In the round-up: Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur wants to keep expectations grounded this year.
In brief
Ferrari cannot be “too optimistic” – Vasseur
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says it is important for his team not to get ahead of itself with its aspirations for the 2024 season.
The team finished a distance second to Red Bull in 2022 but were even further behind in third place last year, Vasseur’s first season in charge of the team.
“I don’t know if it will be better this year,” Vasseur said. “Nobody knows.
“At the end of the day to make comparisons and we are just focused on ourselves and trying to do the best. I don’t want to be too optimistic I think this was one of the issues we had last season. We just have to focus on what we are doing and not to think about the outcome of the championship before race one.”
RB “not a junior team anymore” – Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo insists that his RB team are no longer a junior team heading into the new season.Ricciardo, a former Red Bull driver, says that the team formerly known as AlphaTauri are “going in the right direction.”
“Honestly, everything I’ve fed back to the team, I feel like they’ve actioned or done their best to make it happen or make it work,” Ricciardo continued. “So I honestly can’t ask for too much more at the moment.
“I feel like this is not a junior team anymore. And I think with a lot of plans for next year, hopefully we can prove that on track and get more points.”
Qatar tyre problems could lead to changes – McCullough
The tyre damage problems that struck last year’s Qatar Grand Prix could result in another in-season tyre construction change, suggests Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough.
Pirelli introduced a new construction of tyres at the British Grand Prix last year. The Qatar Grand Prix in October was marred by damage believed to be caused by kerbs around the circuit.
“What we know at the moment is that the tyres aren’t changing for the start of 2024,” said McCullough. “They can change during 2024, as they did this year. Obviously with one eye on Qatar last year, there’s talk of changing kerbs and stuff – maybe the tyres will change before then as well, who knows. That’s up to Pirelli.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'Most need 150km to get used to F1, Verstappen needed a lap' (BBC)
''I remember Max at the Norisring at 16 years old. It was wet and he was one and a half to two seconds faster than anyone else. I said all other drivers should give back their licences, the only driver in this field is Max Verstappen. During his first test I was really impressed how fast he adapted to the speed and brakes… normally drivers need 100-150km to get used to the enormous power which an F1 car has under accelerating and under braking. But from the first lap onwards he was familiar with everything.''
At home with Horner (Sky Sports)
'Sky' Craig Slater joins Red Bull boss Christian Horner at his home to reflect on the team's 2023 successes, look ahead to the new season and learn how to ride a horse!'
How Schumacher and Benetton beat the rules to win the F1 title (Speedcafe)
'Michael Schumacher claimed his first F1 title in 1994 in one of the most dramatic, controversial, and sombre seasons in the sport’s history. Schumacher overcame Damon Hill by a single point at the end of a tumultuous season that saw the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. The controversial conclusion was the final chapter of a moment that had witnessed discontent within the paddock flare-up on multiple occasions.'
How F1 engines make 1,000hp (Motor Authority)
'Considering that most road-car internal-combustion engines struggle to achieve 35% thermal efficiency, F1 engineers have to employ plenty of tricks. One is pre-chamber ignition—the use of a smaller combustion chamber above the main chamber—which allows for a leaner air-fuel mixture that's ideally suited to F1's fuel-flow limits. This feature isn't racing-specific; it was one of the features that made the original Honda Civic's CVCC engine so fuel-efficient, and it's currently used in Maserati's 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6. '
Race of Champions 2023 (Gran Turismo via YouTube)
'Every year the winners of the GT World Series are invited to the Polyphony Digital Tokyo Studios for a celebration and cake cutting ceremony with the staff of Polyphony Digital and invited guests. This year champions of previous years starting from the inaugural year of 2018 were all invited to the celebration, where they joined the 2023 champions for a race of Champions!'
2023 sports pictures of the year (Sky)
'McLaren's Oscar Piastri on track during practice ahead of the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 17, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.'
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
そして明けましておめでとうございます！🎍
Happy new year from Japan!— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) December 31, 2023
Happy New Year 🦈 pic.twitter.com/4jwoKAFVbl
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) December 31, 2023
HBD, LOGAN! 🥳
Join us in wishing @LoganSargeant a very happy birthday! 🎂 pic.twitter.com/JP9yhei8WB
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) December 31, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Was last year the most boring season in modern Formula 1 history? Reader montreal95 doesn’t believe so…
I’d argue 2002 was far, far worse. That’s the closest in 30 years of watching that I came to abandon F1. Not only one driver dominated but also there was almost no on-track action and everything from qualifying to the race was as boring and predictable as watching paint dry. The 2023 season isn’t even close. In fact there were a few which are closer – namely 2004, 2011 and 2015. So the 2023 season is only the fifth most boring season of the past 30 years, let alone 50.
montreal95
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Dsob and Michael Hu!
On this day in motorsport
Jim Clark took his final grand prix victory of his career in the 1968 South African Grand Prix. He died in a crash during Formula 2 race in Hockenheim later in the year
Ciaran (@ciaran)
1st January 2024, 0:49
Agreed largely with COTD, I think people are largely forgetting how much better the wheel to wheel racing is these days. Though I think they’re a bit harsh on the 2011 season specifically. There was plenty going on behind Vettel!
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
1st January 2024, 14:50
2011 was a great year for racing, in a lot of catafories too.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
1st January 2024, 2:46
I think how interesting or not you found 2002 to be also came down to what version of the TV feed you were watching.
The locally produced world feed the FTA broadcasters got tended to focus only on the leaders so if there wasn’t a fight for the lead or podium places races seemed more dull.
However the F1 Digital+ PayTV feed focused on the best action so even if not much was happening at the front we were still seeing the good racing further back. And even if the primary super-signal feed wasn’t showing it we had an additional ‘Track B’ channel that focused on the fights behind the leaders.
