Race Week Recap #12 - Belgium

Hi friends

It's my final week of vacation, before I head back to work on Monday. I should be trying to get my sleep schedule back in order, but who are we kidding? That's a problem for future Jeppe to solve. Current Jeppe is still in vacation mode.

Top story of the week: Alpine close to announcing deal to switch to Mercedes engines

📸 Alpine F1 Team

Alpine, or rather Renault, are back as the top story of the week - this time because an announcement of the Mercedes engine deal appears to be imminent, with some sources saying it may come early next week.

Reactions from current and former Alpine / Renault staff are understandably less than positive. This move will have consequences for some staff in Enstone, but especially for the entire staff in Viry - who could be looking at massive layoffs once the Renault engine works come to an end.

Why is this important? Looking at this from a business perspective, this move indicates to me, that Renault is further manoeuvring to offhand the team. By stripping off the engine business it becomes a more attractive deal to potential buyers.

It would be obvious to mention Andretti in this context, but I think we need to look deeper. Renault has formed a partnership with Geely, owners of brands like Volvo and Lotus, and part owners of Aston Martin. This new partnership, called HORSE Powertrains, could make Geely an obvious choice for Renault to hand off Alpine to, while still maintaining a minority share.

The rest of the stories this week:

• Mattia Binotto appointed COO and CTO of the Audi F1 project, Oliver Hoffman and Andreas Seidl leave

• Haas confirm Esteban Ocon from next season on a multi-year contract

• Helmut Marko thinks Max Verstappen's late night sim racing has nothing to do with his on track performance or snappy radio messages

• Verstappen agrees to stop staying up to 3 AM to do sim races during F1 weekends

• Helmut Marko commits to staying with Red Bull until at least the end of 2026

• South Africa's Minister of Sports says his term will be a failure, if he doesn't bring F1 to the country. First meeting about a potential Kyalami race at the end of August in Monaco

• Alpine will run a Deadpool livery in Belgium, with matching drivers' helmets and mechanics' overalls

• The FIA vote not to change the points system, increases minimum weight requirement by 2kg for 2025

• The FIA discussed a wildcard system for rookie drivers, where they would take place in select races throughout the season

• The FIA will be trialing an air conditioning system for F1 cars

• Formula E has bought the intellectual property rights to W Series

• Theo Pourchaire, who was fired by Arrow McLaren, replaced an injured Alexander Rossi at Arrow McLaren for the Toronto INDYCAR weekend.

That's it for this week. Until next time, thank you for being here.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, send me a message on Twitter or via Buymeacoffee.