Tag: ferrari

F1 Japanese Grand Prix Review Part 1

A very dull race Some of the greatest moments in Formula 1 history has happened at the Suzuka race track in Japan including the Prost vs Senna battles of the late 80s and early 90s. The 2025 race will not be added to this list. Apart from almost collision with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris as they came out of the pit lane, there was nothing of real excitement on the track. 11 drivers finished in the same position as they started the race. There was only 15 overtakes during the race and most of these happened at the back of the grid.

Impressive weekend for the world champion The first two races of the season in Australia and China were all about the two McLarens but Verstappen displayed at Suzuka he is well and truly in this World Championship fight. On Saturday in qualified the car at the front of the grid, 0.012 seconds ahead of Norris and on Sunday he wasn’t challenged by either Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri. Verstappen is the first driver to win four consecutive Japanese Grand Prix.

After the race, Principal of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner spoke with F1 Sky Sports about Verstappen’s performance.

“Max, without any doubt, is the best driver in the world currently.”

Verstappen is second in the world championship, only one point behind Norris.

Still big issues at Red Bull The excitement of Verstappen’s weekend couldn’t hide the continued disappointment with the second drivers seat at Red Bull. The second seat at Red Bull has been the biggest talking point in F1 season. Liam Lawson was to partner Verstappen for the 2025 season but after only two races Red Bull announced that Racing Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda would replace Lawson at Red Bull and Lawson would drive for Racing Bull.

Lawson’s struggled to make an impression at both Australia and China scoring no points. In China Lawson qualified for both the sprint race and race in last position and finished the race in 15.

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner spoke about the reasons behind the swap.

“We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and together, we see that after such a difficult start, it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience.”

In qualifying, both drivers were knocked out in Q2 with Lawson finishing one position above Tsunoda in 14. They both moved up one position on the starting grid with William’s Carlos Sainz given a three grid penalty. During the race Tsunoda was able to climb up two positions which should be seen as a good result when over half the drivers finished in the same position as they started but for Red Bull it was still two positions out of the points. In the constructors championship Red Bull sit in third in the constructors championship with 61 points, Verstappen has all of them.

Lawson had a race to forget, finishing in 17. Lawson spoke with the F1.com after the race.

“It’s been a pretty crazy few weeks and months, I just want to get back into the groove and get racing. We get to go again next week with a new style of track, so we’ll keep chipping away.”

F1 China Qualifying Review

Questions are already being asked about Lawson’s position at Red Bull We are only at the second weekend of the 2025 Formula 1 season and the pressure is squarely on Red Bull driver Liam Lawson. Lawson was chosen to partner Max Verstappen over Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull. Yet he has struggled in the role so far, crashing out in the rain in Melbourne and this weekend he qualified last in the sprint and last for the race today. In the sprint he finished in 14, six places outside the points. Verstappen on the other hand has finished on the podium at Melbourne and the sprint race in China. He qualified fourth for the race today.

After qualifying Lawson spoke with Sky Sports F1 on his performance on the track.

“Unfortunately, I don’t really have time but it’s just one of those things. To drive a Formula 1 car, it takes 100% confidence in what you’re doing. It’s not that I don’t feel confident, the window is just so small.”

What will see from Oliver Beaman in Shanghai? There were high expectations for Haas’s Oliver Beaman in 2025 after scoring points in his first two races of his career last season but his race in Melbourne was nothing short of a disaster. Before the race he only drove 12 laps of Albert Park, crashing out twice and missing qualifying completely. He finished the race in 14, last of the drivers to complete the race.

In the sprint he qualified in 12 but would lose three positions throughout the race and finish in 15. There was one positive he did finish one spot ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon in 16. He qualified in 17 for the race and will be hoping to climb up the grid throughout the race.

