Racetrackmasters

Before the start of this season it was no secret that the lines of communication between Wolff and the Verstappen family were very small. The Mercedes team boss was charmed by the young Dutchman, but Max Verstappen was committed to Red Bull Racing. Wolff repeatedly said he would consider the Dutchman if a seat became available at the successful team. Of course, after everything that has happened this season, that remains to be seen. In any case, Wolff thinks Verstappen is fine at Red Bull, and so he says in conversation with Soymotor.com: “I think Verstappen and his entourage are very happy with the position they are in. Red Bull is their team and their home, so why not keep it that way? I think we have our plans with our drivers, Ferrari has a great line-up, Lando Norris at McLaren seems pretty settled, so I think the trajectory is set.” Although Mercedes has not yet made a decision, Wolff gives the impression that they are only looking within their own ranks for a driver for 2022: “We are not looking for a driver.” The Mercedes team boss is still hinting at the summer break to tie the knot: “We want to make the decision in the summer break. There are different opinions within the team and the Daimler management. We just have to get together and say, ‘Okay, what do we think?’”

Honda are in the thick of the World Championship fight in 2021. Max Verstappen and Red Bull are making it a memorable season for the Japanese manufacturer, who won’t rule out an F1 return in the future. Although Honda are preparing to leave F1 following the conclusion of the 2021 season, the Japanese manufacturer could return to the sport in the future if it aligns with the company’s vision. Honda currently supply Red Bull and AlphaTauri with engines, but they are departing in order to focus on carbon neutral technology. However, Director of Motorsport, Masaya, Nagai says the door isn’t closed on a return to F1. “The power source is changing [in 2025 or 2026],” Nagai told Motorsport.com. “The way of racing can also change through carbon neutral development. If that suits us, we may consider participating again by then. “That moment can always come, but it’s not an issue at the moment.” Honda are in the thick of the World Championship fight thanks to the efforts of Red Bull and Max Verstappen, however Nagai says the manufacturer aren’t reconsidering their decision to leave F1. “Our ideas haven’t changed, so we won’t reconsider our withdrawal,” Nagai added. “That is why everyone is very excited about this season, and I think that is why we have been able to achieve the results we have. “Besides, the season isn’t over yet. We want to race without regrets, that’s the main thing.” Red Bull will take on the running of Honda’s power units from January 2022 when F1 introduces a freeze on power unit development for three years.

