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“You’ve had a very fast, unemployed driver win” – Christian Horner

26/3/2024

Carlos Sainz made spectacular return to the paddock, collecting his third grand prix win of his career in Melbourne, on Sunday, after having his appendix removed just two weeks ago.

©ScuderiaFerrari media

Just two weeks ago Sainz was ruled out of Jeddah as he was taken into surgery to remove his appendix. Sainz’ was replaced by F2 driver, 18 year-old, Ollie Bearman who went on to finish 7th in his Formula on debut.

Carlos has had a strong opening to his 2024 season, and last season with Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton will be joining Charles Leclerc at the Italian team in 2025. After only starting two out of three of the races this season so far Sainz sits in 4th, only 11 points away from championship leader Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen was aiming to match his record of 10 consecutive wins, but engine failure allowed Sainz to overtake him 2 laps in and eventually retire on lap 17. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, would’ve been expected to bring Redbull home a trophy however failed to do so after finishing in 5th.

Perez like Sainz is currently unemployed after this season, leaving question marks around who will join the current world champion in Milton Keynes.

Bronwen Jones
writer @ F1 Journal

Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Grand Prix Round Up-

24/3/2024

Before the race began Stake F1 Team announced Zhou would be starting from the pitlane after he damaged his front and rear wing in qualifying, requiring them to be replaced with other components that were not the same and Hamilton was questioning his choice to start on the Soft tyres in such hot weather.
As the lights went out Verstappen got a good start keeping 1st out of turn 1. Charles Leclerc was straight on the back of Norris but by turn 3 it was the sister Mclaren of Piastri who was closest to the Ferrari, right up behind him in 5th. Hamilton gained a place off the start and was up to 10th, Alonso struggled off the start on his Hard tyres and Russell passed Perez on the straight up to turn 5.
Verstappen started to pull away from Sainz stretching his lead to almost a second at the end of the first lap as Stroll passed Tsunoda for 8th.
Lap 2 Sainz had destroyed the gap Verstappen had created and he passed the reigning World Champion into turn 9 but things went from bad to worse for Verstappen when on lap 3 smoke began to bellow from the rear of his car and the area around his rear right tyre was on fire. For the first time since this race in 2022 Max Verstappen retired, with the rear of his car falling apart as he drove back to the pits. Norris was now up to 2nd, Leclerc 3rd and Piastri & Russell 4th & 5th. All of whom had every chance of taking the fight to Sainz in 1st to claim the win for themselves.

Lap 5 Perez was starting gain rapidly on George Russell in 5th. Alonso was still struggling down in 11th on his Hard rubber.
Albon was the first pit on lap 7, followed by Hamilton on lap 8 both putting the Hard tyres on the car. Leclerc and Piastri had made their way up to the back of Norris as Russell was the next man to swap his medium tyres for Hards in his first stop.
Lap 9 Leclerc and Piastri pit to cover off Russell, with the undercut being very powerful at Albert Park. Gasly was having a great race, up to 5th and had a great battle with the HAAS of Hulkenberg for 4th.
Lap 11 we saw Hamilton off onto the grass at turn 1 as Leclerc and Piastri made their way past Hulkenberg and Gasly's battle trying to use their fresh rubber to under cut Norris for 2nd.
Perez was on the radio to the team to say he thought he had 'over cooker his tyres' trying to make a big enough gap to Russell to pit and come out ahead.

Lap 15 Norris pit for Hard tyres with Perez doing the same behind him, sadly for Norris both Leclerc and Piastri jumped him, taking him from 2nd to 5th. Perez was equally as unlucky and came out back behind Russell and Stroll in 10th.
Lap 17 it was Lewis Hamilton's turn to have car issues with him being forced to retire after an engine failure on his Mercedes car. He did his best to park the car in the best place for the racing to continue and he did a great job with only a Virtual Safety car being required to clear his car. Alonso, Hulkenberg and Gasly took advantage of the other cars driving to a delta and pit during the Virtual safety car

Lap 20 running started to settle down as the drivers went in to tyre management mode till Perez finally passed Russell for 6th and was then off to catch Alonso ahead in 5th on the hard tyres he started the race on.
Lap 24 Sainz has a 2.9 second lead over his team mate Leclerc who had Piastri 2 seconds behind him as the HAAS cars swapped places to allow a faster Hulkenberg to hunt down Alex Albon in the only Williams car running today.
Lap 27 Perez had caught Alonso in 5th who was yet to stop and he made short work of the Aston Martin car passing him on lap 27, when he passed Alonso he had a 12 second gap to the Mclaren of Norris who was gaining on his team mate and was within DRS until the team radioed Piastri to ask him to swap positions as Norris was much faster at that stage of the Grand Prix.

Lap 30 Albon made his 2nd stop, again being the first to stop putting the hard tyre on and rejoining in 15th, Ricciardo followed him in on the next lap also putting the Hard rubber on. Leclerc was on the radio on lap 32 to say his tyre (was) gone in the hope the team would pit him as soon as possible and they did just that on lap 36 bringing him back out into the path of Alonso and Perez still fighting over 5th position. As soon as he was in clear air he started to pump in fastest laps every lap.
The Mclaren pit one lap after the other with Piastri the first to swap his old tyres for new ones and rejoining in 8th and Norris managing to get back out in 3rd.
When Sainz finally pit on lap 42 he had an almost 29 second lead over Leclerc in 2nd giving him more than enough time to make his pit stop and return to the lead without losing a place to the pursuing cars. Alonso also stopped on the same lap and was released into 7th as there was talk of Russell attempting a 1 stop race on his hard tyre.

