News Catch-Up

A quick rundown of the biggest stories from the past two weeks, with the headlines, changes and talking points that matter most. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Fox now, fox now, fox, fox, fox. Four point eight. Four point eight. I think that's a pocket point. I think that's a pocket.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Welcome to Boxbox Box, your friendly neighborhood Formula One podcast. My name's Scott. I'm joined today with Mohan as always. How are you, Mohan?

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Uh I'm very well, thank you. And uh I think we're roughly halfway through this end-forced break, uh, or sort of early season break. So it's uh yeah, good to be good to be catching up uh as part of before we've got a couple more weeks before we get to Miami.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah, so we thought we'd jump on today and have a discussion about what's been happening during this lull, because there has been, you know, there has been some changes and movements and conversations happening in the background. So, first of all, uh what do you be doing with your time during this uh this enforced break?

SPEAKER_03 1:06

I guess doing a bit more research into uh some of the F1 decoded uh topics that we want to talk about, and we've got a couple of topics that we want to bring up, sort of doing a bit more of a deep dive. But it's actually interestingly in the background, there's been a lot of activity in the sport, and it's usually this level of activity happens in the mid-season break, basically, with you know personnel changes and rule changes and things that actually happen. But given given the state that the sport was left in after Japan, particularly in terms of rule changes and and something like BMW's crash, for instance, which has forced a few things, there's been a lot of uh chatter that's happened in the background. So just keeping up to that, and it's almost on a daily basis, is a story that seems to pop up. And uh and that's aside from all the personal changes that have been talked about in this time, actually. So around Aston Martin, around Audi, around Red Bull. So it's been a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, so well, let's talk about that. Can we start with Bemen's crash and what's what's been happening there?

SPEAKER_03 2:01

So I guess this was this was something that this particular crash was something that a lot of drivers, even before the start of the season, actually had uh had warned about, particularly that um that closing speed issue. And the crash that happened to him was exactly what they had warned about. And I think it was quite a stark reality for them to actually see it happen. Um it's forced FIA's hand to try and actually have a look at this and see what they can change. I know there was a meeting conducted on the 9th of April in relation to this, but we still haven't seen the full outcomes in terms of if there's any if there is going to be any rule changes out of that or any modifications that come out of it. We actually the ratified version of that meeting, shall we say, has not been published yet. So we'll wait and see what um what gets implemented before March.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

What kind of changes, I guess, uh in the thought space at the moment to be able to make that kind of thing safer? And it was uh I guess it was unfortunate to see those predictions come true.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Yeah. Um and I guess uh the there was a bit of a band aid's uh solution that was applied to that. And they did make a slight adjustment to qualifying in terms of the amount of energy that could be harvested, uh reharvested, I guess. But the drivers had actually said, well, that's all very well, but you need to do something about the race itself. And in terms of how much energy is actually allowed to be harvested and and redeployed. And this is this was a classic situation. You know, Carlo Pinter was harvesting, he was he probably didn't react quickly enough to get out of the racing line. But Beerman also had not he had only had one option was to avoid a crash. He had to go off track to actually uh and luckily he had a runoff area to do that. So imagine if it was a a closed-in street circuit like Singapore or Baku or somewhere like that, where there isn't that option, it could have been a lot more catastrophic. Um and and and the speed at which he was closing in, it's something like uh a sixth of a difference in speed there was, which is massive at that time. So it's one thing for it to be predicted, it's a second thing to actually see it happening in reality. And I hope they have also looked at making some modifications in terms of energy harvesting in the race itself.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Pretty much that might be the only really way to go about it. I I I recall the way I I described it was that the it was very much like a car was under braking when the when the other one was and the other one had its brakes failed. The speed difference was that different. I guess the one of the biggest issues with this is that it's creating offs in areas that normally wouldn't happen because you know all the runoffs are quite strategically placed uh, you know, for the corners where they happen. If something like this was to occur, you know, you're gonna get these offs in areas that we wouldn't r normally get them because the the cars don't have issues like they're having issues now. Like how how could they even predict what's gonna happen with this?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

And that's the thing, it's particularly because these cars are forced to reharvest their energy at unusual places on the track, which they wouldn't normally have to do, particularly in the previous hybrid era. And I think the example we can give our listeners is on a day-to-day basis, say you were you were following someone on a freeway, and if they drop a sixth of their speed in front of you, you've got two options. Option one is to run into them. Option two is to avoid the crash, and that's exactly what BM tried to do the best he possibly could. And he's actually quite fortunate that all he walked away from that was a bruised knee.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Is there any more on that or should we move on?

