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F1 2022

only slight cheating mind

but the FIA gave them enough time to get their book in order before releasing anything
red bull are sad about but mentioned Lewis pushing Max into the wall at Silverstone as mitigation
 
Some of the senior nerds from other teams have said that a minor overspend of e.g. $1-2m would be worth 0.1-0.2 seconds per lap. So that should be the penalty.

I'm feeling charitable, so we'll not apply it to every race, just one - I picked Abu Dhabi out of a hat in a random, independently verified draw. 58 lap race, 5.8 second penalty.
 

Brundle criticises 'crazy' aspect of budget cap rules amid Red Bull breach​

Martin Brundle has criticised the definition of a "minor" breach of the budget cap following the news that Red Bull have been found to have breached the 2021 cost limits by the FIA. With a limit of $145 million to spend, all 10 teams submitted their accounts to the governing body for scrutiny to ensure compliance with the new regulations. However, Red Bull have been found to have committed a Minor Overspend Breach offence, as well as procedural ones, with Aston Martin also at fault procedurally but remaining below the prescribed limit. Red Bull have since voiced their "surprise and disappointment" at the findings. The statement from the FIA does not suggest by how much the team overspent by in the 2021 season, although a minor overspend breach is within five per cent of the $145 million limit, a definition that Brundle is surprised by. "The thing that is actually crazy to me is that a minor breach can be up to five per cent overspend on the cost cap. That's $7 million," Brundle told Sky Sport's Any Driven Monday. "We know that's a massive upgrade on a car, maybe even a B-spec for some teams. So that needs tightening up for starters, because what's the point of having $140 million, whatever the number ends up being, and then having this five per cent variance?"

Brundle questions potential punishments for cost cap breach​

Punishments for those in breach of the cost cap have yet to be announced, and Brundle has questioned the various options that the FIA could take. "I'm assuming that the FIA will have to crack down hard on any minor breaches, but it looks like it could be a reprimand or a fine," the former F1 driver said. "Will they want to revisit points? Will they be manufacturers' points or drivers' points for 2021? Other teams are saying, 'This gives you a head start into '22, the cars are carried over into '23, so this is a big advantage'. So what will their penalties be? How hard do the FIA want to be on this? Christian Horner told me it's an interpretation issue on a number of items. They thought they were under [the cost cap], some things have been included now. So it's not, it appears, the great crime that we were being told by other team principals in Singapore, so we now await the news."

Cost cap "brilliant" but needs tightening up, says Brundle

Brundle believes that the cost cap system is "brilliant", but acknowledges the difficulty the FIA face in creating the regulations behind it. As such, the TV pundit thinks that the rules needs to be made clearer. "Something that equalises all of these different 10 teams in Formula 1 is very hard to do," Brundle explained. "It's obviously very complex, so we'll see if the FIA want to come down hard on the first year of that. But certainly it needs tightening up, because the other teams will be under pressure: Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you overspend a bit and pay a fine or get a slap on the wrist and go a tenth or two faster?' So we need clarity and it needs to be rigid, and a five per cent variance is way too much."
 

W Series season curtailed as organisers focus on 2023 funding​

W Series have confirmed that their 2022 season will be cut short, with the final three races planned in the United States and Mexico later this month no longer going ahead. A press release issued by the championship highlighted that, as confirmed at the recent round in Singapore, “the required funding due to the business from a recent contracted investment was not received, forcing the remaining three races of the 2022 calendar into doubt”. It continued: “Since then, the decision has been made to focus on the longer-term fundraising process to enable the longevity and financial health of W Series into 2023 and beyond, and enable cost cutting by cancelling the remaining races in Austin and Mexico City.” W Series had been due to visit Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on the weekend of October 21-22, with a double-header scheduled at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from October 28-30 – both in support of the F1 World Championship.

With the aforementioned rounds chalked off, Jenner Racing driver Jamie Chadwick who sits 50 points clear in the drivers’ championship standings is crowned W Series champion for a record-breaking third time. Chadwick has taken 11 wins, 10 pole positions and 18 podiums across three seasons in the all-female category (2019, 2020 and 2022), with no racing held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Catherine Bond Muir, Chief Executive Officer of the W Series, said: “It’s with both great sadness and frustration that we announce that our much-anticipated final three races of the 2022 season in Austin and Mexico City will not go ahead. As a start-up in only our third season of racing, we are always working hard to ensure regularity of funding as we continue to grow our business, but due to recent unforeseen circumstances outside of W Series’ control, we had not been in receipt of contracted funds due to us. Therefore, we have been forced to make the unfortunate decision not to complete our scheduled calendar this season.” Bond Muir continued: “We are incredibly thankful for the help and support we have received in recent weeks following the news of the financial difficulties we’ve been facing, which has accelerated our fundraising process and given us great optimism as we look to 2023 and beyond. While we aren’t in a position to make a formal announcement yet, there are many positive conversations ongoing and all parties share our passion for and belief in our mission to provide our incredible field of women drivers a platform to showcase their talents and to race in front of enthusiastic fans all around the world. We are doing everything we can to ensure the long-term financial health of our business and we look forward to W Series’ continued growth and success.”

