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Formula 1 News: Thoughts on Damon Hill leaving Sky Sports F1 after 13 years following the end of this season

by Sports Benches

Just heard the news about 1996 World Champion Damon Hill who is set to leave Sky Sports F1 at season’s end. He has been there providing punditry from day one since the network’s first foray into Formula 1 back in 2012 after BBC were no longer able hold full rights at the time that ended decades worth of live full season coverage on British free-to-air television.

But the TV landscape of live sport has changed ever since anyway with Sky holding and still has full season rights while the BBC initially carried half of the live packages over the next couple of years before Channel 4 took over the free-to-air several years later. 

Now as of the 2019 and 2024 contract extension deals by Sky, Channel 4 still has the local free-to-air rights until at least 2026 but can only air the British race live and everything else being highlights.

This is much like the model we have here with our Formula 1 coverage where all races are currently behind the paywall on Fox Sports/Kayo (although every practice/ qualifying of all other races including race highlights are free-to-view on Kayo Freebies) & the annual Australian race live via free-to-air on Network 10. This is despite 10 still having a great relationship with F1 that way goes back to 2003 off the Nine Network despite cutting back awful lots of coverage over time – this goes from full season coverage to half season live coverage to then the Australian race live + highlights and now just the Aus race live.

Speaking of 10, Damon Hill was actually part of their comprehensive Australian Grand Prix on-air presentation over the last two years at Albert Park – including race day commentary alongside Richard Craill and journalist Tom Clarkson. 

This was when Australian F1 legend Mark Webber no longer able to devote time on 10 when he had to be there for current Aussie F1 driver Oscar Piastri who currently drives McLaren-Mercedes as his agent while Channel 4 paid him more than well enough to be part of their commentary/punditry team at times throughout the year. Don’t know if his exit from Sky was his decision or by the network themselves but it looks like 10 will have to find another new analyst to replace Hill going into 2025 since he will want to slow things down back in the UK.

We could either see Jolyon Palmer or maybe James Hinchcliffe onboard since they are from F1 TV. Maybe Jenson Button since he now calls the US home these days in California and it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for him to fly over to Melbourne for 10 as long as he doesn’t have anything else with going on. If not, maybe Anthony Davidson or even Karun Chandhok as outside picks if they would be willing to go there in-person?

As we know by now, Sky sometimes pick studio hub locations at selected Grand Prix events in London when the current F1 calendar year is so jam packed & not all races will be on-site going forward considering the cost of travel, hotel accommodation, production setup, etc.

But again, just playing around with speculation as still too early to tell ahead of the next Australian race who will be opening the next Formula 1 campaign in March 2025.

And let’s hope Jack Doohan will still be able to make it towards the grid on time as a full-time Alpine-Renault driver on debut amid rumours of him being dumped before he could even touch a Formula 1 car for the rising Argentine Franco Colapinto, who has been making an immediate impact, since he unexpectedly replaced the crash-prone Logan Sargeant very recently at Williams. For now, we wish Damon Hill the best of luck with his next chapter in 2025.

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Thoughts on Jack Doohan might not be making his Formula 1 debut for Alpine next year as they’re after Argentine driver Franco Colapinto from Williams

by Sports Benches

I’ve seen Alpine making enough mistakes already but this might not be the last one just yet as they’re sreportedly on the lookout for a bit more established driver ahead of next season. Now wait for it but Alpine is after Argentine Franco Colapinto to replace the already announced rookie Jack Doohan to partner Pierre Gasly.

First of all, great job to Franco on what has been a stunning immediate impact since he recently replaced the underperforming Logan Sargeant 1-2 months ago for Williams. As we all know though, Williams are currently stuck with three good drivers with two cars going into next year unless one of them goes out. 

So far way before the eventual axing of Sargeant, Carlos Sainz Jr. has already signed there for a multi-year contract from Ferrari while Alex Albion also extended his deal there earlier this year.

And also the last remaining F1 seat over at Sauber which would soon be under Audi’s works team for 2026 has just been taken yesterday by Brazilian Gabriel Borteleto – which will effective end the long-running career of Valtteri Bottas from Finland.

Likewise with the engine, they don’t look to be so serious when it comes to their driver academy program – having fumbled this over and over again like it was two years ago with now McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. It would be a bit of surprise if Doohan does not get the chance to make his Formula 1 debut just because they saw a better driver than him in Franco Colapinto. Also, if they want him right now, then they would need to pay $20 million to get him out from Williams – that’s a lot of money there without them thinking where they want to go from here.