Lap 46 Russell gave in and pit for fresh tyres and came back out behind Alonso in 7th. In typical Alonso style he would not prove easy to pass.
Lap 50 Norris began to close the gap to Leclerc, trying to catch him to steal 2nd place from the Ferrari driver but it wasn't meant to be and as the lap counted down the top 4 settled into their positions for the rest of the race.
Alonso was still ahead of Russell in 7th but the Mercedes man never dropped out of the DRS range of the Aston Martin and the 2 had a great battle as the race drew to an end till on the last lap Alonso seemed to slow down intentionally in the middle of turn 5, Russell reacted to closing on Alonso so fast and ended up in the barrier of turn 6 and flung across the track with the car coming to rest on its side. The crash brought out a virtual safety car that the race ended under. The incident was immediately under investigation as Alonso continued on to finish 6th. After the race the stewards would announce that they argeed with Russell and the " time World Champion was guilty of dangerous driving and deserving of a drive through penalty. In the absence of any opportunity to serve the penalty, they converted it to a 20 second time penalty added to Alonso's rac time, dropping him from 6th to 8th.
Sainz did a mega job to not just catch and pass Verstappen before he retired but managed his tyres and the race beautifully to bring his Ferrari home in 1st just 15 days after his appendics surgery in Saudi Arabia. It was also a great day for Sainz's team mate Leclerc but over the radio you could hear the disappointment in his voice that he was the 2 in the Ferrari 1-2. The Mclaren drivers also had a great day scoring well on a day that the 2 Mercedes didn't finish and the Aston Martins couldn't manage better than 6th. Meaning the Woking based team took 3rd from Mercedes in the Constructors Championship.

Race Result

1 SAI 2 LEC +2.366
3 NOR +5.904 4 PIA +35.770
5 PER +56.309 6 ALO +80.992
7 STR +93.222 8 TSU +35.601
9 HUL +104.553 10 MAG + 1 lap
11 ALB +1 lap 12 RIC +1 lap
13 GAS +1 lap 14 BOT +1 lap
15 ZHO +1 lap 16 OCO +1 lap
17 RUS DNF 18 HAM DNF
19 VER DNF

On to Suzuka.............

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Qualifying Round Up- Australia

23/3/2024

The news off the track before Qualifying was still the withdrawal of Logan Sargeant by William so that Albon could take his Chassis after a big crash in Practice 1 damaged his and because of time and Financial constraints Williams did not bring a 3rd Chassis to the race. It was a real shame for Logan but Technical Director James Vowles was forced to race the driver most likely to score points and develope the car which is Alex Albon.

Qualifying

Q1-All Ran Softs

As the first round of Qualifying began cars were lined up waiting for the Pitlane light to go green. Albon was the first man out and he had a few scary moments on the track blaming lots of dust and leaves for the mistakes but he lost the time ultimately for taking to much kerb at turn 9.
Perez was under investigation for possibly impeding Nico Hulkenberg on his first flying lap and team mate Verstappen was complaining about his Redbull understeering more than he would like. Ocon gave the wall at turn 14 a kiss causing a puncture on his Alpine.
With 10 minutes on the clock Russell set his first lap but it was only good enough for 14th behind Albon over a second off the fastest time of Leclerc. Team mate Hamilton went 6th fastest on his first run and the Piastri and Norris went 3rd and 4th fastest. Alonso was the next man to top the times 3 tenths ahead of Verstappen in 2nd.

7 minutes to go the Ferrari's went fastest with Sainz just beating Leclerc by 0.25 as we saw most of the cars return to the pits to set up for their final runs. Gasly and Ocon set their laps out of sink with the rest of the field with Gasly going 14th and Ocon staying bottom.
3 minutes on the clock Verstappen and Perez were setting purple sectors and Albon on a great lap put his Williams up to 4th till Perez and Verstappen went 2nd and 3rd fastest.
2 minutes to go and everyone except Leclerc, Alonso, Albon Sainz and Perez were out on track pushing hard to get out of Q1, with Gasly, Ricciardo, Zhou and Ocon in the drop zone till Ricciardo went 10th and safe pushing Hulkenberg into the drop zone. Ocon put in a great lap going 15th fastest, out of the drop zone and pushed Magnussen down and possibly out until Ricciardo had his lap deleted dropping him to 18th and Magnussen back to 15th and Q2.

Q1 Result

1 SAI 1'16.731 2 PER +0.074
3 VER +0.088 4 LEC +0.253
5 ALO +0.260 6 RUS +0.331
7 ALB +0.399 8 TSU 0.625
9 PIA +0.638 10 STR 0.645
11 NOR +0.699 12 HAM 0.768
13 BOT 0.812 14 OCO +0.886
15 MAG 0.978 16 HUL +1.245
17 GAS +1.251 18 RIC +1.354
19 ZHO +1.457

Q2 All Ran Softs

The Ferrari's went straight out in Q2. Carlos Sainz doing a mega job after his operation 2 weeks ago that he is still visibly recovering from when he is walking around the paddock. He set the first time of the session a 1'16.671 till Verstappen beat it by 0.284 on his first lap. Norris was purple in sector 1 on his first go of Q2 till Piastri bested him and went fastest in the 1st sector. Piastri went 2nd fastest when he crossed the line, behind Verstappen and ahead of Sainz while team mate Norris could only manage 5th.
Hamilton and Russell were struggling to drag a time out of their Mercedes only going fast enough to go 7th and 8th, but were ahead of the 2 Aston Martins after everyone had completed their first timed runs.