[Jamie Chadwick is clearly a great talent and its a real shame she hasn't had the chance to challenge some of the male drivers in F1, it seems clear that she would hold her own against a number of them. I wonder if the W series would be in such financial trouble if F1 teams had given some of the racers from that series a chance to run in free practice to show what they could do in F1 cars, if they were not good anough, so be it, but give them a go]
 
Hats off to Max. He’s driven almost without error this year and kept it clean in contrast to the “oops, I pushed Lewis off the track” moments which proved decisive last year.

He has deserved his title and looked like he would have won it even without the benefit which must come from Red Bull’s overspend last year.
 
Here we go again. The US GP, with timings conveniently arranged for those living to the left of Greenwich.

The telly times** for UK viewers will be:

Fri 21 Oct
FP1 - 20:00
FP2 - 23:00

Sat 22 Oct
FP3 - 20:00
Qual - 23:00

Sun 23 Oct
Race - 20:00

**Still British Summer Time
 

McLaren makes Red Bull ‘cheating’ penalty proposal to FIA​

McLaren boss Zak Brown has called for tougher penalties and tighter spending limits to protect the integrity of Formula 1’s new cost cap, arguing any proven overspend “constitutes cheating”. As first reported by the BBC, Brown sent a letter to the FIA, F1 management and fellow 2021 cost cap compliant teams Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine, Alfa Romeo and Haas. Brown says any team that’s overspent gains an “unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development”.

“The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting and financial regulations,” Brown says. “The FIA has run an extremely thorough, collaborative and open process. We have even been given a one-year dress rehearsal [in 2020], with ample opportunity to seek any clarification if details were unclear. So, there is no reason for any team to now say they are surprised.”

The letter is dated October 12 – two days after the FIA confirmed in a brief statement that only seven of F1’s 10 teams were certified as compliant with F1’s inaugural $145million budget cap in 2021. Aston Martin and Williams were both found guilty of procedural transgressions, while Red Bull was confirmed as the only F1 team the FIA believes overspent in 2021. Red Bull immediately released a statement re-iterating its belief it complied with the 2021 cost cap, expressing surprise and disappointment at the FIA’s findings. The scale of Red Bull’s alleged transgression, and the precise penalty the FIA intends to apply, have yet to be made public. In his letter, Brown makes clear a fine alone would be insufficient and that a tough sporting penalty needs to apply to any overspend.

He thinks guilty teams should face a “20% reduction in CFD and wind tunnel time” for the sort of ‘minor’ overspend (<5%) Red Bull is accused of. Brown also argues for a further reduction in a guilty team’s individual cost cap for the following season, which should be “equal to the overspend plus a further fine – ie an overspend of $2m in 2021, which is identified in 2022, would result in a $4m deduction in 2023 ($2m to offset the overspend plus $2m fine)”. Brown says $2million is worth 25-50% of a team’s annual development budget so “would have a significant positive and long-lasting benefit”. He also argues for any repeat offences automatically upgrading a team from a ‘minor overspend breach’ to a ‘major breach’, as currently defined in the regulations – and argues the current 5% threshold for minor breaches is too generous and should be halved to 2.5%.

“It is paramount that the cost cap continues to be governed in a highly transparent manner, both in terms of the details of any violations and related penalties,” Brown adds. “It will also be important to understand if, after the first full year of running and investigating the scheme, there needs to be further clarity on certain matters or any key learnings. Again, any insights or learnings should be shared across all teams – there can be no room for loopholes. The-cost cap introduction has been one of the main reasons we have attracted new shareholders and investors to F1 in recent years, as they see it as a way to drive financial and sporting fair play. It is therefore critical that we be very firm on implementing the rules of the cost cap for the integrity and the future of F1.”
 

The clues Mercedes will abandon unique F1 sidepods for 2023​

The Mercedes Formula 1 team has been out on its own with the zero-sidepod concept that generated so much interest early in the 2022 season. But with the team turning its attention fully to 2023 as its final upgrade for this year’s troubled W13 appears at the United States Grand Prix this weekend, the question remains: will Mercedes abandon the design it has been alone in pursuing for this year, and follow the trend for bigger sidepods that everyone else either started with or has gravitated towards during the first year of F1’s new rules?

