September 21, 2025 · 5:19 am

Frustrated Leclerc hopes to “turn situation around” after crash ends Baku pole run

The Ferrari driver ended his qualifying session in the barriers and will start P10

Charles Leclerc has a special relationship with Baku, as his run of four pole positions for Ferrari at the street track attests.

This time around he couldn’t find that magic recipe, and while he was second fastest to team mate Lewis Hamilton on what looked like a promising Friday for the Italian team, he wasn’t entirely happy.

The following day his qualifying session ended with a heavy shunt early in Q3, consigning him to P10 on the grid.

With Hamilton two places behind a weekend that started with a sniff of victory has turned sour for the Maranello camp.

“Obviously frustrated, because it’s a track that I normally enjoy, and where things flow quite naturally,” said Leclerc when I asked him about the session.

“But it’s been the complete opposite the whole weekend, and I’ve just been struggling a lot to find the limits of the car and to find the feeling with the car.

“So I knew going into qualifying that it was a bit of an uphill work, and I’ve changed quite a lot the car going into qualifying, and I felt a lot better. And Q1 and all the laps on the soft felt much better. And then we went on a medium, which we had kept because we thought it was the best tyre.

“And today, with these temperatures, it was just impossible for me to switch them on. And difficult conditions or not, I don’t think that this is the reason. I think we were just lacking a lot of pace on the medium.

“I was probably seven or eight tenths off before the mistake, and I was pushing like crazy. So something felt off there, and we’ll look into it. But yeah, it was difficult.”

Although there were spots of rain in the air much like Oscar Piastri – who crashed a little later – Leclerc didn’t want to blame the conditions, noting that Carlos Sainz did a lap that was ultimately good enough for the front row.

“When you look at Carlos’s lap at that time, when you look at others right around me, I don’t think so. There were some spits of rain, but I don’t think it was actually wetting the track. So I don’t think that this is an excuse or whatsoever.

“I tried to judge the grip I would have, even though it was very difficult to judge because I had very little grip from the beginning of the lap with these tyres again, but misjudged it.”

Leclerc’s disappointment with the medium tyre was intriguing given that Hamilton was frustrated that he hadn’t had a chance to use it when he didn’t get a quick enough lap in on the softs in Q2.

“I had the same point of view as Lewis,” Leclerc noted. “I thought I had an advantage going into quali with the mediums, and then I put them on, and I kind of regretted thinking I had an advantage, because it was extremely tricky.

“So we’ll look at what did change on track in order for it to be so difficult, you look Q2 first run with my medium, I nearly didn’t make it through Q2, I went long quite a few times. It was just extremely digital, the grip, and with a soft I didn’t have quite that feeling.”

If Sunday’s race is anything like qualifying safety cars or even red flags could create strategic opportunities, and even from P10 Leclerc could yet earn a decent result.

“I know that obviously we can still have a great race from where we start,” he said. “And yeah, my target will be to look forward tomorrow, and do a great race. We’ve normally had very good Saturdays and very bad Sundays here, I hope to turn the situation around this weekend.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

September 18, 2025 · 2:21 pm

Why nothing has changed at McLaren despite fuss over Monza place swap

Why nothing has changed at McLaren despite fuss over Monza place swap

The place swap between McLaren team mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at Monza created something of a storm on social media, and while the former wasn’t happy at the time, it was pretty clear that there was some logic to the move.

The problem was that there was too much focus on the poor pit stop – which as Piastri related on the radio should be seen as part of racing – and less on the fact that the Australian had been given the more favourable first stop in essence to protect him from a potential undercut by Charles Leclerc.

That plus the fact that Norris had given his blessing to the change of pitstop priority on the basis that he didn’t lose his position meant that there were a lot of factors at play.

Indeed after internal discussions to clarify why it was done there has been no dramatic change of policy or suggestion that it won’t happen again, should the same (unlikely) circumstances arise.

