F1 teams in full swing as launch season looms

Jan.30 (GMM) As car launch and winter testing season now looms, Formula 1 teams are in full swing to prepare for the 2024 world championship.

Alpine intends to reveal its new car in just over a week, but nervousness may be high at the Renault-linked team as it emerges the 2024 machine has failed its mandatory side-impact crash test.

Over at Red Bull’s newly-renamed Visa Cash App RB team, however, the turmoil is more positive – as the long-serving but ousted Renault engineer Alan Permane makes his way to Faenza to be racing director.

“After a few months of downtime,” he said, “it’s great to return to racing again.”

It’s a key appointment for the former Alpha Tauri team, as the FIA’s departing technical director Tim Goss joins Permane – as does Guillaume Cattelani who moves sideways from Red Bull Technology.

Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, is reuniting with his former right-hand man Marc Hynes – who had departed the Hamilton camp in 2021.

There is even activity at Andretti-Cadillac, despite not yet having secured approval to enter an eleventh Formula 1 team as soon as 2025 or 2026.

The Independent newspaper reports that a full 120 people are now working on the F1 project, with experienced technical director Nick Chester revealing: “We’ve had people joining from Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren.”

And finally, although Charles Leclerc’s brother was recently ousted from the Ferrari development academy, 23-year-old Arthur Leclerc has picked up a new F1 simulator role with the Maranello based team.

Ferrari is in action for Pirelli over three days in Barcelona this week, where on Monday Arthur Leclerc got his first taste of an F1 car in Ferrari’s 2023 single seater.

“It was an incredible experience,” he said. “The car is so fast and nothing like I’ve experienced before.”