Things are just getting going in F1, they had the big reveal party where all 20 cars showed off their new looks for next season.
Lots of new and rookie drivers, and some familiar faces wearing new jumpers this year as several drivers swapped keys.
Testing gets started in a few days, then the first race in Mid March in Australia. Seems like it's been a LONG wait!
It is going to be an interesting season. Large number of driver changes (only 2 teams have a static line up) and 5 rookies.
One rookie is already under pressure to perform (Doohan), with rumors that they will get replaced early in the season if they do not perform.
This is sooooo cool. And very well produced.
Edit: Well, apparently it can't be shown here. But follow the link, it will be well worth it.
Fun!!!
Lando and McLaren were clearly the class of the field, and it looks like they may be the ones to beat for both championships this year. Only a late mistake in rain kept them from having a 1/2 race. Max went after them hard, so Red Bull will be a factor, tho the jury's still out on Lawson till he gets a few more starts this season.
The first race is now in the books, and as usual rain makes for some strange happenings. Sad for Isack whom we lost on the formation lap - he should take heart that he's not the first to do this, and in fact some have done it in absolutely dry conditions, let alone a damp slippery track.
Kimi had a stellar race to finish 4th behind Russell, putting a lot of credit in Wolf's decision to hire him for this season and beyond.....but it's just one race. Lets see how he does as the season progresses.
Ferrari had a shot at it, but once again was let down by poor decisions on the pit wall. Even tho both cars finished in the points, they're currently in 7th place behind Williams, Aston Martin and Kick Sauber for cripe's sake!
Only 2 of the 6 rookies made it to the end, but some really good, seasoned driver's like Alonso and Sainz also didn't either, so no shame there...
Next weekend at Shanghai, another challenging track, for both the track itself and weather, plus it's a night race. Lots of new experiences ahead for the rookies!
It was an exciting race. I hope we going to get some good racing this year and not have one team run away with it.
Albert Park is not very representative for the year as the surface is very abrasive compared to the majority of the circuits.
Lewis certainly was not a fan of his new race engineer being in his ear a lot.
It was announced today that Eddie Jordan had passed away.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/eddie-jordan-1948-2025-obituary/10705114/ (https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/eddie-jordan-1948-2025-obituary/10705114/)
I saw that, only 76 years old. I read it was cancer that took him down.....he was a character!
He gave a lot of drivers an opportunity to get on the F1 grid.
Shanghai this weekend.....
I read that he was talking about his diagnosis on his podcast and implied that he missed check ups so it was not caught as early as it could have been. He signed off with by stressing the importance of not delaying medical checkups and tests.
The interesting thing I learnt is he negotiated Adrian Newey's exit from Red Bull.
It's still only a Sprint race and he's only ahead by a few hundredths, but a pole is a pole! He did set a track record too!
Def seems like Hammy is starting to get the feel of the Ferrari, and he's a very popular driver with the crowds, so good on him! I think the move to the red cars has given him a newfound sense of fun on the track again.
Looking forward to seeing what he can do as the season progresses.
Ollie Bearman gave me HAAS hopes for a bit, but as the other cars ramped up they just fell down the order. Still, some glimmers of hope. Fun to see him faster than Ocon right out of the box! Still, 12th is way better than in Australia, we'll see how he finishes....
All of the rookies did pretty well today - well, except maybe Lawson. Lots of conversations about whether it's the car, or Lawson just not come to grips with it yet - cause Max is P2 and Lawson is dead last. Even Checo did better than that!
Well, that was a bit of a surprise.....some of the front runners weren't and one front runner ran away from the field by the end!
Popular win, and I think it will give his team another shot in the arm!
I don't think it portends a championship by far, the competition is too even this year, but like I said - a good start!
Most of the rookies did pretty well too, and Kimi seems to be the class of the rookie field so far, much like George was when he joined MBZ.
Shanghai: Great race for some, not so much for others.....
McLaren scores a 1-2, with Piastri coming home ahead of Norris who was quickly running out of brakes - it will be interesting to hear why the McLaren lost its rear brakes like that.
LeClerc hit the Hamminator on the first corner and broke his wing, and then went even faster in the race, but it was to no avail as both he and Hamster were disqualified after the race - Hammy wore his plank down too far and LeClerc was underweight.
The result of having 3 people in the top 10 disqualified (Gasly also wore his plank down too far) meant that a lot of people moved into the top 10, including both HAAS cars, who scored a 5th and 8th, both Mercedes with Russell in 3rd and Kimi in 6th.
It's only the second race, but McLaren and Mercedes both have pretty good leads on the rest of the teams, with only Red Bull even close at this point.....Lawson not helping Max any as he again finishes out of the points, and only by virtue of disqualifications getting as good a result as he did....running dead last thru most of the race.
Japan is the next race and one where he's raced many times, so if he can't pull a decent result there I'll bet the wheels in Marko and Horner's heads will be spinning as to who might replace him. My guess is Tsunoda even tho Hadjar finished this race well ahead of him this time out. Lawson really hasn't come to grips with the Red Bull so maybe switching him with Tsunoda to give him some more wheel time would be a good move?
Or maybe Hadjar has done enough already to redeem himself? I think the next race will be a benchmark for both drivers.....all of the rookies save Lawson did pretty well this time out.
Quote from: MiniDave on March 23, 2025, 11:02:39 AMThe result of having 3 people in the top 10 disqualified (Gasly also wore his plank down too far) meant that a lot of people moved into the top 10, including both HAAS cars, who scored a 5th and 8th, both Mercedes with Russell in 3rd and Kimi in 6th.
