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F1 2023

Ferrari to poach Mercedes chief amid staff exodus​

According to reports Mercedes are set to lose performance director Loic Serra to Ferrari at the end of his contract. Ferrari are currently on the hunt for multiple high-profile employees, after several members of staff left Maranello since the arrival of new team principal Frederic Vasseur. The Italians have already lost former head of concept David Sanchez to McLaren, whilst race director Laurent Mekies will become AlphaTauri’s team principal next season and has gone onto gardening leave. Signing Serra will be a huge boost for Vasseur and for Ferrari, whilst it’s also a sizeable loss for Mercedes.

However, having spent 15 years with the Silver Arrows, Serra is reportedly not set to make the move to Maranello until his current contract expires in 2025. It does mean though, that he’ll be in red when the new power unit regulations are introduced in 2026. Ferrari and Serra are believed to be finalising the final few details, before an announcement is made. Interestingly, Vasseur recently revealed that he’d “signed a top guy” to “join in 2025”, perhaps indicating that Serra will 100% make the switch. “We know that if we want to recruit, we are speaking not in days, we are speaking in years,” Vasseur told Marca. “I signed a top guy a couple of weeks ago to join in 2025. He will only work on the car in 2025 and 2026. It seems a long wait but on the other hand, if you don’t do it, it will be even worse in six months. You have to accept it as a basic of F1.”

Whilst losing Serra will be frustrating for team principal Toto Wolff, the Austrian will likely move on quickly. Wolff previously admitted that employees moving to rivals is simply part of F1, with it happening “all the time”. “We lost some to Red Bull in the same way we lost some to Ferrari and we lost some to Renault,” said Wolff, "We are not bragging about having people join us from Red Bull, we have not mentioned the names but we have a constant influx of Red Bull people as we have from the other teams. That is happening all the time and so the people they’ve hired, we wish them the best. Some of them were retired in our organisation and ended up there in leading positions, but that’s fine, so they’ve been given a second life.”
 

Belgian GP Weather​

Formula 1 is headed for a wet sprint weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, with rain possible on all three days just two years after the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix was washed out due to heavy rain. Usually F1 fans would be ecstatic about the news of a fully wet weekend, but coming just four weeks after the tragic death of Dilano van ‘t Hoff at Spa, there’s more concern than ever over the safety of the circuit in the rain. With Eau Rouge one of the most challenging corners on the F1 calender and Radillion following it unsighted over the crest of a hill, it’s easy to make a mistake but the crash barriers can bounce a car back onto the track. That’s bad enough in normal conditions but when spray reduces visibility to a few metres, it’s a recipe for high-speed, potentially fatal, collisions. In 2021, the track never dried out enough to have any competitive, but the stewards still ran the cars for a few ‘racing’ laps behind the safety car in order to register it as a race in one of the most farcical F1 scenes in recent years. And a repeat of that could be on the cards if the most pessimistic weather forecasts are to be believed. However, if the rain isn’t as bad as predicted, with just a few light showers and drivers needing to make the decision on intermediate or dry tyres then it could be a very exciting but safe weekend.

Friday, Free Practice and Qualifying
Belgium‘s national weather service estimates up to a centimetre of rain falling on Friday and it looks like a 75% chance of rain, meaning teams can at least use practice to prepare for the deluge that’ll await them in the competitive sessions. There’s thunderstorms expected ahead of qualifying and though it looks like they might’ve dried up by the time cars are scheduled to head onto track, but it’s set to continue raining steadily into the evening. Even with the sprint weekend there’s still scope for qualifying to move to Sunday morning when the rain is expected to be less torrential, but if it’s dry enough to have qualifying sfely on Friday then it should be a sight to behold.