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Uh I guess it'd say hopefully they actually have taken note of that and something something will come out of it uh in the next week or two and see what's been what's been employed rather than a bit more let's wait and see whether something else is going to happen, that they actually get a bit more proactive about it rather than being reactive to another crash that's potentially gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Something has to change there, surely. So so what else has been happening around?

SPEAKER_03 5:44

The other big thing is actually has been uh personnel changes or potential personnel changes that are coming up. And I think even before the break, uh coming into that was the big story was Aston Martin, and particularly uh Adrian Newy's role, which I mean was surprising in the first place that he was made team principal because that was not actually where he went what he went to Aston Martin for. And that seems to have now fallen into place as far as he's concerned. So it effectively created a team principle gap. There was probably the worst kept secret at the time at the fact that Jonathan Wheatley was going to take that spot. But obviously he resigned fairly quickly from uh from the Audi team after that, and as as a result, has left a gap in that team. But from what I understand, he actually has got a a bit of gardening leave with Audi, which he has to see out before he can go across to Aston Martin. So that that particular change has not been signed off as well, basically.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I haven't heard a called gardening leave before. Could you could you maybe explain that for anyone that's seems like a property kind of issue, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Particularly in some employment contracts that I've heard in the past. And basically, gardening leaves means that the company you are currently employed by has got it in their clause that you are not allowed to join a competitor within a certain period of time. And what they actually choose to do is they will argument sake, it might be three months, it might be a month, they will pay you to stay unemployed for that time. And it actually prevents you from directly going to a competitor at that time. So it's it's the term across industry and not just Formula One, but it just in corporate world as well. It's become a term that's called gardening leave, and you're supposed to do the time to fix up a garden, basically. This is and is this is intellectual property-based, right? Very much so, very much so. And it's sort of managing competition a lot at the end of the day. I mean, I think it it's a bit of a band-aid because you know, three months later someone's gonna take that IP to that team. All it is is slowing that process down. But it is, it is, but in the corporate world, and I've had situations where I've had to deal with that in my own working life, where you're given the time off to say, no, you you cannot go straight away. Um, particularly in an instance where the other team is likely to poach you, basically. So that avoids them poaching you directly from the current current team. So having said that, it's not a guarantee that we're going across, but it's just a bit too obvious, I guess, that the timing of the change that happened. What that has that led to then is uh Mateo Binato has had to so kind of step into that role. But he is sort of a head of their technical engineering division and is kind of a caretaker role at the moment at Audi, till they find someone new. There have been various names thrown around, including Christian Honor at one point, that who would actually slot into that team. But uh time will tell, and hopefully that you sort it out before Miami and give that Audi team some stability because Audi as a team up to this point were actually performing really well. And even c even at the tail end of last season, Saurba as a team seemed to have got their together. They were challenging the midfield quite very quite well at that point. And hopefully Wheatley's departure hasn't created any instability in that team, that they can still continue that trajectory of form that they were showing up to that point. And then the last big one that came out, and this is kind of kind of predictable, was GP actually uh leaving uh well, he will leave Red Bull at the end of end of his contract and go across to McLaren. Um the talk is that's potentially accelerated Verstappen's departure from Red Bull as well, because I think he has been particularly unhappy with the new regulations, and I think this might have even served as a bit of a tipping point. And he's obviously he's quite happy for GP to leave and wishes him well, and the fact that you know he anyone that wants to better themselves, you always got to encourage them to do that, and that's where GP is going. I mean, he's he's delivered how many world championships uh win Red Bull, and it's time to take it to another team. And so it's a it's a it's a massive bug uh gained for McLaren to have someone like that on board. But I think the deal with McLaren is actually after he serves a certain period that he's kind of been almost guaranteed to be team principal there as well. So I mean, no one would turn that opportunity down, and everybody obviously wishes him well to move on to that next stage. And as I've mentioned before, this kind of personnel change usually happens mid-season. But it's happened way earlier than we expected in the in this year, basically. So more to come, I'm assuming, with other teams as well. Is this another circumstance where there's you know gardening leave, as you say, for IP, or is it this one actually hasn't been because it usually comes in a situation where um someone's terminated their contract early or the co e either party have terminated their contract early. But in GP's case, his contract will purely just run out. And I don't think they have the opportunity or the legal basis to force that on him. Whereas I think in Wheatley's contract, he basically he took an early exit out of that contract, which is where they can actually implement their gardening leave as such.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

