May 23, 2024 · 4:47 pm

Norris: McLaren F1 team must “keep focussed” in Monaco

McLaren is running a Senna tribute livery this weekend

Lando Norris says that he and his McLaren Formula 1 team must “keep focussed” as they head into a Monaco GP weekend which sees them among the favourites.

Victory for Norris in Miami and his close second place at Imola have indicated that McLaren is now a serious contender for wins at different types of venues.

However while Norris is optimistic he is cautions that nothing can be taken for granted this weekend, especially at such a unique circuit.

“I’m hopeful we can have a good result,” he said when asked by this writer about prospects for Monaco.

“And I think over the last few weeks, we’ve been a lot more competitive in terms of fighting against Ferrari and fighting against Red Bull.

“But because it’s so different, we can easily go one way or the other, it can easily look really good for us, or it might be that they have a trickier weekend or something. So I think everything is still to play for.

“And because it’s such a small track, you can easily say other teams are going to be up there as well, whether you’re going to have Mercedes back up there and Aston a bit more back up there.

“Especially in qualifying, you make a one-tenth or two-tenths mistake that’s a big loss around here. And it can easily mess up your whole weekend. So I think you still need to keep focused, and it’s still close. So we’re just concentrating on doing our job, because we’ve been doing a good job so far.”

The latest upgrade package improved the car’s performance in slower corners, indicating that it could be especially good in Monaco, but Norris downplayed that theory.

“It’s still our biggest weakness,” he said. “Even if you look to Imola, Turn 7, the chicane, was of our worst corners. I don’t think we’re bad, when we’re saying it’s our biggest weakness, we’re talking about maybe half a tenth at times, and that kind of thing.

“But Monaco, you set up only for slow-speed, and nothing else. And I think that’s where maybe it plays a little bit more back into our hands. Or not our hands, but it’s just not as far-fetched as what it is in some other circuits. 

“I mean, last year was not our not our best year in terms of delivering here in Monaco, but we’ve not been bad here in the past. And we’ve clearly improved a lot since then.

“We didn’t have our upgrade here last year. So a lot of things have improved since then, we’ve definitely improved slow-speed as well. So I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that it can be a good weekend and I’d rather it stayed dry than rained, but maybe for fans of viewers, they before the rain. So yeah, we’ll see.”

Norris also said that having looked into the data from Imola there was nothing he or the team could have done that might have given him a chance to beat Verstappen.

“I think we had a pretty optimal race,” he said. “Especially when you look at it, I clearly had the best race pace in the second stint by a considerable margin. At the same time, if I pushed more, I would have ended up like Max [with tyre issues].

“It’s something you can’t define, there isn’t a yes or no answer. You win in one part, you’re going to lose in another part.

“So I think we gave it our all, I didn’t make any silly mistakes that cost me one second, or something like that. I never went off track, I didn’t have any of those things. 

“So just lost out too much in the first stint. And that was just down to a couple of different things, and just not quite having the pace compared to the Red Bull.

“But I think that’s where we say when we need to improve in some areas, it’s those kinds of conditions still, when it’s very hot.

“And rear degradation is an issue. If we can improve on that, then that’s our thing. But I think the team executed everything, well, I think I did a good job. So as much as it hurts, I think we did the best we could.”

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May 22, 2024 · 1:21 pm

Allison: Mercedes F1 factory on “war footing”

James Allison says that the Mercedes factory in Brackley is working flat out

Mercedes Formula 1 technical director James Allison says that the team’s Brackley factory  is on a “war footing” as it rushes upgrades through the system.

Allison noted that the way part of the latest package was fast-tracked for Miami with the remainder seen at Imola as an example of how hard the team is pushing to improve the W15.

Mercedes also has new parts slated for this weekend’s race in Monaco, with more coming for the following event in Canada.

“It certainly has been a push,” said Allison in a team Q&A. “The factory is really on a war footing at the moment, and the reason that upgrade package came in two parts is originally it was slated to arrive in one slab, but we brought forward what we could to get it a little bit quicker.