Saturday, Sprint Qualifying and Sprint Race
Wet, but not quite as wet as Friday. There’s a 50% chance of rain for the dramatically named sprint shootout, but that dips to about one in three by the time the sprint itself rolls around. Or does it? Other forecasts have the chance of rain above 80% all day, and to add to the confusion, Belgium‘s national meteorology service haven’t even published detailed forecasts that far into the future. It really is a free-for-all. In other news, the temperature is set to be about 20 degrees Celsius on all three days so it could be worse, but it’s definitely a step down from the scorching temperatures at the Hungarian GP.

Sunday, Race
There’s much more consensus around raceday though. It looks to be about a 50% chance of rain for lights out at 15:00 local time, and the downpour should be much lighter than on Saturday and certainly Friday. How much of the weekend we’ll have seen by then remains up in the air, but the best chance of action looks like it is the race itself, where Max Verstappen aims to move himself one away from Sebastian Vettel‘s record of nine successive F1 victories. One other thing to note is the wind – it’s 7-9 mph for most of the weekend but on Sunday it’s as strong as 13 mph so that’ll be another for the drivers to wrestle with.
 

The upgrades F1 teams have brought to the Belgian GP​

Nine of the 10 teams on the F1 grid have brought upgrades for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, with many changes being made to meet the low drag demands of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Championship leaders Red Bull have brought just one update to their all-conquering RB19 this weekend. The Milton Keynes squad have elected to reduce the cooling exit area ahead of the rear top wishbones, a track-specific alteration given the cooler temperatures at Spa.

Mercedes has made updates in four areas, as the team continues to try and extract performance from the W14 and gain some ground on runaway leaders Red Bull. The W14 features taller sidepod inlets – a change aimed to improve reliability and improve airflow to the radiators. Further performance gains are hoped to be found in the W14’s reprofiled coke/engine cover camber, which seeks to improve airflow toward the rear of the car, as do the changes to the underside of the Mercedes machine. Finally, Mercedes has brought a low-downforce rear wing in accordance with the low-drag demands of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

McLaren, who has brought significant upgrades to its car in the last two events, yielding back-to-back podiums for the first time in 11 years, has brought a trio of changes to its car. However, McLaren’s alterations are all track specific. The beam wing, rear wing endplate and rear wing flap trims have all been modified on the Woking-based team’s car to reduce aerodynamic drag and load.

Alfa Romeo and Williams have also brought solely track-specific changes to Spa this weekend. The Alfa Romeo C43 is sporting a special KICK livery with neon-green elements this weekend, along with reprofiled front wing flaps, a reduced profile rear wing and two versions of the beam wing, one with and one without the upper element. The Williams FW45, notably a low-drag car, visiting a circuit at which the team ran well last year, features shorter winglets on the rear brake ducts to work alongside the rear wing assembly to meet the drag range necessary to run well at Spa. The FW45 also features an optional trim to the rearward most element of the front wing, which is said to ‘reduce the front wing loading to suit the lower drag rear wing setup at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.’

Aston Martin, a team which leapt up to second in the pecking order at the start of the season, but has since fallen back into the clutches of rivals Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren in recent weeks, has brought a minor change to the floor edge in a bid to improve the overall performance of the AMR23. The Silverstone-based squad has also made circuit-specific changes to the rear and beam wing, like many others, to meet the drag demands of Spa.

Alpine, a team looking to bounce back after a double-DNF last time out, has brought a low downforce front wing and made several changes to the floor of its car. The Enstone team has revised the forward fences, canoe ramps and incorporated a smoother diffuser wall cut-out profile, with the changes said to ‘gain downforce through the accumulation of several small local gains.’ Like Red Bull, Scuderia Ferrari and Scuderia AlphaTauri have each brought one upgrade to their respective packages.

Ferrari has opted to employ a low downforce rear wing in accordance with the needs of the Belgian GP venue, with both the top and lower rear wing elements altered. AlphaTauri has also made rear wing adjustments, by modifying the rear wing tips, which is said to increase the ‘local load of the upper wing assembly.’ Haas is the only team on the grid that hasn’t brought updates to its car this weekend.
 