On Thursday in Baku Norris was adamant that it was business as usual in the Woking camp.

“All exactly as it was,” he said. “I mean, some things had to be clarified. There was some things at that point that I didn’t know about – the undercut from Leclerc, things I didn’t know in my post-race interviews at the time that also played a part in the reasoning of the decision that the team made.

“And the fact it was not just a pit stop which made that decision, it was more so the other things. So I mean clarification, but nothing from the fact that we both agreed with it after, and accepted as that’s what we agree as a team.”

Norris was keen to downplay the role of the team in intervening to keep things fair in the battle between the two drivers.

“Honestly, I think there’s a lot less than you think. This was one of the first things in quite a long time, and like I just said, it wasn’t the fact I had a slow pit stop which was the reasoning.

“It was more the fact of the changing of positions, the sequencing of things, which was the same as – I know a very different time – but the same as Hungary last year.

“That was actually the more the reasoning of it, combined with the pit stop, which then made the decision. So there’s not been many things apart from that.

“Of course, they try and keep things fair between us, but it’s not been many things where they’ve had to actually get involved and do anything to help one or the other.”

Norris insisted that in essence he and his title rival are still free to race, despite the Monza intervention leading some folk to believe otherwise.

“Of course, how things then look because of something that happened last weekend gives everyone a very different opinion or oversight on things.

“But if you make it as simple as and kind of how we done it is as simple as what happened in Hungary last year, was a very similar thing, that the driver in the lead has priority in a pit stop sequence. That’s exactly what we were entering last weekend, that things don’t change.

“But the fact is, as soon as we just re-established the position, Oscar could race me freely, still had the advantage of starting basically on my gearbox and trying to race me. So he still gained overall.

“But otherwise, we’ve been free every time to race. It’s just like one lap of a pit sequence is when the lead driver always has priority, and that’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it will continue to be. But otherwise we’re free to race.”

With eight races to go and deficit of 31 points Norris faces a massive challenge in the coming weeks unless Piastri has a non-finish or some kind of disaster.

If Norris beats in a one-two finish in the next four races (and the Austin sprint) he can in theory close the gap to just two points over those four weekends – but clearly doing that will be nigh on impossible given the way form has swing back and forth between the two of them.

However he remains confident that there are tracks coming up where he could have the advantage.

“I mean there’s a couple, when I just look at my results from last year,” he said when I asked where he though he might be ahead. “Singapore was one of my best last season, and others. But Oscar has also improved this season, so even if I had the biggest advantage last year, in some ways, I put it behind me, and I have to reset and just look ahead to another season, another weekend.

“There’s certainly some I feel better at than others. At the same time, the car has changed this year, and certainly some of my feelings that I had last year and my confidence level that I had at tracks last year is, is not the same as what I had this year. So that’s taken into account too.

“But there’s not been either one of us dominating at any kind of weekend this season. So I don’t expect any greatness. I just expect close battles, and therefore every little thing is important at the minute, and that’s also what I need, just to keep working hard.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

September 16, 2025 · 9:00 am

F1 finalises 2026 six sprint schedule with more planned for longer term

Adding extra sprints for 2026 was too complex but the total will rise in the future

Formula 1 has confirmed that the 2026 calendar will once again feature six sprint events – but the door is open for the total to rise from 2027.

There are four changes compared to this season. Shanghai and Miami remain on the list, but Spa, Austin, Sao Paulo and Qatar have gone, and are replaced by Montreal, Silverstone, Zandvoort and Singapore.

Stefano Domenicali has made it clear in recent weeks that the sprint format is popular with both fans and promoters, and he has been looking for ways to extend it.

However changing the rules to add more events for next season was too complex a procedure.

The current plan is to potentially double the current total and have as many as 12 sprints from 2027, while the door is open for changes to the format, such as a reverse grid, subject to discussions between F1, the FIA and the teams.

Domenicali noted: “The F1 Sprint has continued to grow in positive impact and popularity since it was introduced in 2021.

