3 in the 2022 and 2023 championships.

These days Doohan focuses on his reserve drive role with Alpine where he has taken part in 2 post-season Young Driver’s tests as well as 6 free practice sessions in the F1 seat.

A racing pedigree kicked off by his father and close family friend/racing legend Michael Schumacher to extensive testing with the Alpine F1 project. Jack Doohan has the makings of a great F1 driver and would be a welcome addition to a familiar grid.

🏎 Should Young Drivers get an extra race?

We could see more young drivers occupy an F1 seat by the end of 2024.

This comes out of the latest FIA commission meeting where creating more opportunities for budding drivers was a topic on the agenda. Apparently, the idea of adding a mini-event after the season finale that would consist of a practice, quali, and sprint race is currently being considered. This event would specifically be for young drivers to get more seat time.

Right now, a select group of “young drivers” only get a few opportunities to drive in an F1 seat. There is a one-day post season test in Abud Dhabi at which the teams run two cars, one of which is for the express purpose of giving these young drivers track time. There is also a rule that team must run a “non-race driver” (a driver who hasn’t taken part in more than 2 F1 races) at least once per season in each of its cars.

So, why do we need more seat time for up and comers? Well, an equivalent opportunity doesn’t exist. In the world of racing, you make your way from regional/club racing to either GT racing or formula racing. The formula track usually consists of F4, F3, and F2 before being considered for the Formula 1 seat. However, the jump from F2 to F1 is like taking the world’s greatest high jumper and saying, “right, now jump to the moon”. This is why we see so many young drivers bounce in and out of the grid.

So, the FIA are focusing on giving these drivers more seat time without affecting the current team cost caps to fill that new driver pipeline.

Details are still unfolding, but we think, of all the crazy ideas that come out of commission meetings, this one has the potential to add a lot of value to the series.

💨 Hot Laps

Ricciardo stays at VCARB after the Summer break but the long term future is still TBD

Williams is gearing up to be a front running team, at least if it goes the way James Vowles wants it to go.

Latest on grand prix grade circuits and how long each contract has left.

We have seen Lando give up points due to first lap missteps. Can he recover mentally?

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅ NLS explosion: A cylinder explosion ahead of the 4th round of the series left 22 injured.

✅ Supposedly you can buy an Italian home for one Euro…too good to be true?

✅Favorite BAT auction: Apparently this…interesting example of an Alfa can thank early use of CAD/CAM design software for its weird looks.

✅Hydrogen combustion could be in your car as early as 2025

✅What is sustainable fuel? Learn how different companies are attacking the Carbon Neutral issue.

🤯Brain Food

Can you rank these F1 circuits in order from most grands prix held to least?

• Spa-Francorchamps

• Monte Carlo

• Monza

• Silverstone

📖Answer

1. Monza 73

2. Monte Carlo 70

3. Silverstone 59

4. Spa-Francorchamps 57

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