THIS WEEK IN F1

Thoughts on this weeks F1 news and rumours

We may not have had any headline news this week in F1 but it has still been an interesting week nonetheless. There has inevitably been speculation about the future of Sebastian Vettel following last weeks revelation that he will be leaving Ferrari at the end of 2020, and with this we have also had talk of how any potential move for him may effect other drivers. Also there has been more talk about how the 2020 calendar may end up looking (although no firm news). And just yesterday the teams agreed some radical and forward thinking financial rule changes to safeguard the future of the sport.

Starting with the Vettel situation it has been said that the board at Mercedes owner Daimler is keen for a deal to be done to bring Vettel to the team to partner Hamilton. Toto Wolff had said himself that a move for Sebastian had to be thought about and a story broke this week that Daimler are very interested because of the marketing value in having him in the team. This is of course unconfirmed but it makes sense that they would be interested, Sebastian is a four time world champion, a household name and importantly to Mercedes a German.

The story also stated that while the board members want it to happen, team principle Toto Wolff and possibly Hamilton himself are not quite so certain about it as they do not want to break up a harmonious and strong team. You can see their view point here, since Valtteri Bottas joined the outfit there has been no sign of intra team discord and Bottas has scored both good points for them and won races on occasions when Lewis has not been able to, his contribution to the continued run of constructors titles can not be doubted.

However it is surely very tempting for Mercedes as a brand to have a German in the team again at some point and Sebastian’s status as a champion would bring them a huge amount of PR value. Added to that the prospect of two multiple champions in the same team is mouthwatering and would add another element of excitement and intrigue to the next couple of seasons. The question is will they maje the bold move for Vettel and discard the dependable and compliant Bottas.

My personal feeeling is that they wont do that. In the past they have shown that they want harmony in the team as appose to the potential for instability, especially after the Hamilton-Rosberg relationship turned so sour. However it has also been mentioned this week that that Bottas himself has had discussions with the Renault team, if this is true then it may suggest that the Vettel to Merc rumors have some substance. After the drover moves of the last couple of weeks nothing would surprise me but I am still expecting the team to stick with Valtteri and Sebastian to call time eon his career, at least for now.

The vacant Renault seat has also been the subject of further speculation this week as stories persist that Fernando Alonso may rejoin the team with whom he clinched his two world titles. It is unsurprising that we are hearing these stories but I still feel that this will not be happening. If Renault do manage to claw their way to the top of the sport again it will not be for a few years yet and Alonso at 38 hasn’t got those years to wait for a competitive machine.

I am not expecting any firm news about the Renault seat or Vettel’s future any time soon so we may have a wait on our hands for that one but I’m sure the coming weeks will provide plenty of chat about the situation.

The shape of the revised 2020 schedule has also been on everyones news feeds this week as it seems that Formula One will not be exempt from the UK Goverments two week quarantine restrictions for people entering the country. The sport is apparently still in talks with Westminster and the Minister for Culture Media and Sport was keen to help the British Grand Prix take place so it is not a dead idea just yet bit it seems unlikely. Giving F1 a let off would only see more people ask for an exemption and as we all know and realize nothing must get in the way of the country’s ability to recover form the Covid-19 pandemic. If the British GP cannot indeed take place it will be a shame, I for one was very excited about the prospect of two races at Silverstone but it is understandable that these restrictions are needed and we must respect the situation.

The other piece of interesting news from this week is the new rules regarding cost capping and expenditure that was agreed upon by the teams yesterday. The cost cutting changes would see the budget cap, due to be introduced next year reduced to $145 and reduced further in subsequent years. This was widely tipped to happen and appears to be a good compromise between the top teams who wanted more and the smaller teams who would have liked it to be even lower. I am very pleased with this outcome, it seems to be workable for all teams and should allow the grid to operate on a more level playing field.

Further to the cost cap though there will also be a research and development handicap which will see a sliding scale of how much wind tunnel time and computing power a team is allowed to use. So the team that wins the World Championship one year will have a set quota of this and the other teams will have 2.5% increments all the way doen to the team that finishes last in the championship.

This is novel and I think ingenious way of closing up the field and more importantly making it more financially viable to compete in the sport. It should safeguard the future’s of the smaller teams and the sport as a whole. The package has to be ratified by the FIA’s World Motorsport Council next week but there is unlikely to be any problem in that regard. The changes have come about so quickly because of the Covid-19 crisis and the loss of revenue that will come into the sport this year but there is no doubt that something as radical as this was needed and I applaud the teams and Liberty Media for coming up and agreeing to this package. We should ow be able to look forward to many more years of a strong and more competitive Formula One.