The F1 season may have wrapped up but engines are still revving in many senses, as unsettled scores are addressed and the fresh campaign is being planned for.
There is no rest for the wicked in this sport, with the likes of Mercedes and the chasing pack already drawing up blueprints to attempt to reel in the runaway titan that is Red Bull next season.
The irrepressible Max Verstappen is causing his arch rival Lewis Hamilton many a sleepless night, though that isn’t the only headache the F1 legend has to contend with. His legal battle with Brazilian icon Felipe Massa very much endures, as the pair continue to squabble over historic title allegations.
Hamilton’s people, and Massa’s, remain in discussions with fears constantly growing that the Briton could yet lose one of his illustrious F1 titles.
Meanwhile, elsewhere across the grid a spate of driving talent has now become available following the conclusion of several contracts. Teams will soon have a pick of talent available, as the shake-ups begins and the restructuring for the next campaign happens at frantic pace.
Stay with Express Sport all day for all the latest twists and turns in the world of F1.
Goodnight
That’s all we’ve got time for tonight.
Thanks for joining us to keep up with the latest F1 news in the off-season.
We’ll be back for more of the same tomorrow as we continue to reflect on this year’s action while looking ahead to the upcoming 2024 campaign.
Catch you soon!
Brown backing Andretti bid
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has gone against the grain by underlining his support for Andretti’s bid to join the F1 grid as early as 2025.
Many key figures, including Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, are opposed to having an 11th team but Brown believes it could enrich the sport in a number of different ways.
He told Track Limits: “The pros is they can help grow the pie.
“My view is as long as it’s additive to the sport, brings in more fans, brings in more revenue, brings in better television contracts, whatever that may be.
“If it makes the pie larger I’d rather have one 11th of a pie that’s 1,000 times than one tenth of one that’s 100 times.”
Button explains Hamilton improvement
Jenson Button believes that Lewis Hamilton has become a more rounded character since their days as McLaren team-mates back in 2010.
“He’s unbelievable in terms of his natural ability and I think he’s come a long way since we were team-mates as well in terms of a more rounded character in the car,” said Button on Sky Sports.
“He’s very difficult to beat and he’s also so relaxed. If he has a bad race, he’s kind of relaxed about it. He wasn’t like that 10 years ago.”
Pourchaire fumes over F1 snub
Newly-crowned F2 champion Theo Pourchaire is not impressed that he was snubbed for an F1 drive by Alfa Romeo despite meeting the objectives they gave him for the year.
“I think I’m the third F2 champion in a row to not be promoted to F1,” he said.
“It can happen, it’s not because you are an F2 champion that you will have a place in F1, but I’m disappointed to be honest.
“I’m an F2 champion, I did some good results in the past. I did my best. The goal that the Sauber Academy told me was to win the championship and I did it.”
Horner tells Perez ‘work hard’
Christian Horner has urged Sergio Perez to keep trying in his efforts to achieve the same level of consistency as Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.
“We all know what Checo is capable of, I think he just needs to work hard to achieve consistency,” Horner told PlanetF1.
“But, you know, it’s a tough gig being Max’s team-mate. Time and time again, he’s bounced back when he’s been under pressure, a bit under criticism from the media.
“He’s done his talking on the track, and he’s done it again at the tail end of this year with some very strong drives.”
Wolff tipped to sell Mercedes stake
Sky Sports pundit Craig Slater has questioned whether Toto Wolff would consider selling his stake in Mercedes given how much the asset has grown in recent years.
“I think Toto paid 50 million euros for his stake, it’s now worth three billion or whatever,” said Slater.
“Does that have its own incentive to sell, when in a few years you’ve made such a big gain? Which is why I question, it must be quite tempting for some of these owners to maybe think about offloading it in the present climate.”
Verstappen makes Red Bull demand
Max Verstappen has urged Red Bull to be realistic in accepting that next season is likely to be much tougher than it was in the campaign just gone.
He told Motorsport.com: “Realistically, of course, it can’t be much better than what we have achieved, but I think it’s not always about trying to win 20 races.
“It’s also about just trying to find improvements within yourself, and within the car, and if that means next year we have improved the car and we can fight for the championship again, but you only win 10 races, that’s also fine.
“It’s just been also that the competition around us has been quite up and down. One weekend it was this team, then the other week it was another team.
“So, I expect next year people are learning a lot with this new regulation as well that it will actually be quite a bit closer.”
Hamilton has “full faith” in W15
Lewis Hamilton has “full faith” in Mercedes’s new W15 concept for next season after seeing it in the wind tunnel.
“I think it’s always difficult,” he said. “I’m not an engineer or a designer. So it’s not easy. It’s always the exciting time of the year because I have seen the car in the wind tunnel, I always go by the wind tunnel when I go to the factory, to see it evolving in whichever direction it ends up going.
“Literally when I was leaving yesterday again I popped in just to see where we were, and when I come back, it will be again a different animal.
“I have full faith in everyone that’s working on it. And I’m hopeful that we will be in a much more competitive position next year.”
Mercedes deny Hamilton gave away trophy
Mercedes have denied claims that Lewis Hamilton gave his third-place trophy away to a fan at the FIA prizing-giving ceremony on Friday in protest of the governing body’s decision to investigate Silver Arrows team principal Toto Wolff and F1 academy boss Susie Wolff.
Hamilton voiced his displeasure at the FIA for launching an investigation off the back of the report, deeming their response “unacceptable”, and after one fan claimed he had been gifted the Brit’s third-place trophy some supporters began to speculate online whether it had been done in protest.