The team doesn’t want to give too much away on that front, but the clues are building up. Mercedes turned heads when its heavily updated car arrived in Bahrain for the second pre-season test, and it looked like the team had forgotten to put the sidepods on. This looked like the latest evolution in the ‘size zero’ packaging that had become a common trend for F1 designers to chase over the last decade, as it allowed more airflow to travel down the side of the car and inside the rear wheels into the coke bottle area. By the end of the previous regulations cycle in 2021, every team on the grid was trying to make the sidepods as narrow as possible, giving a shrink-wrapped effect to the bodywork.

Mercedes had taken that to the next level for the start of the new rules in 2022, and had crucially found a way to get around the restrictions on the shrinking of the front of the sidepods with a clever interpretation of how the mandatory side impact structures had to be incorporated into the car. Technical director Mike Elliott recently admitted on F1’s own podcast that when Mercedes discovered this loophole, another group within the design team then worked on it to see if they could “shoot it down” which is a regular practice within the team when a new idea is found, with the group trying to sense-check the idea “generally run by our chief designer”. Once Mercedes committed to the sidepod concept, it also had to show it to the FIA. Elliott said the governing body’s reaction was along the lines of “that’s not what we intended”, but after the FIA’s technical department took a closer look to see if it could legally challenge it, the design was considered legal. Mercedes spent the winter thinking “‘has anybody else spotted it, is someone else going to turn up with it?'” according to Elliott, but perhaps he needn’t have worried.

In fact, when Red Bull’s design genius Adrian Newey told The Race that he “didn’t see the Mercedes sidepod solution coming”, maybe that should have set alarm bells ringing rather than sounding like a badge of honour for the Mercedes design team to have outwitted one of F1’s greatest ever technical minds. And those alarm bells should have kept ringing. The only two other teams on the grid who initially went in a different direction to the bigger, longer sidepods that came back into fashion this year were Williams and McLaren. And over the course of this season, both have introduced updates that have abandoned their slimmer designs to go down the bulky route. We’ve also seen teams that started the year with varying approaches to the bigger sidepods make further significant developments in this area while keeping the core concept. So it seems unlikely that everyone is just keeping quiet about their super-secret zero-sidepods for 2023.

Even if the other teams couldn’t copy the Mercedes concept until next year for fundamental reasons of car layout, those teams wouldn’t have put in the amount of effort they have into refining the bigger sidepods if they were going to abandon them next year. If no other team thinks the skinny sidepods are worth doing, at what point does Mercedes have to ask itself if it’s being really clever or really naive to remain out on its own following a different path? During his recent appearance on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Elliott also revealed that he can point to the specific moment during the car design process late in 2021 when Mercedes made an error. He wouldn’t elaborate on what that mistake was, but he said it’s responsible for Mercedes’ disappointing performance in 2022, and the fluctuating form we’ve seen across different types of track this year something Mercedes has described as mood swings.

Of the information we’ve been able to uncover about this mistake, it seems that Mercedes was faced with a fork in the road on its development direction during the process of creating the W13. It went one way, and it now believes it would have been much better off going the other way. All we know about that decision is that it was an aerodynamic one, rather than any other part of the car design. All Elliott will say on the record about the mistake is that Mercedes has “known about it for a while” and it has spent most of this year trying to correct that error and undo the damage it caused. That process was massively disrupted by the aggressive porpoising problems Mercedes encountered earlier this year.

The team had to direct so much effort towards fixing that alarming issue, that it wasn’t able to devote as much of its time in the first part of the year towards tackling the fundamental problems limiting the car’s performance. All the while, Mercedes’ simulations were telling it that if it could sort the porpoising, its car was capable of being significantly faster than Ferrari and Red Bull. This made the team incredibly reluctant to let go of the choices it had made with the W13. A competitive Spanish GP weekend with a major upgrade package tricked Mercedes into thinking it had made a massive breakthrough, so the team only realised how badly it had gone wrong for this year in June. By then a lot of the damage was done, and there was a growing acceptance that completely solving the car’s weaknesses this year was unlikely.

Elliot has said Mercedes will have to wait until the winter to fully correct it for the 2023 car. Whatever that problem is, at least a portion of it is baked-in to the 2022 car. Like the sidepods, perhaps? Our understanding is that it’s not quite that straightforward. But the clues our F1 journalists have picked up suggest the characteristics of the car that are linked to the skinny sidepods could be a factor. One of the big problems Mercedes has been unable to fix on this car is related to the exposed floor. Having so much of the floor unsupported and sticking out from the side of the car can cause it to act like a cantilever. This affects how the floor moves and behaves, which impacts how air is being fed under the car at the throat of the floor which is more crucial than ever with 2022’s ground effect rules. If this airflow stalls, as we believe can be the case on the Mercedes, then it will shed heaps of performance.

