Join Jonny Reynolds for a quick-fire round-up of news and gossip from Thursday in Budapest, ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. As is often the case at this time of year, driver market gossip was the hot topic of conversation.
The Race F1 Briefing
Hungarian GP: Driver market updates dominate Thursday
Join Jonny Reynolds for a quick-fire round-up of news and gossip from Thursday in Budapest, ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. As is often the case at this time of year, driver market gossip was the hot topic of conversation.
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- Duration:
- 11m
- Broadcast on:
- 18 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
The Athletic Hello, I'm Johnny Reynolds, welcoming you along to the Race F1 Briefing for Thursday the 18th of July 2024. If you want a quick fire rundown of all the big stories doing the rounds in the paddock head of the Hungarian Grand Prix, then you are in the right place. And I'll be honest, there was one subject dominating the chatter on Thursday in Budapest, and that was the driver market. Coming up, we're going to be talking about the situation at Red Bull, but let's start with this. Yes, the paddock gates were barely open before we got our first news of the day, which is that Kevin Magdasson will leave Haas at the end of the 2024 season. The 31-year-old Dane, who is in his seventh season with the American team, is expected to be replaced in the team by Esteban Ocon, whose own departure from Alpene was announced earlier in the summer. Ocon's arrival alongside rookie Ferrari Protege Ollie Baermann, whose deal was announced ahead of the British Grand Prix, will give Haas an all-new lineup for 2025, with Magdasson's current teammate Nico Holkenberg having already signed for the sour team thus about to transform into Audi. Magdasson getting a second stint with Haas, having been brought back in 2022 after first being dropped to the end of 2020, has turned this driver and team into an unlikely prolific F1 combination. Assuming he starts each of the remaining 12 Grand Prix this season, Magdasson will be seventh on the all-time list of races with the same team. The Dane was keyed to Haas earning its best-ever championship finish of 5th in 2018, and helped revive the team's fortunes after its 2021 nadir. Having been dropped for that season primarily because the team needed cash to stay afloat, Magdasson provided a significant boost when he stepped in at the last minute to replace the ousted Nikita Mazepin on the eve of the 2022 season. Despite missing the first pre-season test and not being F1 fits, Magdasson immediately landed a big result, finishing 5th on his comeback to lift spirits and prove the car's potential. There were highs and lows that season alongside Mick Schumacher, but nothing greater than producing Haas' day of days by topping qualifying at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. As Scott Mitchell Maum reports from Budapest, Magdasson has been a good, effective, popular team player at Haas. The kind of person and driver the team would happily keep around if his performance level was that little bit higher. Instead, all signs point to this being the end of Magdasson's F1 career, as a driver at least. Team Principal Io Komatsu, who was previously referred to Magdasson as the team's bedrock, says he's hoping to, quote, "find a way to keep working together in some capacity." He added, "His extensive experience in Formula One and knowledge of our working operations are undoubtedly of value in our ongoing growth and development." So that's how it's dealt with, but what a red bull. If you're a listener to this podcast, you'll know that speculation has raged in recent weeks about Sergio Perez' future, with the Mexican driver in a dreadful run of form at the moment, having finished no higher than 7th in the last six races and scoring just three times in that spell. It's been speculated that Perez has the two races before the summer break to make a convincing case to Red Bull that he will not torpedo its Constructor's Championship prospects this season, or else he could be replaced by reserve driver Liam Lawson. Now, Lawson drove Red Bull's 2024 car in a short test at Silverstone last Thursday in between the British and Hungarian GP's. As Scott Mitchell Mann reports from Hungary, Lawson's first run in the RB20 was facilitated by a filming day that limits teams to 200 kilometres of running and the use of special Pirelli tyres that are not the same level as F1 race tyres. Nonetheless, Red Bull got a reference to Verstappen for Lawson to be compared against, and the race understands his pace was in the window the team needed it to be. This is basically within a few tenths of Verstappen, which is where Perez was performing for the first quarter of the season when he was regularly scoring podiums. But Perez's pace has become unimpressive since Imilla, regularly lapping more than half a second slower than Verstappen in qualifying, and the difference between the two drivers is that this could be Lawson's starting point that Red Bull would expect him to improve from, whereas a confident Perez is, with some exceptions, most likely to be around three tenths a drift of Verstappen. The intention says Scott would be for Lawson to slot in and score points at a good rate, even if he starts near or right at the back of the lead eight cars. But, he might ask, why would Red Bull promote a relative rookie when they have Yuki Saloda, who is performing so well in the RB, who they could promote? Well, we'll deal with that question next. Number Race, F1 Briefing To Yuki Saloda then, who has largely outperformed Daniel Riccardo RB this season, and who might ordinarily be the logical bet to fill Perez's seat, should Red Bull choose to replace him. I say ordinarily because the race understands that there's a difference