F1 2024 News/Misc.

Newey and Red Bull didn't produce immediate gains and I don't expect that at Aston Martin either, especially with a lineup consisting of someone chasing the dragon of being the oldest WDC and Lance Freakin' Stroll. By the time I expect them to be up to snuff, Alonso is going to be closer to 50 than 40.

Audi has always been a question mark because it's always been unclear to me why they would buy a team and then not race as the team for multiple years by badging engines and the like. The whole time this has been going on there's been questions about it, and it instead is starting to look like they made a speculative investment in Sauber as much as they planned to get into the sport. The "$1 billion dollar mistake" as described by Ralf Schumacher (a man, I will remind you, may be an ex racer but probably also has the equivalent of a 10th grade US education) could literally be their assumption about the value of Sauber and an entry into F1. I wish everyone who tries to sell an F1 team the absolute worst of luck in attracting the rejected suitors for the sport. If it were me at Andretti or HiTech, I wouldn't rush to throw in 500 million+ USD to enter a club that told me to hit the bricks, but what do I know? Let them starve and struggle a little first and see if they change their tune.
 
virtualbalboa said:
Newey and Red Bull didn't produce immediate gains and I don't expect that at Aston Martin either, especially with a lineup consisting of someone chasing the dragon of being the oldest WDC and Lance Freakin' Stroll. By the time I expect them to be up to snuff, Alonso is going to be closer to 50 than 40.
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Newey will probably not be able to join until the '25 Aston is already complete, so I'm not so sure what he could do with someone else's car. 26, though, is going to be a brand new game. Newey will be given a clean sheet and Honda engines, and he could very well hit it right.

Stroll has been much closer to Alonso later, so either he's getting better, or Fernando is falling off a bit. Aston is going to have to poach someone like Carlos, or maybe even plug in Drugovich. I can't see Aston being completely out to lunch unless they keep the current pair, or Honda can't deliver.

virtualbalboa said:
Audi has always been a question mark because it's always been unclear to me why they would buy a team and then not race as the team for multiple years by badging engines and the like.
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I think the bean counters are holding things up. I read earlier today they are trying to cut $10,000,000,000 out of their expenses, so I don't expect them to invest any more that they will be allowed.
virtualbalboa said:
The "$1 billion dollar mistake" as described by Ralf Schumacher (a man, I will remind you, may be an ex racer but probably also has the equivalent of a 10th grade US education) .............
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My advice to Ralf is to just shut up. He gets goofier every time he speaks.

virtualbalboa said:
If it were me at Andretti or HiTech, I wouldn't rush to throw in 500 million+ USD to enter a club that told me to hit the bricks, but what do I know? Let them starve and struggle a little first and see if they change their tune.
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And Andretti is not only still investing in infrastructure and people, but now he has to sue F1 to get in. As hard as he is fighting now, no one can possibly believe his team won't fight just as hard at the track, so none of this makes any sense.
 
Doc Austin said:
Newey will probably not be able to join until the '25 Aston is already complete, so I'm not so sure what he could do with someone else's car. 26, though, is going to be a brand new game. Newey will be given a clean sheet and Honda engines, and he could very well hit it right.

Stroll has been much closer to Alonso later, so either he's getting better, or Fernando is falling off a bit. Aston is going to have to poach someone like Carlos, or maybe even plug in Drugovich. I can't see Aston being completely out to lunch unless they keep the current pair, or Honda can't deliver.
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Newey with a clean sheet at a new team is still Newey working with a lot of new to him people and/or being in a situation where the feedback Newey is getting from engineers might not be getting listened to. Every once in awhile, I have weird recall about offhanded stuff I hear, and in the case of Newey I very vividly remember the steering falling apart on the RB4 at Malaysia and the car requiring extra scrutineering before it was allowed back on track. One of the commentators on Speed said something to the effect of "Ron Dennis told me when Newey came to McLaren, we needed to add in 25% additional reinforcement to his designs because they were so fragile; maybe Red Bull needs to learn that." I say this to point out that Aston Martin, like Red Bull and McLaren, are teams and he's going to have to work along with other people to build this car. If he does in fact like really fragile designs because they're extra fast and lower in weight, we'll know with the '26 car. Also it would be somewhat poetic for Alonso to once again wind up doing glorified R&D at the back of the grid for a race team that is making big swings to win and missing badly (Ferrari, McLaren the 2nd time).

Doc Austin said:
I think the bean counters are holding things up. I read earlier today they are trying to cut $10,000,000,000 out of their expenses, so I don't expect them to invest any more that they will be allowed.


My advice to Ralf is to just shut up. He gets goofier every time he speaks.


And Andretti is not only still investing in infrastructure and people, but now he has to sue F1 to get in. As hard as he is fighting now, no one can possibly believe his team won't fight just as hard at the track, so none of this makes any sense.
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Sometimes the bean counters are in the right, as much as it pains me to say that. There's a reason why companies sometimes go belly up, after all, and it tends to be because more money was spent than taken in. VW is on the verge of potentially closing plants in Germany as they lose market share globally to Chinese imports. That's unheard of. Which should they concentrate on: thousands of manufacturing jobs or a back-of-grid F1 team funded by the CCP (who is also trying to put you out of business)?
 
FLRacingFan said:
Pretty much every time I read another development regarding the Audi F1 program I get a little bit less excited about it.

Should’ve just stayed home in sports cars. 🤷‍♂️
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I don't think they would have a very easy time now days. Too many manufacturers have a head start on them.

The part I don't get is why Audi didn't just buy them outright instead of a bit here and a bit there. Someone mentioned they might have bought it just to flip it, and while I'm not sure that would happen, Andretti had better be ready if the possibility appears.
 
Doc Austin said:
I don't think they would have a very easy time now days. Too many manufacturers have a head start on them.

