June 2, 2025 · 9:01 am

How “everything clicked” for Hulkenberg’s P5 charge in Spain

Hulkenberg had a little luck but nevertheless his result in Barcelona was well deserved

Amid the hoopla surrounding Max Verstappen at the end of the Spanish GP a superb performance by Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber almost got lost in the mix.

The German was helped by the late safety car, and was gifted a place by Verstappen’s penalty. However he had been solidly in the points for most of the race, and his eventual P5 was well deserved.

It’s not been an easy year for Sauber thus far, and the Swiss team has often had the ninth or 10th fastest car on the grid.

Hulkenberg took some pressure off with a good early result in Melbourne, but that was more down to his tenacity and good strategy in the rain.

In Spain the team bolted some performance onto the car with a floor update that impressed Hulkenberg from the start on Friday.

However his qualifying session didn’t live up to the promise of practice, and he was squeezed out in P16, although Gabriel Bortoleto hinted at the true potential with 12th spot, having only got the updates on Saturday.

Hulkenberg then gained a spot from Lance Stroll’s withdrawal and from P15 on the grid he rode his luck around the first couple of corners, benefiting from a clash between Alex Albon and Liam Lawson, before getting ahead of both his team mate and Fernando Alonso.

Unexpectedly up to 10th on the first lap, he now had a very good chance of logging some points.

A relatively early first stop and a long second stint on the medium tyres put him in a strong position in the latter part of the race, and he was running ninth when Kimi Antonelli’s retirement handed him another spot, and brought out the safety car.

While everyone around him also pitted Hulkenberg had the benefit of new rather than used softs for the restart, and he used them to good effect to get ahead of Isack Hadjar and Lewis Hamilton to cross the line in P6, before the Verstappen penalty kicked in and gave him another position.

“It was a great race,” he said when I asked him about his afternoon. “Just one of those races where just everything seemed to click and to work out beautiful, when it happens. It doesn’t happen that often, unfortunately!

“A mixture. Having all these new tyres being out in Q1 actually was really useful and helpful today. And then, on the other hand, from 16th to have the start and lap one that I had kind of immediately reset the race, and then put us into the fight for a good result.

“And obviously the late safety car and then having another set of softs did the rest of it. So very happy. And obviously we take that, but that’s just if you bring updates and performance that works, you can help yourself.”

In the end the first lap charge made all the difference: “There was a car coming, sliding across, so both I think Gabby and I had to avoid Turn 2 and avoid some car, I’m not sure who it was.

“I had a bit of a little fight with Fernando also, I think, for one or two laps, but wrestled him down in the end. And that was good.”

Hulkenberg’s pass on Hamilton raised a few eyebrows, but he insists it wasn’t a fair fight.

“Well, he was on used, he only had used softs left. And that’s where you see, even though he’s in a Ferrari, how important and how powerful the tyres are, he was just sliding around a lot. And I had new boots, which made all the difference, to be honest.”

It was a great result too for the team, which has inevitably been in the spotlight amid management changes and with the focus that Audi’s ownership brings.

“It’s obviously a very sweet moment,” said Hulkenberg. “The second time points this year, but since Melbourne it has obviously been a bit of a dry patch.

“It’s been difficult, but I believe it puts us more on the map in the midfield fight. We’ve found the connection to that train. in quali things are very tight and everything needs to be right. But I feel like in the races, hopefully we can be there, push into it, and fight with all these other guys more.”

It was a perfect storm of circumstances, but the new floor played at least some role in moving Sauber up the order.

“I think it’s more the updates,” said Hulkenberg. “Maybe it’s the technical TD, the flexi wing stuff that others paid more of a price than us, because honestly, I feel for us, it didn’t change that much.

“I don’t feel much different in high-speed. And to be honest, high-speed so far has been not our strongest point. So I tend to believe it is the update.”

The team has promised another package – already designed and currently in manufacture. The fact that this one translated to the track so well appears to be a sign that the restructure is coming together, and new people are gelling.

“Absolutely,” said Nico. “And P5 obviously we can only dream of in normal races and circumstances. But I think it was a P8 or P9 before the safety car, which already would have been really, really good for us.

“So, I think just happy, everyone in the factory, can be happy that the update delivered. It’s what we needed. We can’t stop here, because nobody stops. We need kind of more of the same.”

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June 1, 2025 · 7:12 pm

The day Verstappen tipped over the edge

Verstappen prepares to face the music after the flag…

The closing stages of an otherwise fairly routine Spanish GP were enlivened by a safety car triggered by a PU failure for Kimi Antonelli – and out of nowhere we suddenly had a Grade A controversy, with Max Verstappen right at the heart of it.