6 minutes to go Sainz was back out on fresh Soft tyres that took him to the top of the times by almost 2 tenths over Verstappen.
Ocon was trying his hardest to get the pace out of his Alpine car in a valiant effort to see Q3 for the first time in 2024 but his best was only good enough for 15th.
2 minutes to go the drop zone was Albon, Tsunoda, Magnussen, Bottas and Ocon. Albon didn't do another lap so wouldn't progress to Q3 Hamilton was down in 9th and didn't improve his position on his final lap. Bottas, Ocon and Tsunoda were all on faster laps, Tsunoda jumped to 9th pushing Stroll into the drop zone but Stroll crossed the line and jumped to 8th dropping Hamilton into the drop zone and out of Qualifying, with Team mate Russell in 9th very nearly joining Hamilton in being knocked out. It was a tough day for Mercedes all around.

1 SAI 1'16.189
2 LEC +0.115
3 VER +0.198
4 PIA +0.412
5 PER +0.442
6 ALO +0.521
7 NOR +0.561
8 STR +0.591
9 TSU +0.602
10 RUS 1'16.901
11 HAM +0.059
12 ALB +0.266
13 BOT +0.439
14 MAG +0.526
15 OCO +0.796

Q3 All Ran Softs

All the cars filed out without to much of a hurry, to start the final round of Qualifying. Sainz again was the first man to set a time with a 1'16.331, half a second ahead of the next man to set a time Russell in his Mercedes, Leclerc also couldn't beat his team mates time but Vertsappen could and after setting purple sectors, went top by 0.283 over Sainz, Perez could only manage 4th after his first lap, the Mclaren's lead by Norris were 5th & 6th. Alonso found the gravel at turn 6 ruining his 1st Q3 attempt and Stroll waited in the garage to set his time while the track was clear as the others cars prepared for their 2nd attempts.

With 2 minutes to go Stroll completed his first (quite scruffy) lap only managing to go 8th fastest and as he crossed the line, the other cars were starting their final flying runs, Verstappen was rapid in his Redbull, Saniz was purple in sector 1 with Leclerc and Perez also improving, Max beat his time at the top stretching his gap to the others, Sainz kept 2nd fastest, Perez 3rd, Norris was 4th, his team mate and Aussie home favorite Piastri crossed the line 6th fastest, behind Leclerc who bailed on his final attempt, his 1st run being good enough to take 5th overall. Russell made the best of a bad day finishing in 7th ahead of Tsunoda who had a great Qualifying for RB, Stroll who out qualified team mate Alonso, he crossed the line in 9th and Alonso could only manage 10th after his mistake on his first lap.
After Qualifying Perez was penalized for impeding Hulkenberg in Q1 and was dropped 3 places. He would start 6th for the Grand Prix, promoting Norris to 3rd, Leclerc to 4th and Piastri to 5th.

Result Q3

1 VER 1'15.915
2 SAI +0.270
3 NOR +0.400
4 LEC +0.520
5 PIA +0.657
6 PER* +0.359
7 RUS +0.809
8 TSU +0.873
9 STR +1.157
10 ALO +1.637

* -3 place grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Friday Round Up- Australia

22/3/2024

Round 3 of the 2024 Season and we return to the Amazing Albert Park Street Track in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix. Verstappen's dominance has continued this year so far but the battle behind him is closer than ever. Carlos Sainz was back in the car just 13 days after he had surgery for Appendicitis forced him to withdraw from the Jeddah Grand Prix Weekend.

Practice 1

Most of the cars were straight out, with just the Williams cars, the 2 HAAS cars and Sainz waiting in the garage. The first laps were set on the Medium tyre for everyone but Perez & Leclerc who started by running the Softs. Most teams chose to begin the session doing their long running and race simulation runs. Piastri showed great long run pace in his Mclaren.
45 minutes to go Verstappen topped the times on the soft tyres with a 1'18.670. Leclerc was 2nd +0.440 and Perez was 3rd +0.568

Alonso had a big moment in the chicane of turn 10 skipping over the gravel trap, avoiding the wall and carrying on but needing to replace the floor of the car because of damage, he will defiantly be nervous taking his Aston Martin through there for the rest of the weekend.
30 minutes to go Norris went fastest on the Soft tyres 1'18.564 a tenth up on Verstappen's best so far. Stroll was having better luck than his team mate, putting his car 2nd fastest ahead of Verstappen but a 0.103 behind Norris after changing to the Sofy tyres. It wasn't just Stroll who had put Soft tyres on will all the cars gradually switching to the faster rubber.
20 minutes on the clock Russell and Bottas both had a moment at turn 10 just before we saw the session Red flagged for a big incident for Williams driver Alex Albon. To much kerb at turn 7 destabilized the car throwing the Albon out of the corner and into the wall.

9 minutes to go and all 20 cars took to the track to try and capitalize on the time left, Hamilton was the first man around to start a flying lap on the soft tyres but he bailed on the lap to go again, Max Verstappen also abandoned a lap because of a mistake in his Redbull.
Leclerc went 2nd fastest just 0.035 off Norris, Tsunoda went 3rd fastest in the closing minutes of the session and just as the Chequered flag was flown Verstappen went 2nd fastest 0.018 off the Mclaren time of 1'18.564. Russell jumped to 3rd fastest on his last run, Sainz managed 8th in hisi first session back after his surgery 13 days ago.
Piastri could only manage 10th despite the Mclaren showing real pace especially on his long runs with the data showing strong race pace for Sundays Grand Prix

Practice 1 Result

1 NOR 1'18.564 2 VER +0.018
3 RUS +0.033 4 LEC +0.035
5 TSU +0.057 6 PER +0.078
7 STR +0.103 8 SAI +0.122
9 HAM +0.107 10 PIA +0.354
11 RIC +0.710 12 ALB +0.879
13 MAG +0.925 14 SAR +0.955
15 OCO +0.997 16 HUL +1.040
17 GAS +1.058 18 ALO +1.152
19 ZHO +1.425 20 BOT +1.450

