Fines, Letters and Restructuring || The Latest F1 News

00:00

Team restructuring, letters to fans and legal action. We’re only two races into the F1 season and there’s already been a lot of news to keep up with. So, get ready, because you’ve been summoned to the Steward’s Office.

00:20

Hello, everyone and welcome back to the Steward’s Office. I’m Saira and today I’m going to be doing a recap on some of the news and events that have been going around the paddock since the season started. There is always some kind of news coming out of F1, even when it’s not a race week. So, let’s just dive right in!

00:41

I’m going to have to start off with the massive letter that Mercedes posted to their website after the Bahrain Grand Prix. I think we could all tell that the team were starting on the back foot when we saw them in that first race. From that point, I knew that it was probably going to be a pretty difficult season.

01:03

And I kind of just expected the usual social media posts that we’ve seen from Mercedes. You know the ones that I'm on about. The whole, we’ll come back fighting, it was a hard weekend for the team but we’re sticking together. And we did see a lot of that post race.

01:21

But for some reason, Mercedes also decided to publish a letter. A 500-word letter where they spoke about how they knew that the fans were disappointed but so were they. They weren’t going to be pointing any fingers at people in the team and it was just going to be a process for them over the coming races as they worked to figure out what happened. And by the end of the letter, they just wanted their fans to continue supporting them. To keep pushing them forward, keep encouraging them and stick by their side.

01:53

And I think a lot of us were stuck wondering why Mercedes felt the need to publish this letter when we were only one race into the season. I could get it if we were seeing the car completely fall apart on track, if we’d seen a double DNF or they had drastically dropped back and I’m talking at the back of the grid, picking up no points that weekend whatsoever. But that wasn’t even the case here. It really wasn’t actually that bad.

02:21

Look, I’m a Mercedes fan and of course it was disappointing to see that they hadn’t really made the improvements that we had all been expecting and hoping for. But like I said, if they were right at the back of the field, the car was unreliable and both cars were way out of the points, I’d feel so much worse about this. The reality is though that yeah, it’s not a great car and seeing Aston Martin completely leapfrog Merc is gutting as a fan of the team. But it’s really not that bad. Not bad enough to warrant a letter after one race.

03:00

I don’t know, guys, part of me wonders if there was potentially a slew of online hate towards the team on their socials. Some “fans”, and I’m using that word lightly, can get vile and send hate. Or you just see the constant comments telling the admin to stop posting and make a better car. I don’t know if this is a surprise to some people… but the social media admins for the teams usually don’t work on the car. I know, really shocking stuff there. So, comments like that, I just don’t see the point in them. But yeah, maybe that was why or they were trying to get ahead of those comments because there were so many of them last season. But I don't know. I don’t know why the opted to put a letter like that out right at the start of the season. It was a little strange to see and I know that a lot of you felt the same way when it got published.

03:58

Now there has been some pretty interesting news that’s been surrounding Haas. Not so much the F1 team though but Haas Automation and Gene Haas founded both the F1 team and the company so that is where the link comes in. Haas Automation are a machine tool company and a Ukrainian watchdog has accused the company of breaking US sanctions by sending high-precision CNC parts to Russian military suppliers. They’ve said that they’ve found evidence to show that this has happened over the past year and you can understand why this is going to be a massive problem for the company if it’s true.

04:39

The vice president of Haas Automation has said that these are false claims. That they haven’t been trading with Russia since a few weeks after the invasion of Ukraine had begun. But PBS Newshour, who did a report on this story, said that they’ve found records that show that the company were shipping to Russia months, not weeks, after the invasion.

05:02

the team’s title sponsor in: 2021

05:26

So, Haas didn’t really hesitate in distancing themselves from anything remotely Russian that was near their team. They were really quick just to cut those ties as soon as they could. So, all the news now probably isn’t what they were expecting. The F1 team have even opted to reshare the statement that the main company had given, reiterating that the story was false. Guenther Steiner said he wanted to reshare the statement because they were getting a lot of questions about it and I get that. Instead of answering the same thing over and over when it's not really to do with the F1 team, it’s just easier to reshare that same statement so people kinda know where the team stand with everything going on.