Again, they should improve their car first and most importantly their engine – even if they do use Mercedes engines at some point. But despite their huge Brazilian Grand Prix lucky break from last weekend where both cars finished 2nd & 3rd, here we go again to see Alpine make yet another big change in none other than Franco instead of Jack – if that turns out to be true.

Hoping I’m wrong though that appears to have so little legs & also hoping that Franco will end up within the Red Bull teams too rather than having to sit out for one year – either at the main squad to replace Sergio Perez or even at the sister Visa CashApp RB squad alongside Kiwi Liam Lawson will do it, with Yuki Tusnoda getting the chance at their senior squad with the current 3 x champ (soon to be four if he can hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris in the coming weeks) Max Verstappen.

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Thoughts on Alpine F1 Team finishing both 2nd and 3rd at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix

by Sports Benches

We haven’t seen the best of Alpine this year until now at a wet and wild Brazilian Grand Prix where they’ve got both cars on the podium on what has been a great day from Team Enstone & of course Renault – Esteban Ocon 2nd as could’ve been first if it wasn’t for that string of recent yellow flag crashes with Pierre Gasly 3rd. 

Don’t know when the next best thing will come as Renault will no longer make engines after next season but maybe they should’ve just kept the engine and poach Dallara away from Haas to design and build the cars for them.

For now, rare moment there from Alpine just now with both cars on the podium.

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What if Alpine F1 Team via Renault kept their engines but have Dallara take over its chassis contract for 2026 in Formula One like in F2/3?

by Sports Benches

Okay, there’s no way everyone from the powers at Renault/Alpine can be swayed to change their minds, having recently decided to be a customer team one month ago that will take effect from 2026. 

Yes, no engine switch announcement just yet but they’re still widely expected to use Mercedes engines.

It’s a shame after Renault made their own Formula 1 engines for nearly 50 years but no secret though that their recent engine that dates back from the hybrid era from 10 years ago hasn’t reaped any championships at all – not even a few odd wins here & there was enough to justify their latest failures when comparing to Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and even Honda.

If there’s one thing Alpine could’ve saved that engine for sure and that’s when if they’d rather stop making their own chassis by luring Dallara over to prise that big chassis contract away from Haas. 

That way, Dallara would help them out with the chassis & in turn Alpine still gets to keep making engine whose 2026 version will unfortunately go unused & be put into waste behind closed doors.

What does it mean for Haas since they’re now technically tied-up with Toyota? They can always find another chassis builder to replace Dallara or get Toyota to do it while Haas can still use Ferrari engines.

There’s 1-2 already out there in the form of a Formula 2 and Formula 3 car where Dallara manages the chassis and engineering side of things while the engine is still at the heart of Mecachrome – a French engineering company who has close ties with Renault/Alpine. 

Imagine if there’s a carbon copy of this Dallara/Mecachrome F2 car being made into F1 together but used only for Alpine? 

Maybe at least that would help them improve in some way to be a decent midfield team at best if not running Top 3 in the long-run to meet their so-called 100-race plan.

Also, it would be easy enough for someone – who is so well used to driving this Formula 2 car – would go on to have an easy transition into Alpine’s F1 team if hired, with this Dallara made Formula 1 car alongside Renault’s engine in it.

Australia’s own Jack Doohan (son of 5 x 500cc world champion Mick Doohan) is a great example who had some success with the Dallara F2 car over the last 1-2 years, even though he may never have won a championship so far in his career. 

He is set to be promoted to Alpine F1’s squad ahead of their final season as a works partner for Renault next season alongside Pierre Gasly on a one-year deal, so not a lot of time. But if he impresses and gets to stick around for a second year, then surely he’d thrive big time.

If the powers at Renault see this, hope this would be worth considering if they can keep the engine but let someone else handle the chassis side of things at the hands of Dallara like they always do together in Formula 2 & 3. But in the real world, they’ll just move on as Renault might start making Formula 1 engines again if these next PU rules make sense. 

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Thoughts on Australian Jack Doohan son of former 500cc World Champion Mick now set for his big break in Formula 1 next year with the Alpine F1 Team alongside Pierre Gasly

by Sports Benches

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for all year long as the Alpine F1 Team have finally settled their 2nd seat to replace the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon today for their upcoming 2025 Formula One Season alongside Frenchman Pierre Gasly and it’s none other than our Aussie own Jack Doohan from the Gold Coast, Queensland. His big announcement today won’t impact Alpine’s future plans that much in the meantime going into the new engine rules era from 2026 at Enstone when it’s looking more and more likely now that they will ditch their own Renault engines by becoming a privateer outfit with Mercedes-Benz. 

