Word on the beat, December 2020

Former Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali has been announced as the new president and CEO of F1, effective next year after his tenure as the head of Lamborghini ends. F1’s incumbent boss Chase Carey will step back into an advisory role. Domenicali renews his association with his former boss at Ferrari Ross Brawn.

Mercedes and Racing Point personnel were obliged to miss the Eifel Grand Prix after testing positive for coronavirus. Members of the Mercedes pit crew were quarantined after testing positive at the venue before the meeting. Replacement mechanics were flown out and were under instruction just to ensure error- free stops rather than chasing record times. Three successful, but relatively steady, stops were duly performed on the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Sebastian Vettel revealed at the Nürburgring that he had invested in Aston Martin Lagonda shares in addition to agreeing to drive for the Aston Martin F1 team next year.

Neither F2 title contenders Mick Schumacher nor Callum Ilott got their planned F1 practice session at the Nürburgring for the Eifel Grand Prix as the Friday morning session was abandoned because of fog. Their drives had been arranged by Ferrari as part of their academy junior driver programme and at the time of writing it is uncertain if there will be scope in the remaining races to repeat the plan. A third academy driver, Robert Shwartzman, had already been announced as getting his FP1 chance with one of the teams at Abu Dhabi.

Lance Stroll had to stand down from his Racing Point seat at the Eifel GP after falling unwell on Saturday morning and his place was taken by the team’s ‘super-sub’ Nico Hülkenberg, who’d last appeared deputising for the Covid-stricken Sergio Pérez at Silverstone.

Mercedes’ Toto Wolff gave an unequivocal ‘no’ to the question of whether Mercedes might be prepared to provide Red Bull with power units after the Honda withdrawal at the end of next year. Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto gave Ferrari’s position as, “It’s not something we’re considering. Supplying them [would be] a lot of energy, which we need to consider, and something on which we have no position yet.” Cyril Abiteboul acknowledged that the regulations could oblige Renault to step in, as it currently supplies only its own team, but it didn’t sound like he actively supported the idea. The smart money says that the Honda power unit programme will be handed over to Mugen to run and that Red Bull will continue with it.

Liberty’s Ross Brawn says that he is hopeful Formula 1 can convince Honda to return to the sport under the next engine formula, and that he is encouraging it to be part of the FIA working groups tasked with recommending the future direction of the power unit regulations.

Despite Haas insisting the team is ‘not for sale’ rumours persist that Russian billionaire Dmitry Mazepin is negotiating to buy the team with a view to his son Nikita – currently in F2 – driving in F1 next year. Sergio Pérez, looking for a 2021 seat since his ousting from Racing Point by the signing of Vettel, is said to have greeted the idea of driving alongside another team owner’s son with little enthusiasm.