#F1 Newsbites – News making the #MonacoGP weekend

This is the Monaco Grand Prix edition of F1 Newsbites! Let’s take a look at the latest news coming out of the Formula 1 paddock.

 

 

Hamilton pips Bottas in FP2

 

Lewis Hamilton ended the day as he started it, on top of the time-sheets by pipping Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in Free Practice 2 at the Monaco Grand Prix.

 

The pairing set the early pace on the C4 medium compounds but Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel grabbed topped spot whilst on a performance run using the C5 red side-walled soft rubber by 0.045 of a second.

 

Reigning Champions Mercedes were one of the final teams to send both its drivers out on the softs, with Bottas reclaiming first with a 1:11.597.

 

The Finn made an improvement again posting a 1:11.275, before team-mate Hamilton planted a 1:11.245.

 

The two F1 W10 EQ Power+ entries continued to switch places as Bottas set a 1:11.199 to jump back ahead while Hamilton took a trip into the run off area at St Devote after a massive lock up.

 

But it was Hamilton, while on his tenth lap on the softs, able to improve and go 0.081 seconds quicker than Bottas’ best effort, which was good enough to top the afternoon session.

 

Vettel also locked up at St Devote with 17 minutes remaining after stopping real close to the barrier and had to reverse to recover his SF90 racer. The German ended up holding third and 0.763 off of Hamilton’s benchmark.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly was fourth and ahead of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon who completed the top five.

 

The other Honda-powered RB15 of Max Verstappen was looking very quick on the streets of Monte Carlo before sitting out the majority of the session due to a water leak and wound up 0.934 seconds adrift on his first run on the soft tyres.

 

He emerged on track with seven minutes to go but was unable to improve on his effort.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was best of the rest in seventh place and in-front of the two Alfa Romeo Racing entries of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen who were eighth and ninth respectively.

 

Charles Leclerc rounded out the top ten and was 1.232 seconds off of Hamilton’s benchmark in his Ferrari SF90 racer as the Monegasque driving competing at his home Grand Prix complained of brake issues during the session.

 

The other VF-19 Haas of Romain Grosjean was 11th and ahead of McLaren duo Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz who were 12th and 13th respectively.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat lost time in the final sector as he wound up 14th quickest in his Honda-powered STR14 and just ahead of the 15th placed Racing Point of Sergio Perez.

 

After a promising start to practice for Renault, they ended the day down in a low 16th and 17th place with Nico Hulkenberg ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

 

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll continued to struggle in an 18th place and in-front of the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica who finished at the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco Free Practice 2 classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1005/monaco/practice-2.html

 

Selected Driver Quotes Post-Practice

 

Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s the dream for every driver to come to Monaco and have a car that you can exploit and utilise your abilities with. I’m really proud of the team and naturally our goal is to try and do something really positive this weekend. We’ve made some small tweaks over the two sessions and during the sessions as well, but I’ve been quite happy with the set-up. Every year we come back here, it gets faster and you really notice it when you’re going past the barriers. Coming into Turn 12, you carry so much speed into that corner, and then there’s just the wall in front of you; going up the hill to Casino it’s the same thing. It’s incredibly intense out there and you have to be so focused.”

 

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s been a good day for us on track. In previous years, the car felt sometimes difficult to drive, but today it was very driveable, responsive and enjoyable. You need to find the limits on this track and I felt comfortable to push towards the limit, which is a good sign. Now we need to fine tune the set-up and make sure we keep going in the right direction. I think we’ve started the weekend on the right foot, but we’re in Monaco and anything can happen.”

 

Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow, SF90: “I decided to use a helmet dedicated to Niki. Being a tribute to him, as a person and to his career, the design is based on his last Ferrari helmet. I thought that maybe it was nice to take him along for a final couple of laps around Monaco. Talking about our performance we are struggling a bit, we are lacking some pace compared to our main rivals. We are still not happy with how the tyres work. I think we have a bit of work ahead of us. In terms of balance we can still improve on everything. We will work in order to have a car that is more predictable. I am sure on Saturday the situation should improve and maybe it will be also warmer, which could help us.”

