Bizarre Pace in Sprint Qualifying Sees Verstappen to the Front

Sprint qualifying in Miami presented a number of issues for all of the drivers. The entire field was struggling with lap times. The most surprising situation was the elimination of both Mercedes cars in the opening qualifying session. Even more surprising was the effort put forth by Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo has struggled to make it into the top 10 in qualifying all season. He broke that streak today after qualifying P4 in the session for tomorrow’s Sprint race.

Ricciardo Comments on His P4 Finish

Ricciardo had the following comments after the sprint qualifying, “I feel really good about today, I have some good confidence in the car and the second row is awesome! The team brought updates to the last few races, changed my chassis at the previous race in China, and brought a new floor here in Miami. Things look like they’re turning around and I’m very proud of what the team and myself did today. We had a good session starting from SQ1, even if I made a mistake in the first lap, so we were putting ourselves under a bit of pressure.

Then I found a good lap and we started to build up from SQ2. I’m a bit surprised to be P4 with my lap because I expected to be a lot quicker with the soft compound. Instead, the soft tires didn’t give much more compared to the mediums. I touched the wall twice; I told the team that I was definitely trying to get everything out of it. Let’s see what happens in the Sprint race, but it’s a lot nicer to be in the front rows. This can definitely help stay cleaner in the first phase of the race, if not involved in a bit of chaos. I’d love to get some points tomorrow.”

Verstappen Takes Surprising Pole

Max Verstappen finished on top in sprint race qualifying but it was clear he wasn’t happy with the car. “The practice session was really nice and I felt really confident and comfortable with the car. Honestly, I am quite surprised that we got P1 for the Sprint qualifying; it felt a bit different as I couldn’t really push or feel too confident on the tyres and get a nice balance on the car.

On a track surface like this, it means that if you are a little bit out with the tyres it makes a big difference, but I think everyone else particularly struggled with the final run on the soft tyres. We have a few things to analyse and question why it felt a bit different from qualifying, but we should get it together fine for tomorrow. All in all, we have a great starting position for the Sprint and hopefully we can maximize this. Once the tires stabilize, we should be back on track.”

This weekend’s Miami Grand Prix will be the third installment of the stop in Miami marking the first of three stops in the United States on the 2024 calendar. Thus far championship leader Max Verstappen has won the first two and will try to repeat the result to extend his championship lead. It will be an interesting weekend for the Red Bull camp as this will be the first grand prix weekend after the announcement that legendary car designer Adrian Newey will be leaving the team next year.

While the impact of Newey’s departure might not be seen in Miami. The Red Bull camp is at a cross road where they will need to start building an identity as a team without Newey. The team has been the center of rumors, speculation and personnel changes. Miami will be the first weekend the team isn’t in the middle of a media frenzy.

Logan Sargeant’s Run Coming to an End?

Miami is Logan Sargeant’s home grand prix. However, Sargeant hasn’t performed well during his time with Williams. He has failed to become a regular points scorer and continues to keep pace with his teammate Alex Albon. Its rumored that Miami will be Sargeant’s last race with Williams base don lack of performance so it may be his last opportunity to showcase his skills on the world top racing stage. Racing prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli is set to take Sargeant’s place however, Williams faces a hurdle for moving the 17 year old into a seat. The FIA instituted an 18 year old age minimum for drivers in F1. Williams is seeking to appeal the rule.

Action kicks off tomorrow with practice session 1.

Weekend Schedule

Friday 3rd May 2024

• Free Practice 1: 12:30 – 13:30 ET 
• Sprint shootout: 16:30 – 17:14 ET 

Saturday 4th May 2024

• Sprint: 12:00 ET 
• Qualifying: 16:00 – 17:00 ET 

Sunday 5th May 2024

• Race: 16:00 ET 

After a long and drawn out media frenzy. Red Bull has confirmed that legendary car designer Adrian Newey will step down from the Formula 1 team in Q1 of 2025. The move comes after Red Bull have decided to invest in a World Endurance Championship Hypercar program. Newey will be responsible for leading the design of the RB17 Hypercar with Red Bull making a bid for endurance racing. Despite previous reports of a gardening leave clause in Newey’s contract. It appears that Newey will be free to shop teams as he wishes in 2025.

Will Newey Continue Working?

Having spent the last 19 years with Red Bull and the next year helping Red Bull develop their RB17 Hypercar design questions have been raised as to whether Newey may be considering retirement. Newey is 65 years old and has hinted at permanent retirement in previous contract negotiations. Given that he will be exiting in 2025 for Newey to have any kind of impact on a new team he really would need to commit for 3-4 years given the changes in the technical regulations set for the 2026 season.

Newey has been linked with moves to multiple teams in the paddock all willing to pay top dollar for his expertise. The question will be if Newey is wanting to take on a new project. He’s made it clear that money is not a motivator in his decision. This could be the last time we see Newey in F1.

