Soon it will be just Ferrari who have not been consumed by the English motorsport’s valley, where now wight of the ten teams on the grid have a base for their operations. As Formula One has grown over the past decades, with teams now often with staffing levels of over one thousand, much of the expertise required now resides in England.

Fred Vasseur when joining Ferrari was asked about how he would turn around the fortunes of the Italian team and readmitted the journey was not short nor without its recruitment difficulties.

“It’s not the same situation [as for other teams]- you can move from Red Bull to Mercedes, keep the same hours, keep children in the same school and from the Friday to the Monday you can change [work place] and everything is perfect,” the Ferrari boss told Sky Sports.

 

 

 

Recruitment for foreign based F1 teams tough

Fred went on to point out ironically that whilst it’s difficult for a family to uproot and move to Italy with probably no native language skills, the benefits from the Italian lifestyle are there for all to see – “the food is much better and the quality of life in Italy is mega,” he grinned.

Red Bull have all but moved their sister teams operations from Faenza, the traditional home of the Minardi team which Didi Mateschitz bought in 2006. Without th pull of the Ferrari name, it was even more difficult for Toro Rosso and all its rebranded successors to attract the top Italian engineering talent.

Audi are now being confronted with the same conundrum, but with less than a year before they ditch the name Sauber in favour of the German automotive brand, there are persistent reports in the German and Swiss media that there are significant problems with the merger of the two organisations.

One of those is that location of the base for the construction of the car – minus the engine – remains in Hinwii Switzerland. Whilst an incredibly beautiful part of the world in which to live, the landlocked mountainous country has a high cost of living and property values which are eye watering.

Fans demand sacking of Sky F1 presenter

 

 

 

Audi transition ‘not particularly smooth’

David Croft of Sky has explained that the transition of the Audi takeover of Sauber, “isn’t going particularly smoothly.” This is something James Key the team’s technical director alluded to last year when he outlined the timeline before the project fully comes together.

“I think ultimately, we’re probably not going to be the final product that we’re aiming for until about ’27 time really, because there is a lot to do,” he explained at last year’s car launch.

Since then the team have sacked their CEO in Andreas Sidle and lost one of their directors at the same time. Ex-Ferrari boss Mattea Binotto has taken charge of the entire project and Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley will become the new Sauber team principal after this year’s Chinese Grand Prix.

All in all the turmoil surrounding the Audi F1 project won’t have been helped by the late changes in key personnel, but the team have signed the under rated Nico Hulkenberg who shows when joining Haas, he can be the catalyst for an upturn in a team’s performance.

Hamilton “surprise” data from testing

 

 

 

Internal personnel chaos hampers Sauber

Ahead of this season’s racing, Croft has again address the issues facing Audi-Sauber amidst the upheaval in personnel they have suffered over the past six months. “They are without a team principal until April. From everything you hear it’s not going particularly smoothly, in terms of the transition to Audi. I hope this is a year for Sauber, their last in F1, where they have a better year.”

The senior Sky commentator goes on to discuss the team’s recruitment issues. “One of the problems that the Audi project has is the location. Hinwil, as spectacular as Switzerland is, is not a great place to attract staff to. Switzerland is expensive, and you’re uprooting people.

“They are now announcing that they need a base in the UK to make better use of talent. I am surprised that didn’t happen two years ago. Surprised it wasn’t on the radar. Persuading people to move to Switzerland, to uproot their families, is not an easy thing to do. Getting the right people in is half the battle,” Croft concludes.

Of course this all related to merely the Sauber part of the merger but there have been sporadic reports from Germany that Audi’s power unit programme is not quite going to plan. 

Red Bull hit back at Newey criticism

 

 

 

Binotto admits Audi engine will be behind

The latest update on how the work is progressing in Germany was given by Mattea Binotto last August when he had recently visited the engine facility in Neuburg. “I’ve been visiting Neuburg in the last days and weeks,” said Binotto. “The engine is progressing well, running on the dyno, some long distances so far already performed.

“But I think here as well, it’s a learning process. We are competing with other organisations where manufacturers are settled down, are very expert, got a fantastic background, experience from the past years,” he noted.

The all new F1 2026 power units, while similar in terms of the components currently used, will see the electrical power boosted by three times to deliver 50% of the power output. Further the complex heat rev=covery systems are being dropped and the combustion engines will run entirely on 100% sustainable fuel.

Binotto suggests he expects there to be gap to the other PU manufacturers, which is a surprising admission from a man who cut his teeth in the engine department at Ferrari. 

Marko issues warning to Hamilton

 

 

 

Audi v Cadillac: Could be embarrassing

“So while I think the organisation there is great, the facilities are great, the programmes are going ahead, still there is a learning curve which needs to be done. So I’m expecting initially to have a gap to recover. How big it will be, I think that you can never know.”

“That only by the time we will be on track that we can only understand. But we’ve got more than a year from now to then,” Binotto concludes.

Cadillac will join the F1 grid next year with their Ferrari powered engines and as the new kids on the block would be expected to be towards the rear of the field. It would be embarrassing for Audi who emerged on their F1 journey years before the American team’s approval were they to come out ahead of the German run project, given the lack of racing experience they have in Europe.

Newey “massively” surprised by Lance Stroll

 

 

 

McLaren now the off track Red Bull bitter rivals

With just a week before the Formula One cars hit the track in anger in Melbourne, Netflix has dropped its latest  Drive to Survive series. Now in its seventh season, the fly on the wall documentary has become a staple for many F1 fans as the clock ticks down for race one of the year.

With the off track shenanigans from early last season making F1 headlines, the streaming services offering from the 2024 season has plenty of content from which to choose.

The opening episode is entitled “business as usual” and deals with the off track row over allegations made against Red Bull boss Christian Horner. Although he was completely exonerated by two external investigations, the footage made for good TV while the story was breaking…. READ MORE