In the round-up: Former Formula 1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer says General Motors must be prepared for how difficult it is to be competitive in the series.
In brief
‘I didn’t realise how difficult F1 was’ – Szafnauer
GM has an agreement in principle to enter F1 in 2026 with a new team formed by the Andretti family racing under the Cadillac brand. Szafnauer, who headed up Racing Point (now Aston Martin, previously Force India) and Alpine during his time in F1, admitted he underestimated the challenge of competing in grand prix racing.
“The one worry that I would have if I were a General Motors executive is underestimating the task at hand to be competitive in Formula 1,” he told the Business of Winning. “It seems like people or organisations that haven’t been involved don’t realise how difficult it is. I too didn’t realise how difficult it was.”
Szafnauer arrived in F1 with British American Racing in 1999. He said he was convinced by chassis designer Adrian Reynard’s prediction that they would win on their debut.
“I believed it because the skill level that I saw in front of me was at such a higher level than what I experienced,” he said. “And I thought for sure these guys are going to do it.“Adrian had won in every other lower formulae, his first race, including IndyCar. So I’m thinking he knows what he’s talking about. We are going to do this. Do you remember how many points we scored in [that] first year? It’s zero.”
New-look round-ups for 2025
This is the final edition of the RaceFans Round-up in its current guise. We will introduce a revised, more compact format for the round-up in the new year which will focus more on contributions from our community as well as some other familiar parts from the existing round-up.
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Links
Last team standing: Coyne still keeping options open (Racer)
'Despite urgings from fans who would like to see former Red Bull Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez climb into one of Coyne’s Honda-powered cars, he says, 'obviously he’s not (going to) do that,' but there’s no shortage of drivers trying to stake their claim to his entries.'
Vowles admits true cost of 'incredibly frustrating' Williams crash damage (The Mirror)
'We've had 17 major accidents in 23 races - a number that I haven't seen anything close to that ever in my career. And it's not that the drivers have been going out and driving into things. There were accidents where there's nothing we could do but accept the fact that it's happened. And it's incredibly frustrating.'
Calado bullish for 2025 chances after 'diabolical' season (Sportscar 365)
'It’s been one of the worst seasons I’ve ever had. But sometimes it’s out of your control and there’s nothing you can do. In the last two races (COTA and Fuji), I didn’t even drive.'
Habsburg confident Alpine can ‘become an even greater force’ in 2025 (WEC)
'The car itself is inherently strong, and now it’s about ensuring the team continues to gel and work together like a family, just as we’ve been doing in 2024. If we keep that momentum, I’m confident we can achieve even more in the future.'
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
If someone tells you that you shouldn't use hearing protection at a race track, doesn't matter what series, they've probably never been to a race – they're giving you terrible advice and you shouldn't listen.
Always protect your hearing.
Kind regards,
Guy with tinnitus— Jeppe H. Olesen (@jeppe_olesen) December 30, 2024
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Comment of the day
@David-br considers why Max Verstappen picked the Hungarian Grand Prix as the round which caused him the most stress this year:
Verstappen spent much of the Hungarian GP dumping his frustrations on the team via the radio, which is probably why he eventually attempted a rash pass on Hamilton and why he wants to forget the race (or he’d rather the team forgot it maybe). But he actually emerged from it relatively unscathed in terms of the drivers’ championship points deficit.
His view of the Abu Dhabi race – another Max-induced collision – kind of justifies the view that these incidents occur either when he’s feeling the pressure/frustrated or when he’s feeling no pressure at all, in both cases, rash attempted passes.
The intense battles against title rivals, as seen with Norris, are mostly another type as they’re very carefully calculated and he usually gets away with them unscathed, if not unpenalised.
@David-br
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alvink and Bryce Metzger!
notagrumpyfan
31st December 2024, 0:41
What I always liked about the original round-up was the many links to other racing publications. Back in those days I didn’t read anything else F1 related unless it was linked on f1fanatics.
Unfortunately, that has become less and less, and that might become even less now.