Szafnauer out amid exodus of Alpine F1 management​

The Alpine Formula 1 team has dramatically parted with a group of senior employees including team principal Otmar Szafnauer. Sporting director Alan Permane is also leaving, while Williams team principal James Vowles announced during Sky Sports F1’s Belgian Grand Prix practice coverage that Alpine’s chief technical officer Pat Fry is moving to Williams to become technical director. The departures come swiftly after Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was replaced Philippe Krief, who was only appointed Alpine’s vice president of engineering and product performance in February this year, and Bruno Famin named Alpine’s vice president of motorsport. Famin is now the interim team principal and Alpine Academy Director Julian Rouse will be interim sporting director.

Szafnauer has only spent 18 months in charge of Alpine, having joined from Aston Martin. An Alpine statement said he would “continue his duties as normal for this weekend’s race in Belgium, before leaving the team ahead of the summer break”. Permane is an extremely long-serving team member, having joined during the squad’s Benetton days and spent the past 34 years working at Enstone. Matt Harman continues as technical director.

“I think with Otmar and with Alan, it’s the same. They are great people, we really thank them for all they brought to the team,” Famin said following Alpine’s announcement. "But we were not on the same line, on the timeline to recover the level of performance we are aiming for. And mutually we agreed to split our ways. And that’s it. I have just been appointed two weeks ago as a vice president of motorsport at Alpine, of course we have been discussing that topic with the top management for weeks. Now I will really assess with the whole team what is the real situation and what will be the plan. I will take the necessary time to do this assessment and we will decide later on. The season so far, the results do not match our expectations, clearly. We were fourth last year. We know that the top three is very strong but we were aiming to keep that fourth place and to maybe fight a little bit more for the third. We are not where we wanted, and we will work hard with all the team, with the Enstone guys, with the Viry-Chatillon guys, to extract the best possible performance of our car.”

Alpine is still in the relatively early stages of what it proclaimed to be a 100-race plan to become an F1 championship contender after a previous reorganisation that included its rebranding from Renault. The team was satisfied with its fourth place in the 2022 constructors’ championship but its goal for 2023 was to at least maintain that position while getting closer to the top three. But on the eve of the summer break it stands only sixth in this year’s standings, 40 points behind the recently-resurgent McLaren ahead and 137 points off third-placed Aston Martin.
 

FP1 timings from Belgian​

1 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari 2:03.207 2
2 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +0.585
3 Lando NORRIS McLaren +1.277
4 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +4.941
5 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +5.033
6 Alexander ALBON Williams +5.187
7 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +5.860
8 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +6.022
9 Daniel RICCIARDO AlphaTauri +6.112
10 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +6.835
11 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +7.076
12 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +7.092
13 George RUSSELL Mercedes +7.268
14 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +8.878
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +10.795
16 Logan SARGEANT Williams – No time
17 Lance STROLL Aston Martin – No time
18 Pierre GASLY Alpine – No time
19 Esteban OCON Alpine – No time
20 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing – No time
 

F1 tyre blanket ban delayed until 2025 at the earliest​

F1 have confirmed that the move to ban tyre blankets has been delayed until at least 2025. F1 hoped to ban tyre blankets for 2024 as they looked to make the sport more sustainable from an environmental point of view. The teams Pirelli have been testing the idea in a number of tyre tests throughout F1 2023.

Generally, drivers have been firmly against the move, with Lewis Hamilton describing it as “dangerous” and “pointless". This weekend at Spa, Max Verstappen stated that F1 risked looking “stupid” by banning tyre blankets. It seems the drivers have got their way - for now at least - with the idea delayed until 2025 at the earliest now.

Following a meeting of the F1 Commission, they outlined: “The results of the testing undertaken so far show that the change can be implemented to the requested target specifications for 2024, however it has been decided to postponed the introduction of a tyre blanket ban for dry tyres in 2024, and to continue this discussion and further testing into 2025.” They also confirmed that “further analysis” will be done to “improve the environmental suitability of the sport”.
 