“It has been a big old push, and our challenge now is just to keep that momentum coming. We have some more pieces for the car, aerodynamic and others parts that will arrive for Monaco, again for Canada and again in the races to follow.

“We will keep on slogging the assets back in the factory that find the lap time to design them, build them, get them out on the car and hopefully just force our way up the grid.”

Allison said that the updates seen at Imola, which included a revised floor and rear wing, had done what they were intended to.

“It is always hard to judge because you are comparing whether your stuff is working on a playing field that is continuously in motion,” he said.

“A lot of other teams were bringing new kit, Ferrari with their upgrade in Imola and McLaren with a load of stuff for the previous race.

“You measure what you measure on your car, but ultimately the truly telling thing about whether your stuff worked is did you move forwards? Because that is the purpose of upgrades, is it propelling you up the grid in any meaningful way?

“And I would say based on the race pace that we saw in Imola that we took a gentle step forward. We are several tenths of a second now nearer the front than we were at the start of the year and in Imola itself, we moved a tenth or two nearer to the front.

“We are pretty happy with that. Everyone at the factory has been working so hard to bring these upgrades.”

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May 22, 2024 · 11:51 am

Tsunoda admits poor starts are VCARB F1 team’s weakness

Poor starts have handicapped the VCARB F1 team in 2024

Yuki Tsunoda admits that his VCARB Formula 1 team still has to work on its starts after both the team’s drivers lost valuable places in the Emilia Romagna GP.

Starts have been an issue for the Faenza team this year, but the problem was very obvious at Imola as both Tsunoda and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo lost two positions each.

Having started seventh Tsunoda ran ninth for much of the race, but he lost a spot to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the closing laps, with the latter helped by fresher tyres.

He felt that with a better start he would ultimately have enjoyed a better result than the 10th he ultimately earned.

“With a perfect race, probably I would have been able to end up a step higher position,” said the Japanese driver when asked about his race by this writer.

“For sure that start where I lost two positions hurt my race today, but I was still able to finish in the points. It wasn’t easy with the tyre management. Still, we take it.”

Tsunoda admitted that losing two places off the line proved to be expensive.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal, especially when you’re aiming for probably more fighting with Mercedes,” he said. “Today I even lost a position even to one of the Astons.

“For sure Aston had a good pace today. But still, we would have able to end up in front of him. So yeah, that start for sure hurts a lot.

“The positive thing is we’re still able to make it work with a 50-laps hard tyre, which wasn’t easy. And I think that’s positive for us at least.”

Tsunoda conceded that starts have been an ongoing issue for VCARB.

“It’s a kind of topic at our team,” he said. “We’re really working hard on the two starts throughout the races so far. We improved a little bit, but for sure, we need a step more, because I would say consistency is not enough there. So we have to look for the future.”

Asked what has to be improved he said: “I thought it was tyre preparation, and I think we’ve done a lot of preparation, but it’s not enough.

“I think it’s coming from consistency with the clutch. I will say Red Bull have the same engine, and they are able to have a consistent start.

“So for sure, there’s something that we are missing, or we have to improve. But obviously, we are individual team, so we have to think about our strategy to make it work.”

Tsunoda showed good pace from the start of the Imola weekend, and having been as high as fourth in Q1 and third in Q2 he was disappointed with his eventual seventh grid spot.

Asked if he anticipated that sort of form at other venues he said: “It depends on the track. I mean, to be honest, this week in Imola I didn’t expect this much performance, and obviously every track there’s always something like this car suits well to this track, or not.

“In Monaco historically I’m performing well, so I feeling more confident into the race week, but obviously we never know what’s going to happen. I’m feeling optimistic about Monaco. And we just keep pushing with the development as well.”

