Hi there! Welcome to Track Limits, a weekly F1 newsletter where we break down the major headlines and dive into the trends and topics sparking our curiosity. Nothing is off-topic and a little fun is always part of the mix!
Good afternoon!! I don’t know why I thought I could take a small break and completely disconnect. If anything, I should have known that it would be exactly the moment major news would drop or silliness would be at its highest!
I mean, the last time I took a small break from Formula One Hamilton announced he was driving for Ferrari!!
Luckily, it wasn’t that major this time around! Just Red Bull rumors, Hulkenberg announcing his Audi seat, and Ferrari teasing us with a blue livery. Sure, let’s pretend we believe that!!
Some drivers just can’t help themselves. No matter how much they try, they are just prone to shenanigans! Norris’ stint in Amsterdam, during the Dutch national holiday Kings Day, is a classic example of that! Not only did he join his friend Martin Garrix as he Djied around the overcrowded city, but he managed to injure himself in the process. No worries, it’s just a cut on his nose and a couple of bruises!
Another driver engaging in serious physical activity during his break was Bottas! Gravel cycling has become his new hobby, so what did he do in between Shanghai and Miami? Oh, just compete in a 170 km-long competition in South Africa!! Are we surprised he finished 6th in his age group and qualified for the 2024 UCI Gravel World Championship? Not at all!!! Just out of curiosity, I checked and he can actually compete because there is no race that week.
Gasly attended his first FC Versailles game as a club owner. Russell spent the week in Los Angeles and was invited by Jenson Button to “do some toddler sitting”. Highly doubt that actually happened, but it did make me wonder what kind of a babysitter Russell would be. Honestly, can’t imagine him being anything other than “the super responsible” type where he makes you go to bed on time!!
Sainz was featured in Sportweek Magazine. I’m not a fan of the outfits or pictures, but the article was very informative! In it, he reveals he doesn’t buy his own clothes. I mean, I wasn’t expecting him to go to the mall. But for some reason, I thought a stylist was pulling clothes for him or maybe he was doing some late-night online shopping like the rest of us! It seems that’s not the case, as it’s his mom and sisters doing the shopping for him. This could explain the recurring chino pants and polos?!
Leclerc continued to tease us with cute pictures and videos of Leo. Guanyu announced he is the new brand ambassador for McDonald’s China. Susie Wolff had a small press tour in New York City to promote the F1 Academy race in Miami. And in the meanwhile, Toto Wolff and Hamilton attended the WhatsApp event at the Empire State Building to launch a new black race car emoji. Not only this, but Hamilton did a demonstration run on 5th Avenue!! If that’s how WhatsApp launches an emoji could you imagine if they had to do an actual car launch?!!!
Newey’s Departure
Last week the BBC reported Adrian Newey had informed Red Bull he wanted to leave the team. Despite official confirmation only arriving this morning, speculations have been going around for months that Red Bull’s chief technical officer felt uneasy about the ongoing internal power struggles and the recent Horner accusations.
The news of his departure means one of the most highly regarded designers in modern Formula One will be a free agent. This not only has the potential to impact the grid’s pecking order, but it will more than likely agitate the driver market.
THE REASONING:
In 2026 Formula 1 will be introducing a new set of technical regulations. As of now, only the power unit regulations have been drawn up, as they played a significant part in guaranteeing several OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) would join this new era of Formula One.
The problem, however, with developing the technical regulations for the power unit disjointly from the chassis is that it creates performance problems aerodynamics will need to compensate for. This means that the aerodynamic design will once again be a fundamental element to a team’s ability to extract the most performance out of their car.
As the most successful aerodynamicist in Formula One, Adrian Newey is not just an iconic figure in the sport, but a valuable asset to any team with pockets deep enough. Especially, if they want to make it happen before 2026.