We also understand that Mercedes committed to a rear suspension design that was based around getting the most out of this floor concept, and having such a key part of the mechanical platform of the car locked in could be the main thing that Mercedes can’t fix until next year. That, plus how the team packaged the internals of its car to create the size-zero design, could be limiting factors that would have prevented Mercedes switching to bulkier sidepods in the same way McLaren and Williams have. And just for clarity, none of this is to suggest that Mercedes would have been better off with the bigger launch-spec sidepods it ran at the first test in Barcelona this year. They were just an unrefined version of what it has now, so we believe the team when it says the slimmer spec is better than the first version we saw.

In public, Mercedes has insisted all year that its sidepods are a red herring when it comes to identifying the cause of its drop-off in form. The team remains convinced that the performance it’s missing this year is coming from other parts of the car, and that any losses or gains from the sidepods are minimal. Elliott believes claims about Mercedes’ car being so different to everyone else’s meaning it must work differently are wide of the mark. Mercedes thinks it’s not a “massive departure” from what everyone else is doing, and it’s still saying that the sidepod idea no one else has pursued is adding performance. Only a little bit, but performance nonetheless.

“When you look at the sidepod, people say ‘it looks very different, that must work completely different to the rest of the cars’, and it doesn’t, it’s just a slightly different solution,” said Elliott. “Aerodynamically I don’t think it’s a massive departure from the other cars, it’s just something that adds a little bit of performance for us.” But is there more performance available by going down a similar route to everyone else, and particularly in redesigning the other limiting factors of the W13 to suit that concept properly for next year’s W14? Eliott says that the only way Mercedes could get that answer would be to run simultaneous development programmes on both routes. Perhaps that’s not feasible under the restrictions of F1’s budget cap, or perhaps Mercedes has done just that behind the scenes, and it doesn’t want to tell us which would be completely understandable.

Mercedes remains convinced that the sidepods are not a “game changer”, with Elliott insisting that tackling its problems is less about the shape of the car, and more about the way the team approaches its development. But we understand that Mercedes is indeed open to switching to bigger sidepods next year. To quote a favoured Toto Wolff line there are no sacred cows in that team, so we can expect that pride or a desire to be different won’t get in the way, and the sidepods will change if they need to. The 2023 Mercedes will almost certainly be a better car than the troubled 2022 version and whether it’s a coincidence or not, we strongly suspect it’ll look very different on the surface too. Given the clues we’ve seen, we wouldn’t be surprised at all if the 2023 Mercedes arrives in Bahrain for pre-season testing with sidepods that bring it into line with the rest of the grid, and this year’s super-skinny design is consigned to the scrapheap as the latest clever technical innovation that didn’t work out.
 
If Merc do have to change course and fall into line with the rest on side pods, they’ll be a year behind and competing with teams who already have the previous year’s aero and cooling data to reference their 2023 setup against. That’s got to be a disadvantage.
 

How Red Bull exploited a loophole to breach 2021 budget cap​

In a month of financial drama, it was decided by the FIA that Red Bull Racing have committed a ‘minor’ breach of the 2021 budget cap. Teams were permitted to spend a maximum of $145m last year, but with Red Bull being exposed as a team to have made a ‘minor’ breach, they have gone within 5% over this budget. Until now it has been believed by the majority that the overspend was down to smaller financial factors such as sick pay for staff and hospitality costs, however, another potential reason has surfaced.

Ziggo Sport have sensationally revealed that Red Bull design mastermind Adrian Newey could be the cause of the cap violation. “Newey is one of the team’s highest paid employees and there is some debate as to whether he is a Red Bull employee or if the contract is with Adrian’s company,” stated the Dutch broadcasters. It is believed that by registering Newey as an employee, Red Bull would not have to include his costs when filing their financial reports with regards to the budget cap, however the FIA have caught onto this loophole. “Red Bull claims that he works directly for the team, so according to the rules he is not included in the spending limit. The FIA does not agree with this as he is engaged via his firm, and this means he does not fall under the exceptions to the limit,” explained Ziggo Sport.

With the punishment still being negotiated between the FIA and Red Bull, this revelation potentially outlines the discussions going on between the two. If Red Bull can prove that Newey’s costs can legally be exception to the budget cap, they likely will have little to no breach of the cap, however, if the FIA prove that his costs are included, the Milton Keynes based outfit can expect an appropriate punishment for the breach. The discussion over punishment has sparked outrage amongst the other F1 teams with McLaren CEO Zak Brown reportedly penning a letter to the FIA, accusing Red Bull of ‘cheating’.

Meanwhile Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims that a mere fine would not be enough. “If you spend $5m too much and that’s apparently a minor infraction, it still has a huge impact of the championship,” he said. Wolff has also claimed that if Red Bull ‘get away’ with a soft punishment, Mercedes will not hesitate to break the cap themselves to get back to the top, taking the fine as collateral damage.
 