The Dutchman had been doing a great job in taking the fight to the McLarens, and the safety car could have been a perfect opportunity for him to get stuck into them over the last few laps. In fact it had the opposite effect.

Almost the entire field pitted for tyres, but the problem for Verstappen was that having already stopped three times the only real option he had was to take new hards, while everyone else went to softs. The team decided that was a better bet than keeping out on softs that had done eight laps before the safety car.

Verstappen questioned the call, and his fears were realised when at the restart he almost lost it on coming onto the straight.

He had a touch with Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari man came past, and then had to brave it out with George Russell into Turn 1, going off track in the process.

He managed to stay ahead in the latter case, but his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase urged him to give the place back. Having argued the then appeared to let Russell by only to drive into the side of the Mercedes.

It looked like a red mist moment of the kind that Michael Schumacher used to have from time to time, and while Verstappen may be a hard racer, he’s rarely indulged in anything quite as blatant or clumsy.

“I don’t really know, to be honest, probably as surprising for you guys as it was for me,” said Russell. “I don’t know what he was thinking, but in the end, I finished fourth, he finished 10th. So bit of an unnecessary manoeuvre…”

Elaborating on what transpired he added: “It felt very deliberate, to be honest. It’s something that I’ve seen numerous times in sim racing and on iRacing. Never have I seen it in an F1 race. So that was something new.

“It’s a bit of a shame, because Max is clearly one of the best drivers in the world, but manoeuvres like that are just totally unnecessary, and sort of lets him down. And it’s a shame for all the sort of young kids looking up, aspiring to be F1 drivers. So, as I said, I don’t know what he was thinking.

“In the end, I’m not going to lose sleep over it, because I ultimately benefited from those antics.”

The stewards took a dim view, and as the race ran to his conclusion he was given a 10-second penalty that demoted him from fifth on the road at the flag to 10th.

When Verstappen met the media he was in and upbeat and bullish mood, not willing to admit any fault or go into any detail about what transpired with Russell.

“Yeah, with the hard tyres, just didn’t have any grip,” he said when I asked about that safety car call. “We didn’t have any good soft tyres left, because we did that three-stop. So yeah, that’s basically unlucky.

“I think up until then, it was looking quite good for us. We didn’t have, of course, the pace of the McLarens, but with that three-stop, it still looked quite racy out there, putting them at least a little bit under pressure in a way that they had to push, and but, yeah, unfortunately, that safety car just came at the at the wrong time. But that’s also part of racing.

“And then with the hard tyre, I had a big moment out of the last corner, because I couldn’t keep up with these soft tyres around me. Then on the straight I got driven into already, and then into Turn 1 as well.

“Then they told me to give the position back. But honestly, I think the biggest issue that we have is just that the racing standards, what is allowed, what isn’t, is not very natural.

“And that is quite frustrating. And of course, sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you. And today that worked against me.”

Expanding on the tyre call he said: “At that point, I was not sure what soft eye we had left. I knew that it was not going to be like a one lap old tyre, but, yeah, unfortunately, the hard tyre just was really poor.

“I thought it maybe could have been a bit better, but it wasn’t. And especially with six laps left, everyone can go flat out on a soft, and then you’re just grip limited compared to everyone else on the soft.”

What he didn’t want to do was say very much about the Russell clash, or respond to the Mercedes driver’s critical take on his behaviour.

Fending off the questions he said: “Honestly, it’s better to just focus on the race, which I think was quite okay, up until the safety car.”

He did eventually concede that “I think it was a misjudgement,” while asked if he had any regrets he added: “I think in life, you shouldn’t regret too many things. You only live once.”

These two have history of course, which peaked with a war of words at the end of last season. Will Ma have a word with Russell?

“No, not necessarily. I have nothing to say…”

The Russell incident came in tandem with the clash with Leclerc, which could have been a lot worse – and which the stewards let go, with neither driver predominantly to blame.

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened there,” said Verstappen. “It was really odd, because basically, the move was almost done, and suddenly he moved left, which could have been a big one, but it was just really weird. I don’t know what happened.

“I thought I was going to have a puncture, because with the floor, you can cut the tyre.”

It was clearly a frustrating afternoon for Verstappen, who was unhappy on the radio during the race, even describing the tricky RB21 – which he has flattered all season – as “broken.” Losing a podium shot to the safety car and the ensuing tyre choice, and finding himself unable to defend, clearly nudged him over the edge.

