New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
7.5 million fine for 2 teams plus some other measures is what i heard
Bottas. He is having a terrible second half of the season compared to the first half.
The Alfa was one of the few cars that was under the weight limit at the start of the season but has dropped further and further back as the other teams have caught up with them weight wise
The FIA haven’t even finished their reviews yet, Sky were talking about the fines and you could hear them frothing at the mouth over it.
Not published as of yet but reports doing the rounds on SM this morning that RB were less than £1M over the budget. It’s not known yet what punishment if, if any, will be doled out. It appears there was some confusion with what is and isn’t covered under the cap that resulted in the slight overspend.
5% allows for 7m in overspend and be classed as a minor breach but that could still carry drivers points deduction.
How many points? More than 8? Is a points deduction if you are >4% over? Is it applicable to this year or last year?
The ability to lower a cap on a team half way through a season doesn't seem right, what if you already hit the cap and stopped development and then the FIA lower your cap forcing you into noncompliance again.
Ah, yeah but this is F1. It's not about strict adherence to the laws. It's about finding a solution that suits everyone (where possible). Changing champion based on this breach is not acceptable in lots of ways so it won't happen. They might get a fine or have the next year's cap lowered by a small amount. They'll also probably be under closer scrutiny as part of the deal. Bit it won't amount to much.
There isn’t much information regarding the specifics of the breach, but from comments on twitter etc, it appears it was confusion with salaries paid to workers who were off sick (covid maybe?)
Red Bull continued paying those workers in full thinking that as the the payments didn’t come under the budget cap, whereas the FIA say that’s not the case. So it’s not development issue at all and merely an accounting error. If that’s what actually happened.
Edit: Although still not clear, this article from the Mail appears to support the above theory. (I’ve edited above to reflect the workers being sick and not laid off)
If that's it there will be a slap on the wrist. It will weaken the rules a small amount as the next team found in breach will site precedent for the punishment being a slap on the wrist, but that's just the nature of the sport.
It would have been better if the first breach was serious and the punishment acted as a deterrent. But it would have been worse if it was Ferrari in serious breach and the FIA had to smudge it over to save Ferrari's blushes.
this is not a bad result for the integrity of the rules.
I think now is a good time for Christian Horner and Toto Wolff to do another joint press conference.
So, predictably a mountain out of a molehill.
I expect these things to crop up over the next couple of years as teams get further clarifications as what is or isn't to be included in the returns - but as long as there's genuine misunderstanding and no blatant attempt to cheat then I can't imagine any penalty being too harsh.
I'd say Toto is raging though. Missing out on the Drivers championship as well as not having a race win in 2022 would have been much easier to explain to his superiors if they were given proof that their main rival had significantly broken the rules.
Listening to the BBC Chequered Flag podcast this morning, Jennie Gow mentioned that Pierre Gasly was tearing Alpha Tauri a new one in the media pen. Speculating that he knows he's on the way out.
Is he on the way out do and if so who will replace him at Alpha Tauri?
De Vries is heading there.
Yeah, I listened to the drivers radio when they crossed the line, literally told the team they had left him down. I'd say they had to lock Marko in a cage after it.
How did they Let Him down?
He was fairly invisible during the race, so maybe the strategy?
So was Lando and Daniel but they done OK. Lance Stroll too was barely ever on Screen except for at the beginning of the race and he done good.
Maybe it was strategy do as you say.
Maybe they favoured Yuki over Gasley at pitstops.
Speaking of favouring a driver, Mercedes used Russell as a lab mouse on the slick tyres. It was justifiable because Hamilton was racing towards the front, but there's no way they would have left Hamilton on the wrong tyre for an entire stint, just to know when was the right time to switch Russell to slicks.
Some here have suggested Russell is becoming Mercedes team leader... but he ain't.
In fairness, Russel had nothing to lose at all with that move, he was so far back. I think both drivers have been subjected to bad decisions my Merc so far this year, just look at the Dutch GP when they pitted Russel over Hamilton during the SC.
He complained that they pitted him too early for slicks and therefore lost track position
Tbf that stop in Holland was Russell’s call not the teams.
Exactly, it goes against the statement above that Russell isn't the Merc No.1 at present. He made that call to gain advantage, he is ahead in the points etc. Right now he is doing a damn good job of it.
Russell isn't mercedes no.1.
They had nothing to lose by leaving him out on slicks, losing 2 seconds a lap to the back not the field pace (not the lead pace) purely as an experiment to see when it was the right time to change Hamilton to slicks.
Do you honestly think they would have done the same to Hamilton of the roles were reversed?
Yes I do, why wouldn't they? They had no other real choice and it was done to see if he could make up pace, not to see if it was right for Hamilton. Surely, Hamilton would have made that call himself no?
Russell has been ahead in the points since round 2 of the championship and has generally gotten more out of the car when it counted. So yeah, it is not unfair or wrong to call him the No.1 right now.
I doubt you honestly think they would leave Hamilton 2 second soffit the pace on the wrong tyre as an experiment for Russell.
They figured out it was the wrong tyre immediately. They left him out for an entire stint purely to know when was the right moment to switch to softs. He was 50 seconds behind the car in second last when he finally pitted again.
To answer your question They wouldn't have done that to Hamilton because he's their primary driver.
Shouldn't their primary driver be leading the team though? And just for clarity, I am not saying Merc have dumped Ham over Russell for good, just pointing out that he is leading the points and getting the most out of the car on Sundays.
As for Sunday, pitting Russell again would have cooked his goose altogether, so leaving him out with the time loss might not have amounted to the same as a pit for new inters, which would grain and overheat just as bad as the slicks couldn't get the heat into them. Even on that, his fastest lap was 1.5 faster than Perez and 4 seconds faster than Hamiltons best in the same race. His position in the race dictated the gamble on dry tires, nothing to lose on that.
Russell said he was going to stick with the slicks on the team radio, so Mercedes didn't leave him out on them, it was his choice
It seems mad to me that Merc would favour Russell over a 7 time world champion. I thought Russell would have got a penalty for hitting Schumacher in Singapore. He does come across as fairly arrogant
Do Mercedes even have a number 1 driver right now? They don’t have a championship car, so seem happy enough to let the drivers race and prioritise whoever has a better chance to finish higher on any given weekend.
The big calls will need to be made if they have do have a car that’s capable of challenging. I would think they would love to have Hamilton break the record, but Russell has shown this season he’s too good to be automatically thought of as a support driver.