I recall that year a friend who was watching via talking about how boring Spa was while i felt it was a really fun race with a lot of good battles.
Turned out he had watched on ITV where the local director spent most the time watching the Ferrari’s on there own at the front while i had watched the F1 Digital broadcast which had shown the great fights going on between the BAR’s, Jordan’s & Sauber’s.
I also think in general 2002 was better than it’s often remembered as while Ferrari did end up dominating there were many races where it wasn’t a Ferrari on pole and the end result of the race was therefore not a foregone conclusion. And again there was a lot of good racing going on behind the front few spots which provided a lot of excitement to races….. Well if you had the F1 Digital+ broadcast that actually showed it.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
1st January 2024, 2:52
I actually think 2004 was similar with the unfortunate exception that the F1 Digital+ broadcast no longer existed meaning the good racing going on behind the Ferrari’s that the local world feed directors often didn’t show was simply never available to watch anywhere.
At least now with the Onboard cameras available from all 20 cars available to watch live on F1TV there’s a way to watch the closest on track battles if the world-feed isn’t showing them.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
1st January 2024, 6:09
Happy New Year to the Racefans team and fellow fans!
Dean Stewart
1st January 2024, 7:57
Happy New Year everyone, hope you all have an amazing day
Rom
1st January 2024, 8:45
Another apparent in season tyre structure change from Pirelli coming up, shaking up the grid, wasting all the time and resources teams put in the work to make these already stupidly narrow ‘Goldilocks tyres’ work in the right window.
So again it depends more on “how well your car handles the Pirelli’s” then genuinely “building the fastest car.”
Has there ever been a period of time (apart from Indy 05) a tyre structure with other manufacturers has continuously be a problem like Pirelli cause this is becoming a farce together with their Full Wets that don’t work in the wet?
Jim (@jimgogo)
1st January 2024, 8:49
David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan doing a podcast together!? What is the world coming to!?
Coventry Climax
1st January 2024, 11:33
Boring or not also depends on what your favorite aspects of F1 are, and for me, the gradual disappearance of all playing space for engineers out of the mix that used to define F1, is what makes things boring.
Plus, I thinks it’s pretty sad that changing car components mid season is up to a rubber company that I wouldn’t even trust quality wise if they’d make prophylactics. Especially since tyres are so important and defining these days that the entire car design process centers around getting them in the exact, narrow operating window. That’s a very converging (=boring engineering wise) factor to F1 as well, as far as I’m concerned.
Some may feel excited with feelings of ‘what will the FiA or Pirelli come up with next’, but I’m not, as that used to be team territory.
Jim (@jimgogo)
1st January 2024, 13:50
So Fred has 1 more year or 2 before Ferrari pull the rug from under him like the rest?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st January 2024, 14:20
I guess if there’s a feeling things are changing for the better (say strategy wise) he could stay for longer, imo the 2022 season was very disappointing for ferrari because they finally had a car that could really challenge for the title and they threw it away with bad strategy and being outdeveloped during the season, so I’m not THAT surprised binotto was gone after that.
I guess people thought: if we can’t win when we start with the best car, how can we ever win?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st January 2024, 14:21
Also a thing to consider is that recently ferrari tended to have italian team principals, arrivabene, binotto, and this was a typical problem: insisting in getting italian personnel when more competent people are available from other countries, so I think trying someone from another country is a good idea.
MichaelN
2nd January 2024, 14:28
Which people are those?
Ferrari did very well with Arrivabene as team principal, winning races in 2015 and 2017 and mounting a somewhat decent challenge in 2018 that went off the rails for a variety of reasons. And had Domenicali not been so weak politically, he could have done even better than he did. Binotto is the outlier, and he was indeed very poor.
So two out of three post-Todt Italians did quite well. And Ferrari has almost always been among the top three teams during these years. That’s much, much better than the other teams – for whom it is also, in theory, much easier to find qualified team principals as they’re not based in Italy.
Todfod (@todfod)
2nd January 2024, 8:02
I wonder if Enzo would tolerate a statement like this from a team principal. It’s sad to see the lack of confidence Ferrari’s top management operates with. At the very least they should be aiming to be title contenders… there’s no excuse not to set that bar for the entire team.
I can’t imagine a Toto or Horner ever having such mediocre goals for their teams.
MichaelN
2nd January 2024, 14:30
Seems like a fairly standard approach in pro-sports; of course they all want to win, but they know they can only control themselves. And just because they’re focusing on that, doesn’t mean they’re not also trying to work out why Red Bull is much better on the tyres, for example.
Todfod (@todfod)
2nd January 2024, 15:20
I don’t think its universal to all pro-sports. I mean… I could never imagine a boxer or mma fighter get in the ring with this attitude. Similarly, in football, basketball or other pro team sports, we always see a basic level of confidence, or competitive spirit that says, we’ll give it our all to beat our opponent.
I get that F1 is different in a way… but there have been plenty of turnarounds in this sport as well. Heck, just look at Mclaren’s turnaround from the start of last season. Not only has Ferrari already conceded defeat before pre season begins.. but they’ve just put a massive damper on all their fans’ expectations.
bosyber (@bosyber)
3rd January 2024, 11:06
But if they don’t, and that is somewhat special to Ferrari out of all teams, then the minimum acceptable will be a win, or perhaps a 2-3 podium at the first race, with the expectation rising to 1-2 quali and finish and the country’s whole sports media forgetting bad results for soccer teams to pillage onto the team and it’s mother company. In that respect, I do get it.
On the other hand, their car at the start of last season was clearly less easy to set up and get to work than the Red Bull, so I don’t really see why they were so optimistic to start. Let’s hope they address their analytical skills on that too.