Practice 2

Most of the cars came straight out of their garages on to a track surrounded by a sell out crowd for the 1st time on a Friday at Albert Park except for Max Verstappen who was still in the pits as the Redbull crew fixed floor damage he sustained in the morning Practice session. Also Alex Albon would not be taking part in the session as the Williams mechanics desperately tried to get the car back to working order after his big crash in Practice 2. Norris, Sainz and Russell also waited to join the others on the track. Leclerc went 2nd fastest on his first lap only slower than Alonso, Piastri briefly stole the top spot from Alonso before he took it back on his next lap.
50 minutes to go Russell and Norris set their first laps of the day with Norris going 2nd fastest and Russell 6th, while his team mate Lewis Hamilton was down in 18th. Gasly and Sargeant had a few solid laps putting themselves up to 6th & 7th early on in the session.

Leclerc and Perez were the next to go top, the Ferrari man beating Perez by 4 tenths of a second as a recovering Sainz put his Ferrari 6th. Sargeant had a big moment at turn 11 where he over cooked his entry to turn 11 and spun after touching the gravel very nearly crashing the only surviving Williams Car.
40 minutes to go most of the cars were in the garage preparing for their next runs, Alonso was the first man to put the soft tyres on as he ran out of sink to the other cars to try and get his Qualifying Simulations done on an empty track. Stroll also struggled on his new soft tyres on his first lap spinning at the final corner before going again and topping the times.
34 minutes on the clock Verstappen was out of the pits after repairs to his floor kept him garage bound, Piastri could only mange 4th fastest on his 1st soft tyre run,

Hamilton was still struggling down in 15th 1 place behind team mate Russell in 14th till he put together a lap to go 4th fastest. Verstappen wasn't having a great session after he joined the running late, his best with 26 minutes left of Practice was only good enough for 9th.
25 to go all the cars were running the Soft tyre except Hamilton, Verstappen and Magnussen. Leclerc was top by just under half a second over team mate Carlos Sainz and the 2 Aston Martins in 3rd & 4th.
18 minutes left Verstappen did his first soft tyre run and we got our first look at if the Ferrari's could take the fight to the dominant Redbull in Qualifying. Max could only manage 3rd, slower than the lead Ferrari by 0.430 seconds. On his 2nd attempt Verstappen still couldn't get his Redbull within 0.381secinds of Leclerc in 1st

The last 10 minutes of the session were spent doing long run data collection runs for all the teams with the Mclaren's again looking very strong on race pace. Hamilton was back out after suffering damage to his wheels cake tin, but he still couldn't find any decent pace and was down in 18th while his team mate Russell was up in 6th. Leclerc had a close call at turn 1 touching the gravel but managing to travel over the grass and rejoin the track. Stroll also visited the grass on the edge of the track at turn 10 saving it before he hit the wall.
As the Chequered flag fell the standings hadn't changed in the last 10 minutes of Practice. Leclerc looked on another level in his Ferrari and optimistic to put his car on Pole tomorrow, Verstappen had a very frustrating session and there is a lot more speed to be found in that Redbull, both Mclaren's were fast over 1 lap and many making them look like Challengers for Qualifing and the race. The 2 Mercedes drivers just don't seem happy with their cars.
We end the day with the hunt for Pole at Albert Park wide open.

Practice 2 Results

1 LEC 1'17.277
2 VER +0.381
3 SAI +0.430
4 STR +0.545
5 ALO +0.635
6 RUS +0.674
7 PIA +0.800
8 PER +0.813
9 NOR +0.878
10 TSU +0.911
11 ZHO +1.144
12 RIC +1.257
13 SAR +1.301
14 BOT +1.308
15 GAS +1.414
16 HUL +1.425
17 OCO +1.428
18 HAM +1.557
19 MAG +1.998
20 ALB DNP

Later in the day it was announced by Williams that they would be withdrawing Sargeant from the Grand Prix weekend, the team did not have a 3rd chassis at the circuit and with Albon's damaged beyond repair the team would need to give Sargeant's car and components to Albon as the best chance the team have to 1/ not crash again through the weekend 2/ Score points on Sunday. Sargeant was gutted but supportive of the teams choice to prioritize the running to just Albon

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

Official F1 Journal Track Guide- Albert Park Melbourne

21/3/2024

Welcome to the 2024 Australian Grand Prix weekend. This is a brilliant race track that has seen its share of dramatic and memorable racing over the 1502 laps f1 have raced here. After being forced to miss the Australian Grand Prix for 2 years due to Covid 19 the track returned the calendar in 2022 with an altered track layout influenced by home grown talent Daniel Ricciardo. The drivers and teams all seemed happy with the changes that succeeded in their aim to enable more overtaking and closer racing around the mega fast track.

Race Stats

Laps- 58
Circuit Length- 5.278km
Race Distance- 306.124km
Corners- 14 5 Left 9 Right
DRS Zones- 2 Activations
4 Deployments
Activation 1- Exit Turn 1
Deployment 1a- Middle Turn 8
Deployment 1b- Exit Turn 10
Activation 2- Entry Turn 13
Deployment 2a- Exit Turn 14
Deployment 2b- Exit Turn 2

Downforce Level- High
Tyre Degradation- Medium
Time @ Full Throttle- 69%
Time Lost in Pitlane- 19.47
Pole Side- Left
Tyre Compounds-
Hard Medium Soft
C3 C4 C5
Minimum Starting Tyre Pressures-
Front Rear
24.0psi 21.5psi
Maximum Starting Tyre Camber-
Front Rear
-3.25º -1.75º