“With four competitive sessions rather than two during a conventional Grand Prix weekend, F1 Sprint events offer more action each day for our fans, broadcast partners, and for the promoters – driving increased attendance and viewership. We’re also proud to have welcomed Gatorade as an Official Partner of F1 Sprint, demonstrating the huge interest in the event from an iconic global brand.


“The 2026 season will usher in a new era of regulations, so having three new Sprint venues will only add to the drama on track.

“I want to thank the FIA, all the promoters, our partners, marshals, volunteers, and local sporting clubs for continuing to make the Sprint a big success and we all look forward to giving our fans more incredible racing and excitement in the 2026 season.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

September 12, 2025 · 12:20 pm

Why Wolff believes that underwhelming Antonelli has to get rid of “ballast”

The Italian’s rookie season has seen more lows than highs so far

For Kimi Antonelli the Zandvoort/Monza Formula 1 double header could hardly have gone any worse.

At both venues the teenager lost a practice session to a mistake, and then in both of the races he picked up a time penalty following an incident with a rival.

While team mate George Russell logged a fourth and a fifth place across the two weekends Antonelli’s only contribution to the Mercedes total in what is a closely-contested constructors’ battle was a ninth in the Dutch event.

Indeed since his solid third place and maiden podium in Canada back in June he’s scored just three points in six events, leaving his total at 66 compared to the 194 of Russell.

Obviously he’s a rookie, and as such there’s some leeway and a honeymoon period. Mistakes are inevitable, and part of the learning process. However Miami qualifying aside there arguably have been few signs of the sort of stellar performances that the true future greats typically show in their very early days.

Meanwhile fellow rookies Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto have both done an eye-catching job of late, and both men appear to be making progress each week, maximising their potential and making few errors.

It’s true that it’s easier to shine in an underdog team when you don’t face the sort of intense spotlight that Antonelli is under. Nevertheless both have shown the world what a newcomer can do with a 2025 car.

Monza was particularly poignant in that it came a year after Antonelli’s infamous FP1 gaffe at Parabolica in his first public appearance with Mercedes, which was followed the next day by confirmation of his race seat for 2025.

Going off in FP2 on the anniversary – just a week after a similar mistake in FP1 at Zandvoort – put him on the back foot. It didn’t impress team boss Toto Wolff, who gave a remarkably candid summary after the flag.

“Underwhelming this weekend,” said the Austrian. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and then expect to be [up] there. And all of the race was underwhelming.

“It doesn’t change anything in my support and confidence in his future, because I believe it’s going to be very, very good. But today, he was underwhelming.”

Losing a practice session is always tough for a rookie. Precious mileage cannot be reclaimed, and it means that the programme for the rest of the weekend is compromised.

Antonelli still qualified a decent P7 at Monza, just behind Russell, and it looked like he would make amends.

He gained a further spot from Hamilton’s penalty, but a bad start dropped him to P10 on the first lap. His tentative progress thereafter hinted at him trying to be super careful not get into any more scrapes after his clumsy contact with Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort.

That didn’t work out as he picked up a penalty for leaning a little too hard on Alex Albon. In the end it only cost him one place, and he dropped from eighth to ninth in the final classification.

“Apparently, I pushed him off track,” he said of Albon. “So I don’t know, to be honest, I need to look at it. But yeah, it’s a shame. But I think the race was compromised with the start. I got wheelspin straight away and just lost a lot of places.

“I’m happier about quali pace, which was strong, just a shame with the start that I did a mistake and lost a lot of places. So just need to work on that, and try to do better in Baku.”

He admitted that the FP2 error had been costly: “As I said, quali pace was better, which was good. That was much closer as well to George, but in the race… I didn’t do long runs in FP2 because of my mistake, so I wasn’t really prepared for the race.

“When you miss a full practice, especially in FP2, which is usually is quite important, because it’s where, also the track is the closest in terms of time and temperature to qualifying.