06:11

I’m not really sure what’s going to happen from here though. Will they be subject to a legal investigation? I have no clue and when I say they I do mean Haas Automation not the F1 team. But the company are standing by the fact that they’ve done nothing wrong and haven’t broken any sanctions. But if they do face legal action, there is always a chance that it could affect the F1 team given who their founder is.

06:36

ought out the Minardi team in: 2005

07:00

And look, let’s be honest here guys, it’s pretty clear to see that the AlphaTauri seats are generally used as Red Bull junior seats, Seb Vettel, Daniel Riccardo and Max Verstappen made their debut there before moving into the main RBR seat. Okay, technically Seb made his debut at the team when they were Torro Rosso, but those are just a handful of RBR juniors that made their start at the AlphaTauri team. But why the rumours about RBR selling the team suddenly?

07:34

Sure,: 2022

08:04

Unlike, RedBull, AlphaTauri is actually based in Italy, instead of Milton Keynes and there were reports saying that the team just wasn’t cost-effective. Rumours had it that it was costing more to run than the main team and the fashion brand wasn’t doing as well as they were expecting it to. So, that just opened up the floodgates for news reports about the team being sold and who could potentially buy them out and of course, Andretti was one of the main names that got batted around in that conversation.

08:37

But RBR and Alphatauri didn’t let those rumours carry on for too long. Franz Tost had come out about a week later with a statement saying that he had spoken to the current CEO and Manging Director of Red Bull and there were currently no plans for Scuderia AlphaTauri to be sold and that Red Bull were planning to support the team into the future.

08:59

y making their own engines in: 2026

10:06

At least that’s not something that AlphaTauri, RBR or their junior drivers need to worry about right now because there aren’t any plans to sell that team.

10:16

We’ve also had news of some massive restructuring coming from two teams in F1 and they were Ferrari and McLaren. Let’s start off with Ferrari first though because there were a lot of rumours that were swirling around Maranello. We’ve heard multiple rumours now about key figures in Ferrari either wanting to leave, being sacked or quitting. I think right now one of the highest profile Ferrari employees I’ve heard rumours about wanting to leave is Laurent Mekies who is the racing director of the team but that’s also been mixed with the news that the team want to fire him. So, I've seen those rumours in some places and rumours that he wants to leave in some places.

11:01

And these rumours have already linked with jobs with Alpine and the FIA. But we're going to have to wait and see if any of that actually comes to fruition.

11:11

One person who has left the team though after resigning is David Sanchez who was a key part of the car concept design and we will get back to him later, I promise. But with rumours of more dismissals and grumblings of unhappiness, you start to wonder what is actually going on at the factory. Because this is the most I’ve heard about people leaving the Scuderia in what’s a pretty short amount of time.

11:39

Corriere Dello Sport, and Italian sports newspapers, have said that there had been a bit of a rift between Fred Vasseur and the managing director of Ferrari. What the rumours were saying was that Vasseur doesn’t actually have that much power over Ferrari compared to previous Team Principals and so he hasn’t really had a say in the staffing at Ferrari and that mainly those decisions are coming from the Ferrari board.

12:06

On the other hand though, there have been rumours that staff have been leaving that were especially loyal to Mattia Binotto, the last Team Principal and that they weren’t particularly happy with the new changes. So, there are definitely been some conflicting news pieces there and it’s just been hard to decipher who wants to leave or who Ferrari might want to fire and who is actually staying with the team right now.

12:31

Fred Vasseur has been trying to get on top of the rumours though. In terms of Laurent Mekies he’s pretty confident that the Race Director won’t be leaving any time soon and the same goes for any of the other staff members that have been rumoured to leave. To be fair, he’s been pretty open in saying that yeah, of course, people aren't happy at the team right now. They aren’t winning, the car isn’t where they expected it to be and the start of the season hasn’t been great for them so he’s not expecting them to be happy. But he said that there’s a difference between them being unhappy and them wanting to leave their jobs.