Then it remains to see what happens after that if Alpine still wants to be a Formula 1 outfit after 2026 as they could either be morphed into Hitech since Oliver Oakes has just taken over the Team Principal job at Alpine or else Andretti can take over for at least $1 billion dollars & they can finally race Formula 1 when the sport doesn’t feel confident about expansion at this time.

Great to hear that Alpine has made an excellent choice by bringing Doohan into a full-time race seat where he might not have collected a season championship so far in his career but he too can do well across qualifying and race day with a few wins under his belt as proved in Formula 3 and Formula 2 in the past. Don’t forget he’s also the son of former legendary 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix champion Mick Doohan as sure he has the family racing calibre to make his mark albeit at the different highest levels of Motorsport in four-wheels of Formula 1 rather than two-wheels which is MotoGP.

Yes, Mick Schumacher was also in the mix having also took part in a top-secret test recently for Alpine alongside Doohan where they were both family friends for a long time with Mick being named after Jack’s dad while Jack was given a go-kart by Mick’s dad Michael who won so many World Championships throughout his career as hope is all well with him following his unfortunate skiing accident a decade ago.

But again, even though Mick first came into F1 with the Formula 3 and 2 championships, he didn’t set the world alight when he was at Haas a few years ago & if he wants to go back at the top-level again, then taking the risk at Audi which is currently Sauber in the short-term under Ferrari engines would be his last best hope ahead of its big break in 2026 with fellow German Nico Hulkenberg.

At the end of the day, it’s up for Doohan to score regular Top 7-10s with some podiums or even 1-2 wins onboard since there’s only 20 Formula 1 seats to battle upfront nowadays. Let’s hope he does well with our best backing from Australia as he will be the third driver there on the grid alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and also Racing Bulls’ Daniel Ricciardo if Riccardo can keep his ride within the Red Bull family next season.

Depending on Sergio Perez’s performance later this year, we could see Ricciardo going back to Red Bull again or else he will be given the flick with NZ’s Liam Lawson getting a full-time ride after all in Ricciardo’s current spot at Racing Bulls.

Looks like F1 is growing across the Trans-Tasman in both Australia and New Zealand with as many as four drivers on the grid and with Doohan, it remains to be seen which race number he could take ahead of his F1 race debut next season.

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Thoughts on Daniel Ricciardo’s Hulu Formula One sitcom project getting a pilot order earlier this week now titled Downforce

by Sports Benches

Also this week, ABC Signature has one of their new sitcom pilots being approved to the pilot stage by the Hulu streaming service and it’s Formula 1 related called Downforce with current RB Visa CashApp driver Daniel Ricciardo involved as one of the executive producers alongside Alec Berg, Adam Cortnee, Lionsgate and Temple Hill Entertainment. It will be lead by a female who was suddenly required to oversee the family-run racing team as she will need to make some tough choices whether if she will continue running it or step aside that would impact the future of the organisation and her family’s legacy.

So a it’s bit like Claire Williams taking over her famous dad’s Formula 1 team during the last decade when he needed to take a back seat before it was sold to Doriton Capital back in 2020, which marked a new era for Williams and then Sir Frank sadly passed away a year later. Maybe this might be based on a true story since Formula 1 has grown a lot in America off the back of the seasoned Netflix documentary Drive to Survive over the last 5-6 years. The cast and its format (thinking it’s going to be single-camera) remains to be seen at this stage, having first developed the show when Ricciardo was involved with Hulu a year ago. Yes, he was out of a drive at the time as even though his results this year might not be good any longer after he unexpectedly replaced Nyck De Vries nearly a year ago at Red Bull’s sister team (then Alpha Tauri), he will still have a job within the sport where he’s always been popular with the fans when he raced for Red Bull, Renault and McLaren for many years.

Now let’s see if Downforce can be put into series which isn’t guaranteed but should things go well later this year, we the original airing would be on Hulu sometime in 2025 with the International distribution as per ABC Signature being available via Disney +. Yes, this project also would’ve been perfect for ABC on TV who also airs selected Formula 1 races during the year thanks to Disney property ESPN but they want more new multi-camera sitcoms going forward that isn’t expensive. So best to build a following on Hulu rather than seeing things being unexpectedly axed after a few episodes if they’re really that lucky.

