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      Red Bull suspends alleged harassment victim in snowballing F1 scandal

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 7 March - 17:37

    Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner talks in the Team Principals Press Conference during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on March 07, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

    Enlarge / Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner faced the media at an F1 press conference earlier today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (credit: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

    Formula 1 has been embroiled in a scandal as its 2024 season gets underway. As Ars detailed on Monday , the team principal for Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, was investigated by his organization for what was described as "controlling and inappropriate behavior" toward a female member of his staff. Now, we've learned that the staff member has been suspended with pay by the F1 team.

    A spokesperson for the team told The Guardian that Red Bull was unable to comment on an internal matter.

    Last week, Red Bull issued a statement about the dismissal of the grievance, stating that the complainant has a right of appeal but that it "is confident that the investigation has been fair, rigorous, and impartial."

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      Was F1 too boring? Watch these races instead

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 4 March - 16:12 · 1 minute

    a man waves a checkered flag

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

    Formula 1's 2024 season burst into action this past weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The 10 teams had just spent three days conducting preseason testing at the Sakhir circuit, but Friday's qualifying session was the first time everyone left the sandbags in the garage. On Saturday, we got a true reflection of just how much of a gap there is between Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and the other 19 drivers.

    The prospect of a third runaway championship for the Dutch driver will be too much for some fans to stomach, and social media is full of complaints from people who want to cancel their F1 subscriptions. Not everyone can find the excitement in a race for second place, after all. Luckily, F1 isn't the only game in town.

    Check out Formula 2

    Take this year's Formula 2 season, for example. As the name suggests, it's the feeder series for F1, a place for younger drivers to cut their teeth before (hopefully) moving up to the main attraction. Everyone uses the same car in F2, and for 2024, it's all-new. The car is built by Dallara, which also makes IndyCar's chassis, the Japanese Super Formula car, the Formula 3 car, and sports prototypes for Ferrari , Cadillac , and BMW . It's powered by a 3.4 L turbocharged V6 with around 620 hp (462 kW).

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      Here’s what we know after three days of Formula 1 preseason testing

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 23 February - 19:49 · 1 minute

    Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 on track during day one of F1 Testing at Bahrain International Circuit on February 21, 2024 in Bahrain, Bahrain.

    Enlarge / While it's hard to read too much into preseason testing times, it's also hard to see anyone really challenging Red Bull or Max Verstappen for outright speed. (credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

    The sixth season of Drive to Survive, Netflix's blockbuster behind-the-scenes sportumentary, went live today. This isn't a review of that. Instead, for the past few days my attention has been turned to Formula 1's preseason testing, which got underway on Wednesday morning at the Bahrain International Circuit in Bahrain.

    In the olden days, preseason testing was a thing you'd read about in the specialty press—a reason to buy a copy of Autosport in February, if you will. There was a lot more of it back then , too; up to five official preseason tests, although it was unusual for a team to attend all of them.

    In F1's current era, there isn't really time for so much testing, even if it weren't strictly limited by the rules. The first race of what should be a 24-race calendar takes place next Saturday (March 2), with the final round, also in the Middle East, not scheduled until December 8. Contrast that with the early 2000s, when a season might run for 16 or 17 races between early March and mid-October.

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      Andretti Cadillac didn’t snub Formula 1—F1’s email went to spam folder

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 5 February - 18:10 · 1 minute

    Close up of spam email folder on screen

    Enlarge / Don't you hate it when an important email ends up here? (credit: Getty Images)

    Last week, Formula 1 formally rejected a bid by Andretti Cadillac to join the sport as an 11th team and constructor. Among the details in a lengthy justification of its decision, Formula 1 wrote that on December 12, it invited the Andretti team to an in-person meeting, "but the Applicant did not take us up on this offer." Now, it turns out that the Andretti team never saw the email, which instead got caught by a spam filter.

    Not even a follow-up?

    "We were not aware that the offer of a meeting had been extended and would not decline a meeting with Formula One Management," the team said in a statement. "An in-person meeting to discuss commercial matters would be and remains of paramount importance to Andretti Cadillac. We welcome the opportunity to meet with Formula One Management and have written to them confirming our interest."

    F1 apparently never followed up with a phone call or even subsequent email during the six weeks between that initial invitation and its announcement at the end of January. Had the two parties gotten together, it's likely that Andretti could have cleared up some other things for F1 as well.

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      Andretti’s GM-backed entry wanted to enter F1 in 2025, but F1 says no

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 31 January - 18:32 · 1 minute

    BATHURST, NEW SOUTH WALES - OCTOBER 06: Michael Andretti of Andretti Autosport looks on during practice ahead of this weekend's Bathurst 1000, which is part of the Supercars Championship at Mount Panorama on October 6, 2017 in Bathurst, Australia.

    Enlarge / Michael Andretti wants to take his racing empire to Formula 1, but he's facing resistance. (credit: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

    The Formula 1 grid will stay at just 20 cars for the next few years. Earlier today, F1 revealed it has rejected a bid by Andretti Global to join the sport for 2025. The move was not unexpected; neither F1 nor most of the teams have shown any enthusiasm toward Andretti's entry. The sport sent out a lengthy statement explaining its reasons for turning down the Andretti entry but said that "it would look differently on an application" in 2028.

    It's a blow to both Andretti and its fans, but the move also signals increasing disharmony between the FIA, the sport's organizing body, and Liberty Media, which owns the commercial rights to the F1 world championship.

    Andretti Global first announced its plan to enter F1 last January, seeing it as a natural expansion for an organization that already races in IndyCar, Formula E, Extreme E, and IMSA sportscar racing, among other series. A month later the FIA formally opened an application process for new teams to enter the sport, but of the four applicants only Andretti had the backing of a major automaker behind it—in this case General Motors' Cadillac brand.