And now starting the countdown to 2025 ;)
Jay
31st December 2024, 2:08
100% agree. This is one of only 2 F1 related sites I visiit and while the comments here are quite humourous, the links are much more interesting. I guess provoking the userbase with articles like driver ratings, LOL, are easier and more profitable.
BinarySlave (@binaryslave)
31st December 2024, 8:35
Same here. I never comment as I don’t have time, but this site is part of my morning ritual. A cup of tea whilst reading the roundup. Will be interesting to see how it evolves, but I feel a little sad it’s changing.
asz
31st December 2024, 12:37
That is exactly why I started skipping those driver ratings articles; they are so obviously written to manufacture disagreement and controversy. The recipe is simple: it only takes one or two blatantly unreasonable ratings per race and, voilà, the comments start pouring in.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
31st December 2024, 23:10
This is true, I’m not saying they’re doing that on purpose, but IF the case is there’s a couple of ratings at least 2 points lower or higher than it should be, it’s definitely a recipe for complaints by the userbase!
kcrossle (@kcrossle)
31st December 2024, 3:14
Not sure why change is needed. Withholding judgement.
grat
31st December 2024, 6:06
Depends entirely how bullish GM wants to be. Toyota threw massive amounts of resources and technology at F1, only to have mediocre results (results beaten by Gene Haas and his “inexpensive” model for entering F1).
Mercedes initially was just happy to show up, until Brawn convinced Mercedes that if they actually wanted to be competitive, they needed to invest in the team.
The problem now is the cost cap and R&D restrictions. Andretti was smart to start building out the infrastructure for the new team before they were even accepted into F1. So in that sense, they have a small advantage. Now they have to build a team, and it needs to be more Aldo Costa and Ross Brawn than Gunther Steiner and Mike Elliot.
Jungle
31st December 2024, 11:34
Pat Symonds is floating around so you’ve got to think thats huge benefit. Whether or not they listen to him is another thing.
I’m also interested on how the Red Bull/Ford relationship will evolve.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
31st December 2024, 12:11
Can anyone think of a corporation or car manufacturer that’s come into F1 and had immediate success? They’d definitely be the exception to the rule.
grat
31st December 2024, 13:58
In the 1950’s, it was pretty common.
Most recently, you’d have to say Mercedes– they bought Brawn in late 2009, and didn’t have time to build up a decent 2010 car, but they won their first race in 2012, 3 races in 2013, and then 16 rounds in 2014.
Red Bull Racing took 5 years from taking over Jaguar to finishing 2nd, and then won the next 4 years– perhaps not “immediate”, but definitely an upward trajectory.
Renault had a rapid rise from taking over Benetton– two 4th’s, a 3rd, and then 2 WCC/WDC’s.
anon
31st December 2024, 15:45
That said, given that the sport had barely established itself in the 1950s, most manufacturers would be new entrants by definition.
There is also something of a difference in the attitude of some manufacturers that probably is more significant. In the case of Jaguar, there was the problem of interference from Ford that was expecting success, but didn’t really understand the sport that they’d entered or had a clear idea what sort of long term strategy might be needed to get there.
Your could apply that to a number of other outfits too, where internal conflict meant that some of the resources of the team were mismanaged or used inefficiently, or excessive interference resulted in poor designs or a lack of clarity on the direction to go in with a car. It’s far from exclusive to manufacturers – there have been plenty of privateers that were just as bad, if not worse, but they lacked the high profile that a major manufacturer has.
Coventry Climax
1st January 2025, 10:12
Isn’t that exactly what ‘underestimating’ is all about?
Jaguar is your perfect example though.
Coventry Climax
1st January 2025, 10:08
I would have to disagree on that. I don’t have stats, but I clearly remember Mercs second iteration as evoking thoughts like “they should have stuck manufacturing diesel utility vehicles”. There were so many failures those first seasons.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
31st December 2024, 19:28
Matra entered F1 in 1968 and came 2nd, then in 1969 they won the WCC/WDC (both years with Jacki Stewart).