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Formula 1, an unexpected early mechanical DNF from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen paves a Ferrari 1-2 finish with Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. now a first time winner at Albert Park

by Sports Benches

We didn’t see that coming but we now have a new Australian Grand Prix winner for 2024 and his name is Carlos Sainz Jr who drives for Scuderia Ferrari off the back of these unexpected early retirements from reigning champion and last year’s winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda RBPT) as well as Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes whose team-mate George Russell also suffered a late race crash). He too had a great race for the majority unchallenged with team-mate Charles Leclerc rounding off a 1-2 Ferrari finish since the 2022 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Looks like it will be Ferrari v Red Bull for the championship now with Sainz Jr (-11 points) and Leclerc (-4 points) not far behind Verstappen (currently on 51 with back-to-back wins) in the drivers’ standings. Plus, fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has still yet to win this year despite back-to-back 2nd places in the hope of going one better that would help him keep his ride for another couple of years after he just finished 5th (-5 points).

For the Aussies, We also hoped to at least see one on the podium but Oscar Piastri didn’t do bad though just outside the Top 3 places in 4th behind his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Lando Norris, while Daniel Ricciardo finished not far from the Top 10 in 12th despite being a lap down for Visa CashApp RB-Honda RBPT since he was in a midfield race machine.

Also, shoutout to the two Haas-Ferrari cars just rounding off the Top 10 points in Nico Hulkenberg (9th) and Kevin Magnussen (10th). So does Ricciardo’s team-mate Yuki Tusnoda from Japan after he collected a few points in 8th just behind the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll (7th) & Fernando Alonso (6th). And although things are still going slow at the moment over at Jack Doohan’s Alpine-Renault squad with Esteban Ocon finishing last on track (16th), but Pierre Gasly did benefit from these early race retirements on what has been an okay 13th placed finish. It remains to be seen if Alpine’s form will turn things around sooner rather than later as a mid-season driver change remains unlikely for now but Doohan hopes his time will come most likely next year depending on the team’s commitment to the sport & if Ocon and/or Gasly leaves for a better race team like Mercedes and Red Bull. F1 will now go from Albert Park in Melbourne to Suzuka in Japan who will now host early rather than later during the season as the next race (Round 4 of 22) will take place after Easter on the weekend of Sunday 7th April 2024.

If you wish to follow all other races after watching this annual Australian race since it’s free-to-air protected, Fox Sports/Kayo will be the only place here to watch live & on-demand with next day race highlights available for free thanks to Kayo Freebies.

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All you need to know ahead of next weekend’s 2024 Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 Event at Albert Park in Melbourne

by Sports Benches

The 2024 Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 Round is not far away beginning next Friday at the streets of Albert Park in Melbourne. It will be the third race of a long 24 event calendar with 3 x reigning champion Max Verstappen who is outstanding so far with back-to-back pole and race wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for Red Bull-Honda RBPT. So this is the man to beat as he’s also the defending winner here, having done so for the first time last year on what has been a caution filled race that led into a late finish around 5.30pm local time. Don’t forget we could see another talented youngster again in Britain’s Oliver Bearman who filled in well for the ill Carlos Sainz last time round (Saudi Arabia) for Ferrari where he finished 7th. What’s even better that we will have two Aussie drivers on the grid again for the first time since 2013 where high-flying youngster Oscar Piastri and the experienced Daniel Ricciardo will be flying the flag for McLaren-Mercedes and Visa CashApp RB-Honda RBPT respectively. There hasn’t been a home winner since Alan Jones back in 1980 during his Championship-winning season for Williams as it’s unlikely we will see Piastri end that long-running drought at this stage but you never know.

But wait there’s more, Alpine’s Test/Reverse driver Jack Doohan and his legendary motorcycle grand prix dad Mick will also be stopping by at the same time where they will do a bit of their own fun event together with Jack driving a Benetton B200 and Mick riding a Honda RCV213 production bike around the track. While it’s a bummer that Jack won’t be given a chance for next Friday’s free practice sessions since he chose not to race anything this year after two good seasons in Formula 2, we will get to see more of him throughout this year – mainly during the European leg races. Considering Alpine’s disastrous start of 2024, hope Jack can be given a chance and get to be on race days if things don’t work out by the middle of the year. But again, it’s a difficult sport to get into considering you would need lots of financial support in order to get your foot into the door out of a 20-car competition. So Alpine should correct the mistake they did with Piastri two years ago regarding the contract dispute/next season’s driver line-up and have Doohan replacing Esteban Ocon if he goes to Mercedes or even Pierre Gasly earlier than expected who is sitting last right now in the drivers’ standings behind American Logan Sargeant from Williams.

