FIA gala in Baku ends a long season

Good visit

Lewis Hamilton is the first Formula 1 driver and after his visit to the Mercedes factories in Brackley and Brixworth yesterday he brought a good picture for 2024:

“The mood is very positive. The team is grateful to have come second,” he said. “It’s great to see the progress and becoming more and more diverse, so we’re moving in the right direction.”

He has already seen something with regard to the Mercedes for next season:

“I saw the car in the wind tunnel and seeing how it develops is fascinating. Next time I see it it will be completely different.”

concussion

Mohammed bin Sulayem, FIA President, was supposed to give opening remarks before the press conferences, but the FIA ​​made him excuse himself.

A few days ago he became ill and fell, suffering a concussion and being treated in hospital. Today he will only be present at the award ceremony in a reduced form, but will not take part in the media obligations.

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The young wild

Gabriel Bortoleto, Formula 3 champion, was incredibly pleased with his title and stated that this season was “the most important in my career” because it helped him get into the McLaren junior program. He will compete in Formula 2 next season and is also pleased to have the support of Fernando Alonso, who is in his management team.

Also on stage is Théo Pourchaire, who won Formula 2 but will not be competing in Formula 1 next year. For him it was “very important” that after all these years he finally won the title for which he had to fight for a long time. “Consistency was very important to me,” he stated. He was fast in previous years, but not consistent enough. Unfortunately, he will only be on board at Sauber in 2024 as a substitute, but he is looking forward to competing in the free training sessions, but is certainly considering the Japanese Super Formula, for which he has been testing in the past few days.

FIA press conferences

In today’s Formula 1 live ticker we will of course also be keeping an ear out for Baku, because from 1:45 p.m. CET there will be press conferences with the various FIA world champions and also FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem, who will address the opening words to the public becomes.

It will certainly be important for us in terms of personnel at 3:10 p.m. when Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton will be at the press conference together with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and there will certainly be questions about the Wolff case asked, which definitely leaves further questions unanswered.

Be sure to check back here again and again for the latest quotes from Azerbaijan.

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Toto’s explanation

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has also just made a statement that comes across as far less emotional, but certainly threatening to those who started this wave:

“We know that there is a lot of media interest in this week’s events. We are currently in an active legal exchange with the FIA. We expect full transparency about what happened and the reasons for it and have expressly reserved all legal rights. We We therefore ask for your understanding that we are not making an official statement for the time being, but we will look into the matter in due course.”

Wolff follows up

In an emotional social media posting, Susie Wolff once again made it clear how disappointed she is with the FIA’s behavior in the alleged compliance affair. Here is the explanation in the German translation:

“When I saw the FIA’s statement last night, my first reaction was: ‘Is that all?'”

“For two days, accusations have been made against my integrity in public and in background discussions, but no one from the FIA ​​has spoken to me directly.”

“I may have been collateral damage in an unsuccessful attack on someone else, or the target of a failed attempt to discredit myself personally, but I have worked too hard to have my reputation compromised by an unfounded press release.”

“We have come a long way as a sport. I have been very grateful for the unified support of the Formula 1 teams. I have worked with so many passionate women and men in Formula 1 and the FIA ​​who have our sport’s very best interests at heart hearts lie.”

“However, this episode has so far played out without transparency and accountability. I have been insulted online about my work and my family. I will not be intimidated and will continue to follow up until I find out who instigated this campaign and misled the media .”

“What happened this week is simply not good enough. As a sport we must demand better and we deserve it.”

Commitment felt

Alessando Alunni Bravi, team representative of the Sauber team, spoke at the Abu Dhabi weekend about how he perceived Audi’s commitment to the Formula 1 project on site. Yesterday an article from… Manager Magazine Yes, because the board continues to support the company’s entry into Formula 1 in 2026, Alunni Bravi also perceived it:

“Between Vegas and Abu Dhabi, I was in Ingolstadt. So I think there’s a commitment. I’ve seen people who are fully committed and working really hard. We know the challenge is big, but the commitment is big . As I mentioned, Audi’s commitment was very high from the start. The project, the Formula 1 project, was approved by the Audi board, confirmed by the Audi supervisory board, and then confirmed by the Volkswagen supervisory board. It is “So a commitment at all levels within the Audi/VW group. And the change in the chairman of the board does not change this approach, because it was not a decision of a single person or the board, but a decision of the group.”

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Investigations stopped

Breathe a sigh of relief with the Wolff family in Monaco!

The FIA ​​closed the investigation into possible compliance violations by Mercedes team boss Toto and F1 Academy boss Susie Wolff after two days.

All information about this can be found in this article.

Is the calendar too full?

Let’s be honest: which of you still really watches every Formula 1 race? Our expert Ralf Schumacher believes that 24 races are too many. The number of Grands Prix has become “inflationary” in recent years – and in this video Ralf makes a rarely heard suggestion as to how, in his eyes, the racing calendar could be designed better.

It’s one thing that employees of the Formula 1 circus perform under the high demands. After all, Ralf thinks, they knew what they were getting into. But Grand Prix racing is in danger of losing the interest of its fans. What’s too much is too much, he says on the Formula1.de YouTube channel.

By the way, Christian Danner, whose opinion is also shown in this video, also thinks so in the form of an clip from our partner Hello TV from the show Sports and talk from Hangar-7 from November 27, 2023.

FIA gala in live stream

This evening from 8 p.m. CET in Baku (Azerbaijan) the various title holders of the series that hold world championships under the umbrella of the FIA ​​World Automobile Association will be honored.

Formula E world champion Jake Dennis, rally world champion Kalle Rovanperä and Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen, among others, will receive their trophies for their annual performance.

There are also other honors and certainly emotional moments that you can watch in the FIA’s live stream on YouTube. It’s best to make a note now.

Needs improvement at Hamilton

After the mixed 2023 season, Lewis Hamilton judged himself and found out what adjustments he can still make for 2024:

“I’ve been really happy with my racing technique and pace throughout the year, I haven’t made many mistakes, most of my racing performances have been really good. […] Qualifying is still an area that needs improvement.”

When asked what exactly he wanted to do, he said:

“We struggle as a team to get the performance out of these tires and there were weekends where George dropped massively and I was OK and then it went the other way again. And these are little details on our car, where “We have to work better as a team to be able to perform more consistently, like some of the others do.”

Mercedes and Hamilton were at least able to secure a pole position in Hungary.

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The last Dance

A wonderful good morning and welcome to the last Formula 1 live ticker of the long F1 year 2023.

Kevin Scheuren is taking you to Baku today, where the motorsport year will end with the FIA ​​Gala. The world championship trophies are awarded, rookies are honored and themselves and the sport are celebrated again. It starts at 8 p.m. CET, but until then we still have some press conferences, impressions and more for you.

If you have any questions, comments, topic requests or criticism, please send me anything using our contact form Twitter/X with the hashtag #FragMST or via Instagram. I’ll try to incorporate your input as best as I can.

Here you can read yesterday’s live ticker again.

Have a nice Friday and have fun with the live ticker.

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