“FP1, yeah you do long runs, but the track usually is quite green, so the deg is a bit different, while FP2 is more representative. And just didn’t do the long run in the most important session.

“And I did a long run, FP3, but it was with soft tyres, which was quite irrelevant. So yeah, that was penalising, mostly for the race.”

“Looking to the next few races, it’s going to be important to have a clean weekend from FP1 all the way to FP3, and in order to be ready for quali and then races.”

Wolff agrees that that is just what Antonelli needs, although both upcoming tracks in Baku and Singapore are far from easy.

At the moment the problem seems to be that he’s overdriving, trying so hard not to make mistakes that inevitably they happen anyway.

“I think a clean weekend also means almost not to carry too much trauma, previous mistakes, into the next session, into the next weekend,” said Wolff. “Because that is luggage.

“You’re not going attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and finished your session, or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that you know should not be in your way. Like Gasly, Kimi shouldn’t even lose even a second to Gasly.”

So what’s the answer?

“I think just freeing him up,” said Wolff. “He’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer, it’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”

He still has eight races and a third of the season to go. He’s raced in Baku and Doha in F2, and tested current or TPC F1 cars at several of the remaining venues, but there are others that will be new to him – although ironically some of his best weekends this year have been at places he didn’t know. It’s now in his hands to show the sort of spark that Wolff and Mercedes expect.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 10, 2025 · 2:55 pm

How Alonso was left frustrated after Aston issue cost priceless points at Monza

A decent top 10 finish was on the cards when Alonso retired at Monza

The battle between the six F1 teams behind the regular top four frontrunners is incredibly tight this year, and the rewards for getting it right are substantial.

Thus any retirement that costs priceless points is inevitably frustrating, and that was certainly the case for Fernando Alonso at Monza.

Having surprised himself and the team by making Q3 and starting eighth (helped by Lewis Hamilton’s penalty) the Spaniard had a solid run in the first part of the race.

He was running eighth when he jumped protégé Gabriel Bortoleto in the pits, but shortly afterwards he slowed and headed to the pits after a spectacular suspension failure on the exit kerbs at Ascari.

Such retirements are rare, especially 16 races into the season when cars have gone through a lot of punishment and usually any fragility would have been exposed. And like everyone else Alonso had clattered over the same kerbs many times over the course of the weekend.

It was particularly galling for the former World Champion in that it happened while a decent score was on the cards, and it wasn’t the first time in 2025 that points have gone astray for him, following a PU issue in Monaco, while he also had brake problems early in the Chinese GP.

“We’re using that kerb every lap, basically,” said Alonso when I asked him about the Monza stoppage. “Only in our car we had the suspension problem. And always these things happen when we have a scoring race.

“We had some races that we were dead last and nothing happened, like Spa that we are running one lap behind the leaders.

“Monaco, I think I was P6 retired with an engine problem. Today, I was P7 and I retired with a suspension problem. So yeah, there are dozens of points that the luck probably was not with us.”

He added: “It’s frustrating that I should have maybe 20-30 points more than what I have not down to me. But yes, it’s the way it is, unfortunately. I’m getting used to it.”

That total might have been a little exaggerated, but he made his point. He also didn’t really see the strong performance prior to his retirement as an upside.

“I don’t need to have good performance,” he said. “I need the points, and the performances are always good, and I don’t remember having a very bad performance, on the team or on my side in 22 seasons. So it’s not really important.”

As of Sunday night the team had no explanation for the failure, with the relevant parts obviously being rush back to Silverstone for proper analysis.

“No, we didn’t see anything,” said Mike Krack. “It would have been easy to say he went wide or something, but we didn’t see anything unusual. And that is why I think it’s important to do this kind of analysis properly.

“It’s easy to point at the driver, it’s easy to point any kind of incident. You need to stay factual in such situations.

