Some Bits Of F1

With the third race finished, there are 21 to go, and even though we weren't on race week, we have some fresh news to comment

Ricciardo has his RB seat at stake

Data is objective, and it doesn't benefit the Australian driver. Following the P7 from his teammate, Tsunoda, on Australia, we can compare how fast was Tsunoda compared to him on the first three qualys from the season.

Whereas Tsunoda was, aproximately, 0.44s faster than Ricciardo in this first three qualys, he was just 0.4s faster, on average, to his former teammate Nyck De Vries. This is not a very significant gap in theory, but taking into account the team they're in, and what they did with De Vries, it's no surprise that RB has given Ricciardo an ultimatum.

Accoding to media, if Daniel doesn't improve his performance in the next two appointments, Japan and China, he will be replaced by Liam Lawson in the Miami Grand Prix.

In addition, it was announced that former F2 Driver and Red Bull academy member Ayumu Iwasa will be replacing Ricciardo during the FP1 on the Japanese Grand Prix.

First sight at the Silly Season

While Toto Wolff has announced that he will give everything he can in order to hire Max Verstappen, Christian Horner seems to be "winning" the Red Bull Civil War and alongside with the non-austrian part of the company, they're trying to hire Fernando Alonso to drive for them on 2025.

Declarations state that the negotiations between Horner and the Asturian driver are really advanced and that it's totally possible and realistic for Fernando to be driving in RB. However, these has to wait until an official announcement is made in order to have full credibility.

To support this, people from a close circle to Fernando Alonso say that, although Aston Martin has given him a lot of joy and celebrations, the chances of him staying in the team from 2025 onwards are less than a 25%.

The fight for the Aerodynamics King

We could be in a situation where drivers are not the only ones to experience a Silly Season, and that's because we might be in the verge of a change of era.

Allegations say that Adrian Newey, popullarly known as the Aerodynamics King, is wanted by other teams, those are, Ferrari and Aston Martin. It is said that Lawrence Stroll, principal Aston Martin's investor, has made an astronomically huge offer to Adrian Newey in order for him to leave Red Bull and go work with the green team.

A new system for the 2026 regulations

With the F1 willingness to reduce the driver's reliance on DRS (Drag Reduction System) in order to overtake, the Formula 1 is developing a new system for the 2026 regulation change in which drivers might be able to use a new system which would give them extra energy in order to overtake, deffend from a car, or to set a fastest lap.

This system is yet in development and consequently, we don't know much about it, but it is said to replace partially, or permanently, the current main form of overtaking, DRS.

Next week's schedule

Second of the three races where Europeans have to wake up early because our next appointment on the calendar is Japan.

Japanese Grand Prix

* All times are in UTC format.

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Miguel, Co-owner of SBOF1