Minor correction, Gasly was 11th before his disqualification.
I feel really bad for Liam Lawson, he is being compared to a 4 time world champion in a car that even Max acknowledges is hard to drive. Red Bull need to take a hard look at their car design and engineering as how many of Max's team mates have been dropped because they cannot keep pace with his team mate. The only reason that Perez had a good run in 2022 and 2023 is that the car was so fast that he did not need to push it to the edge of its performance envelope to make pace.
Also, the Red Bull Junior program seems to be dead in the water, as their approach is not to give the drivers any seat time and expect them to be on pace. In Drive to Survive, Liam Lawson said that he had not driven for 7 months before his mid season test with Red Bull and then has not been getting any off season driving opportunities. To put that in context, Mercedes have been running Kimi Antonelli in older machinery almost every week in the off season, to prepare him. Ferrari used up all of their available days for Lewis Hamilton to prepare for driving for his new team.
The other person in the Red Bull leadership that needs to be looked at is Helmut Marko, this constant failure of drivers in the Red Bull Junior program ultimately falls to him.
Unconfirmed report that they're swapping Liam and Yuki for Suzuka. In some ways it could work, if Yuki gets the car up to speed right away, they know the problem is Liam and they leave him at VCarb to get some more seat time. That car seems well sorted and would help him build his confidence back up. If Yuki does poorly, they've confirmed the problem is the car.
I think the problem IS the car, and I think they should have given Liam at least this run at Suzuka, as it's a track he knows and has done well on in the past, then if he has another terrible weekend, maybe then it's time to make a move.
We'll see if this is a factual report or someone's fantasy.......
A youtube channel speculated that Honda is doubling their contribution to get Yuki into the Red Bull seat (10 million to 20 million), but they said he had to be in the seat for Suzuka (which is owned by Honda).
It will be interesting how Lawson goes in the Racing Bull or what every it is officially called now. I do hope he goes well, as he seems to be a nice kid. Just needs time to knock the rust off.
If Yuki can some way some how actually drive the RedBull well, and manage to get in the points, then it will justify everything they've done, and show them Yuki should have been in that seat all along. I seriously doubt this will happen, cause I think the reason they've gone thru so many #2 drivers is that the car is a pig on roller skates to drive.
OTOH, the Vcarb is currently doing pretty well, and if they stop pulling a Ferrari and get their strategy right it looks like it can finish in the points pretty regularly. If THAT is the case, then Lawson will get another year to get up to speed, and I think it will do him well.
So....this will be an interesting weekend to watch an F1 race, and Netflix has got to be eating this stuff up for the D2S series! On top of this drama, you've got a tight race at the top between the 2 Big Macs, a resurgent Mercedes with a rookie driver who's the absolute best of this year's class and the Ferrari and Reds Bull fighting for the scraps, not to mention a decent outing by HAAS last weekend, a getting better but not quite there Alpine, and of course Vcarbs plus Albon and Sainz. So, lots to watch!
I wonder how the extra Honda money impacts the cap?
As F1 teams are terrible about keeping secrets, what was known by everyone was officially announced - Lawson and Yuki are swapping seats.
I saw an interview with Alex Albon describing how Max likes a car vs how he likes it. They both like a positive front end so they get good initial turn in. Albon used the analogy of turning the sensitivity on your mouse all the way up, so you touch it and it flies across the screen. Max likes the sensitivity all the way up and everyone else can't deal with it.
Suzuka:
So far I've only seen practices, but Yuki has been doing pretty well - he was within a 10th of Max in FP1.....it's been interesting FP series, between Doohan's crash in FP1 (I could not believe how fast he went into the wall!) and the fires causes by sparks from the wear blocks they've had a record number of Red Flag periods.
The big money is on one of the McLaren boys to take pole, but I'm not so sure. Both the Mercs and Ferraris look strong from time to time, and you can never count out Max.
Well, that was interesting......and mostly boring in that the top six finished right where they started.
If I were Ferrari I would be concerned about being 14 sec back in 4th place at the end, when the top three were covered by less than 2 secs, Hambot finished in 7th. No question getting disqualified from the last race with both cars in good scoring positions hurt their championship chances for this season.
Yuki finished in 12th, not exactly covering himself in glory this weekend, but at least he finished well ahead of Lawson. Hadjar and Antonelli still the class of the rookies, but Bearman did well to bring the HAAS home in 10th, Ocon was well back in 18th, and Stroll brought up the back in dead last, where he was all weekend.
Sainz still hasn't come completely to grips with the Williams, which is kind of a surprise considering how well he went in the pre- season. I wonder what happened there?
Hamster still not getting the info he wants from his race engineer, he needs to get that sorted and quickly.
So it seems like the top 4 teams are just that, with probably any one of them capable of winning on any given weekend, and the edge going to McLaren and now Red Bull - or at least Max. I think if Yuki can get the Red Bull back to where he was in the Junior team that will be a good season for him, tho well below the team's expectations I'm sure.
All in all a pretty yawner of a race......
If McLaren keeps getting these 1-2 finishes at or near the front of the pack , it will be hard to catch them for the constructors championship again this season, tho I think the driver's is still up for grabs.
Bahrain:
Qually was very interesting, the Red Bulls are nowhere although they both managed to get into Q3.
Mercedes is def more competitive than they've been in the past, and Ferrari is managing to hang in there....