 

Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90: “We have some work to do before returning to the track on Saturday. The first session was ok and I felt quite comfortable in the car. It was more difficult to put the car and the tyres in the right window in the afternoon, and we were also held up by traffic. Nevertheless, our competitors are strong and we have to push to close the gap in qualifying. We will give it everything and I can’t wait to be back in the car.”

 

Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “Today was ok and I’m pretty happy with the balance of the car. In FP2 when everyone went onto a second set of tyres we had a water leak after some debris flew into the air box and damaged one of the radiators. We had to fix it which lost us some time on track but in general, we look alright and the pace was pretty good. I got enough laps in to feel confident with the car, we tried lots of set-up changes in both sessions and I’m happy with what we have. Mercedes is still very strong and I don’t think we can fight them for pole, but there is a big gap between second and third which we should be able to fill in qualifying tomorrow.”

 

Pierre Gasly, #10, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “It was a good day and I’m really happy. FP1 was a little difficult, but we made some changes for FP2 and I felt a lot better in the car, even in the long runs. As we expected, Mercedes are really fast and quite a long way ahead of us, but we can see we’re in a fight with Ferrari. If it’s raining on Saturday then anyone has a chance, but the Team is usually pretty strong here. There is still some work to do but hopefully we can find even more performance for Saturday, when it’s all about qualifying and getting a good starting position. We’ll do everything we can.”

 

Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team, R.S.19: “I felt relatively comfortable in the morning and I was pleased that we got up to speed quite quickly. However, we didn’t make the step we needed in the afternoon. We did make some changes, but maybe they didn’t help as well as we’d have liked. Following the afternoon session, we have a bit more homework to do to really find that extra bit. As ever around Monaco, it’s awesome to be back driving a Formula 1 car on these streets. That’s always special.”

 

Alexander Albon, #23, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda, STR14: “It was a good day for us, it’s really fun out there and I like the track a lot. I think we got the car in the right window, now we just need to study what we’ve learnt from today, so we can fine-tune the car and get ready for Saturday. We made a couple of adjustments for the afternoon session and I like how the car feels. We’re cautious that other teams will improve for Saturday but finishing in the top five is a nice feeling.”

 

Kevin Magnussen, #20, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, VF-19: “We lost a bit of running in FP1 due to a telemetry problem, but got running again, and got all our low-fuel work done. That allowed me to get a good feeling for the car. We missed out on a few high-fuel laps, but we got them in FP2, so it wasn’t too bad of a Thursday. Between us we also ran on all the tire compounds today, so that’s good. The car feels good in low-fuel, so we’ll see what we can do for tire management. It’s a tough track to overtake on, so it’s not the main priority, but of course we want to be fast in race runs. So far everything’s going okay, and hopefully Q3’s a possibility.”

 

Antonio Giovinazzi, #99, Alfa Romeo Racing, C38: “I am happy about today’s work. The first time in an F1 car around Monaco can be a bit daunting, but I got into a rhythm quickly and was able to enjoy the sessions. There isn’t a lot between all the teams so we will need to make some more improvement tonight to stay in the top 10.”

 

Lance Stroll, #18, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, RP19: “It’s not been the easiest day. We took things steady this morning and tried to build up our speed gradually, but the car isn’t where we need it to be just yet. We’re missing some speed so we need to work hard tonight and tomorrow to understand where we can make some improvements.”

 

Robert Kubica, #88, ROKiT Williams Racing, FW42: “I was looking forward to getting back into the car in Monaco. Of course, with the lack of grip and struggling with general downforce, the streets are not the easiest to drive. The positive from returning here after nine years was that I jumped into the car and the opening laps were not too bad. However, when the pace picks up, it will be more difficult for us. We have to balance risk with keeping it tidy and steady.”

 

Vale Niki Lauda, remembering a legend

 

 

On Tuesday it was with great sadness to hear the loss of a giant in the Formula One paddock, the legendary Niki Lauda.

 

Lauda was a three-time World Champion, winning twice with Ferrari in 1975 and 1977 along with one at McLaren in 1984. He was the only driver in Formula 1 history to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, the two most successful constructors in Grand Prix racing. He was also remembered for producing one of the biggest comeback stories in the history of world sport after surviving a horrific accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

 

Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda was born on February 22, 1949 in Vienna, Austria to a wealthy family. His paternal grandfather was industrialist Hans Lauda.

