Formula One News — January 2024

Oscar PiastriI

#10 - Yuki Tsunoda

The distance between the FIA leadership and the ten Formula 1 teams has become much bigger in recent months, with the competitors openly siding with the Commercial Rights Holder and being very critical of some of president Ben Sulayem’s moves. The sudden departure of the FIA Sporting Director, Steve Nielsen, is set to increase the gap between the sport’s regulator and the teams, as the veteran Englishman is hugely respected in the paddock, having successfully worked with a large number of teams, to the point he was singled out by drivers and Team Principals as a tremendously valid part of their discussions on the subject of improving the regulations and the way the sport operates – praise that is unusual to hear regarding an FIA official.

The German arm of Sky TV and the historic RTL channel gave the German Formula 1 fans a great Christmas gift with the announcement that seven Grand Prix will be broadcast live, a luxury they hadn’t enjoyed in the last couple of years, from the moment RTL decided it could no longer pay the huge fees demanded by Formula 1.

Red Bull’s preparation for the 2024 season are rumored to have suffered a setback just before the winter shutdown, with sources close to the Austrian team suggesting the first monocoque of the new RB20 failed the mandatory frontal crash test. Like all UK-based teams, Red Bull conducts the crash tests of its cars in Cranfield, but according to those sources, the team will now need to bring the second chassis into that facility, with at least one extra layer of carbon fibre added to the frontal structure, in order to pass thus crash test and get the necessary homologation.