FIA announces several F1 rule changes for 2023 season ​

Formula 1 cars will get larger mirrors to help with 'blind spots' from 2023 onwards to better help with visibility, among a series of other safety improvements. The changes were announced at the FIA World Motor Sport Council today in London, who met to discuss rule changes and clarifications for next season. The increase to the size of the mirrors comes after some teams tested larger mirrors during Friday Practice sessions this year, to better help with driver visibility and improve brake circuit definition.

Roll hoops will be strengthened following the investigation into the accident involving Zhou Guanyu at the British Grand Prix, whereby the Alfa Romeo driver's roll hoop failed when his car was tipped upside down at the start. The FIA also say they identified "procedural issues" during the Japanese GP recovery vehicle incident which will be corrected "in the short and medium term," with the full report into the investigation being made public imminently.

'Back of the grid' penalties clarified
Changes to the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations have also been made, now the procedure to determine grid positions after multiple penalties have been applied has been clarified. Article 28.3 of the sporting regulations now no longer mandates that a driver must start from the back if they incur 15 places of grid penalties. This has been amended after a Ferrari changed multiple elements on Charles Leclerc's power unit at different times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, in an attempt to avoid a 'back of the grid' penalty. Now the regulation states if a driver has: "accrued more than 15 cumulative grid position penalties, or who have been penalised to start at the back of the grid, will start behind any other classified driver."


Any drivers with 15 or fewer grid penalties are 'filled in' based on their results in qualifying. If two drivers end up in the same position with a penalty, the fastest based on their qualifying time is moved forward one place. Cars abandoned by drivers, even temporarily, will now be considered withdrawn from a session except in a sprint or race suspension. If a car is abandoned during a race or sprint session suspension, a driver might be able to rejoin "provided they were not abandoned because of a mechanical issue, car damage or in order to gain an advantage."

​

 

Ex-mechanic claims ‘shouting match’ with Adrian Newey ruined Pierre Gasly’s career​

After years of wanting to return to a ‘factory’ side, Pierre Gasly is finally getting his wish in the form of a move to Alpine, where he’ll be joining his supposed rival Esteban Ocon. The Enstone-based team find themselves with an all-French dream team for 2023, one they’ll be hoping will end in success rather than arguments. It’s been a long journey for Gasly to get back into a top seat, something he’s been targeting ever since his embarrassing Red Bull departure halfway through 2019. There is no doubt that the 26-year-old is impeccably talented, as proven on countless occasions, especially the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. The 2020 Italian GP remains as Gasly’s only F1 win and AlphaTauri’s first since Sebastian Vettel at the same race in 2008, with the Frenchman having also claimed podiums at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

For someone whose been in the sport since the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, he really has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, with the low point being something the Frenchman has always targeted to rectify. The highest of highs was, of course, his victory, whereas his lowest of lows was his mid-season sacking from Red Bull. Gasly was promoted to the Austrians in 2019 following a strong year and a half at Toro Rosso (known since 2019 as AlphaTauri), where he replaced Daniel Ricciardo who was moving to Renault at the time. It was highly anticipated that Gasly would take the fight to Max Verstappen, with the Frenchman having proven in Red Bull’s sister side that he was extremely talented.

As is well known, the partnership simply didn’t work, with there being an argument that Gasly wasn’t given sufficient time to adjust to the pressures of racing for Red Bull. Time is something Red Bull are known to be reluctant to offer, especially at a time when they were arguably the third fastest team on the grid. Gasly failed to claim a podium at any of his 12 Red Bull appearances, with his best result having been fourth at the British Grand Prix. On the other side of the garage, Verstappen had claimed five podiums which included two victories, demonstrating the disparity between the two. Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was announced that Gasly would be demoted back to AlphaTauri, with Alex Albon to replace him; alas, we all know how Albon went on to suffer similar treatment.

Many put the Frenchman’s demotion down to his poor performances; however, an ex-F1 senior systems engineer revealed on the Last Lap Show that there was another reason why Gasly was given the boot. Supposedly, the Alpine-bound driver had a public row with Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey, in front of advisor Dr Helmut Marko. “There was one point where, again I wasn’t there so I can’t confirm or deny it, but apparently he [Gasly] got quite, Pierre got quite vocal with Adrian [Newey] over the set-up of the car it sort of became a bit of a shouting match in the garage and then once that happened you know in front of Marko and that it was back to the sister team you go,” said Dan, also known as “Dan – EngineMode11”, on social media.
 

Ferraris quickest in USGP Friday practice sessions​

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in a second practice session for the 2022 FIA United States Grand Prix in which lap times were rendered largely meaning as drivers tested 2023 tyre compounds. Leclerc, along with second-placed Valtteri Bottas and third-placed Daniel Ricciardo sat out the earlier session to make way for rookie drivers and therefore were allowed to run 2022 tyres as well as next year’s test tyres as they got their first taste of the track this weekend in the second session. The regular running for 35 minutes of the 90 specified allowed the trio to claim the session’s top spots.

