Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

According to the GSA website the following are excluded from the cost cap calculations

Driver salaries

Compensation for the three highest-paid staff members

Travel expenses

Marketing expenditures

Property and legal costs

Entry and license fees

Activities unrelated to F1 or road cars

Parental and sick leave payments

Employee bonuses and staff medical benefits

.

However, with, for example, most staff salaries being within it and bonuses excluded, transportation being within in but travel excluded, you can bet the lawyers and accountants are as much at the top of their game as the designers are, arguing the case to exclude as much as possible. (See the RB overspend on sandwiches in 2021…)

Done a bit of reading….apparently new factories are excluded from the cost cap.

Williams managed to get an increase in the budget cap of £15m of Capex…..so they could build a brand new factory for 100s of millions and not be capped, but only 15m to upgrade existing.

so they could build a brand new factory for 100s of millions and not be capped, but only 15m to upgrade existing.

No point building a new factory when you’d just have to put all of the old stuff in it though.

Eddie Jordan must be feeling pretty smug having Adrian Newey join the team that he started back in the day and on a deal that he negotiated.

The historical irony would be if Flav suddenly poaches Eddie’s superstar after the first race 🙂

Can someone explain hown Aston Martin (Stroll Snr) can apparently invest hundreds of millions of dollars into new facilities (including a new wind tunnel) without breaching cost cap rules?

Capital expenditure isn’t covered by the budget cap, AIUI. The top six teams have a capex limit of $45 million over a rolling four year period, the bottom four have $65 million. I don’t know how they deal with teams like McLaren who sold their premises but then leased them back.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/from-power-unit-usage-to-promotional-events-8-rule-changes-you-need-to-know.3K9yKq5H9VZlJCr4HTua6i

If I was a betting man, I’d put money on Max going to Aston in 2026.  Lots of money.  Stroll Snr seems the kind of guy Verstappen Snr would get on with.

would be entertaining to see if he plays nicely with the bosses boy

Verstappen probably has it written into his contract to have a team mate who is no-where near him.

He’d be fine with Stroll jr

TwodogsFull Member
If I was a betting man, I’d put money on Max going to Aston in 2026.  Lots of money.  Stroll Snr seems the kind of guy Verstappen Snr would get on with.

To replace Lance?  Unfortunately I doubt it. And it won’t be to replace Fred as he’s contracted until the end of ’26.

And it won’t be to replace Fred as he’s contracted until the end of ’26.

this is fixable with money which doesnt seem to be in short supply here

They’ll put Lance in WEC.  And who’s Fred?

I don’t think Stroll’s a bad driver TBH. You can’t be terrible if you manage to put a Williams on the podium after just 8 races in your first season, and the season he won in F3 he was so far ahead he’d won with something like 5 races still to go. The standard in F1 is so high, he looks totally average, that and the Aston Martin (and racing point before that) are/were very mediocre cars

dakuan

this is fixable with money which doesnt seem to be in short supply here

Yes, but only if Alonso is amenable to taking money to exit the contract.  From the interviews etc I’ve read, it’s very clear he wants a final championship and I bet he’s not short of cash.

Besides, Adrian specifically cited working with him and/or Lewis as pre-retirement goals.

Mclaren confirm Piastri now in supporting role for Lando

https://x.com/F1/status/1834260178838962645

If he was actually good enough he wouldn’t need that.

If he wasn’t good enough he wouldn’t be in a position where it would make a difference.

McLaren have lost titles before because the drivers have been taking points off each other, 2007 springs to mind. I’m pretty sure Hamilton and Alonso were both good enough

Its not as simple as the headlines though.

From the press conferences, its not going to be as simple as Oscar moving out of the way, or giving up wins for Lando.

McLaren have lost titles before because the drivers have been taking points off each other, 2007 springs to mind. I’m pretty sure Hamilton and Alonso were both good enough

Actually , just to add to my earlier point. Raikenen was given preference over Massa in the latter stages of the season, much as Norris is now (a couple of races too late IMO) but the following year the boot was on the foot, McLaren may likewise swap next year if Piastri is in a position to challenge and Norris isn’t.

I can kind of see why they did what they did in 2007, both drivers were in with a shout so give them equal chances. This was fine in, for instance, 1988, where there was no one from another team in contention, and equality was fine last year when neither driver had much of a chance of a title, but this year is different. I know Oscar could still win it this year, but it’s definitely time to start piling eggs into Norris’s basket.

McLaren have lost titles before because the drivers have been taking points off each other, 2007 springs to mind. I’m pretty sure Hamilton and Alonso were both good enough

True, they were both good enough, Hamilton as a rookie was way better than Norris is currently. They did technically still win the constructors championship if you ignore the disqualification and the $100m fine 🙂

If he was actually good enough he wouldn’t need that.

