FORMULA 1 2024

[Cleoriff]

So breaking news before the start of the 2024 season:

Lewis Hamilton appears to be making a move to Ferrari for the 2025 season

A major shock as he signed a two year contract with Mercedes last season. So whether it was one year with an opt out clause for 2025 is anyone's guess.

This seems to be anything but a silly season rumour!

MOTORSPORT: HAMILTON TO FERRARI 

SKY NEWS: HAMILTON TO FERRARI FOR 2025 

A lot more news happening but I'll post that later. For now, I need to go and have a lie down 😂

NB As Charles Leclerc has just signed a contract extension with Ferrari, it looks as if Lewis would be replacing Carlos Sainz.

It won't be a popular move. Also, not sure how Mercedes will handle that news THIS year as Lewis is driving for them until the end of 2024.

Will they put all their eggs in George Russells basket? (Hamilton came 3rd in the drivers championship last year and Russell came 8th)

Questions Questions!!🤔

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PRACTICE 3

Brilliant to watch Oliver Bearman driving the Ferrari round the street circuit of Jeddah. There was a red flag when Zhou put his car into the wall. Once It was cleared, there was a chance of a one hot lap

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QUALIFYING SAUDI F1

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SAUDI F1 RACE

No change at the top (boring!)

Oliver Bearman was awarded Driver of the Day  quite rightly. He drove an excellent race.

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A few bits of gossip around the F1 paddock.

Horner appears to be keeping his job.

The female staff member has been suspended whilst they look at her appeal. (Note Horner wasn't suspended at any time whilst the allegations against him were being reviewed.

Nonsense gossip about Max going to Mercedes. Why would he do that?

1) Currently Merc appear to be the 4th fastest car on the grid, so unless they took Newey with them Max would not be in a race winning car!

2) Helmut Marko has been seen 'talking to Toto Wolff. The Dutch media are running with a mad story that HE will go to Merc as a replacement consultant for Niki Lauda. (As if HE could replace Lauda in anyway, shape or form.

3) Merc appear to be thrusting George Russell into the limelight at every opportunity. He appears to be taking priority over Merc's 7 x WDC. Some Merc fans are suggesting that Merc are turning the power down on Hamilton's car so that George can beat him in Qualifying and the races. All this after only 2 races. 🙄

(Best bit of yesterday's race was Lewis holding off Piastri for 18 laps on old medium tyres with Piastri on new. Of course,  had Merc double stacked both cars for a pit stop when the safety car came out, Lewis would have finished higher than 9th. As it was, they only called George into the pits.

Then there is the nasty business when the FIA president got himself involved a race decision made by the stewards last year. It involved Alonso who had two penalties to serve. 1 was a 10 second penalty, It appears the President (Ben Suleyam) pressed race control to reduce Alonso's penalty to only 5seconds. Absolutely outrageous. The president has no input into decisions made by race control during any race. He has his favourite drivers Max Lando, Alonso and a few others.

This is the guy who should have had major input into the 2021 fiasco at Abu Dhabi post race.  It took him 3 months and after sacking the race director, put the whole thing down to human error!! Yes...human error which lost Hamilton his 8th WDC.

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Lewis at the end of the Saudi F1, waiting to congratulate young Ollie Bearman for his superb first race for Ferrari. What a great sport.

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AUSTRALIA F1

My days of getting up at silly O'Clock to watch Australia are well over. I set Sky to record and watch when I get up. I may as well not have bothered seeing Lewis struggling for position. Apparently Toto said, 'we tried numerous set ups on Lewis's car and we got it very wrong'. YES you did.

Alex Albon had a nasty crash in Practice 1. Williams do not have another chassis so Logan Sargeant has given up his car for the rest of F1. He said it was the hardest decision he had to make but he did it for the team

Carlos Sainz is back after his appendicectomy. He actually struggled to get in the car so he's obviously not fully fit.

PRACTICE 1

PRACTICE 2.

Hamilton said he can't remember a time when he has finished so low in any F1 session. 18th is appalling when his team mate managed 6th.

This is the sesssion where Toto said 'they tried numerous set up on Hamiltons car and they all failed badly'

Why Toto?? Fans want some answers!!

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PRACTICE 3

Apparently the mechanics worked overnight on the set up of both Mercs. Towards the end of the session P3 they began to show some real pace, with Lewis very briefly in P1. It didn't last but this was the best session of the three.

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QUALIFYING

The good form of the Mercs fell away in Qualifying with Lewis going out in Q2!!

Apologies for no timings. No racing news mags had printed them.

Perez was 3rd but had a 3 place grid penalty for impeding.

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Prior To Practice 1 Japan.

Much talk has gone on about Lewis' replacement at Mercedes for the end of 2024 when he goes to Ferrari.

Leading names are Sainz, Alonso, Max (Yes really and as if!). Finally the latest name to be discussed is Seb Vettel!) Seb retired in 2022 claiming he wanted to spend more time with his family. However, once a racer, always a racer and he has been talking to Toto. Lewis has openly stated he would love Seb to be his replacement. I'm not sure. Despite being a 4 x WDC, he didn't do well against Leclerc at Ferrari in his last 2 years. I think Russell would batter him.

Red Bull have bought some upgrades for this race.

Practice 1 Results

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PRACTICE 2 RESULTS

Typical of Japan, Rain ruined the running.

Results For P2 for those who ventured out,

Nice to see Lewis in P2.

A few discussions about the Williams cars. In Australia Albon binned his car and Williams didn't have another chassis, so he was given Sargeants car to drive (Leaving Sargeant out of the race)

This weekend Sargeant was given Albons repaired car, while Albon remained with the car which orinally belonged to Sargeant.

Many people felt this was unfair. ie Albon smashed his car up in Australia, so he should have been the one to sit out. However Albon is the better driver so  he had Sargeants car, hopefully to score points. He end 12th and no points were scored.

This week, everyone expected Albon to be driving his repaired car. Not the case. Sargeant has been given that car, which is far heavier having been repaired. So he bins it in FP1. Luckily Williams have said it can be repaired so both cars will be running in the Practice session.

With the rain in FP2, neither car ran!!