Monthly Archives: September 2025

September 6, 2025 · 5:49 pm

Leclerc and Ferrari still have belief despite Red Bull and McLaren pace

Leclerc says rivals are too fast – but anything can happen at Monza, and often does

Not for the first time in the team’s history Ferrari looked fast on Monza on Friday, only to not quite live up to expectations when it mattered on Saturday afternoon.

However in the end fourth and fifth was a solid performance for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, although unfortunately the latter goes back to P10 thanks to the penalty he carried over from Zandvoort.

The team hoped to be at least third and leading the pursuit of McLaren, and the fact that Max Verstappen has jumped ahead of everyone is a source of frustration. Nevertheless there’s still a lot to play for on Sunday, especially in Leclerc’s case from the second row.

“I’m happy in a way that I think we’ve maximised the package that we had today,” he said when I asked him about his session.

“And I think I did a really good first lap in Q3, unfortunately, in the second run of Q3 I was a little bit in the front with nobody, or just you Yuki in front, and that makes a big difference here.

“So there wasn’t much more we could I’ve done, but I think we did a good job maximising the results now. And looking at tomorrow, I think McLaren and Red Bull are too far ahead for now.”

Asked if he had a bittersweet feeling Leclerc added: “It’s always bitter when you are fighting for fourth, fifth, third place, so maybe, but at the end, it’s kind of what we expected as well.

“But we shouldn’t be satisfied. We should be pushing as much as we can to try and turn that situation around, which is what we are doing, but at the end of the day, I did the lap that I wanted.

“I put everything together. I’m very happy with my lap, actually. And I don’t think there was much more possible. So that I’m positive, but obviously starting fourth isn’t great.”

However Monza races are rarely straightforward. In recent years the likes of Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo scored surprise wins when luck fell their way, and last year Leclerc himself did a great job to win from fourth on the grid. His main job in Sunday’s race is to be the man ready to take any opportunity that might come his way.

“We are quite fast in the straights. So it should be an exciting race. I think on pure pace, we don’t have a chance. Unfortunately, I think McLaren and the Red Bull of Max was way too strong in terms of race run. But with the start, with the top speed we have – we all believe in it, but it’s going to be tough.

“Yeah, there are some special races here. I’ll believe in it until the end, and we’ll see what’s possible. But let’s say on pure pace, I don’t think it’s possible.”

Hamilton was in upbeat mood after the session, pleased that he’d been able to maintain the momentum that he’d established in Zandvoort last week, notwithstanding his crash in the race.

“I think the progress from last weekend, we carried that through this week,” he said when I asked him on that subject. “And so I’ve been relatively happy with the car. P1 the car felt great, I think that’s where it felt probably the best. And then we went into P2 we made changes into qualifying, and I think it was the most we could get from it.

“Obviously, with the penalty and everyone being so close, it’s naturally, going be tough to overtake everybody ahead of me. We’ve got good top line speed, so I’m really hoping that I can try to make up some ground.

“I need to do that. Probably a good start, good first lap, good strategy. We’ll go away now and try and figure out what we can do to try to leapfrog the guys up ahead of me, if possible.”

In FP3 Hamilton was heard asking his engineer for “more juice,” the car’s good straightline speed due to the low drag setup the team chose.

“It’s ultimately, downforce we need,” he said. “We’re quick on the straight, but then in the middle sector, we’re losing like three or four tenths, I think it was, and then a couple tenths in the last sector.

“We’re lacking the load, but we’re quick on the straight. We but if we went up on wing, for some reason the efficiency is just off. We can’t catch that four-tenths in this middle sector unless we go up a lot and then just lose it all down the straights. So this is the ultimate that we can have.”

He added: “We’re not where we want to be. We don’t have the pace that we want naturally, and that is what it is. But fourth and fifth today, with Charles and I, it’s good to be close.

“That’s definitely progress, and I know I can progress from there, so I’m going to keep on working at it with my engineers to extract more from the people around me.”

