I do know, I do know. That is  bit late as columns from Austria go, however the days earlier than the British Grand Prix are at all times busy and for me, as a uncommon customer to the offshore nation that was once a part of Europe, there’s at all times so much to do, not least the 900-mile drive from Spielberg to Calais. Austria was brutal with a sleepless night time brought on by observe limits. I wouldn’t usually lose sleep on this matter, however altering the outcomes of a race hours after the chequered flag implies that work that was already performed needed to be thrown away and performed once more and a digital worm in my Apple didn’t assist by munching by another bits of copy, which meant that work was not completed earlier than 5 in he morning and there was solely time for a fast nap earlier than hitting the highway by a wet Styria. Children, don’t do that at house…

Realizing that there have been roadworks and Dutchmen with hangovers (ie visitors jams) on the primary highway north to the German border in Passau, I went west by Styria till I met the autobahn system south of Salzburg. This was slower, however rather more agreeable, though  returning Dutch race followers have been with me for many of the day as we toured German motor racing historical past, passing Solitude, Hockenheim, Niederzissen, and going near the Nurburgring and Kerpen, earlier than bidding “Tschüss” to the land the place they nonetheless play John Denver songs on the radio, presumably as a result of his actual title was Henry Deutschendorf, and nipping by Belgium by the use of Liege, Brussels and Bruges. It was a race towards time to get previous Dunkirk to Calais for the midnight boat, however it went with out undue drama and I discovered myself in a really quiet and wet Dover at about one within the morning the place diversions due to road-working led me up again roads to the very un-English-sounding Capel-le-Ferne, the house of the Battle of Britain Memorial. In case you are flying about above England, this can be a helpful navigational help. From the air it appears to be like like a three-blade propeller. On the bottom within the early hours of the morning, nonetheless, it isn’t a glamorous spot, however that is the land of Manston, Hawkinge, West Malling and different aerodromes that evoke a lot emotion for the Englanders. My vacation spot was that almost all well-known fighter base of all of them, Biggin Hill, a spot of legend, probably the most well-known of Battle of Britain air stations.

Biggin Hill remains to be an working airport for govt jets, though it’s most likely finest referred to as one of many locations the place passenger jets “stack “, making circles within the air whereas ready for a slot to get into Heathrow.

Pratt’s Backside is on the best way to Biggin and a type of English villages that make one giggle, like Nice Loud night breathing or Center Wallop. The English are good at bizarre village names however Europeans have comparable abilities, a I famous once I handed by Unhealthy Füssing on the best way to the Austrian GP.

I needed to be at Biggin Hill early on Tuesday morning for a tour of the Method 1 Media and Know-how Centre, however managed “a Full English” after a quick resort cease and within the bar of 1 o these nearly pretty previous English pubs, listening to “These Lazy-Hazy-Loopy Days of Summer time”,  which is a type of songs which are so evocative of the early Sixties, and of summer season usually. I puzzled whether or not I used to be the one individual there nerdy sufficient to know that Nat King Cole purloined the music after it turned a  hit in Austria, the clue to its German origins being the reference to “pretzels and beer”.

Biggin Hill remains to be an working airport for govt jets, though it’s most likely finest referred to as one of many locations the place passenger jets “stack “, making circles within the air whereas ready for a slot to get into Heathrow.

Pratt’s Backside is on the best way to Biggin and a type of English villages that make one giggle, like Nice Loud night breathing or Center Wallop. The English are good at bizarre village names however Europeans have comparable abilities, a I famous once I handed by Unhealthy Füssing on the best way to the Austrian GP.

The F1 facility was wildly spectacular and is unquestionably heaven for troglodyte tec varieties who like residing in cool darkish situations, surrounded by banks of intelligent equipment. The expertise concerned in creating the F1 TV exhibits is astonishing as much less and fewer tools strikes world wide and an increasing number of is completed distant streaming again to Biggin from the place they do all types of issues, reminiscent of working the pit lane flying digicam and splicing collectively issues. Probably the most spectacular factor for me was assembly the man who listens to the 20 driver radio feeds concurrently and is in some way in a position to know who’s speaking and produces selects the great ones and fires out captioning on the similar time. It sounds not possible, however he does it… The human mind is a marvellous factor. I then had some household enterprise down Gloucestershire means earlier than visiting Alpine and Williams on Wednesday after which the Crimson Bull Powertrains manufacturing unit on Thursday morning.