“What we had to do is tell Lance to be careful in that area. And that is all you can do in such a situation, make sure that the sister car goes a little bit careful, even if it’s not related. But that is something that you have to do. And then you have to do the analysis properly afterwards.”

Krack conceded that there have been issues that didn’t necessarily reach the public domain related to the loadings that current cars go through.

“With this generation of cars, we have seen issues that we have never had,” he said. “A lot is also because the cars are touching a lot more with the floor.

“So we have seen in other areas failures that we have never had before, not that they have led to DNF, but where we never had anything like that, because the cars are running so stiff and so low, so there is a different loading on the car.”

Alonso might not have been too excited about the performance but until his retirement it had been a well-executed race for driver and team, and while he might have lost seventh to late stopper Alex Albon he should have been at least eighth.

Those points would have provided an extra cushion over the likes of Racing Bulls and Sauber, both of those chasing teams having also gained from the Aston stopping.

“I think the strategy went really well, because everything went to plan, more or less,” said Krack.

“We know Gabriel in front was very fast on the straight, so we could take his DRS. We were dreaming a bit to replicate the Austria race, where we were in the DRS of Liam [Lawson] all the time. And it worked out pretty well.

“I think we called at the right moment to box, managed to pass Gabriel, and it would have been quite a strong finish, I think. We had a little bit the upper hand in the beginning on the hard.

“I don’t know how we would have gone obviously later on in the race. Albon was fast, I think it would have been difficult [to beat him], but I think we could have finished in the points.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 8, 2025 · 8:49 am

Why every race is still a Groundhog Day for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

He had a good run at Monza but Hamilton admits that each track still requires a reset

Monza was always going to be a difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton given the five-place grid penalty he picked up in Zandvoort, and dropping back from a decent fifth in qualifying to P10 on the grid was incredibly frustrating.

He gained spots from Kimi Antonelli and Yuki Tsunoda at the start and soon worked his way up to P6, and while George Russell was in his sights, that would be as good as it would get.

It was a solid first Monza weekend in Ferrari colours – blue rather than red for marketing reasons as it turned out – and it appeared that the progress seen at the previous race is continuing.

“I had a really good start, and I had to lift just after the start, because it was such a good start,” he said when I asked about his race. “And then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars.

“Other than that, I positioned the car really nicely, and I think made my way forwards. And I think I could have got fifth today. I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George. We should have tried to undercut them, but when we missed that opportunity, I was miles behind.”

Hamilton made it clear that he is making progress, and that the SF-25 is feeling less alien to him.

“I think this weekend built a lot on my confidence with the car,” he said. “Definitely, I’m still not 100% comfortable in the car. And I think ultimately that’s driving kind of an alien driving style with a car that I’m not 100% comfortable with.

“But I think overall, our performance was fairly decent. I think we obviously don’t have the pace of the cars much further ahead. So competing for top three is off the cards for a while, but we keep pushing, trying to extract more.”

The challenge he faces is that 16 races into the season every weekend still represents a kind of Groundhog Day reset as he had to adapt to the behaviour of the car at each venue, and forget the muscle memory that he built up over his years at Mercedes.

“I know I’ve been driving this car all year long, but in my previous years, I was a part of a car that you’re evolving over time, and you were comfortable with it,” he said.

“You know the driving style, inside and out. And I think this year, I’m arriving at the track and having to apply this new driving style that that is still alien to me. It doesn’t feel natural to a car. That’s how it likes to work.

“So through the race, I’m just getting better and better and faster and faster, and I’m unlocking in that and gaining confidence bit by bit, but that’s not there early on in the weekend to really be able to really harness it.

“If we were to do qualifying now, I think I would have been quite a bit quicker, but that’s all part of it. So hopefully next year it’s not a driving style that’s alien to me. Hopefully can go back a little bit towards what I was used to.”

With its low downforce and big braking areas Monza is a track where drivers needs that confidence, and the next venue in Baku – where there’s so little margin for error – is even more so. Hamilton agrees that it’ll be back to square one again on the Friday.