I'm shocked that they uh, you know, like I've I've seen these kind of things, like you have in the corporate world as well. And I'm surprised that there's not longer timelines on this, like a 12-month spell kind of thing. Because it this it just, you know, it's it it would be so easy to just poach ideas, you know, whatever team's leading that year. Think 2014 um Mercedes. You know, how much would you pay just for those ideas? And and look, I know that they're even like even when they do change team, they're not supposed to take that IP across, but surely that's unpoliceable at a point.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

True. I certainly, I mean, um my example's from the corporate world is the fact that the higher you go up, the longer that leave is as well. So if you look at someone at a CEO level, it could be 12 months sometimes. Um and you know they the the lower you go down the round the run that uh that leave is it gets shorter. But the thing is also you sort of use this akin to say a coach within a sporting team. Uh as amazing as a coach might be, after a while, their ideas get a little bit tied within that team, and it's time to take those ideas to another team who can probably put it to better use or see this as fresh opportunity to look at. So um it it does get a bit stale after a while, and I think this is where it kind of comes to with some of these contracts that they've done everything they've achieved on the within that particular team and have and have contributed they possibly can to the absolute limit. It's time to take that their thinking to another team, basically.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Now, have you heard anything from the drivers during this um this enforced break? Is there any chatter there or are they really just kind of keeping it quiet?

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Yeah, they've uh actually uh not a lot as such. The only one obviously has been Max, and I think because of what's been happening, there have been interviews with him, and he had even before GP's departure had hinted that he is stinking strongly. And I think his current contract, and I mean we've talked about this in the contract discussion early in the year, he has got an exit clause in his contract that by mid-season, if he's not fourth or better, he can he can implement an exit out of his county. And yeah, the way he's sitting at the moment, that is very well likely to happen. And given Red Bull's form, that may very well happen that he actually might take an early exit out of that contract. So that's that's been the large chatter. The rest of it's been really from a driver's point of view, barely actually heard from any of them. There's been obviously promotional stuff being done, but certainly no stories that are sort of worth getting your teeth into as such.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Is there any teams that would pick up Max mid-season that are better than the car he's currently in?

SPEAKER_03 13:02

I think the opportunity exists. Uh, there would. And I I could certainly can see there's certainly two candidates at the moment that could potentially and it would cause a lot of disruption within their team. Obviously, Mercedes has been sh has been touted for quite a bit, and that would actually create quite an interesting dynamic because it actually, in my head, it actually makes George's position very unstable. Yeah, who takes the back seat, right? Like that's uh, I think I think Toto has invested so much in Kimi that he would not want to let that go. And he's he's the future of that team as well. And given how Piastri is being treated at McLaren, he himself might want to look elsewhere, basically. And and and Max probably could take that position as well. So I don't think Max would want to go to a team where they can offer him a competitive car. So I think a midfield team or a lower team probably wouldn't be as attractive. But he's been out racing in other worlds. He might quit the sport altogether and no go to work racing GT cars, basically, which is what he's loved to do. He's even talk about rally driving at one point to follow his father in that in his father's footsteps. And that he's just wants to race and and race competitively. That it might be the fact that Formula One has offered him at this stage all they can offer him at this point in time.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah, I mean, the it is true if he was to change team, he would keep his driver's points, right? So he's could well make a a challenge for the title halfway through the season if he was to take George's seat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

