Join Jonny Reynolds for a quick-fire run through all of the big F1 headlines from Thursday in Austria, including news of several significant moves in the driver market...
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The Athletic Hello there and welcome along to the Race F1 briefing for Thursday the 27th of June 2024. I'm Johnny Reynolds and on today's episode I'll be bringing you up to speed on all of the goings on in Spielberg, ahead of this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix. We are of course slap bang in the middle of the triple header of races and there was plenty to talk about as the teams and drivers arrived in the Red Bull Ring paddock from Spain. So let's get on with it shall we? First up we saw another couple of pieces of the driver market puzzle fall into place on Thursday as two teams announced contract extensions for incumbent drivers. Our team were first out of the blocks confirming early on Thursday morning that Pierre Gasly will remain with the team on what is described as a new multi-year deal, thus taking the partnership into the new rules era in 2026. Gasly who joined the Anglo French squad in 2023 said he was very proud to sign the new deal and continue his journey with the team and reach our common ambitions in Formula One. The question is now who will partner the one time Grand Prix winner next year with Estebanok on departing the team. According to my old friend Ed Straw who wrote about this on the-race.com, Alpina making a serious play for the services of Carlos Science who was previously thought to have narrowed his choice for a 2025 seat down to a straight choice between Williams and Salba. But with influential former team boss Flavio Breatori now back with Alpina, could the Spaniard be heading back to Enstone? Other candidates for the second seat according to Ed are Valteri Bottas, the team's reserve driver Jack Duhan and former has driver Mick Schumacher, who drives by Alpina in sports cars and is set to test the 2022 F1 car in early July. Now at the top of the last segment I mentioned that we saw another couple of pieces of the driver market puzzle fall into place, so who was number two? Well, in perhaps the least surprising news of the year, Aston Martin confirmed that Lance Straw, son of Timon and Lawrence Straw of course, will continue with the team for 2025 and beyond. It means that Aston Martin and new engine partner Honda will head into F1's new rules era in 2026 with a Fernando Alonso Lance Straw partnership. And that pleases the Spaniard greatly. In fact, Alonso pointed out that he'd never had a teammail like Straw all over his two decades in F1 and repeated his hope that Straw would lead the team when he exits, adding that the Canadian 17 years his junior is dedicated and committed and the tour in almost constant dialogue about improving the car. So, Alonso's happy, but one man who might have been slightly less pleased by the news of Straw's re-signing is Yuki Sonoda, whose hopes of landing a seat in the factory Honda team that Aston Martin will become in 2026 seem over, despite him doing an impressive job as RB spearhead driver. As Josh Stuttil reports, Sonoda's chances of landing the seat based purely on his ties to Honda have long been overblown, and realistically nationality was never going to be the key determining factor in deciding the first Aston Martin Honda driver line up. Engine partner Honda can offer its recommendation on drivers, but it has no power over who actually occupies the seats. So, that's another seat sorted for 2025, leaving only a handful still to be confirmed. And one of those is at the team we are going to talk about next. Yes, in a move that could have implications on the driver market, and especially on where the prime figure in this year's silly season car loss sign sends up in 2025, Williams chose the eve of the Austrian Grand Prix to announce six new hires. The highest profile of the new arrivals, which Williams proudly touts as having a combined total of 25 world championships between them, is ex-Alping technical director Matt Harmon. He will take up the role of design director in September. That's as part of a reshuffle that moves David Warner, who previously held the design director title, and has been technical director on an interim basis, into the position of engineering director. Also joining our Fabrice Monquet as chief engineer computing science, Juan Molina as chief aerodynamicist, Steve Winstanley as chief engineer composites and structures, and Richard Frith as head of performance systems. All five will form part of the technical team being led by Pat Fry, who joined Williams in November, and all are joined by Soren Scharran, who arrives at Williams as chief information and analytics officer. Team Principal James Vals has told the race that there are further 26, yes 26 technical hires from rival F1 teams in addition to the six announced today. The clearest statement of intent yet of how serious Williams is about climbing the grid. There's still a long way to go for the team of course, which has already expanded from around 700 to 1000 staff, but the Vals revolution has now taken greater shape, and there could yet be another major addition on the horizon. As mentioned earlier, Williams are known to be one of three teams to be caught in Carlos Science's services, though the Spaniard indicates on Thursday that he won't make a decision on his future until after the triple header. Watch this space. And he's absolutely finest on the 60 seconds and last lap. George Russell into the wall and out of the race. Nothing else comes close at the home of Formula One night racing. Carlos Science, tactical brilliance. Carlos Science, the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix. Back to the driver market now because, well, it really did dominate paddock chatter on Thursday, and once again, it was Daniel Ricardo's future that was in the spotlight. In the run up to the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marco was, how sure you put this, doing Helmut Marco things, speaking openly in the Austrian press about RB's driver line up, and suggesting that a young driver like Liam Lawson would be in Red Bull second team soon. Ricardo, of course, is the last Red Bull race driver without a confirmed deal for 2025, and his entire F1 career now hinges on whether Red Bull will retain him as Yuki Sonoda's teammate for next year. Marco has long been a vocal supporter of Lawson and statements that are effectively hurry-ups for Ricardo on anything new, and as the Australian said on Thursday, he's got used to not reading things in the papers. Ricardo said, "There hasn't been any pressure, ultimatum, nothing like that." But he added, "I've been in the sport a long time, and I know if I'm getting my ass kicked every weekend, at some point someone will be like, 'Hey mate, step it up, otherwise.' But I haven't had that." Ricardo's long made it clear he wants to finish his F1 career within the Red Bull family, and if he was axed, he wouldn't have anywhere else to go, and the eight-time Grand Prix winner knows it's on him to raise his game to retain his seat ahead of Lawson, who deputised impressively for him last season. Ricardo said, "Currently, I'm in the race seats, so I've got to do everything I can to control the things I can, and if I can kick ass here, if I can kick ass in Silverstone, then I think the narrative can change." Of course, Ricardo's performances may end up proving academic, if, as Marco suggested, RB's shareholders are keen to return the team to being a place for developing young talent. Looking ahead to actual track action now, and one of the big topics that's cropped up year after year at the Red Bull Ring, is the issue of track limits. In almost every session from practice to the race itself, we've seen multiple drivers being issued with warnings for running too wide out of corners, and in some cases having lap times deleted. Various track tweaks have been tried over the years to try and find a fix, including the use of some rather industrial-looking sausage curbs on corner exits. But this year, the FIA have introduced a couple of new solutions, including the installation of a 2.5m wide gravel strip directly behind the exit curbert turns 9 and 10, and the moving of a white line turns 1, 3, 4 and 6 to ensure the distance from track to gravel is less than 2m. FIA Formula One race director Niels Wittich said of the tweaks that after the huge number of infringements and post-race penalties last year, something needed to change for this year's race, and creating what he calls a "natural deterrent" was what the drivers wanted. Let's hope the new layout brings the desired results. Well, that's about it for this episode. I'll be back tomorrow with everything you need to know from what promises to be a really intriguing first day of track running in Austria. As we've seen in the last few races, the fight at the front is tightening up, and if you want to know why, make sure you check out the latest episode of our sister podcast, the Race F1 Tech Show, which dives into the strengths and weaknesses of the cars from Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari. Until tomorrow, goodbye! As you've probably heard by now, we've teamed up with BedMGM this season. We'll be using BedMGM 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 BedMGM 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 BedMGM. Here's how it works. Download the BedMGM 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. 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