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May 22, 2024 · 11:21 am

Albon: No “doom and gloom” despite Williams F1 struggles

Albon endured a difficult weekend at Imola with the FW46

Alex Albon insists that it’s not “doom and gloom” for the Williams Formula 1 team despite a difficult weekend in Imola.

Albon was left with a loose front wheel after his tyre stop and lost a lot of time returning to the pits. He also received a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release.

After that his race turned into a test session, and the team eventually told him to retire the car in the closing laps.

Earlier in the weekend team boss James Vowles had admitted that the FW46 is significantly overweight, at the expense of valuable lap time. The Emilia Romagna race saw the first steps taken in a weight-saving programme for the car.

Williams has yet to score a point in 2024, but Albon has downplayed any concerns.

“What’s positive – it’s not really a positive – is that kind of midfield, they’re not scoring a tremendous amount of points, so it’s not like we’re falling away and we can’t catch up,” he said.

“I think if you look at last year, we were in the same position, we scored I think it was one point at this point last year. And then we came on strong, albeit we had a big upgrade package that was coming to the car.

“This year now it’s a bit more obvious, but it’s more about taking the weight out of the car, and while we’re taking out weight others are still upgrading and still performing.

“So yeah, let’s see how it how it goes down. I think this weekend we took a little bit out of the car, which showed a little bit more competitiveness in the car in qualifying.

“Honestly. I don’t know how my race pace was. But I was kind of okay, I was in no man’s land. I didn’t have any tyres left after the issue. But in my head it’s not doom and gloom. We have a plan, if we didn’t have a plan I would I would call it doom and gloom.”

Albon said he knew fairly quickly that one of his front tyres was not fully secure after the stop.

“I didn’t feel it coming down the pits,” he said. “But as soon as I took the pit limiter off there was like a vibration, and then I could tell something was wrong.

“It was still attached, and when I was turning around corners you can see if the tyre’s going to fall off, but it would only go to a point and stop, so I could see it was quite safe. There was only about 10mm of movement on the tyre.”

Albon admitted that the race turned into a test session: “We were just trying some stuff, trying to figure out some of our braking feelings with the car, and just trying to see if there any solutions on the long run with the car we’ve got, just playing around with the brakes, basically. I don’t know if there’s much to say really, just driving around, experimenting.”

Albon conceded that he is unsure of the FW46’s potential in Monaco this weekend.

“It’s never been a track we’ve gone well, it’s actually a track that we’ve always struggled at,” he said.

“I think it’s one of those ones where I feel excited to go to tracks where we were not good, and see if they’re much better.

“I’m hoping Monaco is going to be a good example of a step forward of our foundation of our car. And then I’m interested to go to Canada and see if the car is strong, like it was last year.”

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May 21, 2024 · 8:13 am

Horner: Perez Imola struggles “just a blip”

A tricky Imola race for Sergio Perez included a trip through the gravel

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that Sergio Perez’s struggles in the Emilia Romagna GP were “just a blip” and that the Mexican will return to form in Monaco.

Perez has had a generally stronger season thus far in 2024 than last year, but at Imola – where even Max Verstappen struggled to find the right set-up – he could manage only 11th place in qualifying.

The team took a gamble and he started on hard tyres and ran a long first stint that saw him re-passed by quicker cars that had pitted. 

He eventually claimed eighth place after surviving a trip through a gravel trap.

“Our simulations today were saying before the race that P7 was potentially optimal,” said Horner when asked by this writer about Perez’s race.

“Nothing happened, no safety cars or anything like that. He had one trip through the gravel that cost him about six seconds. But I think that was about the maximum that he could get from that grid position today.

“I think it’s just a blip. He’s always gone well at Monaco. So we’ll see. It’s a 24-race calendar. He’s had a great start to the year, his approach has been very strong.

“He’s changed his approach a bit this year. And today’s result was dictated by yesterday’s qualifying.”

Perez admitted that it had been a tough afternoon on the harder tyre.