And we saw what he did last year coming through 100 points adrift and what he did in the last half of the season, basically.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah, yeah, quite enough. Yeah, look, that's that would be interesting and um maybe certain certainly be very good for Formula One. And just you know, I do wonder, you know, i in a t-shirt sales sense. You know, I I can't see Mercedes having enough loyalty to George Russell to be able to turn something like that down. I just I I but yeah, it just that wouldn't make economic sense. So I think Ferrari would be the only team where I'd say they wouldn't take him. But just because I don't think he I don't think he fits the mould of the team personality-wise, as well as they've got they're kind of they're covered off of their bases, right? Like LeClaire's a very good um I guess he's he's very comparable to Verstappen in many ways, and then they've got their legend there as well, which is Lewis Hamilton's.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Yeah. And I think, and certainly from a personality point of view, because Max is a very outspoken kind of person, um, and you know, he doesn't hold back. Whereas I think that kind of uh mentality wouldn't fit well with Ferrari, and I think Ferrari to some extent like people who comply to what they want to do and that sort of stuff. And I think uh Lewis to a large extent and and Charles to some extent actually are happy to comply with those requirements and not challenge Ferrari uh in a lot of situations until their frustration gets too much. Whereas Max will be outspoken from day one, and I don't think that would go down very well at first.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, and look, Lewis is quite an outspoken driver. I guess just his star power is kind of what eclipses it. And the fact that he's always just loved Ferrari as a as a car manufacturer in general, where he's you know, he owns a lot of Ferraris, and I guess that's why he's the difference maker there. But I honestly thought he didn't wouldn't gel with the team for those exact reasons. And I I guess that's uh it's kind of what happened to Sebastian Vettel on his way out uh of Ferrari in many ways. So very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Anything else happening, Mohana, or is it kind of the one biggest news story which is actually great for the sport, was I think going back a year, year and a half ago, I I actually had followed the F1 Academ Academy and and uh and the drivers that were coming through that. And it was fantastic over the over the weekend to see uh Dorian Pan, who has dominated that that's that side of the sport, being given a turn in uh Mercedes W-12, basically, over the weekend at at Silverstone. And she did something like 70 odd laps, I think, on the track. And this is this is all Susie Wolfe's work. And hopefully this actually talks towards uh we might see a female driver in the sport, not not too much in the distant future, basically.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, and that was um you know F1 Academy's been the uh what is it, the almost like the Phoenix Club they're called, spiritual successor of the W Series, which uh That's right went uh is is uh still exists, as far as I understand it, but is effectively defunct uh at the moment. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

So uh it's um but yeah, I was I was a I was a big fan of the W series. I watched it, I watched all of it many times. I watched his races many times. So just waiting for something like this to happen. So yeah, very positive, very positive.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

There's obviously the talent there. Obviously talent needs opportunity, and this is obviously the perfect opportunity that that's come up.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Absolutely. Um so yeah, well hopefully, hopefully that um and we had, you know, I think it was uh Tadiana Calderon was she was in F2 when she did all right there. Um there's been there's been a few that have kind of tried try to come through the tr traditional methods.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

There was um I think it was uh was Sophia Flersch as well. She had that massive crash. She, you know, they uh they they weren't quite up to that level to to up to upgrade to F1, but they were they were thereabouts. So certainly, yeah, it's certainly it's a it's a it's a great incentive.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Yeah. F1 Academy. Absolutely. You know, it's I mean it's it's it's it's not unreasonable to think that there is a future in a female driver being in the sport in not not too far away, basically, which would be fantastic to see.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, definitely a talent pool issue as well. Like it's uh I think largely just having enough uh females come through in those grassroots uh is what changes that the upper 1%. So uh having the the opportunities there is just a major thing. And I guess like Red Bull have done a similar thing the way that they have their driver academies, where it became less of a uh I guess a rich kids sport, um and they were able to to bring talent through, uh very much like Sebastian Vettel. So Yeah, it's it's it's it's positive for the sport to have these kind of different personalities in it. And yeah, it's just good to see.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

