It’s time for the annual mandatory Formula one summer break. The first half of the season has been interesting to say the least. It brought us a lot of driver switches, new regulations, people who got laid off and all kinds of rumors in the paddock. From Lewis Hamiton’s shocking move to Ferrari to Christian Horner's dramatic exit. All in all, plenty to talk about.
Formula 1 summer break
After the Hungarian Grand Prix Formula 1 takes a mandatory summer break. But why is there a summer break? And what do the teams do during this break?
In an overarching sense, the summer break is written into the Formula 1 regulations and traditionally the period between the last race in the end of July or the beginning of August until the first race back in late August or early September. This year the summer break will be after the race in Hungary on August the 3rd and will last until the first free practice of the Dutch Grand Prix on the 25th August.
The summer break was written in the regulations because the teams tend to work non stop throughout the whole year, without taking a break. It's such a high intensity job for all of the people who work in Formula 1, that the FIA has decided that all of these people need a mandatory break at least once a year. It allows team personnel to spend time away from Formula 1, relax, recover and spend time with family and friends, before the action resumes in the last races to the end of the season.
This rule is implemented by Article 21.8 of the FIA Formula one sporting regulations and it states the following "All competitors must observe a shutdown period of fourteen (14) consecutive days during the months of July and / or August." In this period teams cannot work on car design, development or parts production, including planning or hold meetings. Teams who don’t adhere to the rules will suffer a penalty.
Driver switches
This season no one's seat is safe. Within some teams the drivers are moved around like chess pieces. Of course we already had some interesting changes at the start of this season with Lewis Hamilton going from Mercedes to Ferrari, which meant that Carlos Sainz had to leave Ferrari and chose to sit next to Alex Albon in the Williams. The spot Hamilton left behind at Mercedes was filled by Toto Wolf’s trainee, Kimi Antonelli. Esteban Ocon left Alpine to join Haas next to the rookie Oliver Bearman. This move left space at Alpine for rookie Jack Doohan, who was replaced with Franco Colapinto after only six races.
Liam Lawson, who just started his first Formula one season and being a replacement for Sergio Perez, also didn't get much time in the Redbull. He was quickly bumped down to Redbull’s sister team, Racing Bulls, where he is accompanied by another rookie, Isack Hadjar. This downgrade meant that Yuki Tsunoda finally got his chance to go from Racing Bulls to Redbull and drive next to the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen. The last rookie who made his way to Formula one is Gabriel Bortoletto. He got his chance with Sauber and is driving next to the experienced Nico Hulkenberg. Some teams chose stability and didn't change their driver lineup (yet). McLaren and Aston Martin stayed with their current drivers.
New regulations
At the beginning of this season the FIA decided to reinforce the rules surrounding the so called flexi wings. It was no secret that a lot of teams and fans thought that McLaren benefited a lot from their front and rear wing flexing. The deflection of the wings causes them to bend on the straights to such an extent that the aerodynamic drag decreases, which results in the car going faster. The front wing in particular deflects back in the corners to generate more downforce. This created a sort of mini DRS effect. That's why the FIA decided to carry out stricter checks. The wings are now allowed to bend to a maximum of 10 mm instead of the previous 15 mm.
Being laid off
In the course of this season some people had to leave their team, with the most memorable being Christian Horner. This resulted in Laurent Mekies, who used to be the team principal of Racing bulls, taking over the CEO duties at Redbull. In his place Alan Permane will be in charge of Racing Bulls.
At Alpine there was a similar situation. The team principal Oliver Oaks unexpectedly left the team. Rumors say it had something to do with his brother, William Oaks, who was arrested in Miami for transferring criminal property. The role as team principal was taken over by the flamboyant Flavio Briatore, who just made his return to Formula one after being banned indefinitely in September 2009 from the sport.
Rumors
Probably being the biggest rumor in the paddock is that some say that Max Verstappen, who is currently the reigning world champion, will leave his current team Redbull. Some say that Verstappen will go to Mercedes, while others think it may be Aston Martin or Ferrari. It certainly wouldn't be surprising if Verstappen leaves the team. The Redbull car just hasn't been as great as a reigning world champion may need. It’s been said that there is a clause in his contract that allows him to leave if Redbull doesn't provide a winning car. To the present day there is no confirmed sign that Verstappen will leave his current team, Redbull.
Another big rumor, now that Flavio Briatore is the boss, is how long Franco Colapinto is able to keep his seat at Alpine. Some say that he, just like Jack Doohan, gets a maximum of six races to prove he belongs in Formula one. It’ll be interesting to see if he is allowed to keep driving at Alpine.
These are obviously not the only rumors in Formula one and will most definitely not be the last rumors, but if I’ll tell them all you’ll probably never get to the end of this blog.
All in all it's been an eventful Formula 1 season so far and it makes me even more excited for the second half of it. What do you think about the first half of this season? And what do you expect for the second half? Will the next season be as interesting as this one is? We’ll tell you all about it in our next blog!
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