“I think we sort of knew that that was the best we could get,” he said. “We obviously knew that the hard was going to be very difficult initially. But we were hoping for a safety car at the right point, to potentially put us back in the fight.

“It was very difficult first stint, I think it was compromised a lot with the traffic initially, the traffic at the end, people coming through.

“And I also had a lock-up going into Turn 16 so I went straight, and lost quite a bit of time. I also picked up some damage. So yeah, just a very, very tough race.”

Perez admitted it wasn’t easy not to get caught up in fights with drivers coming back past him on fresher tyres.

“I wanted to lose as little time as possible,” he said. “And unfortunately, at the same time you are at the end of your stint, temperatures are dropping, and the grip is just very miserable at that point.”

Perez believes that his Imola struggles were related to the characteristics of the venue.

“I think it’s a bit circuit specific,” he said. “I think we’ve got to keep our heads down, and keep working. I’m happy that Max got the victory for the team.

“We see that the McLaren and Ferrari have done a step forward, so we just have to keep our heads down. The season is long, we need to keep maximising the opportunities.”

Regarding Monaco he said: “I think we expect a very strong McLaren and Ferrari. So it will be a strong challenge there.”

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May 21, 2024 · 7:17 am

Piastri: Imola F1 race “pretty painful” after grid penalty

Oscar Piastri lost a brilliant P2 in Imola qualifying to a grid penalty

Oscar Piastri admits that he knew the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna GP would be “pretty painful” after he lost his front row grid spot to a penalty.

The Australian qualified second but was then demoted to fifth for impeding Kevin Magnussen during qualifying.

While his team mate Lando Norris inherited second spot and was able to chase winner Max Verstappen to the flag Piastri had to settle for fourth place, having got ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at the pit stops.

“There’s always going to be ifs and buts,” he said when asked by this writer about the missed opportunity. “Yes, I knew after qualifying that it was going to be pretty painful. And today definitely proved it.

“There’s a lot of positive things and encouragement to take from this weekend. I think as a team clearly we’re there. And I think personally, the last two weekends, I feel like I’ve been really strong as well. Miami felt like a really strong weekend, here has felt really strong.

“And I think that was the most we could have got out of the race. For me personally, I’m very happy, I feel like I’ve built a bit of good momentum in the last two weekends, which is something I’ve been trying to aim for a bit more.

“And I think as a team we’re proving in different tracks, different conditions, which are generally conditions that we’ve struggled in in the past, that we’re in the fight for wins.”

Piastri said he had good pace during the race. and that the grid position was the key factor in the outcome.

“Starting further back, I think that was the biggest thing today,” he said. “I think the pace was honestly really good. I think in the first stint we were strong, just stuck behind Carlos. And then the second stint, pushed very hard at the start to undercut him, and then also try and get [Charles] Leclerc.

“And I think just with the tyres, they just don’t like being pushed. I just struggled a bit after that. It looked like Charles had a very similar thing, when he caught the back of Lando and then dropped off. Honestly, I was pretty happy with my race. I don’t think there was much more I could have done.”

Imola was Piastri’s first weekend with the full upgrade package used by Norris in Miami,

“It doesn’t feel that much different, just faster,” he said. “It’s definitely making the car a bit nicer to drive. But I think whenever the car is quicker, it’s always a bit nicer to drive.

“But we’re definitely tackling some of the things that we were trying to. Our strengths and weaknesses seem to be a little bit different now. Our high-speed is not as strong as it once was.

“But our low-speed is a lot stronger than it has been. I think we understand the majority of why that is. So I think we can be pretty confident where we go now.”

Asked to elaborate on how the car felt better he said: “”It just sticks a bit more. And the balance is a little bit nicer. I think with these regs and these tyres, there’s only a certain amount of niceness that you’re going to have. I think if you ask everyone, they probably have a similar balance, just some areas are a bit more exacerbated than others.

“So I feel like we’re making improvements. And most importantly, we’re making the car faster. And when you make the car faster, especially in race trim, it just makes your life so much easier. So I think that’s a really encouraging sign.

