🤠🤠Race Week in Austin, Toyota is Back!

Good morning. It is finally race week! Guys, I have been looking forward to the USGP all year. It’s like Christmas to me. I live in Austin, so I’ve been showing up for the race here ever since I could shell out the big bucks for it, which isn’t that long ago.

I enjoy the racing in Austin for the same reason I enjoy Silverstone; it just seems to “work” here. Of course I am violently bias, but Austin is the total package. The recipe for a great race weekend always includes: close racing, high stakes, an electric atmosphere, and good weather. Austin brings them all.

We have a whisper of a title fight out front as teams circle what’s left of Red Bull. We’ve had amazing weather, and the fan base in Austin always shows up. See you at the finish!

-Jake Williamson

🌎 Toyota is Back! Sort of…

Toyota is back in the form of a technical partnership with the Moneygram Haas F1 team.

Toyota was last seen in F1 as a works team pre 2009. As a works team, Toyota built the cars and the engines for their cars similar to Ferrari or Mercedes. However, the Japanese automaker didn’t see the same success as those motoring giants. Toyota ran for eight seasons on the grid and only racked up 13 podium finishes and a fourth-place finish in the constructor’s championship before ending their F1 journey in 2009. It was a moment that saddened all Toyota Gazoo racing fans around the world.

It seems like Toyota’s interest in F1 hasn’t waned, considering their unofficial/official reentry into the sport with the Haas F1 team. Starting at the USGP this weekend, Haas will sport a new livery that proudly displays the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) mark.

But, before anyone gets too excited it’s important to realize that Toyota is coming back purely as a technical partner to the American team. This means that Toyota will share "share expertise and knowledge, as well as resources" with Haas and a much needed influx of cash for the smallest team on the grid.

Here are some major takeaways from an interview with the team principal at Haas:

• Ferrari will remain the supplier of power units, gearbox, and suspension components.

• Dallara will still supply the majority of chassis and bodywork parts for the Haas team, but there will be opportunities to buy from Toyota.

• Toyota will develop Haas’s first purpose-built F1 simulator at its Banbury base. Up to now, Haas has relied on Ferrari’s simulator.

• Toyota will open the door to a broader reserve driver program via the other racing series that TGR is involved in.

• Toyota will help fund the first Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program for Haas. This is a program that the big teams take advantage of where you can test drivers in 2-year-old cars.

• Toyota technical and financial support means the Haas F1 team can have Toyota make parts for them without directly shelling our cash. Instead, they can just take it out of the sponsor “fund”. This just means, the team won’t be so strapped for cash throughout the year.

There are a lot of moving parts to this, but this seems like a fruitful partnership between Haas and TGR. Toyota gets access to the latest F1 “know-how” to help them develop their technical talent in other racing endeavors while participating in a long-term run at higher place finishes for a historic underperformer of a team.

This is most likely the beginning of Haas shifting away from Ferrari and Dallara as component supply and a deeper tie to F1 for Toyota, however TGR reps have put the rumor of returning as an engine supplier down for now.

🚀Headline Sprint

🏎️Schumacher could be given a lifeline at Sauber/Audi: Mattia Binotto gave Mick Schumacher a subtle nod in a recent interview that hinted that the German driver may be a contender for the 2025 seat next to Hulkenberg. Other than the cool factor of having 2 Germans in German seats, this would be a happy medium between the “experience” of Bottas and the fresh face of Bortoleto. Mick has been a reservist for Mercedes for the past 2 years and has been racing for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship, so he has the racing experience. Regardless of his choices, Binotto doesn’t have much time left to select his second driver for 2025. The sooner he starts prepping these new drivers, the better the chances the team has at starting the new season strongly.

🐂Is Tsunoda ready for a call-up to the big leagues? No. Let’s rephrase: not in his current form. But, when driver drama dies down like it has after the sad departure of Ricciardo, more gossip tends to fill the void. The latest juice comes from the Red Bull team again, shocker. Helmut Marko, Red Bull motorsport consultant, and serial knucklehead has opened the door for Tsunoda to take Checo’s seat next to Max in 2025. If you haven’t been caught up, Checo retirement rumors surfaced last month. The Mexican driver squashed these rumors, but he has had a rough couple of years, so there may be plans to switch things up soon. Marko seems to have Checo on official notice in his mind. If Checo continues to underperform, Marko may push for a promotion from the sister team, VCARB.

🛞 25 Races a Stretch

Formula 1, and all of motorsport, is having a moment right now. This means the market for F1-related anything is heating up quickly. From brand deals from the likes of Lego and Hot Wheels to major movie projects, the sport is booming. This is a double-edged sword, though. Anytime a market heats up, people in charge of that market tend to go overboard, trying to take advantage of the moment. This is what makes financial markets so volatile. Frankly, F1 may be in danger of inflating a racing “bubble” that could pop soon.