This however is a big if! First of all, Newey still has a contract with Red Bull until the first quarter of 2025. After which he more than likely has a 12-month-long gardening leave. In very simple terms, it’s when an employee is leaving a team, but isn’t allowed to be at his workplace during his notice period as a way to avoid the transfer of knowledge from one team to another.
As such, in normal circumstances, Newey won’t be joining any team before the new regulations go into force. With cars being designed months and months before they hit the track, it means we won’t see a Newey car before 2027. However, these less-than-ideal contractual settings aren’t dissuading any team from wooing him!
This brings us to the most likely contender, Ferrari. Sure, Aston Martin can write a nice cheque and give Newey the most modern Formula One facility on the grid. But if you have been anywhere near someone close to retirement age, you will have noticed they evaluate professional opportunities through a very different lens. Things such as legacy, the people they will be working with, and their overall well-being become more important. All of which, give Ferrari the upper hand.
Ferrari has actually been courting Newey for years. Just last season rumors were going around that he was being offered the position of technical director, as well as the opportunity to design a road car. Despite the early signs that Red Bull was struggling with the absence of Mateschitz, it was not quite enough to make the Ferrari/Newey deal happen.
Hamilton’s announcement he is joining the prancing horse in 2025 and the fizzy drink team being in a full-blown internal war, may have created the ideal conditions for Newey to take Ferrari up on its offer. Especially, if we take into account that Newey has spoken about regretting not having had the opportunity to work with Ferrari AND Hamilton. Something he could easily check off his bucket list with this potential new deal!
This brings us to Ferrari’s new title sponsor HP - the American information technology company. As the most valuable team on the grid with an estimated revenue of over $500 million in 2023, why would they need a title sponsor? Not only does it look and sound horrible - in my humble opinion! - but with the cost cap in place what are they going to do with the extra cash?
Well, under the financial regulations, the drivers’ salaries and the salaries of the three highest-earning employees don’t fall within a team’s cost cap. As such, the reported $90 million a year HP is paying may be the additional funding Ferrari needed to pay Hamilton’s salary as well as Newey’s.
But as much as the prospect of a Ferrari/ Hamilton/ Newey era excites us all - Ferrari fan or not! A Newey move raises questions regarding Verstappen’s future at Red Bull. If until now the Dutchman had been adamant he would see his contract out, news of a key player leaving may well be the thing to make him reconsider that.
This would completely turn the driver market upside down and could potentially be the final blow to Red Bull’s dominance.
Point System Change
During the Chinese Grand Prix, the FIA announced it would be analyzing the possibility of changing the current point system during the upcoming F1 Commission meeting. The proposed change would expand the points payout to P12 by increasing the points for P9 to 4 and P10 to 3. Allocating 2 points to P11 and 1 point to P12.
Despite most teams publicly supporting this change, it was decided that the matter would be further analyzed before introducing the new system into the 2025 sporting regulations.
WHY IT MATTERS:
A structural change to the sport - like a new point system - is not something that typically fosters consensus amongst key decision-makers, let alone straight away. So what about the change makes it an attractive proposition to all three key players in Formula One?
FIA: It may not amount to a massive boost to their annual revenue stream, but more points mean the entry fees drivers and teams have to pay the FIA increase. With the new point system, each race weekend will have 109 points to distribute amongst competitors rather than the 101 we currently have. After 24 races, that amounts to 192 additional points. If we assume the entry fee stays the same as the ones charged last year - $6.575 for each point a team scored and $2.257 for each point a driver scored - the 192-point increase represents $1.695.744. Without the need to allocate additional resources to implement the change, it becomes very clear why the FIA likes the proposed point system!
FOM: Formula One is not what it once was. Reliability is better and the performance spread amongst teams is getting smaller and smaller. If we once had a 7% or higher performance spread - the reason why the 107% rule was introduced - we now have occasions where that is around 2%. All of this means, that scoring points has become harder, especially for the midfield. But unlike previous seasons, it’s exactly in the midfield where the exciting wheel-to-wheel racing is happening. As such, by giving midfield teams access to points, F1 is making these battles more consequential. The expectation is that this will be reason enough for fans to stay engaged with the sport during this period of dominance and hopefully reverse the downward trend of viewership and attendance in some markets.