But the class of the race so far is Oscar Piastri, who got pole this time. He was the only driver to get into the 129's and took pole from Russell who looked like he might steal it for a while. Russell thinks the Mercedes can take it to the McLaren as the race goes on and the temps cool off.
Edit: Russell and Kimi both hit with 1 place penalties after qually for a rules infraction in Q2 , which moves LeClerc into 2nd. However, I think once DRS is enabled Russell might be able to get past as his straight line speed was really good.
I think the race tomorrow should be pretty fun, with the Mercs and the Macs going at it and the Ferrari hanging out just in case someone makes a goof.
Jedduh......qually.
Max did it again - of course you don't get points for being on pole, but in a tight street circuit that's difficult to pass on, being in front could mean a race win.
The top 10 has become a mixed bag, with both cars from McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari all in there, and the occasional interloper from William, Vcarb, Alpine popping up.
All the top few are within milliseconds of each other.....it's hard to pick the winner any more. This weekend was supposed to be Ferrari's breakout race, but it's not looking much better than at any other time of this season so far. Still it's early times yet.
It's pretty clear that Aston is not doing anything with the 2025 car, and Stroll is hanging around at the very back of the pack with the Saubers/Kick - soon to be Audis - who also are clearly NOT developing the car. I guess it's good for giving their drivers experience, but it just seems a waste to me.
I really wonder if Stroll junior will make it to the 2026 car.....or if Newey has been whispering in Stroll Snr's ear that they need a better driver - or two! Rumors abound that they gave Max a billion dollar offer to come drive for them!
So this weeks race will feature:
P1 - Max
P2 - Piastri
P3 - Russell
P4 - Leclerc
P5 - Kimi
P6 - Sainz
P7 - Hamster
P8 - Yuki
P9 - Gasly
P10 - Norris (who crashed out on his first pull lap)
Pretty fun race for some of the guys, not so much for others......Yuki understeered into Gasly on the first lap and put both of them out.
Max on pole got a decent start but Piastri was a little quicker off the line and had a better line into the first corner, Max went to deep and had to cut the corner which kept him in first till the first pitstops, where he had to serve a 5 sec penalty. From then on Piastri had clear air and drove away. Max kept it close, finishing less than 3 sec behind him in second.
LeClerc drove a hard race and managed to bag his first podium of the year, Hamster said he was "fighting" the car on every corner, so it's clear he hasn't quite got the hang of the Ferrari yet.....he finished 7th, right where he started.
Norris had a good race, he crashed in Q3 so he started 10th and drove hard to finish 4th, he was closing hard on LeClerc but ran out of laps.
With the 1st and 4th scores McLaren is now 77 points ahead of 2nd place Mercedes, Red Bull third a further 22 points back and Ferrari has improved to 4th, only 11 points behind Red Bull by virtue of getting both cars in the points every race - if they hadn't had both cars disqualified in that one race they would be ahead of Red Bull now.
Sainz and Albon both finished in the points, as did both Mercedes and Isack Hadjar brought up the end in 10th. Kimi is clearly the better of the rookies this season, but I'm pretty impressed with Hadjar too.
The next race is Miami, if the Hamster can get the Ferrari figured out they stand to have a decent season, but I think the chances of any team catching McLaren for the title is a long shot.
Driver's championship tho is up for grabs as Piastri is 10 points ahead of Norris in 2nd, Max only 2 pts back of him in third and Russell 14 points behind Max and still able to pull forward if he gets a win. However, it's clear that the two Big Mac boys will be fighting for it all the way to the end, and while Norris was favored pre-season, it's clear that Paistri might have something to say about it, especially now with two wins under his belt.
Miami - FP1
This is a Sprint weekend, so the teams really only get one practice session and some of the teams really made the most of it. While running on the medium tires both Russell and Kimi were head of the pack, when the teams all went to softs for a qually run they faded down the order to 7th and 9th respectively.
Notables, Sainz and Albon both in the top 5, Max in third behind LeClerc and leader Pastri who def seems to have the measure of the McLaren these days.
In 6th Isack Hadjar who is def making Liam not look good as the best he could do was 11th
In the same vein Norris was down in 12th and the Hamminator in 13th!
And what the heck is up with Stroll the lesser? Dead last in the last three events when Alonso made 10th?
However, Ollie hit the wall with 4.5 minutes left so some of the drivers did not get in their fast lap on softs.
Sprint Qually is up now, we'll see how they go, but I'm thinking unless someone catches a wall or a curb the order will not be close to the final FP1 order except for the top few.
Clearly Mercedes has something for the rest, as Kimi goes pole in the Sprint, Russell only 5th
After Kimi come Piastri and Norris, then Max in 4th
6&7 to LeClerc and Hammy
Hadjar gets 9th and Alonso 10th
Should be an interesting sprint race then.....having to get used to the pink Mercedes uniforms!
Miami - Sprint Race
Well, that was interesting - nothing like a good rain storm to confuse everything!
The track dried out and Lewis came in first for softs, and from that point on he was the absolute fastest man on the track and went from 15th after his stop to finishing third.
Wrecks abounded.....LeClerc wrecked on the formation lap because the rain was so bad they red flagged the formation lap, but still counted it? When cars started to pit for slick tires, they released Verstappen directly into Kimi, Sainz clipped a wall and left debris all over the track, Lawson took out Alonso and more debris hit the track.....the race finished under yellow and the safety car, so the cars were fairly bunched up at the end. They penalized Verstappen 10 seconds which took him from 4th to 16th.....just like last year the safety car benefitted Norris, who managed to come out ahead of Piastri and Hamilton as they were slowed by the yellows and safety car, so he wound up in the lead and simply followed the safety car home for the win. Piastri is NOT happy as he pretty much had this one sewn up.