 

Lauda decided to become a racing driver despite his family’s disapproval. After starting off in a Mini, the Austrian moved onto Formula Vee, as it was normal in Central Europe, but then rapidly made the move into driving Porsche and Chevron sports cars.

 

When his career stalled, Lauda took out a $30,000 bank loan, along with a life insurance policy, to buy a race-seat into the March team as a Formula 2 driver in 1971. With his family’s disapproval at large, he had an ongoing dispute about his racing ambitions and abandoned further contact with them. He earned a quick promotion to the Formula 1 team in 1972 as well as continuing on racing in the F2 outfit.

 

Although the F2 cars were performing well and receiving high praise from March Team Principal Robin Herd, March’s 1972 Formula 1 campaign was disastrous with it’s all time low point coming at Mosport Park in the Canadian Grand Prix, which saw both March racers disqualified with three laps of each other after ¾ race distance.

 

Lauda opted to take another bank loan and bought a drive into the BRM team for the 1973 season. The Austrian was immediately quick, but the team was on a down slope. However, his big moment came when BRM team-mate Clay Regazzoni re-joined Ferrari in 1974 and team owner Enzo Ferrari asked his fellow Italian compatriot what he thought of the talented Lauda.

 

Regazzoni spoke highly of the Austrian and his fine attention to detail that Ferrari would instantly sign him and paid him enough to clear his debts.

 

Ferrari endured a difficult start to the 1970’s along with a disastrous start to the 1973 campaign. The Scuderia regrouped quickly under Luca Di Montezemolo’s guidance and resurged in 1974. The Maranello squad’s faith in Lauda was quickly rewarded as the Austrian scored a second place on debut for the team at the season-opening Argentine Grand Prix. His first victory came only three races later at the Spanish Grand Prix.

 

Although the Austrian was the season’s pacesetter, taking six pole positions, a mix of inexperience and mechanical unreliability meant Lauda only won one more race that year, which was the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Lauda finished the season fourth in the Driver’s Championship standings and showed immense commitment to testing and improving the car.

 

The 1975 campaign saw a slow start for Lauda, with only a best fifth place in the first four rounds. However, he won four of the next five in the new 312t. Lauda’s first World Championship was confirmed after finishing third in Monza at the Italian Grand Prix with team-mate Regazzoni winning the race as the Scuderia wrapped up it’s first Constructors Championship in 11 years. Lauda then took his fifth victory at Watkins Glen in the season-ending United States Grand Prix.

 

Lauda also became the first driver to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife in under seven minutes, which was considered a huge achievement as the Nordschleife section of the “Green Hell” was two miles longer than it is today.

 

Unlike the 1975 season, with tensions between Lauda and Montezemolo’s successor, Daniele Audetto. Lauda was flying at the start of the 1976 campaign, taking victory in four of the first six races and claiming second in the other two.

 

By the time he clinched his fifth win at the British Grand Prix, Lauda had more than double the points than his closest rivals Jody Scheckter and James Hunt, and a second consecutive World Championship was close to reality. A feat not seen since Sir Jack Brabham’s victories in 1959 and 1960. He was also on course to win the most races in a season, a record held by the late Jim Clark in 1963.

 

A week before the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, although he was the fastest driver on that track at the time, Lauda urged his fellow competitors to boycott the race, because of the 23 kilometre circuit’s safety arrangements, the race organisers’ lack of resources to manage the huge track, lack of fire marshals, fire and safety equipment and safety vehicles. Majority of the drivers voted against the boycott in favour of racing.

 

On August 1, 1976, on the second lap at the very quick Bergwerk, Lauda was involved in a horrific accident where his Ferrari 312T2 went off the track, struck an embankment, erupted into flames and collided with Brett Lunger’s Surtees-Ford.  Unlike Lunger, the Austrian was trapped in the wreckage.

 

Fellow drivers Arturio Merzario, Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl came to the scene moments later. Before Merzario could pull Lauda out of his car, he suffered severe burns to his head and inhaled toxic gases that damaged his blood and lungs. As Lauda was wearing a modified helmet because it did not fit properly, the foam compressed and slid off his head leaving his face exposed to the fire.