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
31st December 2024, 19:30
Jackie Stewart. Why can’t RF provide editing capability?
anon
31st December 2024, 20:44
@flyinglapp whilst 1968 marked the first time that Matra entered for a full season, Tyrrell were racing the MS5 and MS7 in 1967 (they were technically in Formula 2 specification, but were entered into Formula 1 events).
I am ignoring the 1966 German Grand Prix, as whilst Tyrrell did enter an MS5, it was in the Formula 2 race (although the organisers decided to bulk out the grid for the Formula 1 race by holding the Formula 2 race simultaneously with the Formula 1 race, they were technically separate races).
Jere (@jerejj)
31st December 2024, 6:43
I fully see what Jeppe H. Olesen means & I don’t intend to argue, but purely on personal experience, I’ve attended two GPs during the hybrid era (2016 Abu Dhabi & 2019 Russian GPs) & I perfectly managed without wearing any hearing protection, not to mention I didn’t even suffer any belated side effects because of not wearing.
On the other hand, I definitely wore hearing protection in both V8 era GPs I attended, which are the 2010 Italian & 2012 Hungarian GPs, so the absolute necessity was simply reduced with the V6 turbo hybrid introduction.
notagrumpyfan
31st December 2024, 8:44
It surely has a ring to it.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
31st December 2024, 9:03
Since the introduction of the V6 era I did not find it worth it to go to the track. But yes, pre-V6 it definitely was an absolute necessity to wear hearing protection.
El Pollo Loco
2nd January 2025, 5:45
Yes. It was necessary. Now it is neither necessary to wear nor worth going to the track with the current engines. It’s incredibly disappointing.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
31st December 2024, 9:21
I’m guessing the new look RaceFans will just be like an alternative livery for the new year?
We won’t be getting an edit button or anything?
Whatever, looking forwards to seeing what you’ve got planned ;)
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
31st December 2024, 12:16
Pretty car that Cadillac. Clever nose design, apparently it doesn’t need changing anymore.
grat
31st December 2024, 14:02
Other renders are similar in lacking a separation line. But I have to wonder, with the new active aero (on the front wing as well), whether the nose will be easily swappable.
anon
31st December 2024, 20:51
grat, some of the FIA’s official renders do show a conventional separation line between the nose and the front of the chassis. There are meant to be some changes to the way that the nose structure works and is attached to the car to reduce the risk of the nose detaching, but there don’t seem to be any plans to remove the current quick release mechanisms.
SteveR (@stever)
1st January 2025, 1:07
The 2009 regulations allowed driver adjustable front wings; there didn’t seem to be a replacement problem.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
31st December 2024, 13:13
It will be interesting to see what the changes to the Round Up are. Personally I don’t read many of the links. Not in detail anyway. But I do read all of the other sections, on most, but not every day.
It’s difficult because we all have different interests of course. I mainly follow F1 which takes probably 80-90% of my attention. But I do like to be aware of what’s happening in F2/3 and IndyCar. Other areas don’t interest me at all.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
31st December 2024, 23:21
Wonder what prompted the change? I suppose it may be positive, but I am a tiny bit worried.
Robert Williams (@weiliwen)
1st January 2025, 2:16
Pretty condescending statement by Otmar Szafnauer. I seriously doubt that Cadillac is going into this with rose-colored glasses. That might have been possible back in the days of Heskith et all, but those days are two or three generations gone.
El Pollo Loco
2nd January 2025, 5:47
Look at Jaguar. They made the same exact mistake. Even Mercedes did at first. They thought they could get away with spending a third of what the other teams did. Manufacturers have made this mistake time-and-time again.
Lee That's Me (@leethatsme)
4th January 2025, 10:23
@KeithCollantine I’m not sure if it is just me, but since you announced a change to the round up I haven’t seen it. It was my first port of call for motorsport news.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
4th January 2025, 10:47
@KeithCollantine. The same for me as above. I can now see no round-ups since 31 December on my phone access. The 1st and 2nd did appear but now they don’t. I have not seen the 3rd, 4th at all. ????