Bottas, on 2022 medium tyres, set the early pace with a lap of 1:40.655 before Ricciardo moved to P1 with a lap of 1:40.474 also set on mediums. Leclerc then went quicker still, on this year’s soft tyres, to take top sport with a lap of 1:38.856. The Monegasque driver then topped his own P1 time with a lap of 1:37.614. The Ferrari driver headed back to the pit lane, switched to medium tyres and posted the session’s quickest lap of 1:36.810s as the 15-minute mark arrived.

Behind Leclerc, Bottas switch from mediums to 2022 softs and took second place, 0.715s behind the Ferrari driver as Ricciardo, following a similar plan to the Alfa Romeo driver, posted a best lap of 1:37.627 to take third. Behind them, Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari was the quickest of the drivers who solely ran test tyres headed the drivers that only ran the new prototype compounds. Sainz was followed by Haas’ Mick Schumacher, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez rounding out the top 10.

2022 FIA Formula 1 United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:36.810 37 205.007
2 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:37.525 0.715 37 203.504
3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:37.627 0.817 40 203.292
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:38.232 1.422 26 202.040
5 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:39.507 2.697 26 199.451
6 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:39.547 2.737 26 199.371
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:39.575 2.765 26 199.315
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.698 2.888 26 199.069
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:39.840 3.030 26 198.786
10 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:39.852 3.042 26 198.762
11 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:40.084 3.274 24 198.301
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:40.178 3.368 26 198.115
13 George Russell Mercedes 1:40.562 3.752 26 197.358
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:40.664 3.854 26 197.158
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:40.806 3.996 26 196.881
16 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:41.310 4.500 26 195.901
17 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:41.334 4.524 26 195.855
18 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:41.853 5.043 26 194.857
19 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:41.857 5.047 26 194.849
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:42.317 5.507 26 193.973

SAINZ QUICKEST IN OPENING PRACTICE AT COTA

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz went quickest in the opening practice session for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, beating Red Bull Racing’s World Champion elect Max Verstappen by two tenths of a second as third place went to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon led the way early in the session on C3 medium compound tyres before Sainz jumped to the top of the order on C4 soft tyres. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez then took top spot before the session was halted after seven minutes when Antonio Giovinazzi, deputising for Kevin Magnussen at Haas, crashed in the snaking first sector. The Italian was able to get back on track and limped back to the pits but there his session ended.

When the action resumed Verstappen emerged and the Dutch driver vaulted to the top of the order with a lap of 1:38.272 set on soft tyres. Sainz then lowered the benchmark to 1:37.462s at the halfway point but Verstappen bypassed the Spaniard once more. Hamilton then popped up with a good time in a revised Mercedes W13 to get to within twio tenths of Verstappen. But with a quarter of the session remaining, Sainz jumped ahead of both rivals with a lap of 1:36.867 to top the session by two tenths over Verstappen, with Hamilton ending on a 1m37.332s.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll too fourth place ahead of Pérez with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in sixth place ahead of the second Mercedes of George Russell. Pierre Gasly was eight for AlphaTauri with McLaren’s Lando Lando Norris in ninth place ahead of the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel. The session was notable for the presence of a number of rookie drivers with Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman, taking 16th ahead of 2022 IndyCar champion Alex Palou who was in for Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren. Theo Pourchaire finished 18thy ahead of US driver Logan Sargeant who replaced Nicholas Latifi at Williams.

2022 FIA Formula 1 United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:36.857 19 204.908
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:37.081 0.224 15 204.435
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.332 0.475 20 203.908
4 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:37.460 0.603 23 203.640
5 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:37.515 0.658 19 203.525
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:37.713 0.856 25 203.113
7 George Russell Mercedes 1:37.802 0.945 23 202.928
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:37.810 0.953 24 202.911
9 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:37.856 0.999 23 202.816
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:38.041 1.184 25 202.433
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:38.102 1.245 24 202.307
12 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:38.276 1.419 21 201.949
13 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:38.422 1.565 21 201.650
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:38.898 2.041 23 200.679
15 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:38.922 2.065 20 200.630
16 Robert Shwartzman Ferrari 1:38.951 2.094 21 200.572
17 Alex Palou McLaren/Mercedes 1:39.911 3.054 21 198.644
18 Théo Pourchaire Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:40.175 3.318 19 198.121
19 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:40.325 3.468 23 197.825
20 Antonio Giovinazzi Haas/Ferrari 1:43.063 6.206 4 192.569
 

‘Red Bull have known the FIA’s punishment for a week, have made counter offer’​

Red Bull have reportedly known about their punishment for exceeding last year’s cap for a week already, and they’re fighting it. Releasing their report into last year’s teams’ spending, the first year under the budget cap, the FIA revealed that Red Bull had committed a ‘Minor Overspend Breach’. The exact number is not known, it could be anything from $7 to $7.25 million, while there is also speculation as to what the money was spent on. That list is said to be everything from design guru Adrian Newey’s salary to sick leave to the catering bill.