Newey Shares his Thoughts

In a press release from Red Bull Newey said, “Ever since I was a young boy, I wanted to be a designer of fast cars. My dream was to be an engineer in Formula One, and I’ve been lucky enough to make that dream a reality. For almost two decades it has been my great honour to have played a key role in Red Bull Racing’s progress from upstart newcomer to multiple title-winning Team.

However, I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself. In the interim, the final stages of development of RB17 are upon us, so for the remainder of my time with the Team my focus will lie there. I would like to thank the many amazing people I have worked with at Red Bull in our journey over the last 18 years for their talent, dedication and hard work.

It has been a real privilege, and I am confident that the engineering Team are well prepared for the work going into the final evolution of the car under the four-year period of this regulation set. On a personal note, I would also like to thank the shareholders, the late Dietrich Mateschitz, Mark Mateschitz and Chalerm Yoovidhya for their unwavering support during my time at Red Bull, and Christian, who has not only been my business partner but also a friend of our respective families. Also, thanks to Oliver Mintzlaff for his stewardship and Eddie Jordan, my close friend and manager.”

Christian Horner Offer His Thoughts on Newey’s Red Bull Legacy

Horner said, “All of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian’s hand on the technical tiller. His vision and brilliance have helped us to 13 titles in 20 seasons. His exceptional ability to conceptualize beyond F1 and bring wider inspiration to bear on the design of grand prix cars, his remarkable talent for embracing change and finding the most rewarding areas of the rules to focus on, and his relentless will to win have helped Red Bull Racing to become a greater force than I think even the late Dietrich Mateschitz might have imagined.”

The rumor mill has swirled this weekend regarding the potential departure of legendary car designer Adrian Newey and an early termination of his contract with Red Bull. Newey is officially contracted through 2025 however the rumors suggest there continues to be a power struggle in the Red Bull camp that Newey may no long want to be a part of. Newey’s presence at Red Bull has been a very positive one. He’s spent the last 20 years help Red Bull to achieve multiple world championships. The future of that legacy is in question. No official statement has been made regarding an exit. It’s unclear if the damage is done within the Red Bull camp or if there is a path forward for reconciliation.

Christian Horner’s Ongoing Investigation Still Playing a Role?

Despite being cleared of any wrong doing, Horner’s accuser continues to press for a different response internally. No additional findings have come to light in the public eye. It is unclear if any new evidence is available to be considered. What’s clear is based on race results it’s business as usual at Red Bull. Verstappen has maintained his winning ways and the team has showed no signs of slowing down. Sergio Perez also continues to perform. He sits PP2 in the championship currently behind Max.

Maybe Newey wants a new challenge. Maybe there is a power struggle. Regardless Newey has the perfect recipe of drivers at Red Bull. He may face challenges finding harmony elsewhere in the future. If these rumors are true Newey will be an asset to any team he joins. The question is how long it will take for those effect to be reflected in the car.

Max Verstappen won his first Chinese Grand Prix today to complete a dominant weekend after struggling early on in practice with harmonizing with the car. Verstappen won the Sprint race earlier this weekend but that win did not come with the adversity he had to face in the Grand Prix. There were multiple on track incidents resulting in restarts.

By lap 2 Verstappen was already well out of DRS range making him difficult to catch. However with the first safety car the others were able to catch Verstappen. Red Bull completed a double stack pit stop leaving Verstappen and Perez stationery for 2.1s and 2.0s respectively. Eventually Verstappen would take the lead again but then a safety car was deployed.

Drama on the Circuit in China

The safety car came out due to a power unit failure on Valtteri Bottas’ Stake car. Given the position that Bottas stopped in the car was not retrievable without a full safety car which dramatic disadvantaged Verstappen and the other front runners. The safety car came in 2 laps later and the front runners took off. The run was cut short again by another safety car after Stroll hit Ricciardo on the back straight before the restart even happened. Magnussen then tried to dive down the inside of Yuki Tsunoda, tipping him into a spin.

Tsunoda had to retire, stopping on the grass with a tire puncture. Stroll made it back to the pits, as did Magnussen with a puncture. The drama didn’t start there. A few laps later Stroll ran into the back of Daniel Ricciardo who’s car suffered damage and seemingly a major drop in performance after the contact. When the race restarted Ricciardo was clearly not able to compete as he dropped down the pecking order with complains of lack of rear drive out of corners. He ultimately retired from the race. Stroll received a 10 second time penalty for causing a collision.

Ricciardo Commented on The DNF

“We started to make up a lot of ground in the stint before the Safety Car but during the restart, I got a pretty big hit and the car was damaged. We decided to retire because I wasn’t really driving an F1 car. It’s very frustrating. I watched his onboard and it looked like he wasn’t even looking at me, it seemed that his helmet was looking at the apex. We’ll never know what could have happened later in the race, but I think we were looking in a good place.