Ultimately he only harmed himself in the Russell incident, and in tumbling from fifth to 10th thanks to the penalty, he lost nine points.

They may not mean much in the grand scheme things if the two McLaren drivers continue to pull away in the championship. However they could prove expensive if Red Bull’s overall form improves, and he can keep the fight alive.

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June 1, 2025 · 8:11 am

Tsunoda still trying to solve the “mystery” of missing Red Bull pace

The Red Bull driver could not better P20 in Spanish GP qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles to make an impression at Red Bull Racing continued in Barcelona as he qualified in a disastrous P20 on a day when team mate Max Verstappen was pushing the McLarens in third.

Tsunoda noted after Friday practice that he didn’t know why he was slow, and after Q1 he told the team that he’d done a “clean lap”, which made his lack of pace even more of a mystery.

It’s not what he needed after his huge Q1 crash in Imola (where he at least had a good run to 10th in the race) and a lowly 17th place – with a strategy that didn’t play out – in Monaco.

“Straight away from FP1 first push I said on the radio that’s something feels not right,” he said when I asked about his session. “And it’s not really matching to my expectation of how I feel in a car in terms of grip level overall.

“And obviously we tried to solve that issue throughout the week, but just especially when you’re limited by overall grip, whatever we changed setups, it just made a bit of like plaster feeling, it’s not able to cure the core limitation, which I had. So it’s a shame.”

Tsunoda insisted that the team had tried everything to resolve his issues.

“I don’t think it’s set up, because to be honest, we tried almost every setup,” he said. “There’s obviously some preference a bit there and there, and I think I’m still convinced that we were able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance.

“And like I said, car balance itself is not bad. And at least also my confidence was there. The lap in qualifying on both tyres, especially last push, was pretty good. So doesn’t really stack up with my results, and with the pace I’m having.”

Although it didn’t show in the results there were times over the Monaco weekend where despite a tricky car he showed good pace, and he concedes that he’s slipped back.

“Until previous Grand Prix, especially until Monaco, I was having good progress throughout and last Grand Prix, some sessions I was matching or faster than Max, and suddenly it drops like hell.

“And whatever I do, every lap, even like a long run was good example, just whatever I do, nothing happens.

“And it feels like this car is eating the tyres like hell, having degradation massively. It doesn’t really stack up. I think the core limitation is still there, and I don’t know what it is, and I can’t really have any answer for that.

“The previous Grands Prix the team were same page with me, how I think, as well I think pace was really there. Monaco qualifying was a shame, with the red flag and everything.

“But at least, I’ve shown pace and I heard multiple times from the team that it’s been a while that the second driver has been able to match Max, or being faster.

“So they were happy, but this Grand Prix somehow it just drops massively for whatever reason, and I’m not able to show my performance, which is a shame. And yeah, it’s something that for this Grand Prix is something I feel really, really strange. A mystery.”

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June 1, 2025 · 6:45 am

Russell searching for silver lining in Barcelona race

Russell starts from P4 in Spain – last year he jumped into the lead from the same spot

George Russell was fourth in FP3 on Saturday in Barcelona, and then showing remarkable consistency the Mercedes driver repeated that result in Q1, Q2 and Q3.

It was a solid qualifying session for the Brit, and a good way to bounce back from the disappointment of Monaco.

Last year he also started the Spanish GP from P4, and he managed to jump into the lead at the start, although as the race progressed he dropped back – to finish in the inevitable fourth.

“We know that on a Saturday, our car is anywhere between P2 and P5, that’s where it’s been all season, and again today,” he said when I asked him about the session.

“It’s good, we managed to get to Q3 only on two sets of tyres. So I’ve got a new soft tyre tomorrow, which is a valid race tyre. So that’s a positive, but we’re realistic, we know that the car isn’t quick on Sundays.”

Russell remains uncertain about the W16’s potential form in the hot conditions of Sunday’s race, which could make life tricky.

However he’s hoping that the harder compounds in use in Spain will favour the team.

“We also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to try and improve the race pace,” he said.

“So to see that we haven’t really hindered the quali pace is a positive. But then also it may mean it’s not going to improve the race pace.

“So tomorrow is going to be an interesting one for us. We struggled a lot when it was the soft compound of tyres, when it was hot. But when it was the hard compound of tyres in Bahrain and it was hot, we obviously finished second there.

“So it’s when the tyres overheat, if the tyres overheat by 10 degrees on a C4 it’s much more punishing than 10 degrees on a C1 tyre. So that’s sort of the only slight silver lining to give us a bit of hope for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile it was a solid session for Russell’s team mate Kimi Antonelli, who will start from P6.