What a cluster! I think there may be more penalties given out before it's all done too.....
The real scary part is how many cars will have to be rebuilt in time for qually in just a few hours - and more rain is coming. There may be a lot of cars starting from the pit lane, which will also complicate things on the first lap as those faster cars will be trying to move up as quickly as possible...
And.....
It's supposed to rain tomorrow for the race!
Miami
As the race started they informed the drivers that rain was coming in 20 laps, expected to be heavy - but it didn't happen....only a few drips. That allowed the teams to run their tire strategies.
With Verstappen on pole it was always expected that there might be fireworks in the first lap, and sure enough....Lando got pushed wide, and slipped back to 4th, Piastri was in the perfect spot and put huge pressure on Verstappen and for once he blinked and Piastri was by and simply drove away.
Piastri has now won 4 of 6 and 3 in a row and has a pretty good lead in the championship - 16 pts - over his teammate Norris, with Max a further 16 points back.
The constructor's championship is clearly McLaren's to lose and I highly doubt they will lose it with the 105 pt lead they currently have, and no sign of the others being able to catch them on a regular basis, tho a new set of testing regs is on for the wings. Some think it will affect the Big Macs but they don't seem concerned.
There was a lot of action during the race and some great battles thru out the grid. 4 of the rookies were out due to accidents or car failures, but Kimi and Isack are still proving to be the aces of the rookie class this season. Kimi in 6th but Isack just out of the points in 11th. If he could have closed up a tiny bit on Tsunoda he could have had 10th as Yuki had a 5 sec penalty, but Isack finished 5.1 seconds back.
Aston is having a woeful season, I don't know if they simply gave up this season and are counting on Newey to pull them to the front next season, but it's been widely reported that Newey refuses to work on the 2025 car.
LeClerc and the Hamster had some pointed conversations with the pits about their respective strategies, and there will be some intense conversations after the race. Hamster in particular was NOT happy with what they wanted him to do. They switched Hammy forward of LeClerc and sent him after Antonelli but he couldn't catch him, after a number of laps LeClerc's tires came in and they switched them back and LeClerc got within 1 1/2 sec but couldn't get past.
This was a fun one to watch, to see whether Norris could catch and pass his teammate by the end (he couldn't but he sure tried) and by the end the lead Mac was 40 seconds ahead of Russell in third - a clearly dominant race.
All sorts of things going on in F1 today....
Starting with Alpine, first they brought in Briatore, and Briatore is a fan fave of Colopainto, but Oliver Oakes was hired as team principal, and he liked Doohan, so Jack got the starting nod. His first few races have not been awe inspiring to say the least.....
After Doohan crashed out on the first lap at Miami, and Gasly finished outside the points Oakes "resigned" with immediate effect, and guess who will be taking over? Yep, Briatore....
Guess who's lost his driving job at Alpine? Yep - Doohan. Nothing's been revealed but the good money is on Colapinto starting the next race in his stead.
Next up: Ferrari. If you watched the race in Miami you got to see the resurgence of Ferrari's famed inability to plan strategy or make changes mid-race to respond to race conditions or other teams.....and of the return of whiny Hamilton when he doesn't get his way. They asked LeClerc to let the Hamster by as they were on different tire strategies, which he did but apparently not quickly enough to suit the Haminator.....after a few caustic remarks. The idea was that with his fresh medium tires he could hunt down and pass Kimi - which it turned out he couldn't do. So Ferrari asked him to switch back - eventually - unfortunately they told LeClerc but neglected to tell the Hammy till the next lap!
McLaren: They seem to have finally shown their hand, finishing 40 seconds ahead of Russel in third in the Mercedes. Norris has clearly lost his #1 status over Piastri, and Oscar seems to have his sights firmly on the driver's championship. He's not so far ahead that an unfortunate race can't swap things around, but he seems to have the momentum at this point having just won his 4th out of the first 6 races.
Lastly, the most fun part of the weekend was watching the full size Lego cars "racing" around the track, and seeing them picking up all the loose lego blocks that were released by some of the more spirited drivers! :grin:
Is Horner on his way out after 20 years at the helm of Red Bull? After a number of disasterous things happening with the team, being accused of inappropriate behavior with a female team member, the extension of contract with Perez when he clearly was not performing, the disaster with Lawson and now Yuki not doing much better, the fact that Verstappen has an escape clause in his contract and has been offered a huge contract with Aston Martin - which would reunite him with Newey - and lastly - Oliver Oakes. He was in Bahrain immediately after resigning from Alpine, maybe getting his case before the shareholders?
Lots going on here, word on the street is that the next race's results hold the key to Horner's future with the team.
What do people think of the mandatory 2-stop experiment at Monaco today? I vote no to its return next year.
Monaco:
I liked it, it added yet another strategy level for all the teams to deal with....had there been a safety car or red flag it could have gone a complete other way.
However, there were some down sides - with teammates slowing the field to benefit the other driver, and some of the teams waiting till the end to take their second (or even first) stops. I dunno, since the cars are so ill suited to this course, they needed to do something to make it less of a parade.
Congrats to Lando, that qually lap was the answer for McLaren to winning the race.