I can not relate a lot about what I noticed, besides that it was very spectacular and the crew is way extra superior on 2026 engines than I had ever imagined.  Those that are aiming to compete must buck up their concepts.

The large information in Austria was all about Audi with the non-unexpected information that the corporate boss Markus Duesmann, the driving force behind the F1 venture, has been posted into retirement, the newest in a protracted internecine historical past of VW executives slitting each other’s throats to turn out to be the highest canine. Volkswagen AG has been run by Porsche AG CEO Oliver Blume since September final 12 months after he gained a management battle with Duesmann, the boss of Audi.

Duesmann joined Audi in 2020 having been plucked from BMW by the then Volkswagen AG boss Herbert Diess, one other former BMW man. Duesmann introduced a gaggle of BMW folks with him.

Diess was fired in 2022 due to falling VW group gross sales. A couple of days earlier than Blume turned the boss of Volkswagen AG, Duesmann introduced that he can be main Audi into Method 1 in 2026 with a deal to construct engines and a staged buy of the Sauber crew. This may give the German producer management of Sauber by the top of 2024 however the crew wouldn’t be rebranded till 2026 due to the necessity to proceed to Ferrari engines.

Porsche had supposed to enter Method 1 in partnership with Crimson Bull Racing, however this fell aside and Crimson Bull turned as an alternative to Ford, leaving Porsche with nowhere to go.

The issue for Duesmann is that Audi has failed to enhance its gross sales, significantly compared to Mercedes and BMW. He was employed to reverse that scenario however in 2022 Audi gross sales fell by practically 4 p.c and so the axe swung and lopped off Audi’s head. It will likely be fascinating to see how issues probability with the Audi F1 venture. There have been rumours for a while that issues haven’t been transferring quick sufficient and that Audi wants to hurry up its engine growth. The agency has been utilizing a single-cylinder engine to organize for the prototype new unit and this is because of start testing on the dyno by the top of this 12 months, which implies that they’re effectively behind Crimson Bull and the others, though Honda appears to be in a reasonably delayed state as effectively.

Duesmann position will likely be taken over by Gernot Döllner, a 54-year-old who has been Volkswagen Group’s vp of product and group technique lately. It is usually no nice shock that Duesmann’s alternative is a Blume lieutenant, Döllner having labored alongside him at Porsche.  The important thing query from a sporting perspective what’s going to now occur with Oliver Hoffmann, the person who has been accountable for the F1 venture underneath Duesmann. Hoffmann has been with Audi since 2004 and performed an enormous position at Audi Sport earlier than turning into Audi’s COO in 2020. He’s at present the person to whom Adam Baker, the CEO of Audi Method Racing GmbH, stories. Baker is one in every of Duesmann’s former BMW colleagues. There are rumours that Audi’s Julius Seebach who was once accountable for Audi Sport till final autumn when he handed over management and moved into an undefined “new enterprise” position, goes to turn out to be Baker’s boss.

Seebach is already on the board of Sauber, alongside Andreas Seidl. For the second Seidl isn’t formally employed by Audi, however the phrase is that he will likely be from 2026 onwards.

There have been rumours, nonetheless, that Audi could also be attempting to speed up the sale course of to allow funding in Hinwil. In the mean time Audi owns simply 25 p.c of the crew. On the finish of this 12 months, that may enhance to 50 p.c however the present chairman Finn Rausing will stay the person in cost and as shareholders should put of their justifiable share of funding, there will likely be strain on Rausing to sump up money or to speed up the sale to permit Audi to spend what’s required.