“After the two difficult weekends, especially qualifying, it was good to kind of get back into the rhythm,” said the Italian.

“Speaking about rhythm, it took me a little bit at the start of the session to get back into that rhythm of qualifying. But also that put me in a position where I had to use one extra set during the whole session, which compromised a little Q3.

“Because definitely the step between used and new was quite big. Overall, still P6. Obviously I want to finish a bit higher in the ranks. But at the same time, there’s a long race tomorrow.”

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May 31, 2025 · 5:57 pm

How Russell’s 2024 start has inspired Hamilton to target Barcelona podium

Hamilton has his eyes on the top three in Spain [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

It’s been a challenging 2025 season with Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton thus far, but the Barcelona race could provide him with an opportunity to prove a point.

He wasn’t happy on Friday, but after an issue with the car was sorted out overnight he overcame a gearshift issue in FP3 and found some solid pace in qualifying, taking P5 in Q2 and repeating that when it mattered in Q3.

He has both McLarens, Max Verstappen and George Russell ahead of him, but the man who has won here six times is targeting a top three finish, and an improvement on the charge at Imola that represents his best full-length race of the year to date.

He cites his former team mate’s jump from P4 to the lead at the start of last year’s race as inspiration.

“My target is to try and get to the podium,” he said when I asked if beating Russell would be his initial aim. “I haven’t been on the podium for a long time. It’s a long way down to Turn One.

“You saw the start George got last year, and so I will be trying my best to try and get a good start, and then otherwise, after that, it’s just about managing the tyres here, which is challenging.

“But like every weekend, I’m coming to the circuit for the first time with the team, and the car is so much different to what I drove previous years here.

“So through the weekend, I’m having to adapt this new driving style, which is horrible! It’s not an enjoyable driving style, but I’m adapting it to these circuits each time I come. But I love that it’s a first each weekend.”

Hamilton noted that his Friday woes were traced to a specific issue, rather than an inherent problem.

“I wouldn’t say I was frustrated yesterday,” he said. “I was just confused, because we didn’t really change anything in the car, and then all of a sudden we lost some downforce from the floor, and it was like a massive shift in balance, and we didn’t do anything.

“And so I got into P2 hoping for the same car, and it wasn’t the same car. So that that was a bit confusing for us. We discovered it afterwards, and we rectified that today, and the car’s been much better today, so we have clearly improved qualifying, which is a real positive. So we’ve got to keep building. We clearly don’t have the pace of the guys up ahead.”

Hamilton concedes that it won’t be easy to make progress in the coming weeks.

“If I’m honest, I don’t know what upgrades we have coming,” he said. “But we haven’t had an upgrade for quite some time, and we’ll keep pushing with what we have. But before too soon, I’ll be just saying this focus on next year.

“So building a foundation this year, learning about the tools, in terms of structure, in terms of how our process is, just nailing those. So then when we arrive next year, we’ll be with the car that we really want.”

Like everyone else Ferrari had to make a new front wing to meet the stricter flexing requirements, but Hamilton made it clear that he was underwhelmed by the whole thing.

“I drove it on the simulator, and it’s pretty much exactly the same, a little bit more oversteer in the high-speed,” he said.

“The balance is definitely not as nice as what we had before, but it hasn’t made any [difference]. What a waste of money, it’s just wasted everyone’s money.

“It’s literally changed nothing. Everyone’s wings still bend, it’s just half the bending, and everyone’s had to make new wings and spend more money to make these. It’s just doesn’t make sense, but it is what it is, and we just continue on…”

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May 29, 2025 · 5:13 pm

Why Piastri is focussed on the bigger picture of long-term McLaren success

Piastri will play the team game in this year’s title fight

Eight races and a third of the way into the 2025 Formula 1 season and remarkably McLaren team mates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are just three points apart in the World Championship.

Piastri enjoyed a great start to the season, but after something of a blip Norris had the edge in Monaco, taking the pole and the win.

It was something of a scrappy weekend for the Aussie, who had an off in practice and dinged the barriers on multiple occasions as he pushed the limits.

The margins are fine when you are fighting for wins, and it says a lot that he still earned third place despite things not going entirely smoothly.

It will be fascinating to see in Barcelona if Norris has made a genuine step in terms of his qualifying performance, and if Monaco really has given his confidence an all-round boost.

Piastri meanwhile has the sort of mindset that will allow him to learn from last weekend and quickly move on.

Team bosses Andrea Stella and Zak Brown face the tricky challenge of being fair to both men, and giving both a shot the title.