 

Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand following the accident, he later fell into a coma. The Austrian suffered extensive scarring, losing nearly all of his right ear, as well as the hair on the right side of his head, his eyebrows and eye lids. Despite being given the last rites by a Roman Catholic priest, Lauda’s inspiring determination and courage to get back in the car made him fight on. Lauda opted to limit reconstructive surgery to replace his eyelids and getting them to work properly. After the accident, he always wore a cap to cover the scars on his head and arranged for sponsors to use the cap for advertising.

 

Ferrari reacted quickly and brought in Argentine Carlos Reutemann as his replacement with the Scuderia boycotting the Austrian Grand Prix due to seeing what they described as preferential treatment towards McLaren driver James Hunt at the Spanish and British Grands Prix.

 

The Austrian only missed two races and appeared at the Italian Grand Prix press conference, six weeks after the accident with his fresh burns still bandaged. He finished fourth in Monza, despite feeling absolutely petrified. Lauda also had to wear a special helmet to reduce his discomfort. In Lauda’s absence, Hunt pushed a late challenge to cut the Austrian’s lead in the Driver’s Championship to just three points. The Briton and Lauda were close friends, despite their intense on-track rivalry, which was clean and fair. After wins in Canada and the United States, the title battle went down to the wire in Japan.

 

Lauda’s strong relationship with Ferrari was heavily affected after pulling out from the Japanese Grand Prix, which saw him retire after two laps due to torrential rain at Fuji Speedway. He later said it was unsafe to continue under the dangerous conditions, also especially because of his eyes watering excessively from his fire-damaged tear ducts and inability to blink. Hunt lead most of the Grand Prix before falling back down the field due to blistered tyres. The Briton recovered to finish third and won the title by a single point.

 

Lauda endured a difficult 1977 campaign, despite winning his second championship crown by great consistency. The Austrian was unhappy with Reutemann as his team-mate, who was served as his replacement driver. Lauda felt uncomfortable with Ferrari’s move and announced to quit the team at season’s end, with the Austrian leaving earlier after securing the title at the United States Grand Prix because of the Maranello-based squad’s decision to run the talented Gilles Villeneuve at the Canadian Grand Prix.

 

In 1978, Lauda joined Parmalat-sponsored Brabham-Alfa Romeo on a $1 million salary. The Austrian suffered two difficult seasons. He won one race with the famous BT46B fan car at the Swedish Grand Prix. But Brabham did not use the car in Formula 1 again, with its radical design being protested by the teams and Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone, who was pulling for Formula One’s commercial rights, did not want to fight a battle over the car with the victory in Sweden remaining official.

 

The flat-12 powered Brabham Alfa Romeo BT46 began the third round in South Africa. It endured a variety of problems, which saw Lauda retire from nine of 14 races. Apart from victories in Sweden and Italy after penalties handed to Mario Andretti and Villeneuve, he came second in Montreal and Great Britain along with a third-place finish at Zandvoort.

 

1979 proved a disastrous season for Lauda, with Alfa Romeo providing them with a V12 making it the fourth 12-cylinder engine design the Austrian used in F1 since 1973. The campaign was again hampered by reliability issues and dismal pace, even though he won the Dino Ferrari Grand Prix non-championship round at Imola. Lauda finished fourth in Monza with the Alfa V12, but later Brabham returned to the familiar Cosworth V8. During practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, Lauda informed Ecclestone that he wished to retire from the sport immediately and lost the desire to drive.

 

Lauda then focused on another passion, flying, and founded Lauda Air, a chartered airline and returned to his native Austria to work on the company full-time and held a commercial pilot’s licence.

 

In 1982, Lauda returned to Grand Prix racing with McLaren on a $3 million salary. McLaren’s MP4 carbon monocoque-chassis was still in development, which he helped accelerate. The Austrian scored victories at the US Grand Prix West at Long Beach and at Brands Hatch.

 

1983 was a transitional phase, which saw McLaren switch from Cosworth DFV V8 power to TAG-badged, Porsche V6 turbocharged engines. Lauda only finished on the podium once that season taking second at Long Beach behind team-mate John Watson. Lauda forced team designer John Barnard to design an interim car the MP4/1E to get the TAG-Porsche engine some race testing. The Austrian came close to scoring a victory with the car at the season-ending South African Grand Prix but suffered an engine failure with six laps remaining.

