🏁 Leclerc Locked Up?

PLP Season 1 Edition 11

83 Days Until the 2024 Season Opening Weekend

That’s 1 week down without F1, but there’s still plenty to get into. With Logan Sargeant officially retaining the Williams seat for 2024, this is the first time in history that a season will start with the same grid as the final race of the previous season (No one tell Nyck de Vries). While there was still a fair share of rumors floated throughout the “silly season” surrounding Checo’s seat, Lando’s future, and even mostly unfounded rumors regarding Hamilton and Alonso with Red Bull, the identical grid lineup goes to show that this season was actually minimal levels of silly. However with 12 drivers only contracted through 2024 at the moment, we could be in for peak silliness next summer.

Quick Quiz: In 2023, Max Verstappen became just the third driver in F1 history to complete every single lap of the season. Who are the other two?

Find out below ⬇

Charles Close to Securing the Bag

If you’re not familiar with Gen Z lingo (I had to google it), the bag refers to the big ‘ol stack of cash heading into the hands of Charles Leclerc through 2029. While it has yet to be confirmed by Ferrari at time of writing, numerous media outlets are reporting on the potentially huge deal. The pay day is part of a five year extension, with a starting salary of 25M euro and growing to 50M euro by contract end. It also reportedly has a performance related exit clause, with the driver having the ability to opt out after 3 years if the team is uncompetitive.

We’ll have to wait for the deal to see the fine print, but this news naturally brings up questions about Carlos Sainz’s future with the team. Contracted until the end of 2024, there have been rumors the Spanish driver is seeking a two year extension. The team might be hesitant to do that however, with Lando Norris available at the end of 2025. But stop us if you’ve heard Lando’s name associated with another team before.

Leclerc is one of the best on the grid, so this is a great move for Ferrari if they seriously want to compete (just need to figure out race pace in the car now, nbd). We at PLP also love Carlos- and although he ended the year on a sour note there were plenty of highs, heck he took the only win off of RBR all season (smooth operaaaaatoooorrr). With McLaren’s resurgence mid season, it would make a lot of sense for Lando to stay with the papaya people and be their #1. But in other contract news.. 

Sargeant Gets Another Shot

After speculation throughout the year, Williams saw enough from the rookie driver to warrant another season on the grid. While there were plenty of struggles, gains could be seen from Sargeant as he accumulated more track time- though perhaps not quite as much as some had hoped. From numerous spins, getting points in Austin, to getting out qualified every single race, to a great quali performance in Vegas, 2023 had a lot of ups and downs. Bottom line is Williams choose stability, sticking with their decision and banking on a step forward in 2024.

You have to give credit to Williams for sticking to their guns with a lot of pressure to put someone else in the seat. Consistency can be underrated, and there’s always a shiny new toy to go chase. With one season under his belt and some solid weekends in the second half of the year, Logan is equipped with the some experience and confidence heading into 2024. Now it’s on him to perform.

Toto Wolff and Wife Susie Were Under Investigation by FIA - Until They Weren’t

Earlier this week, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and wife Susie Wolff (who heads the F1 Academy, focused on developing women’s racing talent) were caught in the cross hairs of the FIA over potential conflict of interest violations. The issue involved an alleged comment made by Toto at a team bosses meeting regarding information privy to Formula One Management (FOM), that some believe could have only come via Susie. While it was originally reported that team bosses had made this connection and were also concerned that private info at these meetings could have been passed back to FOM management, as of Wednesday every team released a coordinated statement denying that they raised any concerns about wrongdoing from the Wolff’s. Then, on Thursday the FIA dropped their initial probe. This now puts the FIA in a terribly awkward position, with questions arising about the original source of the claim.

F1, Mercedes, and Susie came out and vehemently denied the claims when they were released, with the F1 Academy head saying “It is disheartening that my integrity is being called into question in such manner, especially when it seems to be rooted in intimidatory and misogynistic behavior, and focused on my marital status rather than my abilities.”

This was a whirlwind couple days for what at time of writing seems to be a non-issue. It appears that someone at the FIA made quite a large blunder to spark this investigation, and there could be consequences with all this trouble stirred up over nothing. Whoever the source of the original claims, well… I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the bad side of F1’s power couple.

Haas: Year in Review

It was a tough year for the Haas boys to say the least. While not a bad qualifying car, the 2023 Haas was brutal on it’s tires. It was a near guarantee to see complete backwards momentum on race day from either driver that was able to put in a decent qualifying effort. Upgrades never materialized, and the two drivers even split car packages in Vegas which says it all about how good their last package performed.

The team finished last in P10 with just 12 points this season, a drop from P8 and 37 points in 2022. K-Mag only managed 3 points all year to finish P19 in the drivers championship, scoring 10th place in Jeddah, Miami, and Singapore. A disappointing result compared to his 25 point P13 finish last year. It seemed way too often the Danish driver was running into bad luck with DNFs due to car trouble, along with a few gnarly crashes that contributed to a rough year. Hulk didn’t fair too much better points wise, finishing with 9 (good for P16) with a 7th place finish in Australia and a 6th place sprint finish in Austria. Nico was able to outperform his teammate head to head in his first season with the team, offering a tiny consolation to the challenging campaign.

Watch: If you haven’t seen the famous interaction between these two from 2017, check it out here (NSFW language). They have both laughed about it since.

Both drivers are contracted through 2024, and have expressed the need for the team to figure out the car’s tire eating problem.

• Highs: Some good qualifying performances

• Lows: Race pace, DNFs, lack of development

• “The signs were there early in the season, and we got away with it earlier in the season because other people also were struggling. Next year we have to do things differently” - Hulkenberg

• “I think we started the year in an okay position, but we lost out to the competition in the development race. It’s a big winter for us catching up, but I believe we can do it” - Magnussen

Down the Grid

Tech Talk

• The FIA will wait until 2026 regulation changes to close “outwash loopholes” teams have been exploiting through clever front wing design. The move to ground-effect as the main downforce driver in 2022 was supposed to minimize outwash (airflow pushed away from the car), which increases dirty air in a car’s wake and makes tight racing more difficult.

• One of the most underrated parts of the sport.. the SOUND. Check out some engine sounds of old cars

• Watch: why F1 cars use double wishbone suspension [Video]

• A nice overtake graphic from @Big_Data_Master on X 🔽. In the 2000’s there was still refueling during races, leading to most overtakes happening on pit stops. 2005 required one set of tires to be used, resulting in a low point. 2010 saw an uptick with no more refueling, with 2011 introducing DRS and therefore much more overtaking. 2017 saw a dip due to cars becoming bigger and heavier due to technical rule changes, and we’ve been ticking upwards since.

Off the Grid

• Penalty Points after the 2023 season. PER, SAR, and STR top the leaderboard with 7,6, and 5 points respectively. Points are assigned for causing accidents and expire after 1 year - but collecting 12 in 12 months results in a ban for the next applicable race.

• Driving doesn’t seem physically demanding at first glance, but just watch Checo train to get an idea of the necessary regimen

• CBS planning a workplace comedy show set in the world of sports focusing on “Steiner-esque boss” as central character

• 2024 Sprint Calendar announced 🔽

That’s a wrap for this week. Clearly there’s still plenty to cover in the off season, and we’ll be back next week with Alpha Romeo’s year in review. Until then, we found a good weekend activity to add to your home’s atmosphere 🔽. Your partner definitely won’t mind.

Questions? Comments? Did we get something wrong (never 😁)? Let us know ▶ [email protected]