The drivers in turn have to prioritise the interests of the team, and while the constructors’ table is looking favourable for the Woking camp at the moment, there’s still a long way to go.

Piastri has a typically level-headed view of the situation, and he sees a much bigger picture, one that extends far beyond this season’s title fight.

“I think going into the year we knew that it’s impossible to have your own personal goal directly in parallel with the team’s,” he says.

“And that’s something we’ve both been very frank about, something that the team have been very aware of. Because at the end of last year, we felt that if we went to this year with a car as strong as we finished with, we’d be in this situation.

“I think we’ve been very good at being open about it, just talking about it, but we’re never going to do anything that’s unsportsmanlike or puts the team in a bad light, or puts ourselves in a bad light.

“I think that’s just not who Lando and I are. Of course, we want to go out and beat each other every weekend, but we’re never going to cross that line that’s going to cause damage that can’t be repaired, because I’ve said it a few times now, we don’t want just one opportunity at this.

“We’re both at McLaren for a very long time after this year, and we want to fight for the championship every single year. And I think we both understand it’s pretty unwise to try and win one championship and bring the house down with it…”

He’s pleased with how McLaren is keeping the right balance: “I don’t think every team would handle it as we are, no. I think at the same time, there’s not many teams in our situation.

“We’ve got a very good lead in the constructors’ championship at the moment, and whilst we’re continuing to build that gap, I think it’s the right thing to do to let us both try and fight for a championship.”

How the fight will unfold in Spain this weekend and over the remaining races of the season.

“It’s always been tight everywhere we’ve gone,” says Piastri. “There’s been weekends where I’ve been a bit quicker, there’s been weekends where Lando has been a bit quicker, but they’ve not necessarily been the weekends that we’ve beat each other on. There’s more to it than just being fast.

“So I think it’s going to ebb and flow a bit through the whole year. But I’m confident, we’ve analysed what went a little bit wrong in Monaco.

“It still wasn’t a terrible weekend, but just not as good as some of the weekends have been this year for me. So we’ve looked at what we can do a bit better, and we’ll try and put that in action.”

Piastri insists there’s no obvious pattern in terms of which of the pair has an advantage at a particular track.

“Not necessarily, no. I mean, it’s not one type of track that’s been good for me. It’s not one type of corner that’s been good. It’s if anything more who hooks it up on that day, so to speak. So there’s no clear trends, I mean, there never really have been clear trends.

“Of course, there’s slight strengths and slight weaknesses, but again, those also don’t always transfer from track to track.

“One weekend I might be a bit quicker in a high-speed corner. The next weekend it might be Lando. So it’s very, very tight between us. I think we’ve got very similar strengths and weaknesses, and I expect that to stay the same.”

The elephant in the room is that despite downplaying his own chances Max Verstappen continues to score well, and with the McLaren guys sharing out the big points, the Red Bull driver is still very much in contention.

“I don’t think he can be counted out,” says Piastri. “I think the gap is not very large at the moment. And they’ve genuinely been competitive at a decent number of circuits now.

“Of course, there’s been weekends where we’ve been stronger, but again, I think they’ve been developing their car. They’ve been finding more performance. So I think at this point, Max is definitely still in the fight.”

Not having to juggle the interests of both drivers obviously makes Christian Horner’s job easier, but Piastri believes that on balance having two cars in the fight is better than one.

“It helps in some situations. You don’t have to balance both the strategies. You can put all the attention on Max. But at the same time I think Lando and I do gain something from having each other pushing.

“Max is obviously very experienced and very talented. But I do think that Lando and I found some amount of lap time from having competitive teammates.

“Of course, that comes with challenges as well. But ultimately, we want to be fighting for a championship, beating everyone on the grid.

“And if you’ve got someone there pushing you, then whilst it gives you some challenges at time, as a team and as a driver, it also increases your level, which is ultimately what you want.”

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May 29, 2025 · 8:20 am

Why frustrated Bearman is ready to unleash Haas pace

Bearman can’t catch a break at the moment [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

Oliver Bearman could be forgiven for thinking that the world is against him right now after two frustrating qualifying sessions saw him stranded at the back of the grid.

And yet there is clearly some potential in the Haas package that he can take advantage of given a clean weekend in Spain.

At Imola he missed getting his final lap in after a red flag in Q1, a decision that was challenged by his team. That left him as the last car on the grid in P19, with Yuki Tsunoda switching to a pitlane start. From there he had a frustrating race to P17.

In Monaco he was again caught out by a red flag, this time in practice, after he opted to pass a slow Carlos Sainz rather than stand on the brakes and stay behind the Williams.