 

Lauda won his third World Championship in 1984 by only half a point to McLaren team-mate, the rising star Alain Prost, due to only half points being awarded at the rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix. Initially, Lauda did not want Prost to become his team-mate, as he was a much faster rival. But the two formed a great partnership over the two years and both scored McLaren 12 victories out of 16 with the former scoring five and the latter seven.

 

1985 saw Lauda retire in 11 of the 14 races. He missed the Belgian Grand Prix due to breaking his wrist during practice and also the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, being replaced by John Watson. The three-time World Champion finished fourth at Imola, fifth at the Nurburgring and took a single victory at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, holding off a fast-charging team-mate of Alain Prost. Lauda’s team-mate Prost claimed his maiden title that year.

 

Lauda’s final race was the inaugural Australian Grand Prix on the streets of Adelaide where after qualifying 16^th on the grid, he made is way through the field to lead by lap 53 before his McLaren’s ceramic brakes failed on lap 57 and the Austrian crashed at the end of the long Brabham Straight.

 

This was the end of an illustrious Formula 1 career, which saw three World Championships won, 25 victories, 54 podiums, 420.5 points, 24 pole positions and fastest laps.

 

Lauda then returned to working on his airline, Lauda Air, following his second retirement from Formula One. During his time as airline manager, in 1993, Di Montezemolo appointed the Austrian as a consultant for Ferrari to help rejuvenate the Maranello-based squad.

 

After selling his shares to majority partner Austrian Airlines in 1999, he managed the Jaguar F1 team from 2001 to 2002. The team was unable to improve and Lauda along with 70 other key personnel were made redundant at the end of 2002.

 

Towards the end of 2003, he started a new airline called Niki. Similar to Lauda Air, Niki aligned with major partner Air Berlin in 2011. In early 2016, Lauda took over Amira Air and renamed the chartered airline LaudaMotion.

 

After Air Berlin’s insolvent in 2017, LaudaMotion acquired the Niki brand and asset after unsuccessful bids from Luthansa and IAG.

 

Since September 2012, he was non-executive chairman of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport Formula One Team and owned 10% of the German-Anglo outfit and built a great friendship with the entire Brackley-based outfit. He played a key role in luring Lewis Hamilton to the team as replacement for Michael Schumacher in 2013. The Silver Arrows since then has dominated the sport dominating both Driver’s and Constructors Championships from 2014-18.

 

On May 20, 2019, Lauda passed away in his sleep, aged 70, at the University Hospital of Zurich surrounded by his family, where he had undergone dialysis treatment for kidney problems.

 

Lauda is survived by his ex-wife Marlene Knaus, whom he married in 1976 and divorced in 1991 – they have two sons Mattia and Lukas. A third son called Christoph, who was conceived through an extra-marital relationship. Lauda remarried in 2008 to Birgit Wetzinger and have two twins Max and Mia.

 

Vale Niki Lauda, one of the all-time greats and a true inspiration to us all.

 

 

Dutch Grand Prix returns to Zandvoort in 2020

 

This news broke last week and the paddock is blooming with the announcement that the FIA Formula 1 World Championship will return to the Netherlands in 2020 at the famous Circuit Zandvoort.

 

The agreement was signed by a partnership featuring SportVibes, TIG Sports, and the Circuit Zandvoort and will run for three years.

 

Heineken, one of Formula One’s long standing partners will be the title sponsor of the event.

 

Located not too far away from the vibrant city of Amsterdam, Zandvoort is a major beach resort in the Netherlands. It’s well known for it’s long beach with amazing coastal dunes separating the North Sea from the circuit.

 

Circuit Zandvoort has a long history with the sport of Grand Prix racing, and over the coming months, the track and facility will undergo through a rebuild with the help of the Zandvoort town council and a few other partners.

 

The circuit and infrastructure will be modified to ensure it meets and reaches the FIA category 1 circuit standard suitable for Formula 1.

 

When the 2020 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix takes place, it will be the 31st to count as part of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The first event was held in 1952 and won by the legendary Alberto Ascari, who went on to win the title that year for Ferrari.