Weekend Schedule

Track Stats

Times Held- 26
First Time Held- 1996
Laps Raced- 1502
Finishing Percentage- 62%
Pole Record- 1'16.732 VER '23
Lap Record- 1'20.235 PER '23
Winners- 15
Pole Sitters- 11
Podium Finishers- 28
Most Driver Poles- HAM 8
Most Team Poles- Mercedes/Ferrari 6
Most Driver Wins- SCH 4
Most Team Wins- Ferrari 9
Most Driver Podiums- HAM 10
Most Team Podiums- Ferrari 20
Most Fastest Laps(Driver)- RAI 6
Most Consecutive Wins(Driver)- SCH 3
Most Consecutive Wins (Team)- Ferrari 4
Most 1-2 Finishes- Mercedes 3
Times Won From Pole- 11
Times Won from Front Row- 17
Lowest Starting Position to Win- 11th Coultard '03
Smallest Pole Margin- 0.005s SCH '02
Smallest Win Margin- 0.139s VER '23
Largest Win Margin- 38.020s HILL '96
Most Cars to Finish- 18 '13
Least Cars to Finish- 6 '08
Safety Cars- 33 total, 15/26 races have had at least 1 Safety car
Red Flags- 5 1996,2016 & 2023(3)

Previous Results

2019

Qualifying-
1 HAM 1'20.486
2 BOT 1'20.598
3 VET 1'21.190
Race-
1 BOT (1stop)
2 HAM (1stop)
3 VER (1stop)
Fastest Lap- 1'25.580 BOT Lap 57

2022

Qualifying-
1 LEC 1'17.868
2 VER 1'18.154
3 PER 1'18.240
Race-
1 LEC (1stop)
2 PER (1stop)
3 RUS (1stop)
Fastest Lap- 1'20.260 LEC Lap 58

2023

Qualifying-
1 VER 1'16.732
2 RUS 1'16.968
3 HAM 1'17.104
Race-
1 VER ( 3 stop)
2 HAM (3stop)
3 ALO (3stop)
Fastest Lap- 1'20.235 PER Lap53

Over View of 2022/23 Track Changes

2022
Turn 1- Widened 2.5m on drivers right.
Turn 3- Widened by 4m, reprofiled for positive
camber.
Turn 6- Widened by 7.5m to drivers right.
Turn 9/10 (now turn 8)- No longer a chicane, it's now flat out from turn 6 through
turn 11/12(now turn 9 & 10)
Turn 11- Widened by 3m on the inside.
Turn 13- Widened on the inside.
Pitlane- Whole pit lane widened by 2m.
Pit wall now track side and has 80kmph speed limit.
Track- The track was resurfaced for the 1st since 1995.

2023
Turn 4 & 10- Raised kerbs removed.
Turn 11- concrete pad put behind the exit kerb

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

Christian Horner's Accuser Files Official Appeal Against Redbull Verdict

16/3/2024

The recently suspended Redbull staff member who made the ground breaking accusations of inappropriate & controlling behavior against Christian Horner has officially appealed the decision made by Redbull's independent investigator.

When Redbull announced that the investigation into claims of inappropriate and controlling behaviour had concluded and found Christian Horner innocent of the accusations made against him, the Redbull Team boss was keen to 'move on' from the whole thing, confident in the knowledge 'it was dealt with in the most professional manner' & 'he(the independant investigator) dismissed the grievance'.

But it rapidly became clear that he would not be allowed to move on as swiftly as he'd prefer.
The pre existing power struggle within Redbull has only been exacerbated by the Scandal and tensions between Horner, the team minority owners Red Bull Gmbh, Helmet Marko and Max Verstappen & his father Jos were at an all time high in the aftermath of a file containing alleged communication between Horner and his accuser being leaked to senior F1 Personnel and Press less than 24 hours after the investigations outcome was announced.
Now he faces another round of immense personal and professional scrutiny as his accuser exercises her legal right to appeal their decision.
If Redbull again dismiss her grievance she can take it further and go to an employment tribunal in a court of law which would bring further inquiry to a subject the team are desperately trying move past.
For now though it would seem that Redbull wont be leaving the off track drama behind. Let's hope they can continue to not let it effect their on track dominance, if that's possible.

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

FELIPE MASSA FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST THE FIA, FORMULA ONE MANAGEMENT AND BERNIE ECCLESTONE: CRASHGATE RECAP

12/3/2024

©ScuderiaFerrari media

The ex-formula one driver has taken legal action, against the FIA, FOM and former chief executive of formula one Bernie Ecclestone, for £62m pay-out and recognition as the 2008 world champion.

Massa is the runner up of the 2008 formula one driver’s championship, losing out on the world championship title to Lewis Hamilton by 1 point.

Ecclestone has responded to the lawsuit, telling the British Press association: ““If he had asked me, I would have said it was the complete right thing to do, to sue, and to let an English judge decide what is right and wrong,”

Since last year the ex-Ferrari driver has claimed that he is the “rightful” winner of the 2008 season due to the Singapore grand prix scandal, otherwise known as Crashgate.

Legal action has been in the works after Eccleston implied last year that F1 ruled against taking action to protect its reputation.

Hamilton and Massa. 2008. China press conference

WHAT IS CRASHGATE?

2008 Singapore Grand Prix

Felipe Massa began the Singapore grand prix on pole with his Ferrari, further down the grid Alonso started 15th and Piquet jr 16th in their Renaults. On the 12th lap Alonso became the first driver to pit, for fresh tires and more fuel after starting the race with only enough for 14 – 16 laps. The Renault driver then re-joined the track in 20th.

On the 14th lap Piquet jr crashed, putting his Renault in the wall, in an unlikely and difficult area to clear, producing a safety car.