He thought he was doing the right thing, but the stewards took a dim view, and gave him a 10-place grid penalty.

Inevitably from P20 it was going to be a long slog, and yet despite a slow pit stop he managed to convert it to P12 at the finish – a decent performance given that only two cars retired.

However, Esteban Ocon’s solid run to seventh place showed what might have been.

“Of course, feeling a little bit hard done by,” he said when I asked him about the penalty after the session. “But I don’t want to get too much into the details. Different things, but same outcome, unfortunately.

“I feel like it was a harsh penalty, honestly, for everything that happened. I felt like there were some mitigating circumstances, namely the huge delta speed and the lack of time I had to react. But c’est la vie.”

Expanding on the transgression he added: “I don’t know what the standard penalty is. It’s quite a rare thing, but I feel like we’re in a street track, against the walls, and in a split second, I have to decide whether to slow down 120kph in 60 metres, or overtake the guy at a safe speed.

“Of course, I didn’t want to lock up and hit him. That would have been an absolute disaster, and I think I would have been in a lot more trouble than what I was now. But I think given the circumstances, I think I could have been dealt with a bit more kindly.”

Adding to the frustration was the fact that he couldn’t get any solace from showing what he could do in qualifying, because of the risk of knocking Ocon out.

In the end he had to settle for P17 in Q1 after abandoning his final lap.

“The only thing was I didn’t want to be in Q2 at the expense of the wrong person,” he noted. “If it happened that it played out and I knocked my teammate out of Q2 that would have been a disaster. So I’m glad we didn’t do that.

“I had to slow down at the end of the lap, but I understand. I’m starting 20th anyway, regardless of what happens, and I wouldn’t want to get in the way of anyone. The goal was maybe to be in Q2, and knock out a competitor. But of course, I don’t want to knock out an ally.”

Bearman was one of several drivers to go for the first lap tyre change strategy, but despite losing time with a wheel issue he ultimately made more progress up the order than others who took that route.

“We had a decent race,” he said. “The best we could have done today was this, really. We were lucky not to be affected by a slow stop.

“I think unless we had five or six other cars stopping on lap one, we were going to take the lap one stop. The problem is that regardless of what you do, the pack when it’s driving kind of six seconds slower, there’s nothing you can really do about it.”

The result may have gone largely unnoticed, but Monaco was a good boost for Bearman.

“In terms of personal performance, it was a really good weekend,” he noted. “I performed at a very high level, in my opinion, like I did in Imola. So I’m proud of myself, and I think the team have also done an excellent job this weekend.

“It’s been a tough one with this 10-place penalty, which unfortunately hindered our weekend, and meant that today the maximum we could have done was P12.

“But I’m really excited to get to Barcelona, and hopefully we can have a representative weekend of what we’ve been showing, or maybe hiding in a way, these past two weekends.”

It’s clear that upgrades introduced in Imola have been a boost, and Barcelona will be a chance for Bearman to reap the benefit.

“I’m almost certain points were there this weekend,” he said. “If I look at my performance, there was clearly pace in the car, no doubt about that.

“And of course, very happy to see Esteban scoring points on a weekend was more difficult on my side of the garage. But Esteban showed that there’s pace in the car, and there’s a lot of pace in the car.

“I think even if you look at the pace in free air in Imola, it looks quite good. The car has been feeling great.

“I think we just need to get the clear air, which is a bit more difficult. I just want to have a normal weekend now, without interruptions, without qualifying out of position, because that has been the case in the past two weekends.

“And I’ve been going off the back row for the past few race weekends. And nothing’s easy from back there…”

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May 27, 2025 · 3:47 pm

How Russell took a penalty and enjoyed an “exhilarating” clear run in Monaco

Russell spent much of the Monaco GP stuck behind drivers who were on a cruise

By any standards the Monaco GP was disastrous for the Mercedes Formula 1 team, which failed to score any points at the most prestigious race of the year.

The potential was clearly there, with setup changes after a difficult practice allowing George Russell to be as high as fifth in Q1.

However a PU failure early in Q2 stranded the Briton in 14th on the final grid – just ahead of Kimi Antonelli, who crashed at the end of Q1, having already made it through.

In the race the team opted to stay out and run long. The plan was spoiled by Racing Bulls and Williams both successfully implementing a strategy of backing everyone up to clear a pit stop window for the sister car, and Russell lost tons of time.

His frustration boiled over when he cut the chicane to pass a slow Alex Albon, something that earned him a drive through penalty. He took it on lap 53, prior to his mandatory tyre change stops on laps 62 and 68.