“Getting ruined by someone else makes me frustrated and this is where the disappointment comes, because today we had an opportunity and we missed it. I think there’s a lot of disappointment for everyone in the team. When I got back to the garage, I saw the mechanics looking at the damage and they feel as heartbroken as I do. I think we definitely had a better weekend from a pace point of view, and I I think the team could feel some momentum and some shift to the season. We go onto Miami and we’ll just try to keep working on that.”

Where do Red Bull Stand on Ricciardo?

Where Red Bull stand with Ricciardo currently remains a mystery. RB seemingly gave an ultimatum to perform or be replaced. Ricciardo has yet to score points this season. We have to assume that patience is running thin in the Red Bull camp. With all of the off track distractions behind them Red Bull is looking towards the future of their programs to ensure they retain the best drivers. There are rumors circulating regarding Carlos Sainz and contract talks but it would be hard to imagine as Sergio Perez is going toe to toe with Max and Red Bull currently leads the constructers with a 1-2 in the drivers championship currently. Perez is currently 25 points behind Verstappen.

The next race is in the United States for the Miami Grand Prix May 3-5.

Full Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Results

Max Verstappen started the day off in record setting fashion securing the team’s 100th pole position. 37 having been claimed by the Dutchman, as well as 44 by Sebastian Vettel, 13 by Mark Webber, 3 by Perez and 3 by Daniel Ricciardo. Behind Verstappen was his teammate Sergio Perez in P2 and Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso. Commenting on th session, Verstappen said: “Before I jumped in the car Christian [Horner, Red Bull team boss] told me if you get pole today it could be number 100 for the team, so I was like, ‘Okay, that’s nice, I’ll try and give it a good go’.

Of course that’s an incredible achievement for the whole team. Also a big contribution from Seb back in the day! But it’s fantastic also to have the one-two in qualifying, it showed that the car is again working really well. From my side it’s been a really good start to the year and I feel probably very confident in qualifying, even compared to last year. It’s just a shame of course that we retired in Melbourne otherwise I think we could have had already a very strong lead, but overall it’s still a great start.”

Hamilton Surges to the P2 in Sprint but Drops in Q1

Lewis Hamilton seemingly found the pace he needed to bring it to Verstappen this weekend. Despite falling short after the sprint Hamilton looked as though he’d be competing at the front. Unfortunately come qualifying for the grand prix Hamilton made a surprise Q1 exit. After making a mistake in the hairpin during the first session Hamilton finished in P18. His work will be cut out for him on Sunday if he is to compete for a top 5 finish.

Hamilton was disappointed with the session, “To be sat on the front-row for the Sprint was a great feeling,” he said. Racing into turn one and taking the lead reminded me of what I love so much about this sport! It was a challenging race but to get second was great. 

We knew Qualifying would be much more tough this afternoon though. I made some sizeable set-up changes after the Sprint to try and improve the car in the slow speed turns. It wasn’t too bad in some corners, but I struggled elsewhere. It was challenging to get the rear tires to stop into turn 14 and that’s where I locked up on my final lap. If I hadn’t had that, I would have made it through to Q2. I’ll be giving it my best shot tomorrow. We can still have some fun even if we are starting from P18.“

Aston Martin Bounces Back

When asked about his disappointing finish in the sprint race Alonso stated, “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know how far [ahead] Checo is. But yeah, Sector 1, I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2, I nearly lost the car. And then I said, ‘Okay, I keep going or I abort the lap?’, you know, because I lost like two tenths in two corners. But yeah, we didn’t give up. We kept pushing all through the lap. Yeah, we said a good lap time. I think the car did improve since this morning. We made a few set-up changes. Let’s see tomorrow if we can translate that into points.”

Of note Oscar Piastri had a slight off but was able to recover and made it to Q3 finishing P5 with teammate Lando Norris starting ahead in P4.

Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Sprint Race Results

Lando Norris showed the true pace of his McLaren in the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying session this afternoon. In recent unfamiliar fashion Norris was able to beat out Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen in the session to claim pole position for the Sprint Race that is set to take place later today.

Norris said, “I was quite happy with how it was in the dry, I think we’ve had good pace all weekend so far. I got a bit nervous. They’re conditions where you’ve just got to risk a lot, you’ve got to push, build tyre temperature and so forth.

I was quick, I just kept catching a Ferrari, so I had to keep backing off. I didn’t do the first two laps well at all, but I got a good final one, a good enough one for pole. I’m happy… sad it’s not for a proper qualifying, but it’s good enough.

Norris Continued On Bouncing Back From Mistakes

“You only have three laps. The first two I aborted on both, so I was like, ‘The last lap is all or nothing’. But it was getting wetter and wetter, so actually the conditions for the final two laps were a lot worse than the second lap.