So anything else happening, Mohan, or is that pretty much? Is there any anything you want to talk about with Miami as well? Just Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

I guess we're sort of looking forward to saying obviously this will be there'll be two sprint weekends in a row, uh, which would be interesting. And actually we've I think this is probably the few seasons we've actually had quite uh an early rounds of we would I think we're gonna get four uh sprint weekends out of the Wayfairly, out of the six early, early in the season. But the one thing that actually popped out this morning, it hasn't exactly been verified, but it actually would make sense is the fact of if I would would want to find some way to replace uh the Bahrain and Saudi uh Grand Prix being lost. And the talk that came out this morning is they may actually bump uh Abu Dhabi by a week and slot Saudi Arabia in there towards the end of the year, basically. And then manage to squeeze, so we get 23 instead of 22 races for the season and squeeze an extra race in there because obviously the setup's already going to be in that part of the world at that time of the year. Why not why not exploit that to some extent, assuming it is politically safe at that point to actually do it there. But there was a story that popped up this morning. I saw that uh there is an opportunity for them to extend the season by another week by slotting Saudi in there somewhere, basically.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Yeah, and they'd also need to do they'd have to make these calls pretty early, because you wouldn't want a situation where, you know, say Ferrari's on the fight back and they need as many races as they can to catch Mercedes and all of a sudden the FIA is throwing new races in the calendar. That really wouldn't go down well. So interesting to see how they do this. And you might need a case of the runaway leader still running away with it just to I know you said politically safe and you meant in a geopolitic sense, but it needs to be political safe in an F1 sense as well to be able to make those changes.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Um both not from a logistics point of view, what a massive thing it is to actually to move around. It's a matter of not a matter of just picking up and moving week to week. It's talking weeks to get to get the infrastructure moved over. So yeah, no, be we wait and see what happens there.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Huge loss to lose yet as well. You really wouldn't want to want that to happen. Tell me, uh is there any any any early predictions on Miami?

SPEAKER_03 20:43

I know we'll jump into it more so um as we go along, but I'm expecting, I guess, given I'm I'm kinda expecting Mercedes to consider continue the form, but also that trajectory that McLaren seem to have sorted themselves out actually to to figure in the in that uh at in those races. And the fact that they have now off it was one and basically because between Mercedes and Ferrari for those first couple of races and McLaren are now coming to the fold. And so that actually adds, you know, uh an extra challenge there. I like you, I'm not a huge fan of that track, I have to say, because of, you know, it's uh it's uh it's almost a go-kart track in a in a car park that's been set up as much as the spectacle, but it is what it is at the end of the day of all it's not and I I I I think I find the the noise around it a bit much, but it's a needed aspect of the sport, particularly to get fans in there as such. The the momentum that those three teams have shown, I expect that to continue into Miami as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

All right. Um, well, Mohan, anything else you want to add in this break or uh not as much, it's like I said, it's actually been a busy couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

I was expecting this to be a bit of a lull, but um, I'm expecting that when we get to just before we'll do a preview for Miami, just before that reset, we may have a lot more news to bring uh of things that have happened in terms of hopefully we see some change to the regulations. Um and hopefully uh be interesting to see if there's any more personnel changes in the team.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

It certainly is a wild world of Formula One.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Um all right Mohan uh our socials just quickly um are we are we putting the link train in the description yeah yeah I do actually so our socials are kind of carried and it's um the website is boxboxbox.net.au which then points to our socials which is boxboxbox AUS uh which is on Instagram Facebook and Twitter X and uh TikTok I should say and yeah please uh like subscribe comment uh provide us feedback and also if you've missed any interesting news points please let us know we'll make sure we pick it up as well next time.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Wonderful thank you Mohan uh we'll see you next week uh same place same time uh and I think we'll do we'll do a lead into the uh the Miami Grand Prix um thereabouts or might run out over a week after I do how how far away from we from this race two weeks another week and a half before we do that. Yeah no worries all good all right we might just we might even touch base before then but regardless we'll be around so thank you again Mohan thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time. Thank you