All of that at least gave him a clear track in the latter part of the race, something that allowed him to have some fun and drive flat out for a while. He was classified 11th at the flag, having set the race’s second fastest lap right at the end.

“We had planned with Kimi and I to basically do the same strategy as what VCARB and Williams implemented with the two drivers,” he told me when I asked about his race.

“But ultimately qualifying 14th and 15th, there is nothing you can do. You pit on lap one we’d have finished nowhere. You go long, we finished nowhere.

Ironically, I finished in a higher position by doing my manoeuvre with Alex than I would have done if I hadn’t. So that, in itself, proves the system’s pretty flawed.”

Russell admitted that he didn’t expect a drive through rather than a five or 10 second penalty, with the stewards clearly taking a dim view of his move.

“I was a little bit surprised, but I’ve got be honest, I didn’t really care,” he said. “Because I was out of the points I didn’t give a chance yesterday to enjoy Monaco, and I just said, ‘Screw it. I want to enjoy Monaco. I want to enjoy driving this track full gas.’

“It’s one of the best circuits in the world, and that’s what I did – the last 25 laps was the most fun I’ve had all weekend.

“Pretty exhilarating. I was really pushing my limits, testing myself. And as I said, ironically, if I didn’t do this, I would have finished maybe 15th or 16th.”

“It didn’t work because it was too easy for drivers and teams to work together to create the pit stop gap, invert the cars the next driver creates a pit stop gap and gives their teammate the free stop.

“So as I said, we had planned that ourselves, with Kimi and I, because that was our only hope of getting some points. And if everyone was driving flat out, as you do at any other race, and we ended up implementing our strategy, we both would have finished in the points. But VCARB did it, Williams did it. Then what can you do?

“Lawson took a 40-second gap to help Hadjar, and that was comfortable of him. And then Sainz did another 40 seconds. Driving four seconds off the pace here is dead easy. And our strategist said, anything less than three seconds of pace advantage is a zero percent chance of an overtake.

“You need four and a half seconds for a 50% chance of an overtake. So you effectively could put an F2 car out there, and they’ve got a chance of holding up an F1 car. I don’t know what the solution is. We were lucky in ’22 and ’23 that the wet races offered some excitement. Do they wet the track? I don’t know.”

He added: “We definitely need to have a real think what the solution is here at Monaco, I appreciate trying something this year, the two-stop. It clearly did not work at all. For all of the drivers qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend.

“Do we accept that there should be no race and it’s a qualifying race, and you do one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and the guy who qualifies pole get some points and gets a little trophy, number one on Sunday gets some more points, because that’s what we love most.

“I think that’s what you guys enjoy watching the most. And 99% of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on a yacht. So they don’t really care…”

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May 25, 2025 · 6:59 pm

Why pointless Alonso’s focus is already on the 2026 F1 title

He’s not scored thus far in 2025 – and Alonso will take the hit if next season is better

A Mercedes PU failure ensured that Fernando Alonso failed to finish the Monaco GP, thus extending the Spaniard’s pointless streak in 2025 to eight races.

He qualified an encouraging seventh and gained a spot from a penalty for Lewis Hamilton, but from early in the race he suffered with a loss of power.

At pretty much any other track he would have been forced to stop, but at Monaco he could keep going at his own pace. He was still in P6 when it became impossible for him to continue and he pulled off the track.

Despite the obvious frustration at missing the points yet again he shrugged it off – and made a point about his longer term ambitions.

“Well to be honest, I will be happy if everything goes like this the whole season, and I win in Australia next year,” he said.

“For me, it doesn’t change really, to finish P8 in Barcelona, Canada. To score eight points this year or 22, it doesn’t change much.

“While next year with a change of regulation, we really hope to be a contender for the championship. So I’m happy to accumulate all the DNFs this year.”

He made it clear that he’d been managing an issue from early in the race.

“I had the problem with the engine since lap 15,” he said when I asked about his race. “I didn’t have the ERS system, the electrical part. So I think I would like Danny Ric in 2017, with no electrical part, so I had 160 horsepower less.

“But here in Monaco, power was not crucial, so I kept the time lap reasonable. And I think, yeah, I was dreaming to keep the P6 at the end, maybe, if it was not possible. But yeah, race was good. In my case qualifying was very good yesterday, so we lost an opportunity today.”

At one point his frustration was obvious on the radio.

“I mean, when you don’t have the proper power, and yeah, everything seems to be on the wrong foot again, on the race start, it was bad. But today is not bad luck. It’s not something came from the sky and hit our car, or a wrong own safety car today.

