Big changes for the Singapore GP and AlphaTauri. Schumacher’s title is slipping?
Hey there, F1 enthusiast 👋
Buckle up because we’ve got a lot to unpack this week!
🔧 Marina Bay Shakes Things Up: Marina Bay has made some tweaks that could really spice things up at the Singapore Grand Prix. What does this mean for our racers? Well, word on the street is that these changes might give Verstappen a run for his money.
🚀 AlphaTauri Gears Up: The buzz is REAL! AlphaTauri is heading into the next race with some significant upgrades. We’ve all noticed how Liam Lawson seems to be outpacing his predecessors—even though he hasn’t put a point on the board yet. If these upgrades are as big as we hear, Lawson might just surprise us all.
👑 Schumacher & Hamilton: A Title Twist?: Could we see Schumacher join the Hamilton drama in possibly missing out on a championship title? We never thought we’d say this, but it’s 2023, and here we are.
As always, in the world of F1, expect the unexpected! See you on the grid!
In today’s email:
Pit Stop Talks – Pit stop for the hottest F1 insights – see what’s supercharging the circuit.
In-depth education- Weighing in on Formula 1 Car
Fast Lane News – Join the F1 rush! Get lapped by the latest news and on-track whispers.
The Singapore GP – Check out the weather update
Lights out, and away we go!
Pit Stop Talks
Pit Stop Talks
📈Championship standings
🏆 Top three have remained unchanged throughout the season
🔵Lawson surpassed two fellow AlphaTauri drivers, Ricciardo & DeVries
🔴Bottas dropped significantly
📊Teammate point battle
⭐AlphaTauri and Williams are relying on just one star player
⚖️Ferrari and Alpine seem super balanced.
🧮Verstappen and Hamilton’s percentages are pretty neck and neck.
🔀Overtaking boost with Singapore’s track changes?
Despite changes to the Marina Bay track, it’s still going to have that high-downforce vibe. However, these changes will definitely shake things up a bit.
What’s changed? Due to some construction, they’ve ditched four nearly 90-degree corners near the end of the lap. Instead, cars will now zoom down a new 397.9m straight before hitting the last section.
Why does it matter? Faster lap times, for one. Plus, it’ll be easier on the brakes and tires. Tom McCullough from Aston Martin points out that tires, especially the rears, used to get super hot on the old layout. But now, they’ll cool down a bit and last longer.
Esteban Ocon believes that the new Turn 16 could be a game-changer.
Hopefully [it will help] overtaking, which was impossible before. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to get closer behind, and that’s going to change a lot of things.
Esteban Ocon
On a side note: with the quicker laps, teams will have their hands full making strategy calls, especially during safety car situations, which happen a lot in Singapore. – Read more
👀Big changes for AlphaTauri in Singapore
Watch out for AlphaTauri this weekend in Singapore—they’re getting a major upgrade! This upgrade is inspired by the Red Bull RB19, which has been the standout car in 2024.
A bit of a flashback: when the new regulations started in 2022, every team tried their own approach to car design. However, it’s now clear that Red Bull’s direction with the RB19 was a winner. Most teams couldn’t keep up.
Many teams now realize that just making small tweaks here and there won’t do much for them. They’re now aiming to emulate the successful RB19 design.
AlphaTauri hasn’t had the best of years. They’re currently at the bottom of the championship with just three points. But this upcoming upgrade might be a game-changer for them.
I mean, this year, we’ve seen some amazing changes in the results scheme, when suddenly Aston Martin popped up, and then suddenly McLaren popped up, but I think that’s really down to the fact that they all understood that what Red Bull Racing did in terms of design philosophy is the right one with this new downforce element which everybody is following. We actually have a big upgrade coming for Singapore, which will follow the same philosophy so everybody’s closing in on that and then I think next year will be extremely close.
Peter Bayer
Franz Tost, their team principal, will be stepping down. Laurent Mekies and CEO Peter Bayer will be taking the lead. – Read more
📝Liberty Media expects an easy Concorde update
Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media, believes the upcoming discussions about the Concorde Agreement will be smooth.
This agreement is essentially a contract between the F1 teams, the FIA, and the Formula One Group. It lays out the rules for how the teams race, how TV revenue is distributed, and the prize money. The current agreement, in place since 2021, is set to expire in 2025.
Teams have been discussing what they’d like to see in the new agreement. One big talking point is the anti-dilution fund. This is an entry fee for new F1 teams, which then gets shared among the existing teams. With F1’s rising popularity and the current $200 million entry fee, there’s a debate on whether this fee is fair.
