I’m positive this can’t be true however the phrase “sotte” in French means silly and so a spot referred to as Sotteville-lès-Rouen is presumably a spot the place silly folks reside – or have lived prior to now. Place names are usually very outdated, aside from airports that are normally named after politicians, presumably as a result of they’re loud, irritating and trigger disruption in life. I suppose someday quickly we will fly out and in of Trumpton Worldwide Airport…
Anyway, the suburb of Rouen I’m discussing is nowhere close to Renault headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt, but when one threw a Renault govt into the river at world headquarters, the physique would ultimately float previous Sotteville.
Nonetheless, the corporate is massive in these elements… There’s a walloping nice manufacturing facility simply down the highway in Cleon and a secret check monitor at CTA (secrets and techniques are at all times higher with acronyms). This truly stands for Centre Method Aubevoye which, to cite an organization web site, is “a secret Renault Group base” which is “hidden in Normandy’s forests and skirting the meandering Seine”.
That is “categorised as confidential” which clearly explains why there may be net web page about it…
What’s it concerning the French and secrets and techniques? When he was FIA President, Jean Todt as soon as put out a press launch asserting “a secret settlement” with Ferrari. This was a painful and costly punishment for Ferrari, which had been caught… (um, what’s one other phrase?). Ah sure, “pushing into the gray areas” of the foundations. It was a secret as a result of the game would have been embarrassed if its most well-known crew had been revealed, so the crime and the punishment had been each categorised, though Todt wished the world to know that one thing had been performed. I nonetheless snicker concerning the “secret settlement” each time I consider it. Jean had a way of humour…
Anyway, the corporate boss Louis Renault used to reside not removed from Sotteville, in a spot referred to as Herqueville, the place he constructed a powerful property, earlier than the corporate was taken off his palms by the French authorities, which argued that he let the nasty invading Germans use his factories. He himself mentioned that “it’s higher to present them the butter, or they’ll take the cows” however then, in line with his household, he was murdered by the federal government in order that he’d be out of the best way…
The place is that this main? Nicely, the purpose I’m making is that Renault has secrets and techniques and someday I’m positive we are going to discover out why somebody thought it was a good suggestion to rehire Flavio Briatore, the person who did Renault virtually as a lot hurt as Carlos Ghosn (the previous Renault boss who needed to escape from Japan in a packing case).
Personally, I believe they need to transfer Renault headquarters to Sotteville…
Simply to complete off, Sotteville’s solely actual declare to fame is that it was the positioning (or slightly the goal) of the primary fight raid of the US Eighth Air Pressure and thus the primary place in Europe to be pummelled by B17s. They had been after the in depth rail yards positioned there…
I’m positive you at the moment are asking what this has to do with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. This can be a honest query. Any regular individual going from Barcelona to the Purple Bull Ring in Austria, doesn’t go by means of Sotteville. The conventional route is alongside the coast to the Cote d’Azur, then throughout Italy to Venice and over the Alps to Villach in Austria. That is simply in need of 1,000 miles, however I didn’t do any of that. As an alternative I drove 700 miles residence to Normandy after which 800 to get to the Purple Bull Ring, so round 1,500, which is about 500 miles greater than logical. I did get to hang around briefly with my nearest and dearest in the course of the triple-header, however that was not the true rationalization. The reality is that for the reason that British abandoned their European residents and disadvantaged us of the precise to vote (which has since been returned as soon as Brexit was over), many individuals like me are disillusioned with their nation and so I’m within the means of changing into a French nationwide, or a minimum of twin nationality, which makes life simpler.
A part of this course of requires candidates to do a French examination, to see if they’ll communicate and write French to a smart diploma. I believe this can be a good concept however in my area they’ve solely a handful of such exams annually and the one one I might make (due to the F1 calendar) was the Tuesday after Spain. So the explanation I’ve been quiet in the previous few days is that I’ve been driving and taking exams…
The Inexperienced Pocket book from Montmelo is basically stuffed with scrawls about drivers, apart from some notes of astonishment concerning a Mr Briatore’s new job and the truth that the 2 events don’t even agree about what his function might be. Briatore despatched out a message saying he might be “govt director” of Alpine F1, however the official announcement refers to him as “govt advisor”. My conclusion is that he’s there to promote Alpine (the entire automobile division) inside a few years, after he has tried to extend its worth. Hopefully, he received’t be telling drivers to crash this time.
