The F1 thread

sinbaadi

Boromedic said:

Na, it's all about trying to settle Max down, they announced it really really early, usually they do these things around September time. It's all about getting Max to stay with a small element of trying to encourage Checo not to be so shit. They failed in one of those aims. Max absolutely believes he can beat any teammate, cos all they greats do, but he doesn't want to be battling with them either like Lewis and Nico or Seb and Mark.

I'm pretty sure the cash is handy, but they don't "need" it, if his form stays this shit I'd expect him to be bumped to RB.

Need and want. 

They need to pay Max $70m per annum. 
They want Checo's sponsors/backers to cover a chunk of that.

Would Checo leaving mean RBR fold?  Of course not, but it's also a business.

Cols

Fully agree with @Boromedic on this.

RBR have been positively awash with sponsorship cash since the end of 2021.  They’re certainly not going to say no to the money Perez brings with him, but they don’t need it - Verstappen winning the DWC and RBR winning the CWC are far more important, in that order.  If there was another driver who would help them achieve those objectives more effectively but didn’t come with a fat sponsorship deal (and they hoped DR was going to be the man for this), Checo would be out.

That said, @sinbaadi makes a great point that Perez is effectively paying Max’s salary.

stickyfiddle

Vowles saying multiple "name" signings are coming. Could it possibly include Newey? Could that be why Alton is on a multi-year deal and Saint is interested? Do I dare to dream?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/vowles-says-williams-on-the-brink-of-big-name-signings-amid-rebuilding.7ibtn5iicDfpppSlV490bG

Boromedic

Well, I'm hoping Newey is now an Italian employee

Would like to see Sainz heading to Williams though.

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Vowles saying multiple "name" signings are coming. Could it possibly include Newey? Could that be why Alton is on a multi-year deal and Saint is interested? Do I dare to dream?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/vowles-says-williams-on-the-brink-of-big-name-signings-amid-rebuilding.7ibtn5iicDfpppSlV490bG

The cynic in me feels this is akin to The Jordan Stopwatch, where the Jordan cars would set impressive times in preseason testing so Eddie could shake down a few more sponsors.

I can’t see Newey going anywhere near Williams; even with serious investment and Merc knocking it out of the park with the 2026 engine they’d still be years away from winning form.  And I reckon Newey wants to run until he’s 70 and then call it quits, so he’ll want to be at a winning team from the word go.

My guess?  Newey will announce his future career intentions at Monza.

stickyfiddle

Yeah to be fair I would also prefer Newey to end up at Ferrari with Lewis & Charles and I agree that's more likely.

But if not there then Williams would be epic. 

Cols

Rumours that Renault are planning to close down their engine supply to Alpine from 2026, obviously fed up of the high cost and lack of results.

Curiously this would mean one of the others - Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, Audi or Honda -would be compelled to offer Alpine an engine.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Rumours that Renault are planning to close down their engine supply to Alpine from 2026, obviously fed up of the high cost and lack of results.

Curiously this would mean one of the others - Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, Audi or Honda -would be compelled to offer Alpine an engine.

Renault/Alpine is the biggest shitshow in F1 since fucking Caterham. What an utter joke. 

JEM

Cols said:

Rumours that Renault are planning to close down their engine supply to Alpine from 2026, obviously fed up of the high cost and lack of results.

I think this would be a shame. Renault have been on the grid in one form or another for many years and have had a lot of success. The Williams-Renaults in the nineties, both of Alonso's championships and all four of Seb Vettel's (despite being constantly bad-mouth by Horner).

They've certainly lost their way in recent years though. I can see why management may wish to pull the plug.

sinbaadi

I feel like it's always diminishing returns for any manufacturer.  Even Ferrari.  Certainly if they had taken a hiatus from F1, their first season back would offer way more publicity than they currently get (even though they get a lot!)

Then you get changes of leadership in the businesses which fund these programmes.  One bunch of directors think it's the brilliant and reap those early year publicity benefits (like the decision to rebrand as Alpine) and the future is bright.  Then other people who didn't put their necks on the line to make that decision just see it as an opportunity to save a ton of money. 

Cols

It would be a huge disappointment, but understandable.  Alpine have gone from 4th in 2022 to 6th last year and are currently sitting 8th in the standings, just ahead of Williams and Sauber.  They’re the only engine manufacturer who doesn’t supply multiple teams, because the others don’t want a Renault engine - it’s 30 bhp down compared to the others.

Not being able to recoup costs by selling to another team has got to make it an expensive operation for not many results.  There had been talks to supply Andretti until Cadillac got up to speed, but obviously that was torpedoed.

RiftAmps

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/aston-martin-ramps-up-bid-to-secure-newey/10625056/

stickyfiddle

RiftAmps said:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/aston-martin-ramps-up-bid-to-secure-newey/10625056/

In other news water is wet, I guess! I can imagine every team on the grid is talking to him

Cols

Apparently Aston Martin were quite taken aback by his salary demand of £25 million (note: not $), so unless he’s set on remaining in the UK it’s nothing more than a nice guided tour of the facilities.

RiftAmps

Cols said:

Apparently Aston Martin were quite taken aback by his salary demand of £25 million (note: not $), so unless he’s set on remaining in the UK it’s nothing more than a nice guided tour of the facilities.

got a reference for that? Other than the gossip sites?

EDIT: Found it...Daily Telegraph...

The Telegraph has heard rumours of £25 million per season...

Still no source for that, so nothing more than column filler

Cols

Gossip sites.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1050836/1/aston-martin-balk-rumour-eight-figure-adrian-newey-salary-request

I suspect Newey would not get on well with Stroll, who is reputed to have a volcanic temper and limited patience with employees when things are not proceeding as he expects.

fretmeister

There were earlier suggestions that Stroll Snr was trying to hire Newey to boost the value of the team and then look to sell it, and that Newey did not want to be used like that. £25M per year would be a pay overhead that might be enough to dissuade any buyers.

AN clearly doesn't need any more money, so this is all about how serious his new employer might be.

Personally I think it would be hilarious if he confirms his retirement, and then designs a new regs car at home and then just sticks all the plans / CAD files on Reddit.

Boromedic

That would be amazing if he did!!

Is the Aston Martin F1 team linked to the road car division or is it just a badge/name? I think RB do some creative accounting with Newey to limit the budget cap hit, as far as I can tell only Ferrari would be able to do similar. Pop him in a road car slot and use him as a consultant?

euan

The only link between Aston Martin the road car company and Aston Martin the F1 team is Stroll. 

The cost of Newey will be exempt as one of the three highest paid employees/contractors

stickyfiddle

euan said:

The only link between Aston Martin the road car company and Aston Martin the F1 team is Stroll. 

The cost of Newey will be exempt as one of the three highest paid employees/contractors

Yes - AMR GP is the F1 team, which is the entity formerly known as Racing Point, owned by Stroll (presumably with some partners). 

Aston Martin the car company is also owned by Strol & co (might be a different set of people in the "co"), but they're not directly linked beyond that afaik

Newey would be exempt, but still expensive - that's potential shareholder profit don't you know!! 

As for putting a design on reddit, that would be marvelous. And if he posted it on 1 Jan 2025 you can bet at least 7 teams would show up in Jan 2026 with a variation of that design.