Maffei is confident that the new deal will be a lot like the current one.
I don’t anticipate a major change in how that works. There will probably be something along the same lines, and we’ll have an incentive to grow the business. They [the teams] have grown EBITDA dramatically. We’ve just because of the success and believing in the product and believing in ourselves been able to grow it faster, and I expect that it’s going to be a similar construct in any kind of Concorde extension.
Greg Maffei
🔧How many power units have F1 drivers used?
With just eight races left in the 2023 Formula 1 season, drivers are nearing their power unit limits. And this year, there’s a twist: The F1 Commission increased the allowed number of certain power unit elements per driver after some incidents early in the season.
Remember when Charles Leclerc took a 10-spot grid hit at the Saudi Arabia GP for using an extra Control Electronics unit?
That’s why the F1 bosses agreed at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to bump up the number of allowed Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), Turbo Chargers, MGU-Hs, and MGU-Ks from three to four for each driver.
Between the lines:
- Sergio Perez is leading the pack in using his Energy Store and Control Electronics.
- Some drivers, like Lando Norris, faced early engine problems. Norris had a pesky pneumatics issue in Bahrain.
- Haas is wrestling with some reliability issues as only Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg have needed a fifth ICE, Turbo Charger, MGU-H, and MGU-K
- Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo are going to use the power units Nyck de Vries ran in his ten races at the start of the season for AlphaTauri.
Check out the full scoop here
🔦Schumacher’s ’94 victory under the spotlight
Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 championship is still in hot water because of Felipe Massa. Now, there’s talk about stripping Michael Schumacher of his first F1 title, too.
Well, Schumacher’s first win in 1994 at the Australian Grand Prix had its drama too. He bumped into Damon Hill, and they both had to bow out. But with neither of them earning any more points, Schumacher won the title by a single point.
Schumacher is undoubtedly an F1 legend. After that, he went on to win six more titles. But like all great stories, his career had its controversies. Think about that 1997 collision or that 2006 qualifying mess-up.
Recently, famed journalist Roger Benoit dished some shade. In an interview, he said he only counts Schumacher as a six-time champion because of that ’94 drama with Hill. – Read more
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Weighing in on Formula 1 Car
Weighing in on Formula 1 CarWhen you think about Formula 1, the first things that come to mind might be roaring engines, daring overtakes, and tire-smoking pit stops. Yet beneath the spectacle lies a world governed by precision, technology, and a relentless quest for speed.
One of the crucial factors in this equation? Car weight. In F1, every pound matters, and finding the right balance is an art as much as it is a science.
Fast Lane News
Fast Lane News📺 Guenther Steiner team thinks that more people having to pay for TV has led to fewer fans watching F1 in Germany lately. – Read more
😱 Pierre Gasly is asking F1 fans to chill out a bit in the paddock after some disturbances in Monza. – Read more
⭕According to Pirelli’s boss Mario Isola, Formula 1 and the FIA are looking into making the 2023 Alternative Tyre Allocation a standard rule. – Read more
🇩🇪 Sebastian Vettel took F1 racing back to Nürburgring. – Read more
📱F1 fans are lighting up social media, upset with what Helmut Marko said about Sergio Perez. They’re saying it’s time for him to go. – Read more
👀Felipe Drugovich might be heading to F1 in 2024! After a surprising move in IndyCar, people are buzzing that he could secure a full-time spot with Aston Martin. – Read more
🥇Red Bull is aiming to win all the 2023 F1 races. – Read more
💸Zhou Guanyu addresses buzz about sponsorship issues, possibly booting him out of F1. – Read more
💰 Guenther Steiner speaks out on the chatter about a $900m lawsuit against Gene Haas. – Read more
THE SINGAPORE GP
THE SINGAPORE GP🇸🇬 Scheduled 15-17 September
Marina Bay Circuit
1️⃣ Circuit length: TBC
2️⃣ Number of laps: 63 (TBC)
3️⃣ Lap record: N/A because the track was overhauled
4️⃣ Corners & DRS: 19 corners with 3 DRS zones
⛈️Singapore Grand Prix Weather Update
Friday
Possible light rain during the first practice (10% chance), but the second should be dry. With temps above 30°C, any rain won’t stay long.
Saturday
There is a 10% rain chance for the third practice.
Some early thunderstorms are possible, but the track should dry in time for the night race.
Sunday
It’s going to be hot at 31°C with a 45% chance of pre-race thunderstorms and a 22% rain chance during the race.