After the disappointment of Melbourne Hadjar shines in qualifying. Racing Bulls Isack Hadjar was about to start his first race of his Formula 1 in Melbourne when he crashed out on the warm up lap. Even with his helmet on, Hadjar’s heartbreak was there for all to see. He was comforted by Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis as he was walked back to the pitlane. the most heartwarming moment of the weekend. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko didn’t see it this way and said the whole incident “was a bit embarrassing”.

One weekend is a long time in Formula 1 and Hadjar displayed his resilience on Saturday in China qualifying in seven for the race, two positions ahead of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Hadjar spoke with the F1 website about his qualifying result.

“I made a mistake and today I didn’t, so I finished the job, it’s a satisfying one.”

F1 Live 2025 Review

To celebrate the 75 years of Formula 1 a two hour extravaganza was held at London’s O2 Arena. Each team was introduced to the crowd with the new liveries of the cars. There was also live performances from American rockstar mgk and British pop band Take That. Here are the biggest talking points.

What does Livery mean? Livery has been the most frequently said word in F1 in the last week. Lets discuss what it means before we go any further. The livery is the design and colour scheme of each of the cars. For example Ferrari’s livery has always been red.

No in-depth conversations from the drivers or teams. If you wanted detailed discussions from the drivers about the season ahead you had come to the wrong place. Most drivers and team principals were given just one questions and those answers weren’t too expansive or long.

Alpine Team Principal Oliver Oakes was asked what they need to do to improve on position six in the constructors championship. He simply replied “I guess we just need to rise higher”.

The night belonged to one man in red. There are four British men on the F1 grid in 2025 but it was clear in the London stadium that Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was the favourite. A massive roar echoed out when the seven time world champions name was mentioned or face appeared on the big screen.

The same cannot be said for the Red Bull Racing team. When the Red Bull Racing team head to Silverstone later in the season they won’t be expecting a positive reaction. Each time driver Max Verstappen or Team Principal Christian Horner appeared on the big screen a loud boo was heard. Later in the evening when Horner tried to introduce his drivers Verstappen and Liam Lawson to the crowd he was booed throughout his speech. Red Bull drivers were the only drivers not interviewed after there introduction.

Best Introductions of the night. Before the drivers and car came out each team conducted their own introduction through videos on the big screen, props and musicians. The best of the night was Aston Martin whose theme was James Bond. It began with a James Bond style video which could have been out of the Bond movie “the world is not enough”.

Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll walked down the arena stairs in suits with their helmets on with Bond theme playing overhead. A video appeared on the screen about the history of the Aston Matin before Nigerian singer song writer Tems performed her single “higher” with violinists. Aston Martin’s Team Principal and CEO Andy Cowell and drivers came out onto the stage.

Honorary mention to the Kick Sauber team who had drummers lining both sides of the stage as the car and team came out.

Best Liveries for 2025 Alpine and Racing Bulls were the two teams that liveries that stood out the most. Racing Bulls who was formally known as RB last season replaced the majority of blue on their car last season to white and it looks fantastic with the white standing out. The pink and blue of the Alpine team works well together and will look great out on the race track.

The Attention now turns Bahrain. After the excitement of the live event in London the 20 drivers head to Bahrain for three days of testing starting on Wednesday. The first race of the season will be held in Melbourne Australian on 16 March.

Biggest points ahead the 2025 season Part 1

It was only last month Max Verstappen was celebrating his fourth drivers championship and McLaren their first constructors championship in 26 years but we are only six weeks away from embarking on Albert Park in Melbourne for the opening race of the season. Here we look at the biggest talking points ahead of what will be a fascinating season.

Can Hamilton return to his brilliant best at Ferrari? Hamilton will go down as one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time. With Michael Schumacher, Hamilton has the equal most championship titles with seven. Yet the 2024 season was mixed to say the least. Two brilliant wins at Spa in Belgium and at his home grand prix at Silverstone but he failed to get out of Q1 in qualifying on numerous occasions. Apart from his two wins he only finished on the podium on three other occasions. Hamilton finished the season in seventh, 22 points behind his teammate George Russell at Mercedes. Hamilton finished the 2023 season in 2023.