The part I don't get is why Audi didn't just buy them outright instead of a bit here and a bit there. Someone mentioned they might have bought it just to flip it, and while I'm not sure that would happen, Andretti had better be ready if the possibility appears.
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There’s no question in my mind that, if they had stayed, they’d be successful thus far. It was pretty much going to be a joint program with Porsche, and we’ve seen how good those cars have been in either championship. Same chassis, same engine, the only structural difference would’ve been the bodywork. I think both manufacturers even announced their plans on the same day back at the end of 2020.

But hey, competing for 17th in F1 is pretty cool too.
 
FLRacingFan said:
There’s no question in my mind that, if they had stayed, they’d be successful thus far. It was pretty much going to be a joint program with Porsche, and we’ve seen how good those cars have been in either championship. Same chassis, same engine, the only structural difference would’ve been the bodywork. I think both manufacturers even announced their plans on the same day back at the end of 2020.

But hey, competing for 17th in F1 is pretty cool too.
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Newey to Aston could work base on Newey knowing the Honda engines pretty damn well. But they have a driver problem. Stroll is just going to crash it non stop while Alonso has to contend with 20 year younger drivers who are faster at this point in their respective careers.

Also, didn’t Newey say he didn’t want to work as much as he did while in Red Bull? Daddy Stroll is going to pay Newey millions for less work just to say he has him. lol
 
Reck said:
Newey to Aston could work base on Newey knowing the Honda engines pretty damn well. But they have a driver problem. Stroll is just going to crash it non stop while Alonso has to contend with 20 year younger drivers who are faster at this point in their respective careers.

Also, didn’t Newey say he didn’t want to work as much as he did while in Red Bull? Daddy Stroll is going to pay Newey millions for less work just to say he has him. lol
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I think Alonso just isn't quite as motivated as he was in 2023. The best he can finish right now in a race is 9th and it doesn't really matter if he finishes 1 or 10 seconds ahead of 10th.
Of course having Newey on the team doesn't guarantee a championship victory but there is plenty of reason to be optismistic that Aston can improve significantly.
Their 2025 car will be finished by the time Newey can join them but there are other teams that made more progress with an in-season upgrade than with a new car. They're gonna have a new wind tunnel ready next year and Aramco is said to have the most experience with e-fuels among the different fuel providers for 2026.
 
Any opinions on the Mags ban? The incident that generated the penalty was next to nothing and even Gasly (the supposed victim) thought the penalty was unfair. As far as the ban, I'm ok with it because there have been so many deserved penalties Mags never got.

Now Kev comes back with no points on his license and nothing to lose. Spicy!
 
Doc Austin said:
Any opinions on the Mags ban? The incident that generated the penalty was next to nothing and even Gasly (the supposed victim) thought the penalty was unfair. As far as the ban, I'm ok with it because there have been so many deserved penalties Mags never got.

Now Kev comes back with no points on his license and nothing to lose. Spicy!
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Conveniently gives them a chance to put Bearman in the car. I dunno, KMag is done in F1 now and F1 throws the equivalent of a yellow card any time an overtake happens on track. I theorize this is part of the changed nature of the sport, where overtaking without DRS is actively discouraged because it poses a risk to the cars.
 
No wonder Ferrari said good luck to him.

He’s getting paid an obscene amount of money (That I think Ferrari would have been ok to give) a crazy high senior position that will have him control a good part of the team and on top of all that, he is now a stakeholder in AM.

Only Stroll is desperate enough to give away the house like that. Ferrari are control freaks so there is no way they would have allowed Newey to own part of Ferrari.
 
Newey is still young enough that Aston will probably end up getting at least five years out of him before he decides to retire or move into another role within the sport. His hire is hardly a guarantee of success, but it is probably the closest thing you can get to it. Talented personnel across more teams is a great thing and will only make the sport better. With the factory Honda deal coming up as well, there’s no reason Aston shouldn’t be able to compete for podiums and wins within the next few years.
 
There’s some smoke today about Gabriel Bortoleto being the lead candidate for the other Sauber seat opposite Hulkenberg, which would make for at least four rookies on the grid next year.
 
FLRacingFan said:
There’s some smoke today about Gabriel Bortoleto being the lead candidate for the other Sauber seat opposite Hulkenberg, which would make for at least four rookies on the grid next year.
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Plus possibly Lawson and Hadjar 30% of the field could be rookies next year.
I'd be surprised if Audi don't go with an experienced driver. They reportedly offered a one-year contract to Bottas who wants a two-year extension even though this is his only chance to stay in the sport.
Perez and Ricciardo could both be out of a ride after this season.
Then of course there are IndyCar drivers like Palou, Pato or Herta who I have no doubt would have a great career in F1 but will never get a chance.
 
donthaveanickname said:
Plus possibly Lawson and Hadjar 30% of the field could be rookies next year.
I'd be surprised if Audi don't go with an experienced driver. They reportedly offered a one-year contract to Bottas who wants a two-year extension even though this is his only chance to stay in the sport.
Perez and Ricciardo could both be out of a ride after this season.
Then of course there are IndyCar drivers like Palou, Pato or Herta who I have no doubt would have a great career in F1 but will never get a chance.
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I could see it going either way with Sauber. With next year pretty much a lame duck year for the regs, it would be a low-pressure campaign for a potential rookie in the second seat. But I can also see where you would want two experienced drivers together to help develop the 2026 car in the simulator and so on. I think Bottas is still very solid, especially in qualifying, but that car is just terrible this year. I think on merit he’s more deserving of a 2025 seat than Perez or Ricciardo.

I think no matter what the grid next year will be better and more exciting than this year’s, and I’m not sure we’ve been able to say that in a little bit. Lawson and Hadjar would be the cherries on top.
 
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