May 2021

Upon Honda’s departure from Formula 1 after 2021, Red Bull Racing will take over the engine project, and continue it as Red Bull Powertrains. It seems like a good time to take that step, now that the Honda powerplant is performing better than ever. Christian Horner elaborates on the ambitious project. The Red Bull team boss says the right structure of leadership is important to shape the rest of the organisation. A large proportion of the top jobs will be held by staff recruited from the Mercedes camp. According to Horner, the priority is to attract people with experience in developing Formula One engines. “That’s our best chance of hitting the ground running,” the 47-year-old Briton said in an interview with The Race. He stresses that they don’t bring any of Mercedes’ intellectual property with them. “But they’ve produced the benchmark engine over the years, and that’s fantastic for us. When you’re starting from scratch with a clean sheet of paper you want to bring in as much talent as you can.” From 2022 to 2025, there is a development freeze on F1 engines, meaning Red Bull has about three years after 2021 to build a competitive powerplant. “There is a very aggressive timeline to get that building fully commissioned and operational,” said Horner. “It’s gathering pace, we’re getting the right people, we’re using all the same philosophy as on the chassis side of bringing the right people in.” “We’ve demonstrated that we can do it on the chassis side. People I don’t think took Red Bull seriously when they entered the sport as a chassis manufacturer. We were famously called just an energy drinks company by a certain driver’”, with Horner referring to a statement made by Lewis Hamilton.

The FIA has introduced a new, more thorough technical inspection for the start of the 2021 Formula One season. For this, a car is randomly chosen after each Grand Prix to be inspected. At the Spanish Grand Prix, it was Sergio Perez who had to report with his Red Bull Racing car. What’s striking about this choice is that Lewis Hamilton’s comments about Red Bull’s flexible rear wing, which he made the day before, put Red Bull under a magnifying glass. It remains to be seen whether the FIA’s choice, in this case, was entirely arbitrary. During the in-depth technical inspection parts of the car are removed, and conformity and software checks are performed. Perez’s car passed the inspections successfully. “All inspected components were found to comply with the technical regulations of Formula 1 in 2021,” reads the FIA. Apart from this thorough check, the FIA announced shortly after the Spanish Grand Prix that there would be additional tests, to check that the rear wing is not too flexible. Red Bull Racing has passed all current tests successfully but may need to make adjustments to pass the new tests. This is probably not only true for Red Bull: other teams are also expected to make adjustments to the rear wing and will be given time to do so until the French Grand Prix.

Nikita Mazepin is a much talked about driver in Formula 1, and actually was before his debut at Haas. This is just not for the reason he probably hoped. However, the Russian driver thinks that opinions about him are going to change. Mazepin is in a tricky position anyway: as a ‘pay driver’, who in short pays for his seat, he first has to prove that he has the necessary talent. So far, he hasn’t exactly succeeded in doing so. He himself acknowledges that his debut in Formula One has not been the easiest. “But to be honest I didn’t expect that either,” Mazepin said in conversation with Motorsport.com. “There’s a reason there are only 20 seats available because the level is incredibly high and so are the demands. What makes F1 special is that everyone is very good, no matter what position you are fighting for. So it’s always difficult, whether you’re fighting for P1, P10 or P20.”

Valtteri Bottas would need to be driving “extremely badly” to be dropped mid-season, that’s according to former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher. And the German says he isn’t there, but it is “slowly becoming difficult” for the Mercedes driver. Bottas entered this year’s championship promising to be selfish and demand what he needs to achieve his goal of winning the World Championship. Instead he has found himself once again lagging behind his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, resulting in a first round of team orders as the Spanish Grand Prix. With 47 points to Hamilton’s 94, there is speculation in the media that the Finn’s time at Mercedes is fast running out, some even suggesting he could be replaced mid-season. Schumacher doesn’t see that happening, conceding that while Bottas isn’t doing that poorly at this stage of the season. “There was talk of Valtteri having to leave his place during the season,” the Sky Germany commentator told Speedweek. “I don’t see that. “To do that, he would have to drive extremely badly, and he isn’t.” That, though, doesn’t mean he’ll be a Mercedes driver for much longer with Schumacher saying his seat should go to George Russell next season. “In the medium term, I would allow George Russell to drive a Mercedes,” he said. “I also think the Englishman would do a better job there than Bottas because after all the setbacks, the whole thing is slowly becoming difficult for Valtteri.” The German also weighed in on Daniel Ricciardo, who made the move to McLaren at the start of the year. Although it was thought the Aussie would get the better of his team-mate Lando Norris, at present it is the Brit who is leading the charge for McLaren. “McLaren has to do the construction work,” said Schumacher. “Formula 1 is developing very quickly, Daniel Ricciardo is behind, and we’ve seen his usual smile get a little lost. “Of course it stinks to him, as he was inferior to his team-mate Lando Norris until Barcelona. Ricciardo knows: Actually he, Daniel, should be the team leader. “Maybe that will change this weekend, because Daniel has captured two of his three pole positions in Monaco, he should have won in 2017, a mistake by the team when changing tyres cost the triumph, and in 2018 he made up for it. “This is a driver who feels very comfortable in Monaco. The question will be how comfortable he feels in the McLaren in order to be able to play to his full strength. ”