“And we’ve come close over one lap in the past last year, but struggled a little bit more in the race, and this year we’re just as strong in the race, if not even stronger, which is really encouraging.”

Given the improved low-speed performance Piastri is upbeat about prospects for the Monaco GP.

“I think we can definitely be confident going there. Obviously Red Bull had a difficult start to the weekend. But, that’s two weekends in a row where they’ve looked not quite as strong as they once were, Miami and here. I think we’re definitely closing in, us and Ferrari are putting on the pressure.

“And I think as a team McLaren we can be very confident wherever we go. And I think Monaco will be hopefully a good weekend.”

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May 21, 2024 · 6:25 am

Alonso frustrated after Imola race turns into test

Fernando Alonso admits that the Emilia Romagna GP turned into a test session for his Aston Martin Formula 1 team after any chance of making progress failed to materialise.

Following a crash in FP3 and a difficult Q1 session Alonso qualified only 19th at Imola.

With little to lose the team then decided to drop him out of parc ferme and change his set-up, obliging him to start from the pitlane.

In a further gamble he started on the unfavourable soft tyre in the anticipation that he might benefit from an early safety car.

In fact the race ran uninterrupted and after an early stop to ditch the soft Alonso finished 19th and last of the cars that were still running.

“Our only hope to be honest was just a safety car, or a few safety cars, red flags or those kinds of things,” he said.

“That’s why we started with the red tyre, in case there is something going on. We still had the yellow and the hard tyre, the best race tyres for the race conditions. But we started at the back, nothing happened the whole race, so we just used the race as a test.”

He added: “It was as predicted. Unfortunately in this race, you only hope for a safety car or red flag or something that can mix a little bit the race.

“It didn’t happen, so it was a little bit boring from behind, always in traffic, trying different strategies, multiple pitstops, all these kinds of things, to get some data for the team. But for the driver himself, there’s not much you can do.”

He also had an interesting moment when his front left brake caught fire as he left the pits.

“I was convinced that the fire will stop as soon as I pick up the speed, and the ventilation plays its part,” he said. “But this is the longest pitlane until you release the pit limiter! So it felt long in the car, but I think everything was fine.”

Alonso reserved judgement about the upgrade package that the team ran for the first time at Imola.

“I think we experimented a lot in FP1, in FP2 with Lance’s car with different packages. FP3 was another experiment.

“Another one now in the race, taking the opportunity on my car to start from the pit lane. So I think it’s early days to make conclusions. And I think it’s a question for the team, with all the data they have they will give more precise information.”

He also said it was hard to judge if the set-up changes made for Sunday had actually improved the car.

“I’ve felt the car similar, to be honest, compared to the rest of the weekend,” he said. “But obviously, the team has all the sensors, all the all the tools to analyse better the car performance, so we have to wait and see what the numbers say, and if we find a direction for the next few races.”

Alonso admitted that recent weeks have been difficult for Aston Martin as rivals continue to improve.

“We are aware of the situation, and we see that the top three teams they are little bit far away at the moment,” he said. “And even VCARB, Daniel [Ricciardo] was P4 in the sprint race in Miami, Yuki [Tsunoda] was very fast this weekend.

“So we need to keep on working, because everything is so tight if you don’t improve those two or three tenths that you naturally have to improve every two or three Grands Prix when you are in the midfield.”

Regarding prospects for the next race he said: “It depends on the car. If the car doesn’t handle well in Monaco, it’s a torture going fast in that track. So I think first of all, we need to set up the car properly.

“We need to find the maximum performance, and we need to concentrate on Saturday. I think on Sunday it’s like here, no one will overtake. So all the effort will be on Saturday like everyone else, and yeah, hopefully that perfect lap comes next weekend.”