And lastly, the broadcast details on where you can tune in if you’re unable to watch the race in-person. Fox Sports with its streaming platform Kayo has the exclusive rights to every round of the season from practice, qualifying, some sprint races and the all-important race days Live and on-demand. They will simulcast the Sky Sports feed all along and if you want to keep up to date with Formula 1 as the season goes on, look out for free-to-view highlights clips sometime on a Monday after each Grand Prix. Also, as part of the current anti-siphoning rule required to have the annual Aus GP event on free-to-air by the Government, Network 10 will be back onboard for this event for the 20th year and the 22nd year covering this sport if you count 2020-21 being COVID related years when the sport was unable to race here at the time. They will once again have their studio coverage as well as their own commentary since 10 had to share the rights with Fox back in 2015 where they will air all three days of the Australian GP event live. This is the second year out of five under the current updated Formula 1 broadcast deal here where 10 & Fox Sports/Kayo are not going anywhere right now with the next rights cycle coming up from 2028.

All in all, it’s going to be an amazing event with the Supercars, Formula 2 and 3 also on show amongst other categories in the lead up towards the main 56-lap race next Sunday afternoon at 3pm AEDT.

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What to look forward to from Jack Doohan despite not racing this year in the hope of earning a seat at Alpine F1 Team in 2025

by Sports Benches

Image Reference: Lukas Raich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

Another Aussie driver to keep an eye on other than Oscar Piastri & Daniel Ricciardo is 21-year-old Jack Doohan, who will simply be backing up for Alpine this season in a simulator and reserve role – just like New Zealand’s Liam Lawson for Visa CashApp RB despite his good limited outings while Ricciardo recovered from a broken hand last year. His racing record through the ranks might not be the best but he too can bag a few podiums and race wins, having gone so close (runner-up) three years ago in Formula 3 as well as finishing 3rd last year following an underwhelming first half campaign in Formula 2. He could’ve also gone over to the World Endurance Championship or even attempt IndyCar such as the Indianapolis 500. But don’t think going for the Triple Crown or achieving anything outside Formula 1 will mean that much to them these days as this is still the top ranked Motorsport competition in the world & that is something Jack would want to do on race days in 2025.

Lewis Hamilton recently confirmed he will be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari next year & someone from Alpine in Esteban Ocon could potentially be his replacement alongside George Russell. Let’s hope Jack can do well when being given the chance on Friday practice sessions throughout the year in the hope that Alpine will be worthy of giving him a shot next year, so they can forget about having previous conflicts with Piastri who hopped onto McLaren instead at the end of the 2022 season.

If not, Williams should try him again had Logan Sargent been unable to obtain enough Super Licence points that would’ve denied him a 2023 Formula 1 seat. But now he is still not getting up to speed following a very poor rookie year as another bad season would see him head out of the door for good. Let’s hope Jack can be like his legendary motorcycle grand prix father Mick who won so much back in his day but through a very different discipline and that will be the highest levels in Formula 1.

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Thoughts on the returning Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix race only being shown on ESPN & ESPN + & not on ABC this weekend 

by Sports Benches

This weekend, Formula One will hit the streets of Las Vegas for the first time since the 80s and it’s going to be huge under the lights & also late on a Saturday night (10pm PT/1am ET) rather than the usual Sunday afternoon. Las Vegas will be the third US-based F1 event of the year after Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas last month as well as Miami earlier in May.They won’t go up and down again at Caesar’s Palace as it will take place around the Las Vegas Strip & also the MSG Sphere where one random guest would have the whole view’s access of the track based on top of a screen (would love to a see his reaction to that lap-by-lap from start to finish!!) ahead of everyone watching on through the grandstands. But only thing missing is that ABC won’t show the Las Vegas GP race despite having some build up content via Good Morning America. It will instead be via cable on ESPN as well as paid streaming through ESPN +. We would’ve love to have the pre-race show straight after the local news at 11.35pm ahead of the 1am ET race start through to 3am, but then half the county across the East Coast would be in bed by then while half the people in the West are still staying up until midnight by partying big for this special race. 

If the race started at 8pm PT/11pm ET, then that might make sense for ABC to round off its Saturday night sports programming straight after the College Football. Lots of people always stay up until 12-1am as it’s the middle of the weekend. But it looks like that it makes sense to have repeat programming rather than having just the coast tuning in to watch the race between 1-3am ET just because some people are unable to watch it by having to sleep past midnight. It’s a hard call when Formula 1 is a World Championship that mainly suits the European audience as let’s hope the continued rise of the sport in America will unlock more potential with the hope of Andretti Global-Cadillac coming in as the 11th team in 2025 or 2026, which would mean a bit more free-to-air exposure by having the Las Vegas Grand Prix being shown at last on ABC someday.

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