I’m not positive I’d wish to work there, however apparently Renault boss Luca de Meo thinks Briatore might be a magnet for expertise. Actually, if I used to be an Alpine worker I’d be sending out my CV to Aston Martin, Williams or Visa Money App, all of that are within the F1 cluster and all of that are hiring. I write this within the information that dozens of CVs are arriving every week on the aforementioned locations, so Briatore’s first process is to cease the rot.
Good luck with that…
Formally there are nonetheless 9 of the 20 Components 1 seats obtainable for 2025 – however the actuality is that the foolish season is successfully over with just one seat actually nonetheless up for grabs. The Visa Money App RB Crew just lately took up its choice on Yuki Tsunoda for 2025, after he obtained a proposal from Audi. Because of this the crew will now select between Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson. In latest days, the ever-indiscreet Helmut Marko has mentioned that the selection might be Lawson and the logical factor to do now’s to attempt to give him as a lot seat time within the automobile as doable, so in case you’re a Danny Ric fan assume twice about shopping for tickets to races after the summer season break…
We all know that Purple Bull, Ferrari and McLaren are all settled and, though there may be but to be an announcement, it’s clear that Mercedes has determined that it’ll exchange Lewis Hamilton with 17-year-old teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He turns 18 in August however Mercedes just isn’t pushing it and he’ll begin racing for Merc subsequent yr. There have been discussions about placing him into the second Williams for the remainder of this yr however that is likely to be a bit a lot and he’s thus focussing on attempting to have extra success in Components 2. He has been greater than a match for his Prema Racing team-mate Oliver Bearman, who’s going to Haas in 2025 in order that Ferrari could have teenager in coaching for the post-Hamilton (or submit Leclerc period). The issue is that this yr neither has performed that nicely. Components 2 launched a brand new automobile and no-one appears to have mastered it but. The championship is scrappy, with no dominant driver and eight of the 11 groups having received both reverse-grid Dash races (that are mainly irrelevant) or the extra vital Function races, however that doesn’t embrace Prema nor Hitech. The latter runs championship chief Paul Aron, however he’s but to win a race and owes his lead within the title race to 6 podium finishes within the 12 races.
If the Mercedes drive was nonetheless obtainable we’d not be writing about Carlos Sainz contemplating the selection between Williams and Sauber-Audi, and Alpine (if one believes the post-Briatore rumours). Each groups assume that they’ve a superb probability of signing Carlos and each are prepared to pay the identical form of cash, so it truly is alternative of which crew Carlos thinks will greatest for him within the subsequent couple of years. Williams may not be trying superb proper now, however issues are on the transfer. They’ve extra CVs arriving than do Sauber. The key to fashionable F1 (which Renault has but to grasp) is that every thing takes longer to attain than you assume.
The market relies on Sainz’s choice, which ought to come this week. It was meant to be final week but it surely didn’t occur. We are going to see the place he finally ends up, however logic says Williams is his most suitable option for 2025 and 2026. However logic and F1 will not be at all times greatest buddies.
Aston Martin has but to substantiate Lance Stroll in its second automobile, however no-one has any doubt that the proprietor’s son will nonetheless be in a automobile alongside Fernando Alonso subsequent yr. He’ll most likely have a two-year deal to get him to the top of 2026.
Essentially the most dependable sources say that Alpine has already taken up an choice it had on Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan, the crew’s reserve driver, is clearly being lined up for the second seat. The crew’s largest drawback just isn’t the drivers.
Esteban Ocon determined some time in the past that he would depart (one wonders if he knew about Briatore’s arrival earlier than or after the choice was made) however he was on the buying record of varied groups. He’s going to finish up with Bearman at Haas.
So which means that the one seat open in 2025 is the second Audi, until they’ve satisfied Sainz to go there. It looks as if each Audi and Williams have Valtteri Bottas as their Plan B. If Danny Ric is in the marketplace, will it make a distinction? No-one is exhibiting a lot curiosity in Kevin Magnussen and whereas one could make good arguments for Guanyu Zhou or Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich as being much-needed representatives of massive markets, I doubt anybody might be swayed by that, until (plenty of) cash is concerned. Most groups at the moment are financially sound and the logic of pay-drivers is weak as scoring factors brings extra dosh than merely being given it by somebody’s daddy or their sponsor.
The one different factor to look at for is the mid-season market as a result of as soon as the 2025 offers are sorted out, among the groups may wish to do away with a present driver…
Proper, I need to cease now. I must sleep and drive (however not on the identical time)…