“I’m going to go there again starting at a track where I raced a different car for many years. I think the car feels better here, for example, it’s better in low speed.

“And I think the next race will be quite similar. I’ll start kind of on that back foot and build up through the weekend. I’m sure Sunday, last lap, the last race, will still be the most comfortable.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

September 7, 2025 · 8:46 am

Why Gasly’s new Alpine deal makes sense for both sides despite “painful” 2025

Flavio Briatore has convinced Gasly of Alpine’s long term potential

The Alpine Formula 1 team caught the paddock somewhat by surprise when on Saturday morning it confirmed that Pierre Gasly is now committed to stay on board until the end of 2028.

While such security makes sense for both parties it was perhaps unexpected given the uncertainties over the competitiveness of everyone’s package in 2026 and beyond.

It could be argued that Gasly might have wanted the freedom to move elsewhere if the new Alpine-Mercedes combination isn’t good enough, while on the other hand if the team does make a huge step it potentially becomes attractive to top class drivers who haven’t been so lucky with their current teams.

Of course in the latter instance Alpine still has another seat that has yet to be filled for 2026, never mind beyond that.

For Gasly the new deal makes complete sense despite the team’s poor form in 2025, the last year with its own power unit.

“I think obviously my side, I didn’t have much to rush,” he said when I asked him about it. “I think Flavio kind of convinced me going forward to the potential of the team. There are reasons why we’re not competitive this year.

“I fully backed the team at the start of the year, once they decided to stop the development very early on compared to other teams, which obviously is a bit painful right now.

“But I think moving forward, and for my let’s say targets in F1, it’s definitely the best thing to do for the coming season.

“I fully believe in the team of people we have in Enstone. We’ve got some good new recruits. I think in terms of organisation, work processes we have, the team is probably in the best place that I’ve seen.

“And everything we know is not working on this year’s car is a conscious decision not to change it to maximise our chances from next season.”

Gasly obviously considered his options: “Of course I did. I mean, it’s just a normal stuff to do. It’s not like it was a no-brainer looking at the performance at the start of the year. So there is some thinking behind it, but honestly, I believe this is a very strong option. I’ve just got to wait and display some good performance from next season.”

So where could he have gone in say, 2027 or ‘28? One could speculate that the departure of Christian Horner – a man known to not be as fan – opened up the possibility for an eventual return to Red Bull in a post-Verstappen era.

However relying on that happening a year or two down the line would have been a big gamble.

It’s also worth noting that Gasly shares his management with Isack Hadjar, and thus he would have a pretty good insight into what’s going on there, and is perhaps aware that even with no Horner it’s not going to happen.

The length of the deal is a vote of confidence in both directions.

“I think it’s good to have some clarity and show my commitment on both hands,” said Gasly.

“From the team towards me and me towards the team, and with a group of people that I’m working with and feeling in a much better place than I was when I arrived. So I think it’s very clear. I think it can only be positive for everyone in the team.

He added: “That’s also one of the reasons we decided to do it now. I think we’ve got all the ingredients in the team to actually deliver a competitive car from next year’s on, but people have got to believe in it, same as when you drive, if you have the belief you’re going to make it, you always get those last couple of hundredths and extra performance out of it.

“And I would say that’s probably the only thing we miss, because we’ve got all the other ingredients to actually deliver a very strong race car from next season.”

And one of those ingredients is the presence of new boss Steve Nielsen, returning to Enstone after spending time with other teams and both the FIA and F1 organisations. Monza is his first weekend back in the camp.

“I think Steve is an amazing addition to the team,” said Gasly. “So if you start looking at the people we’ve got inside the team, a lot of experience, a lot of people that have been around for a long time, and also been successful in F1.

“So honestly, I think the team is shaping up very strongly. So very happy. I’m still getting to know him, but I think he’s going to be a very good guy for the whole team.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

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.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

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.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

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.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,