The query of capital funding has been inflicting minor friction between the groups in latest weeks however plainly they’ll finally discover a resolution to permit the weaker groups to catch up as Audi, Williams, Alpine, McLaren and AlphaTauri (and thus Crimson Bull) are all eager to be allowed to spend extra on services and a deal wants solely 5 of them. Having visited Alpine and Williams in latest days it’s clear why they should spend to get to the identical stage as Crimson Bull and firm and as F1 is eager to stage the taking part in discipline on this respect, it does make sense, though some groups are objecting to serving to the smaller fish within the F1 fats fryer. Most of those groups are in full build up mode and need to spend cash, get higher tools and rent higher workers. Scuderia Alpha Tauri has now joined that group as Crimson Bull has revealed plans to make massive modifications with plans for a brand new greater British facility to interchange the traditional Bicester manufacturing unit and wind tunnel. The crew will share Crimson Bull’s yet-to-built windtunnel in Milton Keynes and so it’s logical for the brand new facility to be within the Silverstone space, midway between Bicester and Milton Keynes… The Silverstone space is, in fact, underneath intense growth for the time being with the brand new Aston Martin manufacturing unit and services being utilized by Hitech Grand Prix and Andretti, though it isn’t sure that both will get an entry. The rumours are that GM will sooner or later get critical about F1 with an present crew, rther than risking going with the Andretti venture, which can not get an entry. That’s as much as the FIA to determine within the weeks forward though groups should additionally persuade the Method One group to allow them to be a part of the occasion. That’s effervescent story…

There are numerous different rumours round about drivers, notably involving Scuderia AlphaTauri, the place the phrase is that there may very well be main modifications this 12 months (not to mention subsequent 12 months). One rumours that’s fascinating is that Indycar star Alex Palou at present had a contractual window which may permit him to leap out of IndyCar and into an F1 drive, earlier than the doorways slam shut and he has to remain the place he’s, with both present employer Ganassi or McLaren. The phrase is that Dr Helmut Marko likes he look of the Spaniard and may supply him an AlphaTauri when the IndyCar season ends in September, which might set him up properly for subsequent 12 months and finally might result in work at Crimson Bull Racing as Sergio Perez isn’t actually flavour of the month there as a result of he had accomplished didn’t sustain with Max Verstappen and the concern is that if the crew has extra opposition subsequent 12 months (we will hope), the crew wants a greater quantity two to assist win the Constructors’ title as Max may not have the ability to win it on his personal… There may be additionally speak of Daniel Ricciardo coming into substitute Sergio for a 12 months or two whereas Crimson Bull prepares some new juniors…

Those that like issues inexperienced wee getting thrilling in Austria a couple of new vitality technology system being trialled on the Austrian GP, producing 90 p.c of its on-site vitality necessities to energy all garages and motorhomes and the F1 cellular broadcast centre. The system was powered by sustainable sources, together with a hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel and 600 sq m of photo voltaic panels. Nonetheless, commendable although this can be the massive downside that F1 needs to disregard is the truth that mllions of spectators nonetheless drive to races and if the game goes to have higher inexperienced credentials it should deal with this downside and go racing in locations the place the crowds might be delivered by mass transportation techniques, reminiscent of occurs in Zandvoort, Monaco, Montreal and Montreal, amongst different locations. As we all know, the world’s most air pollution sporting occasion is the Tour de France, due to its 14 million spectators, so appearances might be deceptive.

The brand new calendar is far as predicted on this ecologically-sound Pocket book, though the massive hole in October is a bit odd. They are saying that it is because Doha didn’t need a race at that time, however I’ve one other concept. Giving everybody some in-season day off is perhaps good subsequent 12 months, I concern that this can present the slot for a 25^th race in 2025, and no-one will have the ability to complain… Let’s see.

Lastly, I used to be trying on the FIA funds after a latest press launch about issues have been so a lot better than earlier than and it struck me that we must always actually know why they have been so dangerous in 2021. The conclusion I reached is that about half the cash went to settle a authorized motion over using the halo, which was a patented system which the FIA although it’d ignore. The end result was some heavy-hitting attorneys in Texas spanking the federation right into a settlement of about $12 million, though a lot of his can have been their charges. Nonetheless, the issue has gone away. General issues are usually not too dangerous for the federation because of a one other mysterious sum of cash that turned up within the accounts in 2019 for causes that no-one can overtly clarify. I want somebody would go away $15 million in my checking account for no motive… that might relatively good.

Proper, time to get on, hopefully subsequent week’s Inexperienced Pocket book will likely be delivered extra shortly…