13:09

He's tried to play down those who have left though and those who might be planning to leave. Vasseur basically said that it’s just what happens in F1 teams, you get staff turnover. No one is going to stay in the same job forever and you’re gonna want new blood coming into the team and look, he does have a point. But the rate at which these rumours are coming, it feels like there’s a bit more going on there than the usual staff turnover.

13:39

I mean, for me, I think changing your team principal is a big change in and of itself, right? Especially when you’ve brought in a team principal from a different team. But when you’re pairing that up with some key figures from the team leaving or rumoured to be leaving, I feel like you’re just gonna start unsettling the team. You can promote people or bring new people in but it’s just going to take a little while to have the dust settle and for the team to function as a whole unit again. But Vassuer doesn’t think that key people are going to be leaving the team but has he actually have that reassurance from those people, like has he asked them, or is he just hoping for the best here? Because even having that reassurance from them doesn't mean that they're not going to leave.

14:26

On top of that, Vasseur did quash the rumours that it was the board, and in particular the Managing Director, who was in charge of the decisions and not him. He said that he has been given room to make the decisions that he wants for the team, no one else is in charge of that which, look, to a certain extent I do believe that. But with Ferrari, I feel like it’s going to be a team where the board probably has a much bigger say in things like staffing. So, while all the decisions might not be made by the board, I still think they’re gonna have more of an influence there than what Vasseur might want to let on to the media.

15:07

There does seem to be some internal leaks with the team though… not only have we had rumours that people might be leaving or are being fired, but we’ve also had news come out about staff contracts. And in particular, the length of those contracts. And that’s news that someone only in Ferrari would know about. And AMuS, a German Motorsport new outlet thinks that this could be a deliberate leak. And I don’t know whether it’s being done on purpose or not. It could be something innocent, just a worker telling their partner or their friend about someone’s contract running out and it just got spread around. You know how these things happen. But if it is deliberate and to try and start up the rumour mill, then I think we can say that there’s definitely some discontent in Ferrari that’s causing someone to want to do that and that is an issue of it's own.

16:07

Compared to Ferrari, McLaren haven't had so many rumours surrounding them though. Instead, they just bit the bullet and got straight into restructuring. The team announced a few days ago that James Keys was going to be leaving McLaren as their technical director. As far as I know, there hasn’t been a particular reason as to why he left or if he has any work lined up after this but McLaren have announced some new positions in their team afterwards.

16:36

The team have decided to move away from having a single Technical Director in charge of everything and have split up the role into three parts. They now have a Techincal Director for Aerodynamics, Car Concept and Performance and Engineering and Design. Peter Prodromou, I hope I've pronounced that right, my apologies if I haven't, is taking over the Aerodynamics department with 32 years worth of F1 experience. David Sanchez will be overseeing Car Concept and Performance coming from Ferrari and finally, Neil Houldey was promoted to take over Engineering and Design.

17:15

David Sanchez has to be the most interesting appointment there for me because of that move from Ferrari. When he left his role at the Scuderia he’d been linked with a role in his former team but nothing had been confirmed at the time. But we now know that those rumours are true. I’m just curious what the driving force was behind that move. He’d spent ten years with Ferrari and then opted to go back to McLaren which, to be fair, is a team that he’s familiar with but also a team that isn’t doing as well as Ferrari right now and has seen a bit of a decline in performance in recent years. So, I would love to know why he opted for that move.

17:58

McLaren have been quick to say that none of these changes are because the bad start that the team have had this season. They weren’t reacting to that at all. But with Andrea Stella as the new Team Principal, he’s taken the time to really look at and evaluate the team’s structure and wants to build a solid foundation that the team can continue to build on in the future and he thinks that this is going to be the best way forward for McLaren.

18:24

Splitting that Technical Director role into three is going to mean that each of those men can really focus on their particular area. They aren’t being stretched too thin and hopefully, it will mean that there’s less of a chance that things slip through the cracks when they’re designing the car. But it’s not going to be a quick fix for McLaren and I don’t think that they’re expecting it to be either.

