🏎️ Mercedes principal Toto Wolf announces new reserve principal

In this week’s email:

• Toto Wolff announces Mercedes backup principal 👨‍💼

• Podium Finishes Per Team in 2023 📊

• 8 Fastest Pit Stops this season 🏎️💨

• Felipe Massa sues F1 over 2008 World Championship Loss 🏛️

Toto Wolff announces his replacement as alternative Mercedes team principal

Over the summer break Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff fractured his elbow in a mountain biking accident.

With there being the potential for Wolff to take time off to rehab his injury, he announced Jérome D’Ambrosio as his replacement if he can’t attend a race. D’Ambrosio is currently the Executive Driving Director and joined Mercedes this past March.

Wolff stated, “When I am absent on a race weekend, Jérome will replace me. It is true that in 11 years it has only happened three times, but it is a situation that we have to anticipate.”

Podium Finishes By Team In 2023

Below is a chart of the amount of podium finishes by team in 2023 so far:

If you add Aston Martin, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Alphine’s podium together, it would leave you at 17 podium finishes. Which would still leave them shy of Red Bull’s 19 podium finishes so far this season.

8 Fastest Pit Stops of 2023

Below is a list of the 8 fastest pit stops so far this season:

1. Red Bull – Perez – Hungary – 1.98s

2. McLaren – Piastri – Hungary – 2.01s

3. Red Bull – Perez – Barcelona – 2.07s

4. McLaren – Norris – Austria – 2.10s

5. Ferrari – Leclerc – Saudi Arabia – 2.10s

6. Red Bull – Perez – Australia – 2.11s

7. Ferrari – Sainz – Hungary – 2.14s

8. McLaren – Norris – Hungary – 2.15s

Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari have had the fastest stops for 2023. With Red Bull’s consistency being one of the key factors to their success so far this season.

Felipe Massa sues F1 over 2008 World Championship Loss

Back in 2008 during Singapore Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet crashed on lap 14, which led to Fernando Alonso winning the race and Piquet placing 13th.

This crash resulted in Massa losing out on crucial amount of points. Later resulting in Lewis Hamilton beating Massa by 1 point to win the drivers championship.

A year later in 2009, Nelson Piquet revealed that he was told to have purposefully crash in the race. Even with the claim, F1 and FIA ignored the misconduct & denied Massa the title.

Lawyers for Massa this past week have initiated legal action against Formula 1 and the FIA. Stating that the alleged ‘conspiracy’ cost him the 2008 championship.