2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

On Tuesday (May 21) a bipartisan group of senators including the chair of the judiciary subcommittee on antitrust ,Sent Amy Klobuchar, sent a letter to the justice department antitrust division and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) requesting an investigation into whether liberty has violated U.S. antitrust laws.

Separately the Judiciary Committee Chair has launched an independent inquiry.

Any truth to the allegation that Greg Maffei personally threatened Mario Andretti will be damaging to Liberty ,an antitrust investigation could be a disaster.

Andretti have made it clear that they did not approach the law makers.

This is big news and has been ignored so far by the European press.

They are going after a lot of big companies in the USA at the moment. Live Nation and Apple are also on their radar.

https://news.sky.com/story/ticketmaster-owner-live-nation-facing-monopoly-lawsuit-after-facing-criticsm-from-taylor-swift-13141953

Generally, it seems to be about money. If there is another team on the grid, the money for each team will be less for each team to take home, depending where they finish on the grid. This is IF Andretti were to enter as a totally new team, not sure if they will or even want to take over an existing team. The Concord Agreement is also up for review soon, and if that gets signed then it pretty much closes off any path for Andretti to enter.

There could be additional reasons given, but my understanding is it is all about the money. In F1, it usually is.

Fair one. I don't get how it works. I thought the pot would be split 11 ways with a $200m parachute payment to soften the blow. So I'm surprised it's not the teams objecting too.

I didn't think it would come from Liberty's share.

Fair. And I wouldn't trust Lance to run his own affairs, let alone a whole team.

theres no real options for him.

redbull - out

merc - holding out for Antonelli super licence

aston - no space unless lance calls it a day.

McLaren - full lineup

Sauber \ Audi - 1 space, which he doest seem interested in or the project is a shitshow.

RB - couldnt see that happening since he left cause he didnt get promoted to red bull

that then leave haas or williams or the dole. hes picking the best of the worst since he has no choice.

Eh you forgot one Alpine. Yes they are not great at the moment but that could easily change next year or even in 2026. They got a few things wrong with the car this year and it ended up a bit heavier than all the others but that will be fixed next year.

It's better than Williams or Haas.

Merc are holding out for Max

One of two things will happen with Alpine.

They'll either turn things around in the next year or so or Renault will say, fcuk this and pull the plug.

Only my opinion of course

The Engine is a works project with an incredibly poor recent history.

They had the poorest engine of the new regulations, then Honda entered behind them and overtook them and left them for dust.

The engines have all closed up over time so its not a big issue anymore, but they categorically do not have a good recent history.

They're a low budget team doing about right for a low budget team. They set their budget in advance of the anticipated cost cap. By the time the cost cap was actually introduced it was way higher than originally planned (didn't include drivers and top people). So they carried on with their spending plan and were left as a low-mid budget team.

So it sounds like Ferrari are no longer going after Newey, and also that Perez will likely resign for 2025 with Red Bull.