“Hello. I was at the Gala yesterday. Lewis Hamilton gave me the award and left. I have the prize at home now,” wrote the fan on X, accompanied by a picture of an FIA trophy.
However, Mercedes claims this is not the case, adding that Hamilton left the award with officials. “Just to clarify some of the speculation on social media regarding Lewis’ P3 trophy,” a statement from the Brackley-based team begun.
“Immediately after leaving the stage, and as has been done at previous prize-givings, Lewis accepted the offer from officials for the trophy to be sent on to the team and therefore left it in their care. We can confirm he did not give the trophy to anyone ‘as a gift’ as has been speculated.”
Ferrari target tipped as ‘most underrated driver in F1’
Ferrari target Alex Albon has been voted as the ‘most underrated driver in F1’ by Express Sport readers after putting together a sensational season for Williams. In a survey of 7,471 Express Sport readers, 55 per cent believed Albon to be the most underrated driver on the current grid from the options available.
Ricciardo opens up on ‘punches in the gut’
Daniel Ricciardo’s confidence took a hit during his time at McLaren. The Aussie underperformed for the Woking-based team during a couple of disappointing seasons on the grid alongside Lando Norris, which left him searching for “answers”.
“I wanted to get some answers, just for my own peace of mind,” Ricciardo told assembled media in Abu Dhabi when asked about his return to form with AlphaTauri in 2023.
“I would speak to some people in the paddock just in passing even, or you might bump into someone at breakfast at the hotel, and I would get some positive feedback or encouragement in terms of, ‘I’ve seen what people are saying, they think you’ve forgotten how to drive.
“I was curious because, as much as the McLaren I felt, obviously, it didn’t suit me, I felt like it was certainly compounded over time with my confidence dropping and getting kind of lower and lower, after obviously taking quite a few punches in the gut. So yeah, a lot of things I wanted to answer.”
Hamilton wishes denied by FIA
Lewis Hamilton‘s wishes to hold the FIA end-of-year Prize Gala in Paris, France for “sustainability” reasons have fallen on deaf ears. The Brit, a passionate environmentalist and vegan, questioned the environmental impact of flying out to Baku, Azerbaijan for the event this year when the FIA could have hosted the prize-giving in Paris, where their headquarters are based.
But instead of taking Hamilton’s advice, the FIA have chosen to host its 2024 Gala in Kigali, Rwanda – an even greater distance away from northern Europe. When asked how he felt about Baku playing host in 2023, Hamilton, who was in attendance to pick up his third-place trophy, said: “I don’t feel a particular way.
“Whilst I really like Baku, it’s really a beautiful place, questions in my mind of whether the FIA is really actually thinking about sustainability because so many people flew out here and the FIA is in Paris and it just would have been easier to stay there.
“But it’s a beautiful arena, it’s a night we all get to come together and celebrate all the achievements of the great people working in the sport, all the amazing drivers that I wouldn’t get to see during the year.”
Brundle confident Hamilton won’t ignore him forever
Martin Brundle is confident Lewis Hamilton will appear on the grid walk segment of the Sky Sports F1 broadcast again before he retires from the sport despite refusing to do so in the past on superstitious grounds.
“Yeah, I do, and I will,” Brundle promised when asked about whether he would interview Hamilton again on his grid walk segment. “But then also, somebody convinced Lewis that every time he talked to me on the grid, he crashed. But I spoke to two of the three podium drivers on the grid in Abu Dhabi and actually could have spoken to Max as well if I’d have been a bit sharper, so I didn’t bring them bad luck.”
Talent up for grabs
The 2024 F1 ‘silly season’ promises to be one of the most dramatic in recent memory with three-quarters of the grid out of contract.
As things stand at the start of December, 15 of the 20 drivers on the 2024 F1 grid will be out of contract come the end of the season.
With almost every team monitoring their line-up for 2025 and beyond, fans look set to be treated to a campaign to remember.
Of the five drivers who are contracted beyond the end of the 2024 campaign, four are currently driving for Mercedes and McLaren.
Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell signed new, two-year extensions earlier this season, while McLaren moved quickly to tie Oscar Piastri down to a long-term deal after an impressive rookie year.
Everywhere else, though, uncertainty looms.
Hamilton court deadline extended
There is an awful lot of uncertainty and confusion surrounding the ongoing battle with Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton, but there are a list of things we do know for sure.
At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Massa’s legal team allege that former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and then FIA president Max Mosley were involved in a cover-up which cost the ex-Ferrari star an F1 title and “tens of millions of euros” in lost income and reputational harm.
Bernardo Viana, Massa’s lawyer, had given the FIA until mid-October to respond to a Letter Before Claim sent to them in August.
The deadline has since been extended with a verdict on whether or not the case could go to court expected later this month.
Good morning one and all
And welcome to another day of live F1 updates from the Express Sport team.
Top of the agenda today is Lewis Hamilton, with the Mercedes man still in the throes of an ugly stand-off with Felipe Massa.
The Mercedes supremo may well be trying to enjoy the limited break he has from F1, but behind the scenes his team are working to avoid him losing one of his priceless Formula 1 titles.
Meanwhile, Red Bull are teasing their first rough designs for the coming year, as Christian Horner’s team aim to push their dominance to even loftier levels.
A series of changes could soon be seen across the grind, as paper work is signed following the expiration of many contracts.
Talent is up for grabs, and those teams that act first and strike while the iron is hot will be well rewarded.