18:47

David Sanchez is going to have to go on gardening leave so he won’t even be starting with McLaren until next year. Right now, I’m just going to be interested to see how the rest of the season progresses for McLaren and if there are any other changes coming up for them with their technical staff. I don’t think there will be, I mean I don’t think McLaren are going to be dismissing anyone right now but if there’s a growing discontent within the team, then there’s always a chance that we see some people opting to leave. Right now though, I think it might take a little for us to see whether this technical shuffle is going to make a difference to McLaren and we're gonna have to see that in coming years.

19:30

And finally, we’re getting to the most recent piece of news as of the time of recording and that is Nelson Piquet’s fine. I’m gonna give a quick bit of a backstory for people who might now know what’s gone on here or might have forgotten because it’s been a little while since all this had started.

19:52

So, all of this began back in: 2021

20:36

And I can never fathom why people have to use derogatory language to describe anyone. I don’t care how much to dislike a person, I don’t think there’s ever a need to stoop that low but obviously, that is not how everyone else thinks.

20:54

rfaced, which was around July: 2022

21:49

Eventually, Piquet came out to apologise but said that he never used the racist term as a racist term. It’s just a colloquial term that they use in Brazil that can mean a person or a guy and he hadn’t meant to offend anyone. It was just an ill-thought-out comment. And said that he would never belittle someone based on their skin colour.

22:11

The Brazillian courts obviously thought differently though to Piquet. Four different human rights groups had brought charges against Piquet for the language that he used. They asked him to pay 10 million Brazillian Reals for moral damages and the court ruled in their favour but they asked Piquet to pay a smaller sum of 5 million Reals which is around about £780,000 but Piquet is able to appeal the decision if he wants to.

22:42

On top of that, at the time the comments had been bought to light last year, Formula One also banned Nelson Piquet from the paddock. And considering that we have a Brazillian Grand Prix which would be his home Grand Prix and that his daughter is dating the reigning world champion, that probably wasn’t welcome news to him but I think it was the right action to take.

23:04

There is so much work still to be done in F1 to create not only a more diverse environment but also a safe environment where language like that isn't used. And even though there is a very long way to go to achieve all of that, I really do think this was the right step for them to take. On whether or not Piquet will decide to appeal the decision, I have a feeling that he will but I don’t know whether it’s going to make any difference to the judgement and I think he’s still going to end up having to pay that fine.

23:39

Considering we first heard about these comments in around July last year, it’s taken a few months to get to the decision and yeah, for now, this is a closed case unless he appeals but this does just highlight the bigger issue that F1 and society as a whole are trying to tackle here with racism, homophobia and discrimination of any kind. And there’s still a lot of work to do to help educate people on why language like that isn’t helpful to use. But for now, I hope the decision that the Brazilian courts have taken shows that this language isn’t okay to use. It is harmful and that there are repercussions for it. Becuase regardless of whether or not you are a public figure. Whether or not you have millions in your bank account or not. No one should be calling you discriminatory, homophobic, racist names. It is not okay. And I'm glad the courts and F1 have taken a stance on this.

24:39

And that just about some up some of the biggest pieces of news and rumours that have been going on in F1 right now. And to think we’re only two races into the season… I mean who knows what else is going to happen by the time we get to the European leg of the season because I don’t think it’s going to be long before the silly season rumours start out in full force either. But I will be waiting on those rumours to start happening. I feel like we're already starting to get little bits of it here and there but we will see what happens guys. And I will keep us updated on what is going on.

25:15

Thank you guys so much for listening. Make sure to follow this podcast because next week I’m going to be doing a review of the Australian Grand Prix and please wish me luck for that one because I’m going to be on a dodgy sleep schedule because of Ramadan so we're going to have to see how that one goes. Make sure to follow my Instagram and TikTok, @stewards_office. And I’ll see you guys the next time you’re summoned to the Steward’s Office.