of opinion amongst Red Bull's management about the Japanese driver. But simply, Saloda is Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko's favored pick if a mid-season Perez replacement is required, but that does not reflect the view of team principal Christian Horner. That is relevant because the internal fighting for control at Red Bull over the last year or more has resulted in power shifting towards Horner when it comes to drivers. At the very least, there's significant enough reservations from the management of the team to make Sonoda's promotion a definite long shot. Despite that, Sonoda was inevitably fairly open about his ambitions of driving for the senior Red Bull team ever see suddenly becomes available. He admitted on Thursday that the race is leading up to the summer break carried a heightened importance "if the rumours are true", but called it "good pressure rather than bad pressure" when compared to the times in his career when he was fighting to ensure any kind of F1 future. When asked by the race where they had given his performances this season, he would find it weird to be overlooked for a less experienced driver like Lawson if there's a vacancy at the senior team, he gave a blunt answer. He said, "If they choose Liam, that'd be weird." He added, "Leum did a really good job when he drove in the team, but you know, I think I did more than that, so we'll see how it goes." In the end, they know how to manage the drivers. What's Perez's view on all of this? Speaking in his own media session, the Mexican said it was "normal" for Sonoda and others to want his seat as "that's just part of the nature of the sport". He also sought to project total confidence that he would remain in the car for the rest of the season and beyond, saying, "I've been in this business for too long and I know that it will only matter where I finish in Abu Dhabi." He also repeatedly dismissed suggestions his Red Bull position was on shaky ground as "external noise" and said the upcoming two races before the summer break were no more or no less important than any of the other races in the calendar. When asked directly about reports of a performance clause relative to Verstappen that could enable Red Bull to replace him at the summer break, Perez says, "There's nothing related to that. Obviously I cannot talk about my contracts, but there's nothing related to that." He added, "I'm fully focused on fully delivering and I will be here and I will be here again next year." The race now believes that talk of a performance clause at the summer break does not relate to a points margin Perez must stay within, but that there are other contractual mechanisms for Red Bull to make a switch should it desire to do so. Essentially, it would need to buy Perez out of his contract. That might have a specified amount if there are certain performance targets that have not been met or it may simply reflect the value of his salary. For his part, Red Bull's three-time champion Max Verstappen took a largely defensive time when describing Perez's recent struggles, saying that it wasn't fair to pin all the blame on the Mexican given Red Bull's recent balance problems. Verstappen also pointed out that his collaboration with Perez when it comes to car development has, and I quote, "always been a strong point." For the final part of our epic look at Red Bull's driver situation, let's turn to Daniel Riccardo. The narrative around the Australian has had him flitting between contender for a Red Bull raising seat and losing his place on the grid entirely, for what feels like an eternity. In reality, says the racist Scott Mitchell Mount, he has not done enough to convince Red Bull that he should get a top seat again, and it is understood that he was also recently given a hurry up that relates to his place in RB. There are even suggestions that Red Bull has started exploring possible soft landings for Riccardo, so that if he does need to be dropped, he can stay on the grid elsewhere. Much like Perez's position at Red Bull, nothing is set in stone, but Red Bull is making various contingency plans as it looks to secure its short-term objectives and set itself up better long-term as well. One man who likely won't be going to Red Bull is Carlos Sainz, who joked on Thursday he'd been too busy watching the Spanish national team triumph in football's European Championships to make a decision on his future. The current Ferrari driver could yet land at any one of Mercedes, Williams, Salba Aldi, or Alpene, depending on a variety of factors, including what Mercedes chose to do with its F2 Protege, Kimmy Antonelli. Walter Ribotta said on Thursday that he was, quote, "may be waiting for Carlos, but may be not, in terms of having his own F1 future sorted, and he hopes to have his situation sorted sooner rather than later." Who knows, maybe in a couple of weeks' time, he'll have more certainty, one way or another. That's all for today's episode, which turned into an epic driver market roundup, thanks to the great sleuthing done on the ground by Scott and the rest of the racist reporters in Hungary. I'll be back tomorrow for a more racing-focused episode, but until then, thanks for listening and goodbye. As you've probably heard by now, we've teamed up with BetMGM this season. We'll be using BetMGM lines to make all of our picks, and we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use Bonus Code The Athletic, and you'll get a one-year subscription to The Athletic Plus, up to a $1,500 first Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM. Here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app and sign up using Bonus Code The Athletic, make your first deposit of at least $10, place your first bet on any game, and claim your voucher for a one-year subscription to The Athletic. See BetMGM.com for terms. 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