At its heart Formula 1 is about gadgetry. The fastest car usually wins, not the quickest driver. But even now, when more than ever winning and losing comes down to minute mathematical increments of tiny technical tweaks, nothing still sells F1 like some good old-fashioned personal needle. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen don’t seem to like each other much. Competing for the world drivers’ championship means an edge in relations is inevitable. You don’t get to the top of a multi-billion euro sport and industry by not squaring shoulders against your closest rival. But this appears more than that. A considerable whiff of “feeling” lingers from last month’s British Grand Prix when in the midst of a thrilling duel for the lead Verstappen decided to go for an ambitious lunge up Hamilton’s inner only to get the door firmly and spectacularly shut in his face. The Dutch prodigy ended up slamming into a tyre wall at high speed. Verstappen and his Red Bull team cried foul. Hamilton shrugged a response that basically boiled down to “fortunes of war”. And overjoyed F1 bosses quietly hugged themselves at having a real grudge match on their hands. Not everyone gets motor-racing’s technical jargon. Anyone can get two guys who’ve got the hump with each other. It’s no coincidence that F1 really catches the popular imagination when the whole bloated “Brmm Brmm” business gets boiled down to two people going toe to toe. Devotees might be able to recall what horsepower was generated by the McLarens both Senna and Prost sat in back in the day. But no engineering qualifications were necessary to recognise a pair of competitors so maddened with fear the other might win that it felt reasonable to deliberately plough into them. Schumacher did the same with Hill. Mansell and Piquet always looked on the verge of a punch-up. Hunt and Lauda actually got on pretty well but the clash of styles and personality was gold for a mass audience. Apparently Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are great mates too, bonding over an unlikely love of badminton. But no one ever makes movies about the admirably reasonable. So as the Grand Prix circus resumes after a summer break in Belgium this Sunday it finds itself a lot more relevant to a lot more people. Even the most casual armchair viewers ghoulishly watching the start and the first corner for crashes are likely to pay attention for longer, which is gold for those flogging F1 through all sorts of media. In many ways it’s a classic tale. Hamilton has been top dog for a long time. If he wins the drivers’ championship again this year it will a record eighth. He has already won more Grand Prix than anyone ever. Victory in Belgium will be a scarcely believable 100th race win. He is a statistical phenomenon in terms of pole positions and podium finishes, and might really be the best ever. Verstappen is the young pretender, brash and full of a swagger that is perhaps inevitable when you’re 23, unfamiliar with financial pressure, and assured of never wanting for company. Just the thought of Hamilton in the mirror was enough for other drivers to fold; Verstappen is cocksure enough to assume the chequered flag is unfurled just for him. Since Silverstone he has pointedly referenced Hamilton’s supposed celebrity lifestyle, saying he would never hang out with people just for his profile. Instead he painted himself as a much more down to earth figure, one that perhaps his 1.9 million Twitter followers can relate to more readily than a sometimes painfully earnest world champion reportedly worth over €300 million. Except this is no straightforward story of some young rebel taking on the establishment figure. Verstappen is from a racing family. His father is an ex-F1 driver. Once Verstappen Jnr started showing talent in karting there was little difficulty in presenting the peak of the sport as an attainable goal. It is in stark contrast with Hamilton’s unlikely and pioneering rise to stardom from an under-privileged background in England and becoming the first black driver in F1. Crucially, though, and unlike golf with its coldly cynical Player Impact Programme for boosting publicity through social media, there doesn’t appear to be anything ersatz about Hamilton versus Verstappen. It’s no Ali-Frazier rivalry. But there’s enough differences between the two men to make it both believable and box office. That’s good news for F1. Halfway through the season, and with as many as a dozen races still to go, the potential exists for a championship duel to rank with any that have gone before. Hamilton has a tiny eight-point lead – basically a single sixth-place finish – that is principally a result of that already notorious Silverstone shunt. So Verstappen is essentially level and armed with a grudge. Vital to everything is the unlikely coincidence of the two best drivers ending up in two cars that appear to be as quick as each other. Motor-racing wonks have been contemplating whether a budget cap introduced this year due to the pandemic has left teams relying on their 2020 cars and so inadvertently provoked a competitive beano between Mercedes and Red Bull. Technological development is in many ways the point of F1. It’s ironic then that hitting the brakes on that could pay off in increased public interest. Considering the budget cap for teams on the grid means they have “only” $150 million each to spend there’s no escaping the sport’s overwhelming corporate nature. So any future new normal will still be principally about the science and engineering necessary for making one car go faster than the rest. But there’s a certain reassurance in how all the high-tech bells and whistles still can’t provoke public curiosity quite like a lightning fast feud.

How good Mick Schumacher really is, is difficult to assess because of the considerable gap the Haas team has with the other teams. The German has consistently beaten his teammate Nikita Mazepin, but even that says very little so far. It is a learning year for the talented son of the legendary Michael Schumacher. Speaking to The Race Mick’s race engineer Gary Gannon commented on how he feels his protégé is performing and how Haas is coping with having constantly learning rookies: “Mick is absorbing information, he’s a really good, fast learner, but we’re running into scenarios in the race that he hasn’t run into before and he doesn’t know what to expect. Afterwards, you think ‘ah, if I had told him that, it would have gone better,’ because sometimes you only have this moment to take advantage of a situation.” Still, Gannon is impressed with Schumacher: “Generally, when we prepare Mick for something he’s really good. Like all his race management details, he was already really aware of what needed to be done, but he just learns a new management scenario every race. We have to ask him less and less for things like the tasks he has to do in the car. They all become automatic for him, which is great.” Gannon, for his part, nevertheless thinks it’s hard to put a label on how fast the Haas drivers actually are: “We can’t really judge the speed of the drivers because the car is difficult to drive,” he says.