During 2008 the pit lane was closed during safety cars, allowing drivers who had pit just before an incident to gain an advantage. Allowing Alonso to catch up with the rest of the grid who queued up behind the safety car.

Once the safety car was called in a scramble in the pits formed and worst-case scenario fell upon race leader Felipe Massa. Ferrari called for a double pit, rushing to get the race leader out before Kimi Raikkonen, his tea-mate, arrived. Relying on new technology Ferrari gave Massa the green light too early, sending him on his way with his fuel hose still attached. Ultimately, sending Massa from first to last.

As the rest of the grid flooded into the pits Alonso conveniently slipped into the race leading, maintaining his position until the end, where he picked up his 20th win of his career.

Had Massa finished on the podium in Singapore he would’ve won the Drivers world championship in 2008.

Alonso and Briatore @alo-oficial

The aftermath

In 2009 Renault, following the Hungarian Grand prix, Piquet jr was fired. Renault had previously promised to re sign piquet jr for the 2009 season, releasing him mid in September meant they hadn't followed through with their agreement.

Piquet quickly began to unleash his version of the Singapore grand prix incident to the FIA, telling them Renaults team boss Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds orchestrated the crash to ensure a victory for Alonso.

It is said that Bernie Ecclestone had told Piquet jr to remain silent on the matter and that Piquet jr wanted to reported it sooner but didn’t as it would’ve effected his position in Renault and Formula one.

Renault, who didn’t contest the accusations, were then disqualified from the 2009 season and given a two-year suspension. Briatore, although claiming innocence, received a lifetime ban from all FIA motor racing. Symonds admitted involvement and was banned for 5 years, however Alonso who denies any knowledge of the plan was cleared and kept his win in Singapore.

"You can't defend him [Briatore] at all. What he did was completely unnecessary. It's a pity that it's happened." - Bernie Ecclestone

In October Briatore announced that he was going to challenge the FIA’s decision and in January 2010 a French court overturned their decision and awarded Briatore €15,000 in compensation. Deciding the FIA’s punishments were illegal.

With Piquet jr’s formal complaints only surfacing a year after the event Massa had little hope in overturning the results of the Singapore grand prix or the results of the drivers standing in 2008.

Felipe Massa does not have support from Ferrari with this lawsuit against Formula one.

Bronwen Jones
writer @F1 Journal

What Does Bearman's Success Mean For Contract Silly Season?

10/3/2024

If Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari put the cat among the pidgeon's for F1's contract silly season, Bearman's performance in Saudi Arbia has shaken it like a snow globe!!!
When he arrived at the Jeddah track on Friday morning Ollie Bearman was excited to turn his Formula 2 Pole position into a Sprint race win but by the end of the day he would be wearing a different set of Italian Red overalls to his usual Prema ones and Qualifying just 0.036 off Q3 in a Ferrari!!

He went on to finish his first F1 race 7th ahead of Norris & Hamilton who were chasing him down on brand new Softs, showing he was more than ready to race in F1 full time.
But Ollie is not the only F2 star good enough for Formula 1. There are currently 2 Formula 2 champions without an F1 drive. Brazilian Felipe Drugavich, the 2022 f2 champion & currently reserve driver for Aston Martin and Frenchman Theo Pourchaire 2023 F2 champion and currently warming a seat at the back of the Sauber garage or simulator room, both deserve to be in an F1 car. They showed over a season(Drugavich winning the champ long before the season ended) they could race hard, manage the car, work well with the team and ultimately win over a whole season and with F2 being the accepted path to F1 its a hard pill to swallow that these 2 over qualified rookies can't get an F1 drive. Pouchaire actually beat Bearman in the Championship last year, besting Olli's Prema Team mate Fredrik Vesti to the title.

With so much F2 talent sitting in the F1 garages not racing, can Bearman's stella performance in Jeddah start to make the f1 teams look to the future talent of the young drivers rather than extend the careers of its older veterans like Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Hulkenberg & Bottas.
Also under the microscope now will be the young drivers who haven't progressed. Tsunoda was a highly anticipated young driver who was 'destined for Redbull' when he arrived in f1 but hasn't delivered, Sargeant has struggled since he joined Willaims, Zhou despite his huge financial backing and scoring a point on debut has again not advanced in the way he was predicted to and let's not even get started on Lance Stroll.
At the end of 2024 14 drivers will be out of contract (15 possibly with Lance Strolls current contract end date not known.) It would be a waste of talent and opportunity for the teams to ignore the talent that has and are coming from Formula 2

Its defiantly hard to predict who will make the successful jump to f1 with some drivers out performing in F2 &3 then joining f1 and just not cutting it(Stroll), but what's clear is that the compulsory young driver tests are not enough to show the teams what the drivers true talent is in the F1 cars and there needs to be more opportunity to see what these young drivers can do.
While it's brilliant to see drivers like Kimi Räikkönen, Hamilton and Alonso driving well past the accepted age of retirement and still performing at the highest level it is crushing the careers of young driver who have the skill, drive and experience to be in Formula 1 focusing their whole young lives on the pursuit of F1.

Mercedes and Mclaren seem to be the first to look to the future for drivers, with Mclaren contracting 2021 F2 Champion Oscar Piastri(after he sat out for a season at Alpine) and Mercedes making clear a big part of Hamilton's decision to move to Ferrari was them only offering him a 1 year deal to keep the door open for Kimi Antonelli(team mate to Bearman at Prema) who has won every series he has ever raced in. Mercedes have helped Kimi skip Formula 3 and go straight into F2 where he has scored in his 1st & 2nd Feature Races so far.
Let's hope that at the very least we see Bearman on the 2025 grid as well as some other young drivers who could possibly take the fight to Max sooner rather than later!!!