What will happen if qualifying is rained off at the F1 Belgian GP?​

The FIA has confirmed that the results of free practice will not set the grid for Sunday’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix if qualifying cannot go ahead. With rain forecast throughout the weekend, F1 and the FIA are putting contingency plans in place to be as flexible as possible in the event that weather disrupts running. Friday’s practice session is taking place in wet conditions with heavy rain falling at Spa-Francorchamps. During the session, the FIA confirmed that FP1 will not be used to determine the grid.

F1 is hosting a sprint format weekend in Belgium, with the Sprint Shootout and Sprint Race scheduled to take place on Saturday. Friday’s regular qualifying is being treated as a priority and the FIA says that other sessions may be cancelled or rescheduled to ensure it takes place. In the event qualifying cannot go ahead at all, then the grid for Sunday’s main grand prix would be determined by championship order. “We can confirm that the teams have been informed that Free Practice will not be used to set the grid for either the Sprint or the Grand Prix this weekend,” a statement read. This has been done to ensure that teams do not treat the first session of the weekend as a competitive session. While the situation regarding the weather is constantly evolving, the priority will be to run a qualifying session for the Grand Prix.
 

F1 Qualifying results: Belgium (race not sprint)​

Eliminated in Q1:
16. Alex Albon
17. Zhou Guanyu
18. Logan Sargeant
19. Daniel Ricciardo
20. Nico Hulkenberg

Eliminated in Q2:
11. Yuki Tsunoda
12. Pierre Gasly
13. Kevin Magnussen
14. Valtteri Bottas
15. Esteban Ocon

Top ten starting:
1. Max Verstappen (will start sixth with penalty)
2. Charles Leclerc
3. Sergio Perez
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Carlos Sainz
6. Oscar Piastri
7. Lando Norris
8. George Russell
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Lance Stroll
 
1%er said:

Szafnauer out amid exodus of Alpine F1 management​

The Alpine Formula 1 team has dramatically parted with a group of senior employees including team principal Otmar Szafnauer. Sporting director Alan Permane is also leaving, while Williams team principal James Vowles announced during Sky Sports F1’s Belgian Grand Prix practice coverage that Alpine’s chief technical officer Pat Fry is moving to Williams to become technical director. The departures come swiftly after Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was replaced Philippe Krief, who was only appointed Alpine’s vice president of engineering and product performance in February this year, and Bruno Famin named Alpine’s vice president of motorsport. Famin is now the interim team principal and Alpine Academy Director Julian Rouse will be interim sporting director.

Szafnauer has only spent 18 months in charge of Alpine, having joined from Aston Martin. An Alpine statement said he would “continue his duties as normal for this weekend’s race in Belgium, before leaving the team ahead of the summer break”. Permane is an extremely long-serving team member, having joined during the squad’s Benetton days and spent the past 34 years working at Enstone. Matt Harman continues as technical director.

“I think with Otmar and with Alan, it’s the same. They are great people, we really thank them for all they brought to the team,” Famin said following Alpine’s announcement. "But we were not on the same line, on the timeline to recover the level of performance we are aiming for. And mutually we agreed to split our ways. And that’s it. I have just been appointed two weeks ago as a vice president of motorsport at Alpine, of course we have been discussing that topic with the top management for weeks. Now I will really assess with the whole team what is the real situation and what will be the plan. I will take the necessary time to do this assessment and we will decide later on. The season so far, the results do not match our expectations, clearly. We were fourth last year. We know that the top three is very strong but we were aiming to keep that fourth place and to maybe fight a little bit more for the third. We are not where we wanted, and we will work hard with all the team, with the Enstone guys, with the Viry-Chatillon guys, to extract the best possible performance of our car.”