 

Apart from Ascari, there were 19 winners and 12, which were World Champions. The legendary Jim Clark holds the record for most victories at the Dutch Grand Prix and the Circuit Zandvoort with four to his name.

 

The last Dutch Grand Prix took place in 1985, which was won by the late Niki Lauda for McLaren in his final Grand Prix season before retiring from the sport. The 2020 event will be the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2020.

 

“We are particularly pleased to announce that Formula 1 is returning to race in the Netherlands, at the Zandvoort track,” explained Chairman and CEO of Formula 1 Chase Carey. “From the beginning of our tenure in Formula 1, we said we wanted to race in new venues, while also respecting the sport’s historic roots in Europe.”

 

“Next season therefore, we will have a brand new street race that will be held in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, as well the return to Zandvoort, after an absence of 35 years; a track that has contributed to the popularity of the sport all over the world. In recent years, we’ve seen a resurgence of interest in Formula 1 in Holland, mainly due to the enthusiastic support for the talented Max Verstappen, as seen from the sea of orange at so many races. No doubt this will be the dominant colour in the Zandvoort grandstands next year.” Carey concluded.

 

“I am pleased to see that Zandvoort will be part of the proposed calendar for the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship, and thankful for the hard work of Formula 1 to bring the sport back to the Netherlands,” FIA President Jean Todt added. “It is a circuit with a long and impressive history of competition and is a great challenge for drivers, and with the popularity of Max Verstappen I’m sure there will be a huge number of fans in attendance.”

 

“There is now a lot of preparation needed to bring the circuit up to the required safety standards to host a Formula 1 race, and we will work towards this together with Formula 1, KNAF – the Dutch ASN – and the circuit organisation.” Todt concluded.

 

Williams: “Ferrari rules veto silly, makes no sense for F1”

 

ROKiT Williams Racing Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams has slammed Ferrari’s rules veto as “silly” and “makes no sense for F1” as the Scuderia looks set to keep that right despite the raft of changes coming in 2021.

 

The governance of Formula 1 has a democratic process but Ferrari has the ability to block a regulation change.

 

Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto said at the Spanish Grand Prix, that he remained optimistic of keeping the veto along with the discussions over the overhaul of Formula One’s 2021 rule changes and the Scuderia’s negotiations to continue racing in the sport.

 

Binotto explained that Ferrari’s veto was “”not only protecting us, but it’s protecting all the teams hopefully we can keep the same rights.” The other Team Principal’s countered that.

 

When asked about Ferrari’s right to have a veto, Williams said “No, I think it’s just silly, if I can be honest. I have a problem in our sport anyway in the fact I feel it’s far too democratic. I’ve been quite open about that.”

 

“I feel that F1 and the FIA should take more ownership in the regulations. We want it too much in a collegiate way, which is detrimental when we all have our own agendas. We need to be looking at this sport and its sustainability for the future, protecting it and protecting the true DNA of that. Doing that by committee can be very difficult. I don’t think one team should have the right to a veto. That makes no sense to me at all.” Williams concluded.

 

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner agreed with Williams “You can view it two ways: it’s a safety net because they’re representing the teams but also they’re representing Ferrari,” Horner explained. “Probably, if we’re going for a clean sheet of paper, it would make sense for it not to be there, as Claire says, the same rules for everyone.”

 

The FIA and Formula 1 are finalising a wide range of changes to the world championship including the sporting, technical, regulatory and financial sides of the sport.

 

Renault F1 Team boss Cyril Abiteboul and McLaren’s Zak Brown believe that Formula 1 should look to honour Ferrari and it’s history in another way.

 

“We need F1 to be progressive, rather than defensive,” explained Abiteboul. “An ability to block due process that can be perceived or deemed to be a positive for the sport is probably not good.”

 

“We completely recognise the specific value of Ferrari to the sport, which can be reflected probably in the commercial agreement and not into the governance.” Abiteboul concluded.

 

“I think we all have varying interests,” Brown added. “So, we’re best having our own individual negotiations, when and if that is appropriate. As Cyril said, Ferrari bring a tremendous amount to the sport, and that can be recognised in other ways.”