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September 5, 2025 · 5:01 pm

McLaren’s quick response to Norris car failure shows how far F1 has come

In past decades mechanical failures were common – and often impacted F1 title battles

For drivers and teams success in Formula 1 is all about learning, and not repeating mistakes or failures.

A classic example occurred at the 2005 European GP at the Nurburgring, when leader Kimi Raikkonen picked up a serious vibration after getting a flat spot.

After a discussion with the McLaren pit wall the Finn opted to stay out, and all was well – until he suffered a spectacular suspension failure at the start of the last lap, and spun out of the race.

The Woking team realised too late that the vibration has tipped things over the edge in terms of what the suspension could take.

As part of its response it introduced a system with a metric that equated the vibration level and the risk of failure, and which set a level beyond which a pit stop for new tyres was essential. That soon became standard practice up and down the pitlane.

Twenty years on the same McLaren team had to react after Lando Norris suffered an oil line issue in Zandvoort.

Given that the Italian GP was fast approaching the engineers wasted little time in coming up with a fix and manufacturing sufficient examples to ensure that both cars can get through the Monza weekend without any concerns of a repeat.

The update comes too late for Norris, who lost a priceless 18-points in the nip and tuck battle with his team mate Oscar Piastri. Andrea Stella was quick to apologise publicly, and he was keen to point out that the team didn’t want to impact so directly the title chances of one or other of its drivers.

To his credit Norris realised even as he sat in his stranded car and reported the failure that it was an occurrence that he couldn’t control. Given that he’s benefited immensely from the team’s usual bulletproof reliability in recent seasons it wasn’t something to lead him to throw his toys out of the pram.

“It’s just something that happens,” he said in Monza on Thursday. “It’s not Andrea’s fault. It’s not Zak’s fault. We look back on, I think it was 60-something races without a technical failure, without any issues. I think that’s a record for ourselves. I don’t know if it’s a record in F1, but it’s something we’re pretty proud about.

“So for that to happen now, that’s just being unlucky. It wasn’t a bad job by anyone. It was just various things coming together, and then just being unlucky.”

The reason that the failure got so much attention was because such high profile mechanical retirements, especially ones that impact a title battle, are so rare these days.

Contrast that with just 20 years ago. Aside from the tyre-induced suspension failure at the Nurburgring Raikkonen also lost wins to a driveshaft failure at Imola, and to a hydraulics issue at Spa. Throw in four 10-place grid penalties caused by practice engine blow-ups and you can pretty soon account for why a man who won seven races lost that year’s title to Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

The world has changed because McLaren and the other teams and PU suppliers have become so good at not leaving anything to chance at the design stage, and then quickly addressing issues if they do occur, usually in the privacy of rig or dyno testing and so on.

McLaren COO Piers Thynne, the man who in effect runs the factory operation, is proud of the way the team responded this week.

“Reliability is an extremely important topic in F1,” he said on Friday. “It was an unfortunate incident when we broke our chain of positive reliability.

“The team has reacted extremely well and extremely pragmatically to look at the issue, find the root cause, understand it, and manufacture parts that are extremely focussed to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

“I’m extremely pleased with the reaction of the team. And certainly the factory, both design and manufacturing, reacted in a very positive and pragmatic way.”

Firefighting an issue like that is a good test of any organisation, and lessons can always be absorbed on how to respond even more effectively next time.

“F1 is about learning every single day, day shift, night shift, every time we run the car,” said Thynne. “And learning and trialling and improving and improving your process to react positively when things like this happen. It evolves every time.

“I think it’s really important, the human reaction to the problem. It was positive, it was learning, it was collaborative, and shows that our focus is absolutely in the right place.

“What we need to make sure is that we are diligent and focussed to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. But the solution that is here this weekend to prevent it from happening again is the right one.”

Norris is well aware that he’s benefited from that sort of diligence, and he was equally impressed with the subsequent reaction.

“Sixty races or 60-plus I think of zero faults and failures – obviously little, minor things here and there, but nothing which has cost me points or my team mate points – it’s pretty impressive.