Neither the FIA nor Red Bull have gone into any detail, the latter insisting several times that they’ve done nothing wrong. The FIA, however, believe they have and earlier this week the BBC reported they’d handed the Milton Keynes squad the terms for a potential ‘Accepted Breach Agreement’. That, though, is as far as it goes at the moment with Helmut Marko saying they are still in talks with motorsport’s governing body.

Those talks, Auto Motor und Sport claims, relate to the penalty with Red Bull opposed to what the FIA has laid out. According to Michael Schmidt, the “racing team has known for a week what punishment it faces” and it is “allegedly a deduction of 25 percent of the wind tunnel time for the coming season plus a fine. “Red Bull is said to disagree with the cost cap administrator’s proposal. The process continues.” Losing a quarter of their R&D time, means Red Bull will already not have as much time as those lower down the order given last year’s introduction of a sliding scale, it’s no wonder the reigning Drivers’ Championship team is fighting it. If reports are accurate and the FIA have considered a further 25% reduction in ATR (aerodynamic testing restriction) as a punishment for RBR, they would be operating at 45% on the scale for the first period (1 January to 30 June).

Team boss Christian Horner briefly met with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday where he “supposedly made a counter-suggestion as to what punishment they could live with”. But it isn’t the FIA president who will make the decisions, that is left to an independent panel. “From the FIA’s point of view, it is up to Red Bull how quickly the process ends,” said Schmidt. "If an agreement is reached with the cost cap administrator, the file can be closed immediately. If it goes to court, the matter can drag on for another six months.”
 

Horner slams McLaren for 'absolutely shocking' cheating allegations​

Christian Horner lashed out at fellow team boss Zak Brown for leveling cheating allegations at Red Bull in a recent letter sent by McLaren to the FIA. Brown's message to F1's governing body clarified McLaren's position on cost cap breaches, and stated that any overspend by a team identified during the FIA's audit process would "constitute cheating" as far as McLaren was concerned and should warrant a severe financial and sporting penalty. Red Bull has been found guilty by the FIA of a "minor" cost cap breach in 2021, meaning an overspend of maximum $7.5 million of the team's limited $145 million budget.

The FIA has not yet revealed the exact amount of Red Bull's overspend, nor offered any specifics regarding how it was achieved. While McLaren did not name Red Bull in its letter to the FIA, it did reference a "team guilty of a minor overspend breach plus a procedural breach", stating that such a transgression was a clear case of cheating. In a remake on Saturday at COTA of "Round-up at the OK Corral", Horner came out with all guns blazing as he sat next to a visibly uncomfortable Brown in the team principals' media conference. "Zak’s letter, which wasn’t copied to us – we’ve had sight of that letter and it’s tremendously disappointing for a fellow competitor to be accusing you of cheating," Horner said. "To accuse you of fraudulent activity is shocking. It’s absolutely shocking that another competitor, without the facts or any knowledge of the details, can be making that kind of accusation. We’ve been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore. The rhetoric of ‘cheats’, that we’ve had this enormous benefit. The numbers that have been put out in the media are miles out of reality. The damage that does to the brand, to our partners, to our drivers, to our workforce."

Horner indeed claimed that McLaren's "fictitious allegations" leveled at Red Bull had led to members of the team and their children being bullied. "In an age where mental health is prevalent, we’re seeing significant issues within our workforce, we’re getting kids that are being bullied in playgrounds who are employees’ children," Horner explained. "That is not right. Through fictitious allegations from other teams. You cannot go around making that kind of allegation without any fact or substance. So, we absolutely are appalled at the behaviour of some of our competitors."

Red Bull is currently in talks with the FIA over a proposed Accepted Breach Agreement that, according to reports, would include a financial penalty as well as a sporting sanction, with the team being hit with a reduction of wind tunnel time for 2023. But it is believed that Red Bull is still contesting the FIA's interpretation of its cost cap submission. In response to Horner's scathing attack, Brown took the stand and said: "My letter set out that if someone, a team, spends more than the cap, they’re going to get an advantage. The cap is a rule, no different to the technical rules in the sport. We’re not taking a view on whether they did or didn’t. [The idea was] ‘If someone has, here are the things that should be addressed’, no different than if a ride height is incorrect or a flexi-wing or whatever the case may be. I didn’t mention any teams, it was a general response. Now that we’re into the cost cap era, if someone breaches that, here’s what we think some of the ramifications are. I have no idea what the number is, I know none of the detail. If we had more money to spend, that would put us in a better light and performance – more people, more upgrades, whatever the case may be. We feel it’s a performance benefit if someone has spend more than the allocated cost cap. That is up to the FIA whether to determine whether they have or haven’t."
 