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Grand Prix Round Up- Saudi Arabia

10/3/2024

Race 2 of the season is Saudi Arabia and for once in 2024 so far the drama is on track! After completing Practice 1 & 2 very unwell, Carlos Sainz was forced to withdraw from the weekend when he was rushed to hospital Friday morning with Appendicitis and straight into surgery. His absence promoted 18 year old, British Formula 2 driver Ollie Bearman to the Ferrari seat. Making him the first driver to make their debut for Ferrari since 1972. When Olli woke up Friday morning he was excited to convert his Pole in F2 Qualifying into a reverse top 10 Sprint race win, instead he ended Friday Qualifying 11th in a Ferrari for a Formula 1 Grand Prix, only missing out on Q3 by 0.034 of a second. SPOILER ALERT- He had a F*&%ing brilliant race!!!

Pre Race Information-
Gasly reported problems with his Alpine gear box on the way to the grid but he line up with the others to take the start. All the cars started on the Medium tyre except Bottas and notably Bearman who ran the Softs for their 1st stint to try and gain an advantage off the start with the softer rubber getting up to optimum temperature quicker but in the long run falling off faster.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix -

It was a clean start for all with Verstappen retaining the lead through turn 1, Leclerc held onto 2nd despite Perez having a look around the outside in to turn 1 and 4. Norris looked to have jump started but after an investigation it was announced later in the race he had escaped with out a penalty. Piastri was straight on the back of Alonso trying to capitalize on his strong start while his team mate was being closely pursued by the 2 Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton. Turn 13 of the first lap Bearman made his 1st attempt at an over take on Yuki Tsunoda only just missing out on getting past. Gasly's race ended around the same time as he was told to retire the car after less than a lap.
Lap 2(DRS enabled) Piastri got a brilliant run on Alonso up the start finish straight and passed him into turn 1 promoting him to 4th, Bearman tried a move up the inside of Tsunoda at the same corner but was forced to bail when the 2 almost touched in turn 2.
Vertsappen was already 1.140 ahead of Leclerc and out of DRS range.

Lap 3 Perez came front nowhere to make a move up the inside of turn 1 and was ahead of Leclerc by turn 2. Verstappen 2.204 ahead of his team mate in 2nd. Piastri now needed to close the gap to Leclerc in 3rd while Alonso was still managing to stay in the DRS of the Mclaren.
Tsunoda had caught Lance Stroll and was beginning to get close enough to pass the Aston Martin until Stroll hit the wall on the inside wall of turn 22 breaking his front left suspension and putting him into the wall hard bringing out the Safety car on lap 7
All the cars dived into the pits with Redbull and Ferrari did a great job of double stacking their drivers, Mclaren, Mercedes, HAAS & Sauber chose to only pit their lead cars, leaving Norris, Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Zhou to carry on without stopping. Perez was released into the path of Alonso leaving his pit box which quickly under investigation for an unsafe release and Bearman did a brilliant job in his first pitstop in formula 1.

Lap 10 Norris lead the pack across the line as the track went green again, they all made it through the first corner safe and with no changes, Norris 1st, Verstappen 2nd, Hamilton 3rd, Perez 4th, Leclerc 5th & Piastri 6th. Piastri has a look at Leclerc on the restart but couldn't make a move which allowed Alonso to close on them both going up towards turn 4. Norris stretched a hap from Vertsappen in 2nd managing to break the DRS before it was enabled on lap 11. Russell needed to pass Hulkenberg for 8th as quickly as possible as Albon passed Magnussen in to turn 1 but in true Maggie style to came back at him into 4 out braked himself causing him to hit the front of Albon's Williams and go off the track in what was a pretty dangerous move at a track like Jeddah.
Bearman got passed Tsunoda in to turn 1 completing his first over take in an F1 car and on a driver who has proved really tough to pass even for experienced drivers.

After Staying out Norris and Hamilton were praying for another Safety car to make their strategy work, without it they would need to do some major overtaking in the last 20 or less laps of the race.
Lap 13 Vertsappen passed Norris for the lead, the Mclaren driver not putting up a fight against the Redbull, knowing that it would only lose him time to the cars behind who he was really racing against once he had made his stop. Perez made the same move on Hamilton (also had not stopped yet) just behind the lead pair for 3rd.
Lap 14 saw Bearman pass Zhou showing real skill in his debut in F1 and Penalties being handed out to Perez(5secs) for the unsafe release for the incident with Alonso during the pitstops and Magnussen was given a 10 second penalty for causing a collision with Albon.

The action was none stop with passes or strong attempts being made every lap of the race, lap 14 Leclerc passed Hamilton for 4th, lap 16 Piastri had a good go at passing Hamilton into turn 1 but out braked himself and took to the run off. Piastri was so close to the back of Hamilton lap after lap but was just unable to pass, blaming the under preforming DRS on the Mclaren for struggling to pass down the straight. Perez passed Norris on lap 18 to take 2nd but was 5.514 behind team mate Verstappen in 1st.
Lap 22 Bearman was on the move again passing Hulkenberg in the HAAS to take 9th(net 7th after Hamilton and Norris stop) the young brit showing real skill and a cool confident head in his first race. In the sister HAAS Magnussen had earned his 2nd 10 second penalty of the day for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his battle with Tsunoda who he passed off the track without taking the opportunity to giving the place back and avoid a penalty.

Lap 27 Leclerc is the next man to pass Lando Norris on his very old Medium tyres, but again without a Safety car Norris wont be fighting Leclerc at the end of the race and so putting up any meaningful fight against Leclerc would only hurt his race down the line.
Bearman was holding the gap to Russell in front 6 seconds finally in some clear air to settle into his 2nd and final stint.
Lap 28 Piastri so close to passing Hamilton but the Mclaren just couldn't get close enough to the Mercedes even with DRS to pass into turn 1. A real DRS train had formed behind the HAAS of Magnussen, despite multiple attempts Tsunoda just couldn't get pass him, and was also under threat from Ocon and Albon behind him, the frustration visible from outside the car.