“Our engine was not well prepared into the race, and we could not finish. So let’s try to investigate that, and make sure that it’s not happening in the next races.”

So were there any positives to be taken from the Monaco weekend? Most definitely.

“That I’m performing at very high level,” he said. “Obviously you never have self-doubt when you are a Formula One driver.

“But it’s true that from time to time to have a nice result is always welcome, and it put you a smile. And you go tomorrow to the gym, and you are a little bit more motivated, and you have some good news.

“In my case, there is no good news, so I need to keep going tomorrow morning to the gym, and I need to keep performing well. And that’s what I take. Monaco is a very special, very specific place, mega laps in qualifying, good laps now in the race, even without the ERS system.

“And if I had no points because the slow pace, or contacts with other cars or touching the wall or whatever, because of my mistakes, I would be very frustrated, but I feel the opposite. I feel performing very high level, so I feel relaxed, and waiting for an opportunity.”

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May 25, 2025 · 8:26 am

Why Sainz and Williams needed some tyre “black magic” in Monaco

Sainz says he’s taken a step back after making good progress in recent races

Williams was expected to be a strong contender in Monaco, and practice suggested that might be the case with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz sixth and eighth respectively in the crucial FP3 session.

However come qualifying things fell apart a little, and after a spectacular P3 in Q2 Albon could manage only 10th when it mattered in Q3. Sainz was even worse off, failing to progress to the final session in 11th place.

Rivals Racing Bulls, Aston Martin and Haas all have at least one car ahead on the grid.

Williams perhaps made its life difficult by swapping to and from the medium C5 tyre in Q2, which meant the drivers had a car that behaved differently from run to run – with Sainz suggesting that there was “black magic” involved in getting it right with the tyres.

It was particularly hard for Sainz, who having made good progress in recent races didn’t feel confident from Friday onwards in Monaco.

“I think my weekend has just been, honestly, a bit off from the get-go,” said the Spaniard when I asked him about it.

“Never getting to feel well and confident with a car around the street track. A bit disappointed, because all the progress that I’ve done with setup and with my driving, I felt like the moment I went to a street track I went back seven races, and I was still learning too many new things about this car in a street track.

“And we had to play a lot with setup, which in Monaco is not ideal, because you feel a different car every time you go out. Never really got into a very good rhythm this weekend.”

Despite that he still believed that he would make it into the top 10.

“Even with all this lack of rhythm, lack of pace, lack of confidence with the car, I felt like I had plenty of pace to go into Q3 this weekend,” he said.

“Q1 we had a solid run. Q2, the moment we started playing with mediums and softs, that’s when your lack of experience, or lack of lack of feeling with the car, starts to show up.

“And I lost my rhythm, I lost my confidence, and I had a terrible last lap on soft I was, sliding all over the place. So definitely something to look into.

“Because also looking at Alex, just now in Q3 he managed to do a mega lap in Q2 but in Q3 he was again, nowhere. So there must be some black magic there that we haven’t maybe understood fully with the tyres.”

Switching to mediums worked well for Aston Martin in Imola and even in Q2 in Monaco (Alonso had none left so returned to C6 softs in Q3), but it clearly is not straightforward. So has Williams learned a lesson not to mix and match next time the C6 is in play?

“Yeah, maybe it’s a good point,” said Sainz. “That maybe Q2, given it’s our most important session, whatever the tyre is, you just keep it consistent to make sure you nail the lap.

“If there is something, it’s a tenth between the two compounds, and that last tenth, I feel like, in Williams this year, we have that tenth of margin to go to Q3, and today I didn’t never really put a lap, a good enough lap. But it’s a good point, a fair point.

“We’ll analyse that what I’m more concerned or what I’m more disappointed with this weekend, is with my understanding, confidence. Set up changes with the car have been way too much, and I’ve never really felt the car underneath me, which puts us some homework before the next street track, whenever that is.”

Sainz remains confident that he can have a strong race on Sunday.

“Honestly, I have the feeling in the race I’ll be quick, yesterday in the long run, I was quick. So I hope I’m putting pressure in everyone in front of me, and we can use this two-stop strategy.

“I feel like the car with higher fuel, bit less reactive, everything calms down, and I am more confident. And I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’ll be on the pace, and put the pressure on everyone around me.”

In the middle of the pack Williams also has to keep an eye on those behind who make early stops.

“Yeah, but tomorrow’s a day to look forward,” said Sainz. “I mean, obviously, keep an eye behind. But I think tomorrow the target needs to be getting the points and to be the ones on the attack, because I think I am a bit out of position from where I think I could be this weekend.”

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