Well done to Charles for giving his all to try and win it without wrecking himself or anyone else.
Nice to hear the anthem done by a live band instead of a recording. I think Mexico is the only other place that does this?
I think the constructor's championship is a done deal, but the driver's is still up in the air, and 2nd in the constructors is a real crapshoot with 5 points covering the next three teams. As they are currently I think Red Bull will drop back as Yuki is not there to help bolster Max's results, where both Mercedes and Ferrari are regularly putting both drivers in the points. Mercedes has had a rough go of it lately, I don't know if they'll get it going again and keep 2nd or if Ferrari will keep coming forward and go by them both. If both Ferraris hadn't been disqualified earlier in the season they would be well into 2nd place right now.
I'll bet Alonslow and Stroll can't wait for '26, and hope that Newey has done his magic AND that Honda brings a beast of an engine.....but, I think it may be wishful thinking as I hear the Mercedes new powerplant is da bomb and Honda is having teething problems.
The anthem was great! I think the only one I like better is Oh, Canada.
I couldn't figure out Mercedes stategy at all, especially as the race wore on. At least one of the commentators was in the same boat with me, too! Congrats to Lando!
They said had he not gotten the penalty Russel might have made it into the points.
It's clear some teams were really struggling with strategy for this race. But congrats to Hadjar and Lawson for getting well into the points, also both Albon and Sainz and even Ocon for HAAS.....good job to all!
Yuki can't be happy that his former team is regularly finishing better than he is, and since he's not up there scoring with Max, it's killing their chances of finishing well in the constructor's. I expect Ferrari to finish 2nd again, Mercedes third and Red Bull 4th.
On to Spain next weekend!
Is this real?
Porsche OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED to join F1. F1 and Porsche fans will be excited to see this successful team perform in F1.
Really looking forward to seeing some P-cars on these tracks!
In the meantime, getting psyched for Barcelona... :dance:
Really? Their own team or just as an engine supplier?
Looks like it is false. This is from earlier this year:
Porsche no longer interested in a Formula 1 comeback
Porsche has officially ruled out a return to Formula 1 after the failure of its partnership with Red Bull. Initially planned for the 2026 season, the German brand is now concentrating on its other motorsport programs, notably endurance racing and Formula E, where it is already enjoying great success.
yeah, I thought this might have been from a couple months ago.....
Now Ford and Red Bull are supposedly collaborating, but the fruits of their association may not show till 2028 or later. I wonder how the tariff situation might impact Ford, since they have considerably lower earnings, profit and sales right now?
Espana!
OK, well things seem to have begun right where they ended last week in Monaco, with the Big Macs clear of the field, and rumor has it they had the engines turned down today.
Tomorrow in FP3 and qually will show the real pace for all of the teams.
The Hamster still isn't happy with the red car, calls it "undriveable", while Max just seems to be getting on with the program no matter how difficult his car is to control.
A couple of the rookies still shining, Hadjar, Kimi and a bit of a surprise - Lawson. I know he feels like he got a raw deal, but silver lining, he's in a better car now IMHO.....with at least a shot at some points as Hadjar has shown. The Vcarb seems to be much easier to drive and is dead reliable in the right hands. Yuki must be questioning his move.....Just as he gets a car that he can score regularly with, he's now in the belly of the beast.
This might be a decent weekend for the Mercs too.....
So, Lance Stroll will miss the Spanish GP due to pain in his hand and arm, a fallout from his broken hand and surgery just before the beginning of the 2023 season.
Maybe this is a good way for the team to ease him out and hire someone who can drive? Although he has been better this season, scoring the teams only points as Alonso just hasn't had the luck on his side.
Alonso has had plenty of luck on his side...unfortunately, it's only been the bad kind! :banghead: :021: I would think that has to change sooner rather than later. Weather looks perfect for today's race!
Wow, what a finish! Tire strategies, safety car, crashes.....
I won't spoil it for those who might still be watching or will watch it later, but a typical race for McLaren with a little bit of edge of the seat at the end.
We'll see what happens but Max did NOT have a good weekend in the end.
Hulkenberg had a fantastic result, where did that come from?
In the points race for the constructors, McLaren are 200 pts ahead of 2nd, which is now Ferrari, courtesy of consistent top 10 finishes by both Ferrari drivers. Mercedes has slipped back to 3rd and Red Bull to 4th, since they have yet to get their 2nd driver into the points.
Quote from: MiniDave on May 31, 2025, 02:22:34 PMSo, Lance Stroll will miss the Spanish GP due to pain in his hand and arm, a fallout from his broken hand and surgery just before the beginning of the 2023 season.
Maybe this is a good way for the team to ease him out and hire someone who can drive? Although he has been better this season, scoring the teams only points as Alonso just hasn't had the luck on his side.
BBC reported that it was due to a temper tantrum the Stroll manchild had, after getting knocked out qualifying. The article said he swore at team members and broke equipment.
There have been reports for years that he is not really committed to his F1 career. He rarely turns up to events that are optional (F1 movie screening for F1 drivers most recently), on driver parades he stands on his own and looks bored, his media interviews are monosyllabic.
I know Daddy Stroll owns the team, but at what point do the corporate sponsors demand a committed driver?
After that that stunning tantrum from Max, he needs a race ban. Deliberately driving in to your competitor like that deserves nothing less. It is rare I agree with Nico Rosberg, but Sunday was the day.