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      Cold temperatures in Las Vegas were “most difficult,” says Pirelli

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 22 November - 14:54 · 1 minute

    A set of used F1 tires in the pit lane in Las Vegas

    Enlarge (credit: Roberto Baldwin)

    Pirelli provided flights and accommodation from San Francisco to Las Vegas so Roberto could attend the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

    LAS VEGAS—It was cold this past weekend at the first Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix. Winters in the desert are notoriously chilly, and it didn't help that the race organizers decided to start the spectacle at 10 pm local time.

    The issue was the tires—they're not developed to handle frigid weather. Teams were tracking air temperatures and formulating plans to keep their cars on the road instead of sliding into a wall. There was some relief the night of the race, as the weather was warmer than it was during Friday night's qualifying session. At the start of the race ( according to Weather Underground ) it was roughly 60° F (15.5° C), and the actual lowest air temperature was still 10° F warmer than the historical average for November 18; turns out climate change is real and happening .

    There's nothing subtle about Formula 1. Big egos, big money, big tracks, and thanks to a certain Netflix show, big-time fan growth in the United States. But at its core, the actual cars themselves, relatively speaking, don't have that big of an impact on the environment. Sure, they're loud V6 engines, and the tires get depleted quicker than a pizza at a children's birthday party; but transporting the cars and pit equipment and tires and team members to each race uses far more energy than the race itself. And of course, if you factor in fans flying in from all over the world for the 23 races per year, you get a larger carbon footprint than, say, your kid's soccer game.

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      F1’s videogame-like Las Vegas race defied critics’ complaints

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 20 November - 13:37 · 1 minute

    McLaren driver Oscar Piastri (81) of Australia drives by the Sphere during the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, November 18, 2023 on the Las Vegas Street Circuit in Las Vegas, NV.

    Enlarge / Las Vegas' animated Sphere provided part of a spectacular backdrop for the Las Vegas street race. Luckily for F1, the racing more than lived up to the hype. (credit: Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)

    This past weekend, Formula 1 held its inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix. In many ways, this race was something new and unusual for the racing series, something that created plenty of tension among more traditional fans, many of whom suspected that an abundance of style over substance was at work. Things didn't get much better after the first day's practice, with one car written off and another damaged by poor track preparation. But by the time the checkered flag flew at the end of Saturday night's race, even the skeptics had come around, for the cars didn't just look spectacular on track, they gave us the closest—and one of the most thrilling—race of the year.

    The way an F1 event normally works is that a promoter pays the sport a sanctioning fee— somewhere between $20 million and $55 million —and then the sporting circus turns up and races, then leaves. But Liberty Media, which owns F1, decided that it would handle promoting the Las Vegas race itself.

    It put plenty of money where its mouth was, too. It built a new permanent pit complex, also housing the fancy Paddock Club hospitality suites, topped off with a massive animated display for a roof. And the 3.8 miles of city streets that made up the track had to be entirely resurfaced with more than 100,000 tons of paving to create the smooth racing surface the sport expects. All in, Liberty spent at least half a billion dollars of its own money on the event.

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      GM will build F1 powertrains in 2028 as long as F1 lets Andretti in

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 14 November - 15:35

    A rendering of the airbox of an F1 car with Andretti Cadillac branding on it

    Enlarge / GM says the only way Cadillac enters F1 is in the back of an Andretti car. (credit: Cadillac)

    At the start of the year, we got the surprising news that Andretti Global was partnering with Cadillac to try to field a team in Formula 1. That has been a contentious process, exposing a rift between the sport's stakeholders, some of whom aren't keen to add a new fish to the pond.

    But on Tuesday, the Andretti Cadillac program got even more serious with the news that General Motors, which owns Cadillac, has now registered as an official F1 powertrain constructor—although only from the 2028 season.

    "We are thrilled that our new Andretti Cadillac F1 entry will be powered by a GM power unit," said GM President Mark Reuss. "With our deep engineering and racing expertise, we're confident we'll develop a successful power unit for the series and position Andretti Cadillac as a true works team. We will run with the very best, at the highest levels, with passion and integrity that will help elevate the sport for race fans around the world."

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      Audi is entering F1 in 2026—its head of technology tells us why

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 2 June, 2023 - 17:35 · 1 minute

    An F1 car in Audi livery

    Enlarge (credit: Audi)

    In August of last year, we were somewhat shocked when Audi confirmed that it would enter Formula 1 in 2026 . Rumors had swirled for many years that Volkswagen Group was considering entering the sport with one or more of its brands, even as Audi and then Porsche racked up win after win in other categories. But those rumors never seemed to go anywhere, earning a kind of vaporware status similar to the infamous Duke Nukem Forever .

    That game did eventually see the light of day, though, and so too will Audi's F1 ambitions when it takes over the Sauber team as F1 ushers in a new set of technical regulations. We recently spoke with Oliver Hoffmann, Audi's board member for technical development, who told us more about the company's F1 plans and how entering that sport should help some of its road cars.

    Audi will be new to F1 when it joins the sport in three years, but it's certainly not new to motorsport. In the 1980s, it made a name for itself—and its "quattro" all-wheel drive technology—in the World Rally Championship. More recently, it dominated endurance racing for almost two decades , winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans 13 times between 2000 and 2016, plus two World Endurance Championships and nine American Le Mans Series championships. While doing so, it proved the value of new technology that transferred to its road cars—direct injection gasoline engines, direct injection turbo diesel engines, hybrid powertrains, and laser beam headlights, to name just a few.

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