“It’s F1, these things happen. There’s a lot of insanely complicated things that have to come together. For them the diagnostic of what happened is pretty easy – it’s the part that’s broken. But the understanding of how to fix it – they made the same part, but stronger.

“The race in F1 is always about making things lighter and stronger. there’s probably a very, very small weight penalty that comes with this part, but it’s a pretty small part.

“It’s probably something that costs a little bit to make, but the team have just done an incredibly good job.”

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September 3, 2025 · 8:51 am

Permane: Hadjar’s focus shows he has the potential to become a great

Hadjar’s third place in Zandvoort was mighty impressive and hinted at real potential

Isack Hadjar’s superb run to third place in the Dutch GP was a highlight of the Zandvoort weekend, and just the latest in a series of impressive performances by the Frenchman.

His strong form has made him an obvious candidate for a promotion to the hot seat at Red Bull Racing, sooner or later. It will be then be up to him to prove that he could be one day be in the Vettel or Verstappen league.

Since his disastrous start to the season in Melbourne he has got better and better, consistently making it to Q3 and usually feeling a little bit frustrated to be “only” seventh or eighth on the grid.

Indeed last weekend he joked that he was finally happy to be as high as fourth….

What made his performance all the more noteworthy was that his FP1 session was compromised by a PU issue which subsequently caused him to lose the whole of FP2.

He went into Sunday’s race relying on long run data gathered by team mate Liam Lawson, as he’d been denied the opportunity to do his own homework.

However he put any frustrations behind him, and simply got on with the job. Under the most intense pressure, and in a race made complicated by safety cars and restarts, he didn’t put a foot wrong. The retirement of Lando Norris gifted him a place, but he’d done the rest himself.

“He drove a perfect race,” Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane told me. “And it actually all started Friday night, overnight, because he was struggling with the car on Friday.

“And between his engineers, himself and the simulator back in the UK, they put together a really good setup for P3 which then, of course, worked in quali. We extracted the most out of it.

“He did no laps in P2 at all. But honestly, we were pretty confident with our race pace. Liam had shown decent race pace, so we weren’t very worried about that.

“And in the race, it was fantastic – to be able to race and beat the Ferraris and beat the Mercedes was very impressive.”

The fact that he was able to put his Friday disaster behind him is what really impressed Permane, who has worked with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.

“One of the things that separates the great from the good is that they’re able to just focus on what’s in front of them,” he noted.

“So he had an awful day on Friday. He was just able to put that out of his mind and get on with it. And that’s that shows real character. I think that shows that he’s got at least part of what it takes to get to the very top, for sure.”

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer was equally impressed by the young Frenchman’s performance, especially in such stellar company at the front of the field.

“He didn’t put a foot wrong honestly, the whole race,” he told me. “And we were a bit nervous, to be honest, before the start. Because of the technical issues, we didn’t have all the long run data we were hoping to have.

“But we were quite convinced that we can go with the one-stop. The team put a car together which was magic honestly, in terms of pace. He easily kept the Ferraris behind, he kept the Mercedes behind, and he was on par with Max.

“Honestly, [at the front] it’s different. You feel that everything becomes ultra precise, and you know that every tiny error will immediately cost you a position. And Charles was putting a lot of pressure, actually twice, with all the restarts. But Isack was racing like a big boy today!

“Obviously with Isack we see how quickly he’s picking up pace. He had no FP2. It takes some talent, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and focus. And that’s what he shows on a daily basis.”

However Bayer hadn’t forgotten that Lawson was unlucky, and should have been well inside the top 10.

“I think here the third consecutive race where we had both cars in Q3,” said Bayer. “We think the car has the ability to be quick on almost every track. Honestly, Liam was on the hunt for big points as well, but unfortunately he got taken out by Carlos.”

Permane is also encouraged by the potential of the VCARB 02, which has been consistently competitive everywhere of late.

“We’ve got a very good car,” he said. “We look at this championship one race at a time, and we know that if at the track the guys at the track operate in a perfect way, which they have done this weekend, we will do well – and we have a very good chance to beat all our midfield rivals.”