Alpine is still in the relatively early stages of what it proclaimed to be a 100-race plan to become an F1 championship contender after a previous reorganisation that included its rebranding from Renault. The team was satisfied with its fourth place in the 2022 constructors’ championship but its goal for 2023 was to at least maintain that position while getting closer to the top three. But on the eve of the summer break it stands only sixth in this year’s standings, 40 points behind the recently-resurgent McLaren ahead and 137 points off third-placed Aston Martin.
Click to expand...
What on earth is going on at Alpine?
 

Alain Prost launches scathing attack on ‘incompetent, arrogant’ senior Alpine figure​

Alain Prost has labelled former Alpine chief executive Laurent Rossi “an incapable leader”, and claims he “broke the momentum” of the team on its way to the front of the Formula 1 field. Rossi was replaced in the role by Philippe Krief two weeks ago as he was moved to take on other “special projects” within the Renault Group, having overseen the Alpine F1 operation and been scathing in his own criticism of how they have performed this season. Rossi’s very public disdain for how the team has been doing raised plenty of eyebrows, and a subsequent staff reshuffle has seen him replaced as Alpine CEO, and after the Belgian Grand Prix, team principal Otmar Szafnauer and ‘Team Enstone’ stalwart, sporting director Alan Permane will both leave the team.

Alain Prost: Laurent Rossi ‘thinks he can overcome his incompetence by his arrogance’
Four-time World Champion Prost had been working with Renault and Alpine as a non-executive director until 2022, leaving the team and now expressing his dismay at how former CEO Rossi ran things with the manufacturer with which he won his first title in 1985. Szafnauer and Permane’s departures were confirmed along with Pat Fry, who will leave to join Williams as their technical director, and the legendary ex-Formula 1 driver gave a withering assessment with how his former team are currently operating.

Even though Rossi is now out of the front line following Renault’s reshuffle at the top of the organisation, the 51-time Grand Prix winner was in no doubt as to his role in how their progress stagnated under his leadership. “First of all, I have to say how attached I am to this team,” Prost told French publication L’Equipe. “Through its original name, Renault, which enabled me to race and fight for a world crown for the first time. And then through my involvement in the current structure, the Enstone-Viry association, over the last few years. I love this team and to see it in this state today saddens and distresses me. It deserves better and has everything it needs to get there. I simply believe that you have to look at history to understand what went wrong. If you look at the great successes of the last thirty years, you will find a simple structure, detached from an industrial organisation chart, built around three or four strong personalities, coupled with a champion driver. Laurent Rossi is the most beautiful example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, that of an incapable leader who thinks he can overcome his incompetence by his arrogance and lack of humanity towards his troops. The one who was Alpine’s boss for 18 months thought he understood everything from the start when he was totally mistaken. His management broke the momentum that had been put in place since 2016 to reach these podiums and this victory. It is to be hoped that the decision taken on Friday to change other heads will be a salutary electroshock for the stable.”
 

F1 sprint grid​

1) Max Verstappen

2) Oscar Piastri

3) Carlos Sainz

4) Charles Leclerc

5) Lando Norris

6) Pierre Gasly

7) Lewis Hamilton

8) Sergio Perez

9) Esteban Ocon

10) George Russell

11) Daniel Ricciardo

12) Logan Sargeant

13) Fernando Alonso

14) Alex Albon

15) Lance Stroll

16) Yuki Tsunoda

17) Valtteri Bottas

18) Kevin Magnussen

19) Zhou Guanyu

20) Nico Hulkenberg
 
spitfire said:
Ted's explanation was confusing, wtf are the FIA playing at? Brundle struggling to understand as well.
Click to expand...
When the track is declared wet, teams have free tyre choice instead of the prescribed M-M-S for the 3 sessions.

FIA logic - if the track is expected to dry out and the teams have free tyre choice, they will over-estimate how sticky the soft tyre is, go too early and it may be unsafe.

Reality - first team to gamble on the less sticky medium goes headlong into a wall when a soft tyre might well have been OK.
 
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