Hamilton has joined the most famous brand in motorsport Ferrari for at least the next two seasons. Will the new environment at Ferrari’s base in Maranello Italy be what Hamilton needs to fight for the championship in 2025?

Can McLaren do the double in 2025 and win both the drivers and constructors championship? After years of disappointment and struggle McLaren finally returned to be one of the powerhouses of Formula 1. McLaren’s driver Lando Norris won his first race of his career at Miami and would be on top of the podium another three times at Abu Dhabi, Singapore and the Netherlands. He would be on the podium another nine times. Norris finished the drivers championship in second. Had it not been for Verstappen’s dominant start to the season Norris would had been in the battle to win the drivers championship.

His teammate at McLaren Oscar Piastri would win two races this season at Hungary and Azerbaijan and would be on the podium another six times. He finished the drivers championship in fourth place.

McLaren won the constructors championship by 14 points points over second Ferrari for the first time since 1998. Will we see this continued dominance in 2025 and can Piastri or Norris be the first driver to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

Will the new era at Mercedes bring immediate success?

The new era at McLaren has officially begun in 2025. After 12 season Hamilton has left for Ferrari and George Russell has become the lead driver at the team. Russell continued to improve throughout the 2024 season. Russell won races at Austria and Las Vegas and finished first over the line at Belgium but was disqualified after his car was underweight after the race. He would finish above Hamilton in the drivers championship.

Russell’s new teammate at Mercedes will be 18 year old Italian sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli has continued to impress since his racing debut at the age of 15. He won the Italian Formula 4 championship in 2022 and in 2023 he won the Formula Regional European Championship and the Formula Regional Middle East Championship. In 2024 he bypassed F3 to race in F2. In F2 Antonelli won the sprint race in Silverstone and the feature race in Hungary. He finished sixth in the F2 championship.

Now the big test comes for both these drivers. Can Antonelli brin this impressive form to F1 and can Russell continue his ascension up the ranks in 2025?

What will we see from Aston Martin in 2025? 2024 was a year to forget for the Aston Martin delivering well below expectations. In 2023 Aston Martin finished fifth in constructors championship with 280 points but 2024 they could only record a measly 94 points. Aston Martin would again finish in fifth but a whopping 374 points behind fourth place Mercedes.

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso started the season with real promise with finishing in the points in the first six races of the season but for the rest of the season top 10 points were less frequent. Alonso only finished in the points eight times for the rest of the season. He finished with 70 points compared to 206 in 2023.

It was a nightmare season for Alonso’s teammate Lance stroll. He only scored points in five races this season and he was outscored by Alonso 19-5 and 17-7 in races. In the wet at Sao Paulo Stroll spun out on the formation lap and then got the car stuck in the gravel. He finished the season in 13th in the drivers championship.

There was one big positive that came out of the season was Adrian Newey joining Aston Martin as their Managing Technical Partner. He starts his role on the 1 March this year. Newey was at Red Bull for 18 years where he played a key roll in the success of their drivers Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen who have both won four championships.

Talking Points From Day 2 United States Grand Prix

Near perfect day for Verstappen The four week break between the Singapore Grand Prix and the race this weekend has done the Red Bull driver the world of good. Max Verstappen was in clear control of the sprint race from start to finish winning the sprint by almost four seconds, his first win since the sprint race at Austria. He qualified for tomorrow’s race in second and he was on a fast lap when qualifying finished prematurely due to Mercedes George Russell’s crashing in the final minute of qualifying. Verstappen still leads the driver championship by 46 points over Mclaren’s Lando Norris.

Perez continues to struggle As Verstappen thrived in the Texan sun the same cannot be said for his Red Bull teammate. Sergio Perez finished outside the points in the sprint with coming in ninth and will finish the start of the race in tenth. He was unable to record a time in Q3 due to the Russell crash. Perez sits in eighth in the driver championship, over 200 points behind his teammate. Even though he has a contract for the next two season there is immense pressure on Perez holding his spot in the team. Red Bull will be expecting a strong result from him in the race tomorrow.

