Inhaltsverzeichnis für January 2023 in AUTOSPORT

If any Formula 1 driver were to be halted in their tracks by a (not especially original) witticism while strolling away from an awards ceremony, trophy in hand, it’s Sebastian Vettel. The majority of guests at the Autosport Awards had long since made for their carriages or gone a-questing for the afterparty in the labyrinthine bowels of London’s Grosvenor House. Then here came Sebastian, perhaps savouring his final appearance at such an extravaganza, sauntering alone from the Great Room balcony with his lifetime achievement gong slung casually in one hand. We haven’t encountered one another much one-on-one in recent years, since his preference is to avoid the society of the Formula 1 media and its tiresome works. This time, though, he paused to acknowledge my attempt at a humorous interjection,…

IS IT TIME TO RETHINK ENGINE PENALTIES? The subject of grid penalties for the use of more engine components than the regulations allow is a vexed one. Until this past season it had become more of an accepted annoyance than a topic of debate. At Monza the subject was very firmly on the lips of fans and teams alike as an unprecedented thirteen cars accumulated between them penalties of 125 grid positions. The magnitude of the problem was compounded by the provisional starting grid not being published until several hours after the qualifying session finished as the FIA debated how, and in what order, so many conflicting penalties should be applied. With three cars nominally penalised by starting at the back of the grid, one could sympathise with the impossibility…

THERE ARE FEW, IF ANY, FORMS OF PRAISE higher than the accolade of ‘natural talent’. In the sporting arena it serves as the shorthand for greatness: a skillset seemingly encoded in DNA; physical attributes and mental acuity conferred by random chance or simple genetics. Max Verstappen is a natural talent, so too Lewis Hamilton. Go back through Formula 1 history and other names inevitably draw the appellation: Ayrton Senna; Gilles Villeneuve; Jim Clark. But there are others given that honorific rarely, if at all: Jackie Stewart; Alain Prost; Michael Schumacher. While they undoubtedly had natural talents, their descriptors tend to focus on other factors: hard work and application; people skills; shrewdness bordering on ingenuity. Where does Sebastian Vettel fit into this picture? That he occupies a high seat in the…

“THE FIRST THING that stood out for me when I came to Faenza, it was the fact that there were all these pictures of Seb Vettel’s victory in Monza in the staircase as you walk up,” recalls Pierre Gasly of his first visit to the headquarters of what was then Toro Rosso. “Walking up, I remember I was making videos and stories for my social media, and someone said to me, ‘Oh, Sebastian! Numero uno.’ And I replied at the time, ‘He is the best. But hopefully there will be pictures of me in five years on this staircase.’” Five years on, the second most important flight of stairs at the team’s Faenza base is a gallery with photos of Pierre Gasly. Photos likewise taken at Monza, also of a…

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MATT YOUSON Matt, author of Red Bull Racing: The First 10 Years, was in pole position to appraise the first part of Sebastian Vettel’s long career (p33) ROBERTO CHINCHERO Roberto has the inside track on why Vettel moved to Ferrari and what went wrong, and right for him, at the Scuderia (p43) OLEG KARPOV A look at Pierre Gasly’s time in the Red Bull family (p60) and a chat with his new boss Otmar Szafnauer (p68) have kept Oleg busy MAURICE HAMILTON Maurice wraps up his fascinating history of Tyrrell this month as he charts the team’s sad decline until its sale to BAR (p74)…

@_markgallagher WHY FTX COLLAPSE SHOCKED F1 Twenty years ago Formula 1 suffered an exodus of giant telecoms sponsors. Companies which rode the internet wave were then wiped out when investor confidence dissolved in the face of mounting losses and appalling governance. The dot-com bubble had well and truly burst. Nortel (Williams) and Lucent (Jordan) were two such organisations. The former’s value crashed from £186billion to £2bn in two years, the latter collapsed after an £86million ‘accounting error’ was followed by sales in one quarter being overstated to the tune of £482m. Fast forward to today and enter the ‘Crypto King’. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange which announced ‘a long-term relationship’ with Mercedes in September 2021. “FTX is thrilled to partner with the reigning Formula 1…

LUKE SKYWALKER, George Bailey, Maverick, Neo, Captain America… even Bill and Ted. It’s a trope of Hollywood screenwriting that at some point the hero is sorely tested, plunged into a transformative ordeal – and then, from the depths of despair, they rise again to be triumphant. For Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, though, the final act in the drama didn’t conform to this Aristotlean ideal. The story of Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari was one of a professional relationship undercut by, as ever with Maranello, a strong element of passion. The relationship had moments of great exaltation and bitter disappointments, quickly reaching its first victories and slowly fading towards a divorce that wasn’t without controversy. Inhabiting the story was a driver with a strong personality and a team with a complicated dynamic,…