Yeah, Max's move on George was pretty blatant, the funny thing is the team decided way after the fact that he didn't need to give the position back after all...they thought the stewards would make him give it back but they said he didn't need too.....so it was all unnecessary.
And I did read today that Jr injured his hand by slamming it down on a desk after qually....most have called for his removal, but daddy bigbux owns the team, and he probably bought it so sonny boy could play race cars, so......next year might be different with Newey and Honda coming aboard. Newey has the huevos to tell Stroll to pound sand, and so will Honda. Could make for some interesting press next season, or maybe even as this one rolls along
The interesting thing with Stroll Jnr, he has outscored Alonso so far this year! 14 points to 2 points!
Yes, Alonso has not had a good year so far, but he seems to be getting the hang of this years car now, he sure quallies better than Jr does.....
Right now the most interesting part of this year's championships is 2nd place. George looked strong in qually, but can he get a good start off the line and turn it into a victory this weekend?
Max is somehow finding a way to keep his Red Bull in the mix too, but poor Yuki.....
It's been fun to see the rookies run this year too, with occasional flashes of real speed even in some of the cars that regularly finish at the back, as well as Kimi and Isack who are really having a good season.
Canada:
Well, that was a fun, interesting race! Verstappen keeps himself in the running for the Driver's championship by coming 2nd as the constructors is well and truly out of reach now unless something completely unexpected happens.
Russel converts his pole to a win and Kimi gets his first podium by holding off a hard charging Piastri.
Tire strategies were a major factor here with some going really deep into the race before their first and only stop and others doing a two stop.
Piastri and Norris had a right old battle going right at the end but Norris messed up and hit the pit wall, and Piastri was not able to catch Kimi for the podium despite his best efforts.
Next up, Austria.....and Max fancies his chances there at his home track.
Fun race to watch!
Is anybody else super stoked for the movie release this Friday??
I plan to go see it at the drive in with the local MINI club, that won't be out till later in July.
I hear it's getting decent reviews, but it might be difficult to watch for those of us who know F1 thoroughly.....
Still, I've enjoyed Winning, LeMans, Grand Prix, Rush, Bobby Deerfield and a few other good racing movies over the years so I think I'll like this one OK too. The one with Stallone tho......that was just pure dreck.
I am excited for the F1 Movie. The reviews I have seen from F1 Jouros and fans is that their are key pieces of F1 that do not make the movie. A key one being qualifying and they do some "hollywood" stuff to make the driving scenes to make them more dramatic. However, overall it is a good action movie watch.
I might even make the effort to go to the movie theater to watch it, I rarely go to the movie theater as it usual ends up being an expensive nap!
I hear that, I think the last movie I saw in theatre was the new Top Gun, because they had that 3 sided screen.....which was only used in the first part of the movie. I was really disappointed that they copied the first Star wars movie with the bombing run.
If we can get some $5 Tuesday tix I might go see it indoors, one of my Mini buds wants us to go see it at Imax, those won't be $5.
The wife and I went to a brunch showing, and I enjoyed the movie. There are elements that are very hollywood that would probably be against the rules in reality. Also the storyline is a little weak outside of the racing parts, same as any of these blockbuster action movies. Some of the cameos are good from F1 drivers and team principals.
A random article popped up on my feed about potentially getting Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise together for another racing movie, bringing together Days of Thunder and F1.
Well, speaking of F1 - Austria that is:
This race was a disaster for the home team, although the junior varsity did pretty well, getting Lawson into the points in 8th, Hadjar just missing out on 10th as his tires gave up on the last laps.
It mostly was a showcase for McLaren, tho it's clear that Ferrari has made a step forward. Mercedes did not like the heat and by the end Russell and his Merc were 30 seconds behind the Hamster in 4th - and Kimi took out Max on the first lap when his rear tires locked up under braking for turn 1.
Norris got a good start and led and Piastri managed to get ahead of LeClerc for second, the next almost 20 laps were fun to watch as Piastri and Norris went at it, always racing fair but trading the lead on several corners. In the end Lando managed to hold on and they finished 1-2, LeClerc and Hammy 3-4, Russell quite a ways back in 5th.
One of the stars of this race was Borteleto, who got his first points for Sauber by finishing 8th, who I have to say are starting to feature in the mid field. I wonder if that's due to Binotto's influence or if it was just the natural maturing of the team?
Williams also had a terrible weekend, the first start was aborted when Sainz' car would not move off the line at the lights, they did finally get it moving and it made one lap but went to the pits with the rear brakes on fire. Albon was racing well when he had to retire the car about 1/3 of the way thru the race.
There was a ton of passing thru out the field, tho the two Ferraris were pretty much in their own race as the Mac's put about 15 seconds on them by the end.
Next up is Silverstone and George thinks he can win it if they have typical English weather of around 20* C, if it's as hot as it was this weekend he says they'll be nowhere....
Austria was great for the first 30 laps and then was dull. The most exciting thing in the second half was the Alpine driving Piastri off the track when he was trying to lap them.
Yeah, he said at the time over the radio "Alpine still manages to find a way to fuck me over all these years later, huh"
Hulkenberg finally gets rid of a terrible record, the most races without a podium finish!
The current driver with the highest record is now Tsunoda.
Poor Yuki, Red Bull may have nuked his career putting him on the varsity team when he was going so well in the Vcarb car. OTOH if Max jumps to another team chances are they'll keep him, right?
There are several contracts up at the end of this season, should make for interesting reading later in the year as they start vying for teams.