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September 2, 2025 · 1:51 pm

Racing Bulls boss: Verstappen trying our car is “like me flying to the moon…”

Isack Hadjar’s podium has ramped up speculation about what Verstappen could do with the VCARB

Even before Isack Hadjar’s spectacular run to third place in the Dutch GP speculation was rife about what Max Verstappen could do if he was at the wheel of the VCARB 02.

The fact that rookie Hadjar finished the Zandvoort race in the wheel tracks of the World Champion only added to the intrigue.

Even Fernando Alonso joined in the fun, suggesting that the Dutchman would be fighting for the World Championship if he was at the wheel of the sister team’s car.

In theory Verstappen could have a run in an FP1 session just to get a feel for where the Faenza car is better or worse than his own, and he could provide both his own team and Racing Bulls with some useful feedback.

A straight swap could also allow Hadjar to have an FP1 session in a Red Bull, giving the main team a little taster of his talent ahead of any decision over next season.

You could also argue that it’s something that is more likely to be green lit with former Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies in charge than it would have been under Christian Horner.

However Max swapping over even for a single session could also be a very public admission that RBR hasn’t done a good enough job of late, as well as providing fuel for rivals who already think that there’s a little too much co-operation between the two teams, notwithstanding the fact that Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have swapped back and forward.

An FP1 session would be one thing, but at the other end of the scale is the enticing but highly improbable prospect of Verstappen actually spending a whole weekend with Racing Bulls.

It’s a great idea for fans to ponder over, and it would be a huge PR story for the sport, and for the overall Red Bull organisation.

Even F1 boss Stefano Domenicali admitted it would be fun when joking about the suggestion with journalists after the Dutch GP.

However the Racing Bulls camp insists that even a test is not on the horizon for Verstappen.

“I guess we are joking about it, as everybody else does,” CEO Peter Bayer told me after Hadjar’s third place at Zandvoort. “But at the end of the day, we’re two teams that operate differently, and it’s not really a question. It’s more like a running gag for everyone.”

But couldn’t it be considered at the end of the year, when there are no championship positions at stake?

“The thing is in F1 always everything is at stake. It’s about making things predictable, not putting things in jeopardy. It’s not considered, it’s not discussed. It’s not happening.

“I think we’ve been working so hard to develop our identity, and to move Racing Bulls up. It’s not an option to me. It sounds like me flying to the moon. It’s just not something that will happen…”

Team principal Alan Permane also insisted that it’s not even on the radar.

“It’s not, honestly,” he told me. “We’re just focused on our own thing. That’s something that you guys chat about.

“Someone asked me at the weekend, is Max going to get in it for a P1 session? And of course, he’s not. We’re just focused on getting the most out of it, as Red Bull are focused on getting the most out of their car.”

Permane says it wouldn’t even be an option at the post-season Abu Dhabi tyre test: “Not really. I think what’s more interesting will be us learning about next year’s tyres, which is what we’ll do at that test at the end of the year. So there’s plenty of serious stuff to do.”

There is a precedent of sorts – back in 1994 Michael Schumacher had a test with Benetton’s then sister team Ligier, essentially get a feel for the Renault V10 he’d be using the following year.

However he refused to give the French outfit any feedback on what he thought about the chassis, much to the frustration of the engineers who had arranged the test.

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September 1, 2025 · 4:47 pm

How Sainz and Lawson lost their shot at Zandvoort points – and blamed each other

Their collision was already costly, and then a penalty rubbed salt into Sainz’s wounds

While some drivers enjoyed perfect afternoons in Zandvoort for Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson a clash after the first safety car restart proved very expensive.

Both men had to crawl round to the pits with punctures, while Sainz also needed a new nose.

They both dropped to the back of the field, and then to add insult to injury the FIA stewards deemed that Sainz was handed a 10-second penalty, which he had to take at a subsequent pit stop.

They decreed “that car 30 had the right to the corner and therefore car 55 was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision,” a view that Sainz inevitably disagreed with, and which left him fuming.

Having called Lawson “stupid” at the time he reined it in a bit after the race. However he hadn’t changed his perspective on the shunt which he felt had cost him the chance to finish as high as P5, the position occupied by team mate Alex Albon, and who has behind him when the collision occurred.