Williams boss Capito says Logan Sargeant will race for Williams in 2023 if he secures Super Licence points​

Williams Team Principal Jost Capito has said that Logan Sargeant will race for the team alongside Alex Albon in 2023 if the American manages to get the requisite Super Licence points in the final Formula 2 round later this season...


Sargeant replaced Nicholas Latifi in the Williams FW44 during Friday practice at Austin, and in doing so he became the first American driver to run in an F1 session since 2015. On Saturday, Capito announced that the 21-year-old will step up to a full-time seat with Williams if he gets his F1 Super Licence. "Yeah, we feel he’s ready to race," said Capito, "under the condition that he has enough Super Licence points after Abu Dhabi, he will be our second driver next year." Currently third in the 2022 F2 standings behind Theo Pourchaire and champion Felipe Drugovich, Sargeant needs to finish fifth in the standings, or sixth provided he gains the two extra points for completing the season without receiving any penalty points, in order to acquire the 40 Super Licence points needed to make it to F1.

Capito added that he was keen to get young drivers into F1 as quick as possible. "He’s had one season in F2, and I’m a fan of getting young drivers as quick through as possible into Formula 1 because the series below, the cars compare to Formula 1 cars… so get him in as quick as possible and find out if he’s capable of staying in Formula 1 for a long time, which we believe he is. And his first year in F2, and he won races, and he has been qualifying very strong all these years in his career – and we believe he’s absolutely ready to get into Formula 1." The Williams boss added that while Albon is 26 years old, the Thai driver has enough experience for the team to bring in a rookie in 2023. "Yeah, I think we can have a rookie because with Alex we have a still young, but also very experienced driver. He is established so well in the team, fantastic results, he’s working well with the team – so we can put the rookie alongside him," said Capito.
 
amazing from a team that always accuse other teams of cheating

get caught out cheating and Horner screaming the place down

Would not be surprised if the moment FIA said they would taken action against the team

Helmet more than likely threatened to leave the sport
 
that and all the protested and accusation of cheating thrown Merc way for the last few years
even from Max Remember him making a Comment of "Well that happens when you stop cheating* to the Scuderia a few years back


Red Bull F1 racing the embodiment of entitlement
 

Max Verstappen booed by furious F1 fans at US Grand Prix amid "cheater" chants​

Max Verstappen was targeted by a group of disgruntled Formula 1 fans in Texas over the accusations that Red Bull overspent during the 2021 campaign. Red Bull have denied the FIA's claim that they broke cost cap rules last season. But with no details of their financial submission having been made public almost two weeks on from that initial accusation, F1 fans remain in the dark about the finer points of the situation. That hasn't stopped some from making their minds up about it, though. Many fans online have taken the accusation of an overspend to mean Red Bull gained an unfair advantage over their rivals both last season and in the current campaign.

One group of fans who clearly feel that way made sure it was known as drivers Verstappen and Sergio Perez made an appearance at a fan event at COTA. As the Dutchman was introduced and congratulated for securing back-to-back titles, there was a loud chorus of boos from some of those gathered by the stage. Footage also showed them chanting: "Cheater, cheater, cheater," but Verstappen showed no response whatsoever, and continued with the event as planned. Many of the other fans at the event cheered loudly and, whatever their opinions on the cost cap saga, did not let that affect the reception they wanted to give for the sport's latest double world champion.

It was an example of what Red Bull boss Christian Horner referred to in a press conference on Saturday as he spoke about the impact the allegations were having upon members of the team. He said it was "shocking" that other teams had piled on, and confronted the accusation that they had cheated. "It's absolutely shocking that another competitor, without the facts and without any knowledge of the details, can be making that kind of accusation," he said. "We've been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore, the rhetoric of 'cheats', the rhetoric that we've had this enormous benefit, and numbers that have been put out in the media that are miles out of reality. The damage that does to the brand, our partners, our drivers, our workforce, in an age where mental health is prevalent – we're seeing significant issues within our workforce, including employees' kids being bullied in playgrounds – that is not right. Through fictitious allegations from other teams, you cannot go round making that kind of allegation without any fact or substance, so we are absolutely appalled at the behaviour of some of our competitors."
 
ah anyone remember Redbull, Horner and Max reaction to their own fans acting out of control with homophobic, sexist or racist actions

was it the response of its not their problem :D


but accuse redbull of cheating


and we got to worrying about peoples mental health


jInQiwku_400x400.jpg
 
Last edited:
"7 million spent by an f1 team"


and it had nothing to do with performance
he might be in the wrong line of work
 
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