There has been a lot of discussion about what happened to Piastri at Silverstone, right or wrong I hope that will be the giant kick in the butt he needs to go on and win the driver's championship.
Verstappen is the really big question mark in the driver's silly season, a lot of internet talk has him going to Mercedes, and while the rumors are strong that they will have the strongest power plant setup next season, it doesn't matter if the car is shit again. Plus 3 other teams will have the same power unit.....including McLaren.
Likewise, Aston may have the best chassis and car, but if Honda can't deliver on their end.....no matter what, next spring in Barcelona is going to be interesting!
3 weeks till the next race, then 4 more to the one after that. I dunno if any of the teams are still working on their 2025 car, Sauber's updates sure worked for them tho! Too bad it took till half the season was over to get them on the car.....
Well, the rain certainly made for a very interesting race highlighting tire strategy. Rain can be the great equalizer...
It's a long 3 week wait for the next one, guys! :sleepy:
End of an era......Christian Horner has been removed from Red Bull with immediate effect.
Laurent Mekies will take his position and Alan Permane will take over at Vcarb/Racing Bulls
I expect one of the very first things they will do is try to lock Verstappen down and prevent him from jumping to another team, but I wonder if that actually will spur him on to take Stroll's billion $$$$ offer and rejoin with Newey, or jump to Mercedes? He also has a good relationship with Honda, who will be powering the Aston in 26.
Could be good for Tsunoda as I think Mekies was responsible for both Vcarbs and Yuki's improvement when he was team principle at Vcarb
Horner going was a huge surprise, especially in the middle of the season. You have to wonder if the Verstappen camp negotiated Horner getting fired as part of Max not activating exit clauses in his contract to go elsewhere. Also Red Bull has lost a huge number of key personnel and they have not been successful in replacing them. Horner has taken on extra responsibility (he is leading the powertrain development and Sporting Director responsibilities) as well as being Team Principal. It was also revealed that his inner circle at the team was also fired, so it is massive clearing out.
They are not going to turn this around this season, but perhaps they needed to get rid of him before they started working on 2026 developments in earnest. As Dave said, not many teams will be working on developments for this season any longer with the rule change coming for the 2026 season.
Yeah, many pundits are saying the handwriting was on the wall for Horner when Dietrich died.
No idea what Verstappen is going to do, but it makes sense that getting rid of Horner would be an incentive for him to stay, but Horner isn't the one who dictated how the car was being built, and there's no question that they were trying to suit Max in the design and setup. Point being, will he stay with a car that he can't win with? Or jump to a team that he thinks he can drive back to the winner's circle. The problem is, no one knows what car is going to take the lead till next spring, so staying with the team you know vs going somewhere and starting over?
As much as Toto is lobbying for Max, I think if he moves he'll go to Aston. IF.....
(see what I did there? That's a big if!) :-)
So, where will Horner go? Nowhere immediately as his departure terms are still being negotiated, tho I'm sure he'll have one heck of a golden parachute.
My thought? Cadillac. He gets a chance to do what he did at Red Bull, take a team from nothing to potential greatness, and they need his high profile (Netflix) to give them a better shot at hiring and retaining some of the best in the bidness.
Whether you like him personally or not is not part of the equation, he has a proven track record and will be in demand.
So F1 is in Austin this weekend, plus it's a Sprint weekend to boot. So far it looks like a three way fight between Max, the Mac boys and Russell......the rest aren't really close. I wonder if Max can keep taking big points out of Piastri's lead to challenge for the title or if he's just too far ahead?
And speaking of watching F1 on TV, did you all see that next year it will be shown exclusively on Apple TV? I am not an apple guy, we don't have anything in the house that runs on "i" and to get the "good" package is pretty spendy since we're already shelling out for You Tube TV and Netflix.....
I may go back to just reading about it and catching the highlights, which is frustrating because there will be two new teams and a whole host of changes to the cars next season.
So, will you all be bobbing for Apple next year?
Not interested in Apple TV.
I do beleive that Sky Sports (F1 channel) will continue to broadcast the races in 2026. Will stick with that for time being.
My biggest pet peeve with F1, a billon dollar company that uses volunteers to police the races. :banghead:
Nice to see a bit of drama with the McLaren drivers...
phil
I was watching a funny video, Piastri and Norris were going at it on track, Piastri shoved Norris right off three times.....then I realized they were playing in the simulator......
What does Sky F1 cost now? I would only want it for F1, I have no interest in watching soccer.
What does Sky F1 cost now? I would only want it for F1, I have no interest in watching soccer.
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I use a completely different platform to watch the F1 races. You can order just the F1 channel from Amazon Prime (if you are a member). Here its about $85.00 for the season. Not sure if this will continue next year with Apple TV comming on board.
I do have Prime, so I'll need to look into it......I think YouTube has the F1 channel too, but I understand Apple will have it exclusive for the US.
Currently in the US F1 is available on ESPN and also the ABC network for some races. That gives it exposure basically to the entire country since anyone who has a TV has access to ABC over the air (for those races) and most people have some sort of cable TV or other type of streaming TV service which includes ESPN as part of the package.
But if next F1 season is just going to be on Apple TV in the US, then Formula One has shot itself in the foot. They will definitely lose US viewership and revenue. The growing popularity of Formula One in the US will take a nose dive I believe.
I did a little research and Apple TV currently has about 30 million viewers compared to ESPN having 140 million viewers within the US. Reducing the number of potential viewers to nearly 1/5 (!) of what they are now cannot be a good thing.