It’s not that simple though is it? Pastry’s overtake at Monza caused Norris to slow enough to let LeClerc get past as well (to avoid damaging the cars, like he was told). I think Mclaren probably didn’t mind their drivers racing each other, but when the actions of one of your drivers  gets you from a [pretty certain] 1-2 finish to a 2-3 finish instead, you’ve got to have firmer rules than ‘mango’.

If he was actually good enough he wouldn’t need that.

To be fair to Norris he pretty much says the same thing.

Reading what Piastri, Norris and Stella have said, I think they’re now taking a decent stance on it: it won’t be weekly messages of “Lando is faster than you”, but clearly if they were to find themselves in the same situation as in Hungary now they wouldn’t swap back. In between those extremes are myriad other situations which they’ll play by ear—but with the confidence that if they do feel it’s appropriate to do something (or to not do something) then everyone’s on board.

nickc

I think Mclaren probably didn’t mind their drivers racing each other, but when the actions of one of your drivers  gets you from a [pretty certain] 1-2 finish to a 2-3 finish instead, you’ve got to have firmer rules than ‘mango’.
Posted 2 hours ago

You’re making it sound like Oscar was racing really hard and forced him wide or something.

Norris made two mistakes which basically equated to opening the door then standing there holding it open for him to go through! Okay so he avoided any chance of damage, but come on! A little bit of assertiveness when you’re challenging for the championship please!

Norris made two mistakes

I think Norris has recognised that Piastri did a great job on the overtake, you can blame Norris for that, but they’re both really good drivers and at that point, there was no other instructions other than don’t bend the cars, Piastri obviously took the gamble that Norris wouldn’t fight that hard and he was right. I think Norris has also said that had he defended a bit more robustly and braked a little later there was a pretty good chance of them hitting each other. I think he was damned if he did, and 6 of the other.

The upshot though while it was a personally good result for Piastri, is that they’re still not ahead in constructors and Norris has a harder job taking advantage of the better performance they have over the RB. At what point does the management at McLaren have to make it obvious?

If he was actually good enough he wouldn’t need that.

Lando has outqualified Oscar 14-2, and beaten him in races 10-6.  So there’s that.

Twodogs

Lando has outqualified Oscar 14-2, and beaten him in races 10-6.  So there’s that.

Yes, his raw pace is excellent, and superior to Oscar’s at at the moment. He just needs to get on top of the mistakes really. He’s lost probably 30-40 points in bad starts/opening laps. Barcelona, Hungary, Spa, Monza. Netherlands he won convincingly but again, bad start.

I think not having to fight his team mate will help him a lot.

FP1. Checo has done a pretty good, right up there. This track does seem to suit him.

Decent position from Bearman. Collopinto has gone faster than Albon but also crashed, so that’s something of an improvement on Sargent

FP2. Checo has done a pretty good job, right up there. This track does seem to suit him.

Decent position from Bearman. Collopinto has gone almost as fast Albon and not quite crashed, so that’s a big improvement on Sargent.

Oops Lando, that’ll make the race tricky.

Bit of a screw up by Williams

Great work from Colapinto – I wonder if Vowles is looking at Carlos Sainz contract and wondering if he can drop him and save a few quid!! 🙂

But also a shame for Colapinto – he could do a great season end and have nowhere to go for a couple of seasons.

Unless we have a SC tomorrow its going to be a recovery drive from Lando to get back into the top 10 and scrape a few points.

Bit of a double whammy as Max should extend his championship lead and Oscar to close the gap to Lando, which makes backing Lando for the rest of the year more difficult.

Also, if Charles can win that would take him to similar points to Lando.

Good to see that Williams decision to go with Colapinto is paying off.

Max and Lewis next to each other could see some fireworks in the first few corners.

Big oof for this one

https://x.com/racefansdotnet/status/1834998807337001245

Max and Lewis next to each other

Max is directly behind Checo so I’m expecting some choreography off the start to usher Max through, avoiding any issues with Hamilton or Russell (did you forget George had out qualified both of them? 🙂  )

Quali. Checo has done a pretty good job, right up there. This track does seem to suit him.

Decent position from Bearman. Collopinto has gone faster than Albon and not crashed, so that’s a big improvement on Sargent.

Big oof for this one

So they didn’t forget it then, looks like he was still trying to get it out and Albon was released a second or two early?

The best thing Piastri can do to help Norris is stop Verstappen winning the race, ideally by winning it himself. I’m sure he’ll delighted to help out if he can

andrewh

So they didn’t forget it then, looks like he was still trying to get it out and Albon was released a second or two early?

Yeah  the engineer was quite close to the rear wheel, it could have been another Ferrari style broken leg situation.

Hamilton starting from pitlane after taking a new power unit.

https://x.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1835224181442535607

That was messy!