“It’s a corner that allows two cars to race each other without really having to have any unnecessary contact,” he said when I asked him about it. “But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen.

“He always seems to prefer to have a bit of contact and risk a DNF or a puncture like we did, than to actually accept having two cars side-by-side, which hopefully it will come with more experience to him, because he knows he’s putting too many points on the line just for an unnecessary manoeuvre, like he did.

“But on top of that, to then get a 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke. Honestly, I need to go now to the stewards just to get an explanation, to see what is their point of view of the incident.

“Because it’s unacceptable, I think it’s not the level of stewarding that F1 needs if they are really considering that to be a 10-second penalty. On my behalf, I think it’s a serious matter now that concerns me as a driver, as a GPDA director, and something that I will make sure I raise.”

He added: “It’s something that is very concerning. I’m talking as calmly and with eloquently and trying to pick my words in the best possible way, without trying to put here about a bad word for anyone.

“But what I’ve seen today and what I’ve suffered today is something that concerns me, for myself, but for the other drivers and for motorsport in general, if they really think this is how a penalty should be applied to the guy that is around the outside, I don’t know.”

He was adamant that Lawson was at fault, and that he wasn’t even attempting to pass at that point.

“I wasn’t even really trying to race Liam that hard. I just had a gap around the outside, and so I’m going to start getting him a bit out of position for Turn 2, Turn 3. I wasn’t trying to pass him around the outside.

“I was just trying to have a side-by-side with him to then get him a bit of line for Turn 2, Turn 3, and then suddenly I have a contact, which caught me completely off-guard and by surprise.

“You need to pick your battles. And probably Liam in his first years now, if he’s deciding to have a bit this approach of crash or no overtake, it’s something I’ll keep in keep in mind.

“But the story of my season so far again, a race where I could have finished P5 where Alex is, another 10 points that for something that I cannot understand and is out of our hands.”

Regarding the contact he added: “I’ve raced Lewis, I’ve raced Checo, I’ve raced Oscar, I’ve raced Charles, I’ve raced so many drivers doing the move I did today, so many other cars in the last four years – at the start, racing around inside, outside, high banking, low banking, without really having contact.

“If the guy in the inside doesn’t want to have contact, if the guy in the inside decides to open the wheel and create a contact or risk a contact, then it’s on their behalf, but for the guy on the outside to receive a penalty for it is what concerns me the most.”

Inevitably the two drivers had opposing views on the contact and how it should have been treated by the FIA.

Lawson wasn’t impressed when I told him how unhappy Sainz was with what had transpired.

“I’m sure he’s not,” said the Kiwi. “Obviously I’m not stoked either, it ruined my day. The rules are written as they are, and we know how they’re written.

“And I’ve been on the receiving end this year as well, where I was going for an overtake and thought that I should be given space, and I wasn’t, and I got a penalty.

“So it’s something that we learn from. We all know this. It’s lap one on a restart, it’s super slippery, cold tyres. It’s fine to go for the move, but it’s just risky. And we made concept, which is not ideal, but that’s why he got a penalty.”

Lawson was adamant that he wasn’t the guilty party.

“I think he was overtaking me today, and I also think he got a penalty today. So he can make all the comments in the world he likes. I wish he’d just come and talk to me about it rather than telling everybody else.

“But if it was my fault, I would have got a penalty. I understand his frustration. We don’t want to be in these situations. And as I said, I’ve been on the receiving end as well. It’s just the way the rules are written. And we all know that.”

The collision proved just as costly for Lawson as it was for Sainz, and while he eventually recovered to P12 he missed a shot at finishing within a couple of places of team mate Isack Hadjar.

“We were I guess behind George before everything happened. And the car has been very, very strong. So there’s no reason why we wouldn’t have come home with very strong points today.

“We were just consistent in the first stint, sort of managing. A restart is always aggressive and tough. And obviously it’s time for opportunities. But something that risky when we’re both in the points like that, it just sucks….”

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