The main concern is oversaturation.  This most likely won’t come from the fun collabs with beloved toy brands or partnerships with streaming services, but it could come from an abundance of races on the calendar. This can turn drivers off to the sport and reduce the entertainment value.

With 24 races on the calendar, some fans and teams are already concerned about having too much to do in a year. However, the current Concorde Agreement between teams, FIA, and F1 outlines a structure for 25 races. Will the schedule stretch for that extra race? That question seems to be rolling around with talks about adding Rwanda or Argentina to the calendar. Those are just the two spots most likely to get a race. There are other cities around the world gunning for a Grand Prix, and for good reason. Grands Prix bring major tourism dollars which is good for local economies. But, this is where F1 needs to keep the supply and demand in check.

F1 management is walking a fine line between seizing on the huge demand for Formula 1 content and products without diluting fan excitement. I don’t envy their position.

There is some hope for a solution here. F1 and the FIA agree that 24 races seems to be their magic number. The FIA seems to be running at their limit with this amount of races and would require a second team to manage an additional race. Additionally, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has stated that, “[24] is the number which we should target to be stable for a long time.”

So, adding an additional race doesn’t seem to be in the cards. But, I wouldn’t put it past F1 to change their tune with the commercial relationships that continue to bring in huge amounts of money for the sport. Money tends to blind people in cases like this.

🏎 OPINION: Hybrid Era Boring but Necessary

Were the turbo hybrids a mistake? Martin Brundle seems to think so and I tend to think fans will agree with him.

Look, F1 is at a cross roads. More broadly speaking, motorsport is at a cross roads. The industry is built on internal combustion engines (ICE) and has been burning dead dinosaurs for decades. This is the core of the excitement. The bellicose roar of V8s and the high-pitched whine of the famous V10s bring fans worldwide. It’s visceral. It’s cathartic. It’s racing.

This is all great, but where does racing fit into our eco friendly world? This is the big question. The most ardent defenders of the planet would axe racing altogether while the most stubborn of us fans would bring back the V10s in a wild abandonment of all emission consideration. Formula 1’s answer to this question was the turbo hybrid era. In 2014, the sport brought a major regulation change similar to what we will see in 2026. The old dirty V8s were replaced with the turbocharged V6 engines with a hybrid system that relied partly on a battery system. In 2026, the pinnacle of motorsport will undergo another major era shift. The turbo V6 will still power the cars but will rely on more battery power. The power will be supplied in a 50:50 ratio from ICE and battery power. A move that is billed as a ‘mistake’ by renowned F1 commentator Martin Brundle.

“I think it will never go fully electric – it can’t. We’re going 50:50 electric in 2026. We’ll see how that goes. I think the hybrids have been a mistake in Formula 1 because the cars got too big, too heavy, as I said.” – Brundle

Brundle highlights the two main concerns with the hybrid era: excess weight and lackluster auditory performance.

However, Martin admits that F1 needs to be on the cutting edge and satisfy sponsor interests to keep the party going. The sport can’t simply bury its head and ignore the climate story. It’s on everyone’s mind. I tend to agree here. If the sport brought back the mighty V10, I would be the first to buy multiple tickets, but the sport is built on more than ticket sales. The long-term technical partnerships, brand relationships, and municipal support subsidize the traveling F1 circus. Without these pieces, our sport would disappear.

Are the hybrids a mistake? Yes and no, in my opinion. I dislike the turbo V6 engines. I think the cars are too big and the weight does pose a problem. However, I think the hybrid system will be the stepping stone to the real, sustainable future of the sport. That will come from the synthetic race fuels the major brands are working on. Part of the 26’ regulations include racing on full biofuels, and if these fuels pan out, we could see a return to a more entertaining engine like the V10 but using renewable or carbon-neutral fuels. This is where the cutting edge meets the bleeding edge.

💨 Hot Laps

Antonelli had to solve a big problem with consistency over long race stints before being given the Mercedes seat for 2025.

James Vowles reflects on the highs and lows of the 2024 season at Williams so far.

Ricciardo swapping helmets with Piastri after the Singapore GP has us feeling the feels. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Horner says that the RB21 will be an evolution of the current car considering budget concerns and their feverish focus on 2026.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Read: If you needed a large list of the best books of the 21st century so far, here it is.

✅Listen: Chris Harris is a few episodes into his new podcast - “Chris Harris & Friends” - and you need to check it out if you love talking about the best looking speedometer.

✅Watch: Vulture has compiled a list of the 39 best car movies ever made. Movie marathon anyone?

🤯Brain Food

Name the driver who announced his retirement from F1 five days after winning the world championship.

📖Answer

Nico Rosberg announced his retirement on December 2, 2016 after laying it all on the line to defeat Lewis Hamilton in the Driver Championship.

🚀 We also love this newsletter!

The Curiosity Chronicle → 💡Join 325,000 others who receive the 2x weekly newsletter, which provides actionable ideas to help you build a high-performing, healthy, wealthy life. One Click Subscribe

📣 ^{Want to advertise in The Racing Recap? Learn more here}