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May 18, 2024 · 11:07 am

More to come from Aston after “aggressive” Imola upgrades

Aston Martin Formula 1 technical director Dan Fallows says that the team’s substantial Imola upgrade package is “aggressive” – and he insists that there is still more to come.

For the first European race of the season the AMR24 features a new front wing, nose, floor and floor edges, diffuser, engine cover and rear suspensions fairings.

Early running at Imola on Friday was inconclusive, and the team’s progress was not helped when Fernando Alonso had a major accident in FP3 on Saturday.

While the team has brought several packages already this season – for example at Suzuka – Fallows conceded that this weekend set of updates is the most significant thus far.

“Yeah, it is quite aggressive,” he said. “We knew we had a car we that we had a lot of opportunities with.

“At the beginning of the season we wanted to make sure we had continual upgrades coming through. So this is probably our biggest one to date. But it’s just part of our plan, and we want to sort of keep going with this in the next few races as well.”

Fallows says that the updates were initiated after testing in Bahrain, rather than as a result of how the car performed in the early events, when the car performed better in qualifying than in races.

“I think the majority of this update has been based on what we saw from the launch car, from the car in testing, and then how we wanted to sort of evolve that,” he said.

“We’ve seen some circuits suit our car better than others. And something we focused on, trying to make sure we can perform everywhere, whenever we need to.

“It is generic, it’s trying to make the car more competitive. There are areas we can see where we need to make specific improvements. So we’ve certainly worked on those.”

Fallows said it was key to ensure that the AMR24 is competitive on different types of tracks and a range of faster and slower corners.

“We have an era of ground effect cars where they have specific windows of performance that you’re always trying to sort of broaden that.” he said.

“And you want to make sure when you bring an update that it does perform in all the different conditions. I think we’re all kind of trying to chase the same thing, really.”

Expanding on the quest for consistency he said: “I think we’ve seen that some circuits, some conditions, we’re better than other times.

“And it’s obviously something we look at quite closely, to try and make sure that when we develop a car in the future that we try and sort of iron out those differences.

“But I think everybody’s working very hard to try to sort of understand when we do our performance that we add it in the right way. I think that’s the key thing for us.”

Fallow admitted that at times last year’s upgrades didn’t perform exactly as predicted, and that it’s important to ensure that they work as planned.

“Whenever you bring an update, then you obviously would like to just put it straight on the car, and it does exactly what you expect,” he said.

“But there are different ways of looking at the data, and obviously different things that may be slightly unexpected once you’ve put things on the car.

“We have done some learning in some areas, we’ve realised where we can we can push things harder than we could before. And some things we have to be a bit more careful of. It’s been a learning experience.

“And I think we have a bit more confidence now that these upgrades do work. And we’ll see again today. But there’s been a lot of hard work to try and understand that.”

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May 18, 2024 · 11:02 am

Vowles admits weight key issue for Williams

Williams Formula 1 boss James Vowles says that an overweight car has hindered the team in recent seasons – and that this weekend’s race at Imola sees the start of a programme to address the issue.

Vowles says that the team managed to reduce the chassis weight by 14kgs between 2023 and 2024, which represents a significant saving.

However increases in other areas as the team rushed to complete the car in time for Bahrain testing put the overall package added more weight to the overall package.

Vowles says that the extra weight has cost Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant 0.450s a lap thus far this season, which suggests that the FW46 is around 15kgs above the limit.

“We have produced cars that are not at the weight limit – and I only went back and looked unfortunately, too late – every year since 2019,” he said.

“None of the cars have started at the weight limit, they’ve been far up above it. To give you a view of the pit lane at the moment, everyone out there is near enough at the weight limit, and very few will have physical ballast on the car. Very, very few.

“The transformation we did between 2023 to ‘24 was that we took 14kgs out of the chassis. And for anyone in the business that knows those numbers, you’ll realise that’s an extraordinary feat, the team did very well in doing that.

“However, the car this year that we’ve been running is about four and a half tenths a lap slower every lap by the fact that it’s so overweight.”