Qualifying brilliance for Norris. McLaren’s Lando Norris will start the USA Grand Prix in pole position after a brilliant final qualifying lap in Q3. This might have been helped by the Russell crash but nothing can be taken away from Norris who said after qualifying to Sky Sports F1 that this was one of his best ever qualifying laps. He finished the sprint race in third after being overpassed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the final lap. He will face competition from both the Ferrari’s as they looked quick in both the sprint and qualifying.

No highlights for Piastri after the first two days in Texas but there is still hope for the race on Sunday. On Friday afternoon it was a horror show who McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who was knocked out of Q1 in the sprint qualifying. On Saturday he would climb up six places in the sprint race but was given a five second penalty for forcing Alpine’s Pierre Gasly off the race track. He will start the race from fifth and is in reaching distance on his teammate who starts from pole.

The Ferrari’s are real contenders for the race win tomorrow. There would have been nervous faces in the Ferrari garage at the beginning of the sprint with their drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz battling back and forth for positions. It was enthralling viewing for the spectators around around the race track as Sainz who will join Williams next season came out on top. Both drivers passed Russell and Sainz passed Norris on the final lap with Sainz finishing second and Leclerc fourth. They will start Sunday’s race on the second row of the grid with Sainz third and Leclerc fourth.

Belgium F1 Grand Prix

The McLaren is quick, really quick.

McLaren are having an impressive season. They sit second in the constructor’s championship, both their drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have won races this year and they continually finish on the podium.

It was another podium finish at the Belgium Grand Prix with Piastri finishing second after the disqualification of Russell.

After 32 laps Piastri sat in fourth spot and over three seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. In three laps he was half a second behind the ferrari and the next lap he passed the Leclerc with ease.

With eight laps left Piastri was four and half seconds behind Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in second and by the end of the race it was less than a second.

Piastri was interviewed after the race about the result.

“I’m happy with the result. I think we managed the race very well and I don’t think we could have have done much more today. We did a lot of things right and gave ourselves the best opportunities. But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough” he said.

Norris’s race was ruined on the first corner going onto the gravel and losing three positions on the grid. He went from fourth to seventh. Norris did show genuine pace throughout the race and passed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. He was within a second of Perez’s teammate Max Verstappen for the last eight laps of the race. Norris finished the race in fifth.

Lando spoke about his first lap mishap.

” A disappointing race today. I think we managed the race and it cost me a good position on the grid which was difficult to recover with the lack of overtaking opportunities.”

McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella said it has been a positive start to the season.

“Overall a very strong part of the season for McLaren. We are even closer to the top of the constructor’s championship and we look forward to the second part of the season.”

Review of the Belgium Grand Prix Qualifying Part 1

Q1 and the first five eliminated

Sauber’s Guanyu Zhou and William’s Logan Sargeant have both struggled throughout the 2024 season and both haven’t recorded a top ten finish. Their miserable seasons continued with both drivers finishing 20th and 19th respectively. They are both expected to not be not on the grid in 2025.

They both will move up a position on the grid for Sunday’s race as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda will start from the back of the grid due to being handed a 60 grid penalty due to different infringements with the car. Each driver is allowed four internal combustion engine changes a season, this was Tsunoda’s fifth. Other infringements included having his third third energy store and a new set of electronics.

The two Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished in the 16th and 17th respectively.

Q2 and the next five eliminated

The weather can have a big impact on qualifying and an F1 race. It was drizzling at the start of Q2 but it got heavier half way through Q2 with all drivers going on the intermediates.

William’s Alex Albon missed out on the top ten by the tiniest of margins, only 0.003 seconds to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who finished in 10th. Perez has been under immense pressure to hold his spot for the remainder of the 2024 season and beyond.

As it was getting wetter at the Spa track, RB believed their driver Daniel Ricciardo had done enough to make Q3 and decided he that he didn’t need come out of the garage to do a final lap. This decision backfired and Ricciardo finished in 13th. Ricciardo spoke with the F1 media after qualifying about his teams decisions.