A race-winning Formula 1 car driven by Lewis Hamilton is to be auctioned for the first time at this year’s British Grand Prix. The McLaren MP4-25A, driven by Hamilton during the 2010 season, will be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s on the Saturday afternoon of the British Grand Prix. It is the first time any of the Formula 1 cars raced by Hamilton during his 14-year career has been auctioned for public sale. An estimate of $5m-$7m has been placed on the car. The MP4-25A is set to be demonstrated around Silverstone while the auction takes place prior to the inaugural Sprint Qualifying session. Hamilton claimed victory at the Turkish Grand Prix using the chassis that is up for sale. RM Sotheby’s outlined that it is an “unrepeatable opportunity given the model’s scarcity.” It added that “while client confidentiality precludes knowing exactly how many cars exist in private ownership it is believed to be only a scarce few. “As such these examples remain highly coveted and largely in private hands, unlikely to be sold in the near future.”

A question mark is still hanging over this year’s running of the postponed and rescheduled Australian GP. While other countries are making progress in moving out of the pandemic, it’s a different situation in Australia – where the country is locked up tight to keep out all international cases of covid-19. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it is “premature” to say whether the grand prix and other similar events can go ahead this year. “I would note how different it is coming to Australia, because in most of the countries they (Formula 1) are moving around in, covid is riddled through them,” he said on Tuesday. “Australia is not riddled with covid, so the risk profile in other countries is very different. That is something that we certainly want to protect.” Nonetheless, race promoter the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s chief executive Andrew Westacott insists it is “all systems go” for the rescheduled Melbourne race in late November. “As you can imagine, it’s something very, very complex, it’s very, very much a work in progress, and we’re working with the government on every one of the details right now,” he told local broadcaster ABC. Westacott also played down rumours that Melbourne could follow Austria’s example with a second race in 2021, especially with a big question mark hanging over the Brazilian GP. “I think the people in Brazil are very, very dead-set on hosting their grand prix two weeks earlier than us,” he said. However, he also told SEN radio that a realistic deadline for clarity about whether the 2021 Australian GP will go ahead is mid September. “The current date we’re looking at is around the 13th or 17th of September from a build commencement point of view,” said Westacott.

At least two other Formula 1 teams will have to change the design of their rear wings in 2021, according to Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko. The FIA’s new clarification about rear wing flexibility has been reported as directly implicating Red Bull, after Lewis Hamilton referred to the “bendy” wing on Max Verstappen’s car in Barcelona. “Our rear wing has passed all the required load tests,” team official Marko told motorsport-magazin.com. “Now there is a new criterion that has different parameters regarding downforce,” he added. “This happens normally when new regulations are introduced and teams discover grey areas. “But we are not the only ones to do it,” Dr Marko insisted. “This will affect other teams as well. Both Alpine and Alfa Romeo are using rear wings that flex at high speed. “They will also have to make changes,” he said.

The fact that Williams is already working on the 2022 season is not that surprising. Just like every other F1-team on the grid, the British team is already busy preparing for next year. Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance, sees his team in the same situation as Ferrari. This is what he says in conversation with Autosport. According to Ferrari sport director Laurent Mekies the Italian team is already 90 to 95% committed to 2022. Robson thinks Williams will be close to that as well. “We’re probably not too far away from that I think. Certainly, the time in the windtunnel is almost entirely next year’s car. The vast majority, a massively high proportion of the aero department are all working on next year’s car. The same goes for the design office. So, we’re just in the final throes of the last few new bits for this car. Yeah, we’re probably very similar to Ferrari in those percentages.” Robson said. Still, Robson thinks there’s a bit more to come from the car this year. “There are a few bits and pieces we’re not fully on top of – a few test pieces that we’ve had on the car, we’ve taken back off and we’re still refining. So, I think there’s still a bit more to come from it. It probably isn’t going to change our world massively as the season goes on, but there’s still more to come. Definitely. We will keep pushing that. I think we can eek a bit more out of it.” So expect a few more minor updates for Nicolas Latifi and George Russell this year.