Vowles says that the extra weight accumulated largely because the team has traditionally been late in completing the new car build during the winter, and thus compromises are made in the latter stages as the deadline of the first test approaches.

“What happens when you challenge the system and the technology is you can get an output from it,” he said. “And the output from it is things get delayed, and weight gets added is one of the fixes in order to get you back on track.

“And we added an enormous amount of weight – despite the chassis being in a much better place, we added an enormous amount of weight.

“And when I went back through the history of us, of how we operate, with these facilities, with the systems, with the process and structures we have, weight became the natural outlet for it. And as a result of that we’ve been overweight for many, many years.

“What we gave Alex is a car that he’s been openly speaking about as much better balanced, it’s a much better package. If you take four and a half tenths off, you’ll have a realisation as to why Alex has been sat here frustrated.

“What’s not of interest to me is what’s happened. It’s how we move forward from this point on.

“So Imola is the start of weight being shed, that will now continue across the next six races fundamentally, in order to get us back to where we need to be.”

Vowles also admitted that attempts to save weight and develop the car have been hindered by the accident damage incurred thus far this year, which has soaked up resources.

“What’s hindered us is that across the beginning of the season, we have damaged four gearboxes beyond repair, we have damaged five floors, we have damaged four front wings, four rear wings, and some miscellaneous bits,” he noted.

“Any team on the grid, go speak to them, you can’t deal with that plus taking out weight, plus adding aerodynamic performance we’ve hinted ourselves. So the damage bill I just couldn’t believe would have happened at three races.

“But that’s where we are. I’m not proud of any of these facts. But the reason why I’m being open and transparent about it is that’s a red line.

“And this is where it stops and downwards. we produce cars that are effectively up to where they need to be. Williams for many years has had some great people working on items.

“But it’s incredibly expensive, taking weight out of the car and a lot of what we’ve been doing, I did it last year when I joined here is taking weight out. It’s very inefficient in doing it. And that stops now and that’s one of the foundations moving forwards.”

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May 14, 2024 · 8:15 pm

Liberty boss believes “goodwill” of F1 teams will ease Concorde negotiations

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei believes that the goodwill of Formula 1 teams will make for “easier” Concorde Agreement negotiations ahead of a new deal for 2026.

The current Concorde, which runs to the end of 2025, was negotiated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 by then F1 boss Chase Carey.

Since then the teams have boosted their incomes as the sport has expanded, and their earnings from F1’s overall revenue have increased.

Maffei believes that the financial health of the teams in the Liberty era will encourage them to be co-operative as the new Concorde is discussed with Stefano Domenicali.

“We’ve just sent out the new draft of our proposed Concorde Agreement,” said Maffei. “There’s been some discussion with some teams about it, and where it will go. And so we have reason to think it should be relatively easier.

“I’m sure there are teams who will want more money than we want to give them. There’s always that tension.

“But I do believe the goodwill that we have created, and the general fact that they’re all not only making more money remember off of F1, but also their own sponsorship deals have been tremendously stronger – go look at the success of sponsorship at Red Bull, McLaren, even Ferrari now, with their new HP deal.

“The teams are doing very well to where they were before we got involved. So I think that hopefully that goodwill carries forward.”

Maffei made a comparison with the philosophy espoused by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who spoke to the teams at last year’s Canadian GP.

He told them that a sports league and its participants both benefit from working together.

“Prior management, before Liberty, went out of their way to basically have the teams kind of screw each other,” said Maffei. “That was the whole attitude.

“And we’ve tried to take more of the – and full credit to Roger Goodell – fight on Sunday, but on Monday, we’re all together, this is one league, and we do better if we rise together. And I really do think there’s much more of that attitude.

“That doesn’t mean there’s lessened competition. But I think the teams appreciate that Liberty is playing the long game and trying to grow the sport, because that’s how we all profit.

“So in general, the sentiment around the teams towards Formula One Management is very good. And very positive.”

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