This year’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, due to be held in October, has been cancelled amid rising Covid-19 case numbers in the country. It is the fifth race to be cancelled this season in Formula 1 and the second year in a row that the Japanese Grand Prix has been axed. “The decision has been taken by the Japanese government to cancel the race this season due to ongoing complexities of the pandemic,” said Formula 1. “Formula 1 is working on the details of the revised calendar and will announce the final details in the coming weeks.” The season has already had to deal with the obstacles of the Australia, Canada, Singapore and China legs of the circuit being called off. The Japanese Grand Prix was due to take place on 10 October and be the 17th race of the 23 race season. It is the second year in a row that the Japanese Grand Prix has been cancelled owing to the pandemic. The 2019 edition of the race was disrupted by Typhoon Hagibis. It is a blow to F1 organisers, who would have watched the Olympic Games with great hope that its event could also be held. The Paralympics are due to start next week in Tokyo without fans, as with the Olympics only a matter of weeks ago. “Formula 1 has proven this year, and in 2020, that we can adapt and find solutions to the ongoing uncertainties and is excited by the level of interest in locations to host Formula 1 events this year and beyond,” added Formula 1.

Spa Francorchamps CEO and her lesbian mistress were shot to death after her hubby found the pair together in bed. Cops say he then turned the gun on himself. According to authorities, Belgian Formula 1 auto racing chief Nathalie Maillet, 61, was found dead alongside Ann Lawrence Durviaux, 53, in her mansion in Gouvy, Belgium, on Sunday. Police believe the lovers were murdered by Maillet’s husband, Franz Dubois. Before turning the gun on himself, he called the cops and unburdened himself. “At 00:10, the bodies of two women and one man were discovered by the police in a house in Gouvy, all three presenting gunshot wounds,” the public prosecution service said in a statement. “According to our information, the male individual voluntarily used his firearm to kill both women, including his wife, before killing himself.” Sports newspaper DH Sport reported Maillet’s bisexuality was an open secret in the racing world and her husband was aware. The Daily Mail said her colleagues raised the alarm after Maillet failed to show for the final day of the Ypres Rally. She had been CEO of the Spa-Francorchamps F1 circuit since 2016. Her husband was also well-known in Formula 1 circles. Both were former drivers and had been married 17 years. She was more successful. The grisly deaths triggered shock and sadness in the racing world. “My thoughts are with Nathalie’s family, her parents, her relatives but also her teams,” said Melchior Wathelet, chairman of the board of directors of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. “I know how this news will upset her staff and I wish on behalf of the entire board of directors to offer my sincere condolences to the entire Circuit team. Today we are losing a very great lady, a motorsports lover and enthusiast, a true leader who will be sorely missed,” his statement said. “Nathalie had become the face of the circuit, she embodied this passion for racing that we all share.” The investigation continues. Police say they are not hunting any other suspects.

Nathalie Maillet, Chief Executive Officer of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, has been murdered in her Gouvy, Luxembourg home by her husband, RTL reports. Maillet was expected to show up to the Ypres Rally event of the World Rally Championship on Sunday, August 15. When she didn’t arrive, authorities began looking for her. They found Maillet and another woman killed in Maillet’s home; initial reports posited that Maillet’s husband killed them both before committing suicide. Melchior Wathelet, president of the Spa-Francorchamps, confirmed the news “We are upset, obviously. All our thoughts first of all to Nathalie’s family, to her relatives. For those who know her, the circuit is an integral part of her family. This is where she likes to be, this is where she likes to spend time and it is true that today, life for the teams, despite the beautiful WRC party, it’s hard. It’s a difficult day, a painful day and we are all in pain today for what happened. It is true that an event like that, without Nathalie, it is hardly possible and unfortunately, it is the case today. It must have been a beautiful party and yet, we really took a blow.” “She was someone who really had car racing in her veins. Her DNA was car racing, projects, ambition for the circuit. And she wanted this circuit, which is the most beautiful world, be even more. And she had projects. We spoke with the team, we spoke with the lovers of the circuit and we must continue to make her live here. She is there, she has embodied in the circuit, she is committed to the circuit. We must continue to make it live as she would have liked. She had beautiful projects, we must bring them to fruition. There will always be this little part of Nathalie at the within the circuit. It’s a hard day.” Maillet has been running Spa for five years, since June of 2016. Current reports are unclear, but the other woman in the house was either a friend or a mistress, though this remains clear. We do know that Maillet’s husband, Franz Dubois, found both women together and murdered them before turning a gun on himself.