Felipe, you finished ninth and eighth in the championship in your first two F2 seasons – what changed so much for 2022? I think in 2021 nothing really clicked for us for some reason. It wasn’t a horrendous [season], but I never got wins – I just got a few podiums here and there. Four podiums, but no wins. I think the speed wasn’t really there. And then I started over-pushing and a few things. But, anyway, I got a call from MP Motorsport at the end of the year and things worked out [with five wins and the title in 2022]. F2/GP2 has always been about building experience for many drivers – especially on the sensitive tyres. Was that the case for you too? It helps, but people say…

A flash of light before sunset Around mid-afternoon in Abu Dhabi at this time of year there comes a point where the sun has gone over for the day but hasn’t quite set, and the effects of the circuit floodlights are yet to be felt. Practice sessions in daylight here are a bit odd since the track conditions don’t really reflect what will happen in the race, so the track isn’t necessarily very busy with traffic. The cars were moving through an interesting pool of light so, while it was fairly quiet, I thought I’d experiment. While the new Canon R3’s headline feature is a 1/64,000th shutter speed, I went the other way and took it down to 1/15th, which creates a great feel of movement. Where Yas Marina, Abu…

@benedwardstv FINDING THE LIMITS OF THE HUMAN MACHINE Wrapping up the 2022 F1 season with smoother action on track was encouraging after the early season challenge for drivers. The new technical regulations and heavier cars with groundeffect aerodynamics were always going to provide a different feel in the cockpit, yet the aspect that leapt up was the porpoising: cars being sucked down to the track surface then released, a pattern repeated at rapid intervals when flat out in a straight line. It was tough physical challenge. Mark Arnall is a performance coach who began his career with McLaren in 1997 and went on to spend 20 years training and assisting Kimi Räikkönen before connecting with Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin this year. Like most people in the business, he had…

Steven English Director of Esports, Williams Racing From humble beginnings on Autosport magazine’s national racing desk, Steven English made the move to Formula 1 PR and marketing with Caterham and Williams – and is now spearheading the Williams team’s expansion into the sim racing space. It’s not just about Formula 1, either… CV 2022 Director of Esports, Williams Racing 2018 Head of Esports, Williams Racing 2015 Head of Digital, Williams Racing 2014 Digital Marketing Manager, Williams Racing 2011 Digital Marketing Manager, Caterham F1 2009 News Editor, Autosport.com 2005 National Racing Assistant Editor, Autosport magazine GP Racing: Having gone through the F1 journalism finishing school and into PR, what prompted you to make the move into Esports? Steven English: I grew up playing racing games. As you know, when I worked…

“IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU leave behind, it’s about what you take with you.” With this gnomic utterance Sebastian Vettel introduces a glossily shot video produced by Aston Martin to mark his departure from F1. As the Hans Zimmer-esque soundtrack soars to a pinnacle of glassy strings undercut by a persistent bass clef rumbling, the impression is one of a driver thoughtfully shimmying out of the door, shrouded in a fog of aphorisms. How to parse this apparently profound and yet profoundly counter-intuitive statement? During what we might call the third phase of his F1 career Vettel has undergone another transformation, into what some may call (disparagingly) a ‘social justice warrior’. But here’s the thing: he doesn’t care what label you might want to apply to his activism. Neither does…

THE F1 SPEAKER BANGED HIS GAVEL ON an edition of English for Dummies with a bespoke carbonfibre cover. “Gentlemen, could I call this meeting to order? We have much to discuss and…” “A question, if you please, Mr Speaker,” interrupted the Head of Correct Spelling at Alpine. “Could I refer you to page 197 of the OED and your use of the word ‘Order’. Are you referring to – and I quote: ‘The way things are placed in relation to each other’, or ‘Issuing a command’, or ‘A written instruction for the purposes of purchase’ or ‘A monastic organisation’?” “Ha! Probably the latter, given the way one team principal thinks he’s holier than thou!” chortled the delegate from Freedom for Outspoken Media (FOM). “I mean, what’s a couple of misconstrued…

@CoddersF1 facebook.com/gpracingonline MATTIA BINOTTO: GOING, NOT GOING, GONE If you took Ferrari at its word, there was no concrete succession plan when Mattia Binotto handed in his resignation in late November. “The process is underway to identify Scuderia Ferrari’s new team principal and is expected to be finalised in the new year,” read a bulletin. But why would you take Ferrari at its word when, only a fortnight earlier, it assured everybody the boss was going nowhere. So, it either tried to pull the wool over our eyes or Binotto concluded his position had become untenable in double-quick time. In Abu Dhabi, the Italian spoke with all the hallmarks of a football manager giving their final press conference before facing the chop. He dismissed the noise regarding his future and was…