TEAMS: One of the main issues for the midfield is that a car finishing in P20 receives the same amount of points as one crossing the finish line in P11. This means that point-wise the current system doesn’t accurately reflect the competitive order. The proposed point structure would improve this by allowing top-performing midfield teams to differentiate themselves from the actual back markers. This has the potential to impact the final standing in the constructor championship, which is extremely relevant as it equates to higher prize money. Another issue, maybe less obvious, is the difficulty teams have in obtaining sponsorship if they don’t have points. It’s a hard sell convincing sponsors of a team’s performance potential and reach when they aren’t even fighting for points. As such, changing this could mean more interest from sponsors and maybe even the ability to charge higher fees.
As for the fans, it’s unclear if the proposed point structure has widespread support or not. To be honest, I think most of us are increasingly adopting a “let’s wait and see” attitude toward any changes F1 puts forward. Is that a good thing? I would argue it’s not!
The COTA Mystery
In early April COTA unveiled a special deal for early bird buyers where the promoter offers to repurchase any general admission 3-Day weekend grounds pass for $350 - slightly higher than the “early bird” price.
Unsurprisingly, the deal raised eyebrows and the overall sentiment among fans is that something is going on. What, however, no one seems to know!
ZOOMING OUT:
It’s fair to say that the live events ticketing industry hasn’t inspired a lot of trust among American consumers.
Just two years ago, millions of Taylor Swift fans faced numerous issues while trying to buy tickets for the highly anticipated Eras Tour. As a result, judicial hearings were held and lawsuits were filed accusing the country’s leading ticketing platform - Ticketmaster - of fraud, price-fixing, and anti-trust violations.
Over the last 13 years, Ticketmaster has actually been at the center of numerous reports of monopolistic behavior. Ranging from venues being threatened if they didn’t use Ticketmaster, fans not being given clear upfront information about the pricing of tickets, artists being charged “backstage costs” leaving them without any profit margin, and ticket inventory showing up on the company’s resale marketplace being sold at a premium price point.
These issues have raised serious concerns about the industry’s lack of competition and created a certain animosity amongst American consumers towards Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation.
As such, it’s no surprise that the American Justice Department is reportedly preparing to file an anti-trust lawsuit against Live Nation. If successful, it could actually lead to the unwinding of the Ticketmaster/ Live Nation merger.
All that to say neither the ticketing industry nor Live Nation - which coincidently is owned by the commercial rights holder of Formula 1, Liberty Media - have been in consumers’ good graces. As such, by being vague about the reasons behind the offer, COTA inadvertently triggered fans’ negative emotions and perceptions about the ticketing industry. Prompting them to lump COTA, Ticketmaster, and Liberty Media together as if they were one and the same. This is absolutely understandable and something COTA could and should have foreseen.
Interestingly, COTA didn’t change the communication surrounding the deal or the deal itself, even after the major backlash. Which makes you wonder why.
This week’s recommended content!!
🗞 READ
Ferrari is red, but it is also blue | The Absurdity of Sainz’s 2025 F1 Situation | How F1’s Red Bull Mastered the Art of the 2-second pit stop | James Hinchcliffe picks five US-based racers who deserve a shot in F1 | Who was Ayrton Senna and why is he regarded as one of F1’s greatest drivers? | Fast and luxurious: how the fashion industry caught Formula 1 fever
🎧 LISTEN
The Red Flags Podcast, Learning F1 Race Strategy from Ruth Buscombe | F1 Explains, Suits, Boots + underwear: what F1 drivers race in | Choosing Sides: F1, The Gossip | F1: Beyond the Grid, Pat Symonds: racing into F1’s future
Photo Credit: Red Bull Racing, Formula 1, Williams Racing