I was a little bit nervous that I’d made a few mistakes, started to aquaplane quite a bit, but it’s good fun – it gets your heart going. Getting up on top is exactly what we wanted, so a nice surprise and a good position for tomorrow.”

Hamilton Surges Forward

Lewis Hamilton turned heads in China when he finished second fastest on the grid for Sprint qualifying. Mercedes has struggled to find pace in the last few rounds of the Formula 1 season. However, in rainy conditions its anyone’s game and the car speed advantages of the teams currently ahead of Mercedes in Performance start to count for nothing. “It was very tricky conditions out there,” he said. As you could see, there was not a lot of grip out there for anyone. As soon as I saw the rain coming though, I was getting very excited. Our pace in the dry didn’t look quite quick enough to challenge at the very front, so the wet weather gave us more of an opportunity. That’s when it all came alive.

We will have to wait and see what the conditions are tomorrow. We have a lot of fast cars starting behind us, but we will see what we can do to keep them behind us.

Sprint Race Qualifying Results

The time has finally arrived for F1 fans alike to return to the Chinese Grand Prix. After a 5 year hiatus due to safety precautions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic F1 finally returns. The race weekend will follow the sprint race format as follows.

Friday April 19th, 2024

Saturday April 20th 2024

Sunday April 21st 2024

As Formula 1 returns this weekend with the Chinese Grand Prix Daniel Ricciardo seemingly has one last opportunity to prove he is the man for the job at RB. Formula 1 heads to China for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. After its 5 year hiatus, its difficult to determine where the teams stand at this circuit. with the changes to the cars since 2019 practice and qualifying session will be of the utmost importance. Qualifying is one area Ricciardo has struggled thus far this season. With his teammate out performing him on every occasion thus far in 2024. Ricciardo needs to find redemption before a decision to axe him is made. His teammate Tsunoda has made stride for the RB side having already scored points this season.

Ricciardo Comments on the Upcoming Weekend

Daniel Ricciardo #3: “Really looking forward to getting back to Shanghai. It’s been five years since we raced there, so selfishly I want to get back on track at a circuit I enjoy, but I’m also sure the Chinese fans can’t wait to see F1 again – Zhou mentioned that it’s sold out so the atmosphere will be great.  Our first Sprint Weekend brings some challenges but also opportunity, I’m just ready to get back in the car!”

Team Racing Director Alan Permane also offered his comments on the upcoming weekend. “Visa Cash App RB are excited for Formula One to return to Shanghai for the first time since 2019 and will be looking to build on our recent good form. This weekend will present a unique challenge, the first time we have visited with this generation of cars but also a Sprint weekend and Yuki’s first time in Shanghai. We will need to hit the ground running in Free Practice 1, with only one hour of running before the Sprint Qualifying session. Both drivers have spent time in our simulator preparing, and are ready for the weekend.”

While no official decision has been made on Ricciardo Red Bull is keeping a watchful eye on the Australian because without points you can’t compete for championships and Ricciardo current has none. Ricciardo stated that he believes he can still win races but his talking needs to translate to the track if he is going to keep his seat.

Action gets start with the first practice session of the weekend in a few hours time.

Aston Martin has made the decision to re-sign Fernando Alonso to a remain with the team until 2026. Its clear Alonso feels he has unfinished business and can still compete at the top level of racing in the world. Alonso had previously found himself without a contract beyond the end of this season. However, time and time again he has shown that he is still a top 5 driver on the grid in his 20th season in Formula 1.

The in house dilemma for Aston Martin is whether Lance Stroll, team owner Lawrence Stroll’s son, should still retain his seat. It’s no surprise that a former champion like Alonso has out performed Lance Stroll. However, in terms of the future of the team Aston Martin needs to start asking whether Lance Stroll is still a positive investment. With Aston martin emerging as a title contender in 2023 and making a run for the same finish in 2024. Question will be raised as to whether Stroll is the right man for the job. Its no secret that he has his current seat because of his fathers purchase of the team. That is not to say that he doesn’t deserve to be in Formula 1.

Stroll has shown moments of brilliance during his tenure in Formula 1. However, Stroll has only secured two podiums in his 8 year tenure in Formula 1. His top finish came last year where he placed 10th. Unfortunately 10th place isn’t enough to content for a world title in the constructors. Lawrence Stroll has made it clear that he has a dream to win championships but he may need to look elsewhere for talent if that is to become a reality. Currently Lance Stroll sits 10th in the championship after four races. It may be time for Aston Martin to reassess their situation.

Does Lance Stroll have what it takes to become a top level driver in Formula 1? Possibly but in his 8th season his progress has not bee than reminiscent of a future champion. If Aston can turn things around maybe the discussion will be different int he second half of the season.