The so called ‘silly season’ in the driver F1 market kicked off early this year following Lewis Hamilton’s pre-season announcement he was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari next season. With Mercedes struggling over the past few seasons, the vacant seat at the once all conquering team is less attractive now to the top drivers like Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz.
Alonso realising he was not going to get a shot at driving for Red Bull then decided to resign for Aston Martin not waiting for Mercedes to finalise their plans. Max Verstappen too had everybody excited during the height of Red Bull’s very public washing of dirty linen, when he implied there were certain conditions which wold see him turn his back on the Red Bull Racing team.
Hulkenberg signing a “trigger”
Verstappen’s is not the only Red Bull seat up for grabs as Sergio Perez is in the final year of his contract. Despite improved performances the team have refused as yet to resign the Mexican driver who is now in his fourth year with the world championship winning team.
One of the hot properties on the grid is Alex Albon who drives for Williams. The former Red Bull driver has been linked with a return to Milton Keynes should either Perez or Verstappen leave, yet the British/Thai driver is under contract until the end of 2025.
Albon now reveals how much earlier F1 driver representatives are working with teams this year, to secure a seat amongst the 10 remaining available for next year. Alex argues that Nico Hulkenberg’s move to Sauber/Audi was something of a “trigger” which will see the big decisions made in the next “couple of weeks.”
The Hulkenberg announcement came ahead of the Miami Grand Prix which will see the German driver on a multi-year deal set to straddle the integration between Audi and Sauber due to begin in 2026. Audi have made it known they are keen to sign Carlos Sainz and when the Spaniard was dropped by Ferrari, it was reported they’d given Sainz a deadline of the end of April by which he must sign for them. Carlos clearly believes there are better opportunities at the moment and is holding out until Red Bull announce their future plans.
Audi drop deadline for Sainz decision
TJ13 reported last week that Audi had now removed the time sensitive condition from their offer to Sainz and are prepared to wait for him to finish exploring all his possibilities. Yet Albon claims the timescale will now be short before all 10 remaining seats for 2025 are signed, sealed and delivered.
“Everything’s moving early, everything’s moving very quickly,” Albon told media in Miami.
“Obviously, Nico [Hulkenberg] has just pulled somewhat of a trigger at Sauber and I’m sure the second one is going to follow soon.
“And everything, including my focus on where I go, not so much for next year, but the year after, and focusing on that side of things, it’s these next couple of weeks are where all the decisions I think for the whole grid is going to be finalised.”
Surprising TV audience for Miami GP
Williams rumoured to be dropping Sargent
Albon’s own team Williams has decisions to make given the continued poor performances from their pay driver Logan Sargent. Recent reports have linked his seat with Mercedes star in the making, Kimi Antonelli, although representatives in Miami denied Sargent would be dropped before the next race in Imola.
Williams completed a miserable weekend in Miami as both cars were off the pace from the off. In Sprint qualifying, Sargent achieved the rare feat of qualifying ahead of Albon, yet given the pair were in P19 and P20 it was nothing to write home about.
In the Sprint itself, Sargent had an even rarer moment when he finished in P11 ahead of his team mate. Though the struggling Floridian driver has as yet only scored a point, due to the disqualification of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in Austin last year.
Normal service resumed in Grand Prix qualifying as Logan failed to make it out of the first qualifying session while Albon was set to start the race in P14. Colliding with Kevin Magnussen in the Sunday race, meant Sargent scored yet another DNF in the final classification.
FIA address safety car “MISTAKE” in Miami
Audacious bid for Adrian Newey
Williams were in the news this week following the announcement that Adrian Newey was leaving Red Bull Racing. With all the talk being of a move to Ferrari for the F1 car genius designer, Williams team boss James Vowles announced he’d thrown his hat into the ring, offering Newey a romantic return the where he claimed his first race wins and championships.
“It was a light conversation more than anything else, saying it can’t have been an easy decision and fundamentally wanting just to have an additional chat about things,” said Vowles.
“But from a Williams perspective, that’s where Adrian really cut his teeth for the first time. And we’re a team without politics. It’s a small team that’s trying to make our way back to the front. And it could fit very perfectly for someone that wants to potentially dig into a challenge like that.”
Presumably any offer from Grove to Adrian would require him receiving a slice of equity in the team, something which drove him away the first time when Frank Williams refused to budge.
Newey cut a lone figure in the solitary interview he did in Miami with Martin Brundle, admitting that like Forest Gump he “felt a little tired.” Adrian will oversee the completion of the Red Bull Hypercar project, the RB17, before leaving Red Bull completely in quarter one of 2025.
Hints: Marko ;knows’ Newey next team
US Judiciary Comittee launches F1 investigatio
Formula One has gotten itself into a right pickle and in the market it most hopes to “crack” in the United States of America. The FIA who write and police the rules for the sport has green lighted the Andretti organisations F1 application to join the grid from as early as 2025.
Yet the F1 commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, subsequently rejected the Andretti bid citing various reasons for their decision. The FIA has yet to respond publicly to Liberty’s decision, but for now Andretti have been told to go away and return only when they have an engine manufacturer behind their bid…. READ MORE
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Maybe, maybe not, but people should stop speculating about Albon in the Red Bull Racing context, & even more so about Sargeant, given Williams has zero intention of axing him for the time being, not to mention that 2025 drive is solely his to lose rather than something he’s guaranteed to lose in any case.
The clear-cut thing is that he’s Williams’ priority, given they’ve invested in him to an extent, so they’d sack him only if he gave a strong justification for that.
He may have gotten out-qualified again in standard qualifying, but their gap was only a little over a tenth, & the weekend as a whole was positive for him pace-wise & otherwise, not to mention the collision wasn’t even his fault & his most recent DNF was from the last Qatar GP, so not yet another.