It was the best of times in Formula One land last year for Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver went on to smash many long standing F1 records during his dominant campaign and his RB19 became the most successful F1 car design of all time.

Now trailing home Lando Norris by almost 23 seconds at his home Grand Prix, it must feel to Max as though he is now facing the worst of times. Sergio Perez continued his string of disappointing  performances and only claimed sixth place due to a strategic error from Mercedes who pitted Russell while he was ahead of the Red Bull driver for a set of new soft tyres intended to propel George into a podium position.

Now Red Bull have had their lead in the team championship slashed to just 30 points by the chasing McLaren duo who closed the gap to the world champions by 12 points this weekend.

 

 

 

Vowles criticises Sargeant’s crash

Meanwhile the Williams team had brought a raft of upgrades to Zandvoort, which Logan Sargeant well and truly destroyed during an “unnecessary” crash during there wet practice three session. Such was the carnage caused by the American, the team failed to get his car ready for qualifying in time.

Yet a twist of fate saw Alex Albon disqualified from his provisional starting position of P8 due to an outsized floor discovered by the FIA latest scanners and this saw Sargeant move forward to P18 on the grid with Haas Kevin Magnussen starting from the pit lane.

Sargeant had a decent race finishing P16, two places back from his team mate, yet the drama of the Floridian’s crash from the previous day remained front and centre of what may well prove to be a terminal weekend for the American.

James Vowles ironically was Sky F1’s pit wall team principal for this weekend and his immediate response was the incident was “unnecessary” given the practice session was wet and little learning cold be achieved. Martin Brundle faced down the elephant in the room claiming that Williams can’t continue to lose the kind of funds to these crashes and that they must be considering replacement Sargeant before the end of the year.

Ricciardo now speak of his lack of promotion

 

 

 

Horner offers Williams Liam Lawson

Logan Sargeant replaced the hapless Nicholas Latifi, who during three seasons and 61 starts with the British team only claimed a total of 9 points in his F1 career. The belief was ‘surely Sargeant will do better than that.’ But its been proven once again that ‘pay-to-drive’ candidates in Formula One are never the solution even for a cash strapped team.

When asked whether their reserve driver Liam Lawson was a possibility to solve Williams current predicament, Christian Horner was open to the idea: “It depends on which terms and if we needed him back, would we get him back,” said the Red Bull boss.

“Certainly, if they needed a driver next weekend, we’d be open to that. But that’s a Williams question rather than one for us to answer.”

It would be tough to complete the necessary formalities for such a loan from Red Bull before the cars hit the track in anger again at Monza this coming Friday and also Sergeant’s dismissal from the team is not the work of a moment.

Wolff makes bold Verstappen claim to irritate Horner

 

 

 

Mick Schumacher’s name in the ring

However, the views in the Zandvoort paddock this weekend were almost unanimous in that Sargeant is finished and may well be out even before the F1 circus arrives at the Cathedral of Speed.

Lawson is the obvious choice for Williams given the confident performances the New Zealander displayed during a cameo of five Grand Prix last year, when he stepped in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

Yet Lawson was not ruled ‘ready’ to replace either Yuki Tsunodo or Daniel Ricciardo this year but he has been with the team at each and every one of the Grand Prix weekends.

Mick Schumacher’s name has been thrown into the mix as well, yet anyone with half a memory bank will recall the Haas F1 car ripped in two when Schumacher hit the barrier in the swimming pool section during the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix.

Horner finally breaks silence over accusations against him

 

 

 

Sargeant looks ‘broken’

ESPN are now reporting Vowles held talks with Horner in the Zandvoort paddock to explore the possibility of a nine race loan of Liam Lawson, something which Dr. Helmut Marko now fully supports too. “If it’s good for a young driver, and he can gain some race experience, we wouldn’t stand in the way,” said the 81 year old Austrian when asked about the rumours.

Lawson to Williams to the end of there year has an air of ‘destiny’ about it. For Williams they are getting a driver who will certainly perform at a level higher than Logan Sargeant, of that there is little doubt.

For Red Bull it gives them further time to see their academy driver in action and offer some insight as to where best in the team he will fit for 2025.

Sargeant looks a broken man with just one point scored during his F1 career. At the FIA press conference pre-Zandvoort, the American cut a forlorn figure as non of the attending media asked him a single question.

Briatore SLAMS former Alpine management amidst engine riot

 

 

 

FIA new laser scanners catching illegal parts

As Formula One entered the biggest rule changes seen in its history for 2022, another innovation largely went under the radar. The FIA was finally updating its archaic tape measure and pencil methodology for measuring the legality of the dimensions of the F1 cars.

During the 1980’s and 90’s the FIA’s technical department was something of a laughing stock as F1 teams regularly gamed the system knowing the technical know how was not present to detect their latest tricks.

In modern times the governing body of F1 has grown the technical team and expanded its policing capabilities and for 2022 laser scanning was introduced for track side scrutineering… READ MORE