“Of course we’re all a little disappointed but it wasn’t a call that we’re all kicking ourselves over, it’s just the one we made and wasn’t the [right] one” he said.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly has had many peaks and troughs in the 2024 season. Struggling in the first seven races, only managing to finish 13th or lower. But the next four races were such an improvement finished in the top 10 in all four but the last two he has failed to finish. He will start the race in 12th and will hope for another top ten finish.

Like his teammate at Sauber, Valtteri Bottas hasn’t recorded a point this season. He will start the race in 14th and it will be an uphill battle to make the top 10.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll will start the race in 15th.

The British Grand Prix Review Part 1

It is a great time to be an English sports fan. George Russell wins the Austrian Grand Prix, the England men’s football team are in the Euro’s semi final and now seven time world champion Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton wins his first race win in 945 days. Hamilton’s ninth win at his home grand prix.

Mercedes had gone 56 races without a win but now have won two in a row. There has been six individual winners in the first twelve race of the 2024 season. In 2023 there was only three winners for the entire season.

The last pip stop defined the British Grand Prix

After 38 laps of the race McLaren’s Lando Norris was in the lead, Hamilton in second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third. All three were still in contention to win the race. All three drivers were on the intermediate due to the mid section of the race being contested in the rain. As the rain disappeared and the sun came out, the track dried the track the drivers came into the pits to put on slicks.

Both Hamilton and Verstappen came in on lap 39 with Hamilton going on the soft and Verstappen going on the hard tyre. Norris came into the pit the next lap. As Norris came into the pitlane his team said over the radio the medium would be able to defend Verstappen and the soft would cover Hamilton. Norris chose the soft.

Norris’s pit stop was slower than expected with Norris locking up contributing to it. He came out behind Hamilton and Hamilton would go on to win and historic ninth British Grand Prix.

Speaking after the race to the media, Hamilton spoke about the excitement of winning his first grand prix of the season.

“Today means so much. It is the most incredible honour to be standing on the top step of the podium at Silverstone. I think my heart is still racing” he said to F1.com

For Norris he was still over six seconds clear of Verstappen but with Verstappen on the hard tyre and Norris on the soft he was able to catch Norris and pass him with ease, finishing the race in second position. Norris finished the race in third. After the race Norris spoke with the F1 media about the race.

“At the same time I blame myself for not making the right decisions. I hate it, I hate ending up in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job” he said.

But Norris also spoke during his press conferences about the positives of his home grand prix.

“This is the place I would love everything to go perfectly and it just didn’t happen today. But it is still lovely to be on the podium at Silverstone. We will come stronger, next race and next year.”

Norris is in second place in the championship, 84 points behinds behind Verstappen.

It is clear that Verstappen is no longer a super power in F1.

For Verstappen he struggled for pace throughout the British Grand Prix. After 14 laps of the race he was in third behind the two Mercedes but within three laps he was passed by both McLaren’s.

The next 10 laps the two Mercedes and McLaren’s would fight in a exhilarating battle for the top 4 positions but Verstappen was unable to keep up and sat almost 10 seconds behind George Russell in fourth when he came in for his first pit stop on lap 27.

With George Russell having to retire, and McLaren’s strategic error on a pit stop with Oscar Piastri’s car, Verstappen moved up to third. As we spoke about earlier Norris picked the wrong type of tyre on his last pit stop and the Red Bull team making the right decisions on their pit stops Verstappen was able to finish the race in second.

In a press conference after the race Verstappen spoke about the difficulties he had throughout the race.

“It was difficult today to manage especially with the rain, but looking at pure performance we were too slow in the first stint and overall struggled with tyre degradation” he said to F1.com.

“Out of a tough situation we still finished second and extended our championship leads, and that of course is a very strong result for us. We’re halfway through the season now and we still have a bit of work to do still to finish the season where we want to be.”