By keeping the 2 Williams, Tsunoda and Ocon behind Magnussen was doing his team mate Hulkenberg(yet to stop) a huge favor, allowing him to run in clean air in 10th almost 8 seconds behind Bearman and 14 seconds clear of his team mate and the following pack in 12th, with the hopes of pulling out a large enough gap back to Magnussen to pit and come out ahead.
Lap 29 Yuki had his best chance yet to pass magnussen into turn 1 after he locked up in the hair pin of turn 27 but again Magnussen fought back pushing Tsunoda off at turn 2 and allowing Ocon past the RB and dropping Tsunoda to 14th.
Magnussen had a harder time keeping Ocon behind than Tsunoda having to weave down the straight to keep the Alpine behind.
Lap 33 Albon made a mega lunge up the inside of Tsunoda into turn 1 coming fromnowhere to take the place and drop Yuki another pace to 15th. Hulkenberg was the first of the long runners to pit on lap 34 coming back out into 11th and making all Magnussens tough defending worth it, with Zhou ahead yet pit. Piastri was the closest yet to Hamilton again into turn 1 but again ended up going deep and into the run off and having to give the place back on the exit of turn 2.

Lap 37 Hamilton pits, releasing Piastri to chase down Leclerc in 3rd. Mercedes fitted the car with fresh Soft tyres and sent Hamilton back out into 9th and to try and pass as many cars as possible in the last 14 laps of the race. Norris pit the next lap choosing the Soft tyres like Hamilton but having a slow change on the rear left tyre but still managed to come back out into 8th ahead of Hamilton and 6 seconds behind Rookie Ollie Bearman who was dong a stella job in his newly acquired Ferrari well within the points in 7th. But how would he handle 2 of the most talented drivers in F1 chasing him down on newer softer rubber. Alonso had in his words 'a little kiss to the wall' but carried on in 6th with out damage.

Lap 41 Bearman was matching the times of Russell and Alonso ahead with the gaining Mclaren and Mercedes doing their best to catch and pass him before the end of the race, but helping Bearman was the squabble between the 2 soft tyre runners, Hamilton did everything he could to pass Norris but the Mclaren's pace through the high speed sector 1 kept the Mclaren ahead of the 7 time world champion.
Lap 44 Albon passed Ocon for 12th but Magnussen had managed to escape down the road and had made a gap of +3 seconds back to the Williams.
Lap 48, 3 laps to go and while Norris and Hamilton were catching Bearman, it wasn't fast enough and the Ferrari rookie was lapping fast enough to hold them off and as he crossed the line to start the last lap he was 2 seconds ahead of Norris and 3 ahead of Hamilton! He had done it, he held off Lando Norris and 7 time World Champion Lewis Hamilton in his first Grand Prix!

Russell ended the race in the DRS of Fernando but couldnt get the job done and he finished 6th behind the Spaniard in 5th. Piastri couldn't get with in 13 seconds of 3rd place Leclerc who himself was just under 5 second behind Perez in 2nd. Max took victory finishing 13 seconds clear of his team mate and taking another lights to flag victory in Saudi Arabia.
What a race from Bearman, he didn't just turn up and take part, he came, he passed, defended, managed the gap to the cars in front and kept 2 of the best drivers in F1, behind him on tyres that were 29 laps older than his (he actually ended the race closer to Russell than Norris was to him)! A really really impressive performance and the best way to showcase that it would be a lose to F1 not to see him in an F1 seat in 2025.

Grand Prix Result

Gap Int
1 VER
2 PER +13.643
3 LEC +18.639 +4.996
4 PIA +32.007 + 13.368
5 ALO +35.759 +3.752
6 RUS +39.936 + 4.177
7 BEA +42.679 + 2.743
8 NOR +45.708 + 3.029
9 HAM +47.391 + 1.683
10 HUL +76.996 + 29.605
11 ALB +88.354 + 11.358
12 MAG +105.737 + 17.383
13 OCO +1 lap + 8.767
14 SAR + 1 lap + 2.784
15 TSU + 1 lap + 3.748
16 RIC + 1 lap + 10.182
17 BOT + 1 lap + 2.400
18 ZHO + 1 lap + 6.438

On to Australia in 2 weeks time, hopefully we will see Sainz back but i dont think anyone would complain about seeing Olli Bearman back in the Ferrari for 1 more race.

Joanna Blackmore
Writer @f1journal.co.uk

18 year-old Oliver Bearman impresses in Ferrari as he replaces Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia

8/3/2024

©ScuderiaFerrari Media

Ollie Bearman starts the Saudi Arabian Grand prix in 11th, as he missed out on Q3 by 0.07.
Ferrari have called up their reserve and Formula 2 driver to complete their line up as Carlos Sainz will miss out on round two in the championship, after being diagnosed with appendicitis.

The Brits debut will make him the youngest, at 18 years 306 days, to start a race surpassing Lando Norris who was 19. Bearman also become the youngest of all time behind Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Bearman has put his F2 championship on hold after putting it on pole on Thursday. The Prema driver made his formula two debut last year, becoming a feature race winner and eventually finishing sixth in the championship.

After being ill for two days Sainz went into hospital on Friday morning.
His Ferrari team said on Friday afternoon: "Carlos is out of surgery. Everything went well and he is now resting at the hospital. We send him our full support for a quick recovery."

©ScuderiaFerrari Media

Bronwen Jones
Writer @ F1 Journal