I'm sure Apple is going to be happy to gain some people who follow F1 to subscribe, but overall this seems like a terrible move for F1 in the US. I think most people will not make the move to Apple to watch it.
Austin was a good weekend for Max, he won both the Sprint race and the main.....he gained maximum points in the Sprint as both Macs were taken out in the first corner. In the main race he took off at the lights and never looked back. Decent race for Ferrari - they split their strategy on tires and it seemed to work for both drivers. It looked like Charles might be able to hold onto 2nd but Norris was able to pass him after a hard fought few laps and drove away.
So the driver's championship has tightened considerably, and even tho its a long shot Max is still in it. 5 races left including a couple of Sprint races, so there are a lot of points still on the table to get but Max has scored 119 of the possible 133 points available in the last 5 races, I think Red Bull has finally come to grips with it's balance issues as the car looked solid from the get go. Piastri only has 14 points over Lando, and 40 points over Max. It could get really interesting over the rest of the season! With another 141 points available, if Max continues his current form and the Mac boys have some more issues, he could yet win the driver's championship. If he does it will be an amazing "come from behind" win.....
This weekend is Mexico, and it's always an interesting race with the combination of altitude, thin air, pollution, heat and (don't drink the water!) potential health issues.
It is all about the money! F1 probably does not care about viewing figures, as long as Apple continue to want to spend that amount of money on the races.
Sky Sports in the UK is paying over 200 million GBP ($268 million) and that is for a country that is 5 times smaller in terms of population. This is a subscription service only (and a lot more than what Apple TV costs).
Well, it's over for 2025.
In a fascinating tight race at the end, Max won the race but by finishing 3rd Lando won the driver's championship by 2 pts. Oscar finished 3rd only a few points behind those two.
The team championships however, went down another way - McLaren had it all sewed up several races ago by virtue of having a bunch of 1-2 finishes all season, Red Bull was hampered by only having one driver in the points most of the year, a factor that cost Yuki his ride, and he'll be relegated to back up driver for next season.
So the Big Macs were 1st, but Mercedes finished 2nd - with Kimi Antonelli finishing in the points often enough to add significantly to the total, even so they had about half the points that McLaren did, 833 to 469.
Red Bull was an impressive 3rd, considering how little Yuki added to the total - 33 out of the 451 the team scored to Merc's 469. Had Yuki made more of a contribution there could have been a real fight for 2nd, but no way they would have caught Mac. This makes Max's performance that much more impressive - especially in the 2nd half of the season! Max won 8 races to Lando's 7, including half or more of the races since the summer break.
Ferrari had a lackluster season, the only bright spot in the season Hamilton's Sprint race win. The rest of the season they were fighting it out with the midfield teams....LeClerc finishing almost 100 pts ahead of the Hamminator who was clearly frustrated with both the car and his part of the team. It was not an easy transition for him and with all the changes to the cars next season, I'm not sure 26 will be any better for him. Terrible way to finish your career - if he has a season similar to this one.
Speaking of next season - who do you think will take a step forward? Will McLaren continue their current success, or will someone else step forward?
My money is on Mercedes, from what I've read no one else has the power plant for next season figured out like they do. This will be a boon to those teams running Merc power, including MacLaren but with the other changes in the cars, it may not spell the answer to the season.
Red Bull is rumored to be well behind the curve with their engine, both in power and reliability. We'll also see new engines from Honda in the Aston Martin, and Audi in their maiden season. Cadillac will be running what is basically a rebranded Ferrari car next season, and don't expect their own power plants to be on the track before the 2029 season - which is a surprise to me. With GM money backing them I would have expected them at least by 2027......The next question mark is Aston - yes they will still have Stroll the lesser driving alongside Fernando, which is unfortunate....and they will have the Newey designed car under them.
All in all I think 2026 will be a firecracker of a season, the only downside is that it will only be shown on Apple TV (and Sky of course). I resisted adding yet another monthly cost to our already expensive TV bill, but Rose found a deal on Apple TV, $6/month so we now have it.
The new season is only 9 weeks away, so I'll find other things to do this cold, dark winter till testing starts in February!
Driver lineup for 2026:
Mac - Lando and Oscar
Merc - George and Kimi
Ferrari - Charles and the Ham-ster
Red Bull - Max and Isack Hadjar
Aston - Fred and Lancelot
Red Bull Jr - Lawson and new player Arvid Lindblad
HAAS Toyota - Ocon and Bearman (I think Bearman had a stellar year and should replace Hammy at Ferrari - but I don't think that will happen due to contracts.
Williams - Sainz and Albon
Audi - The Hulk and Bortoleto
Cadillac - Perez and Bottas
Alpine - Colapinto and Gastly
Some of this year's rookies had outstanding debut seasons - Kimi, Bearman, Bortoleto and Hadjar for sure, Lawson finally came good the second half of the season and earned the right to go on into 2026.
However, I'll be surprised if several drivers make it the full season next year, Colapinto at the top of the list. I think Alpine might be sold over the break, and if it is he may not make it thru the change over. There is a big crop of F2 driver's waiting in the wings, and even a few from Indy who could make the jump if there is an opening - Pato O'Ward had good outings with McLaren, but there's no where for him to go unless some of the rumors swirling around actually happen - like LeClerc going to Aston and Oscar going to Ferrari. Max to Mercedes in place of George, and George back to a resurgent Williams in place of Albon and so on. So, in spite of the lineup looking solid now, things could change by Feb.
I can't wait!