Tag Archives: Ferrari

June 19, 2025 · 12:52 pm

Why Alonso is calling for better Aston Martin race pace despite points haul

He’s scored points twice in a row but Alonso still wants a quicker car on Sundays

After starting the season with an eight-race drought Fernando Alonso has now logged two consecutive points finishes, and the signs are that there’s more to come.

The Spaniard followed up his ninth in Spain with a seventh in Canada last weekend as best of the rest behind the top four teams.

It’s clear now that Aston Martin has made a decent step since its last batch of upgrades, and that it is back in the midfield fight.

However while the team has improved the AMR25 over one lap Alonso is still keen to improve race day performance. which he believes hasn’t kept up with progress in qualifying.

As in Imola in Montreal Alonso followed a strategy of focussing on the medium C5 tyre through qualifying, rather than the slightly less predictable C6.

He was P6 in Saturday’s FP3 session, and then with a display of remarkable consistency he maintained that position through Q1, Q2 and crucially, Q3.

“Let’s do it tomorrow!,” he said after the session when I drew his attention to the stats. “We are happy. Obviously, Norris is P7, Leclerc P8, so it’s a little bit unrealistic to think that we will finish in P6. But the job today has been done.

“A very tricky FP3 session with the wind direction change today, it was for everybody. A lot of people oversteering, especially in the last corner with the tailwind and things like that. So we changed the car a little bit into qualifying, and it was back to normal in quali. So happy for that.

“It seems that I’m able to push the car to the limit now in the last few races, since Imola. With the new package, I’m much more linked with the car, I feel the car, and I can push to the maximum. And I feel in a good moment. So let’s confirm it tomorrow.”

Although the C5 strategy clearly worked Alonso insisted that pursuing it was not a no-brainer before the session.

“In Imola, we had the feeling that the C5 especially on our car gave us the confidence to push a little bit more. And then in Monaco, it was 50-50, and then here still 50-50.

“Even after qualifying, I think we’re still not sure which tyre, because some people are faster on the red tyre than the medium. But we still believe that on our car is a little bit more robust with the medium.”

For the race his focus was to lead the pursuit of the top teams – and crucially for the midfield battle in the World Championship, beat the Saubers.

“Normally on Sunday we do struggle a little bit more than Saturday,” he admitted. “And as I said, we have very fast cars behind us. So yeah, P8/P9 – we need points, that’s for sure. We want to be in the top 10 tomorrow, especially after Nico [Hulkenberg] scored so many points in Barcelona.

“We are tied with Sauber now, but behind them [on best result], and we want to go back to be at least in front of them by tomorrow afternoon. That’s a personal challenge now.”

Regarding the ultimate potential he added: “It depends on what is happening in front of us. There are many races that all the top teams are finishing the race. Maybe tomorrow is the day that there are a couple of DNFs…”

In the end he only had one helping hand from a retirement ahead, but other than that, it went to plan.

As he expected Norris and Leclerc soon found a way past, and then having lost out to Hulkenberg he did what he needed to do and got back ahead before the flag on his way to seventh – enough to put Aston two points ahead of Sauber in the World Championship.

“I think realistically on the pace, we knew that eighth maybe was the maximum,” he said when I asked about his afternoon. “And we were eighth until Lando had the DNF, and then it became seventh.

“Happy with the car. I mean, I didn’t have any big issues with the car, apart from maybe excessive tyre deg, but still Sunday pace is not quite yet in the rhythm I think of the weekend.

“We are sometimes one or two tenths away from the top teams in qualifying, and then we are one minute away, in the race. So definitely, Sunday is still our weak point on the weekend, and we need to make some maybe set-up work or priority into Sunday for the next few races.”

With 14 races to go just eight points separate Haas, Racing Bulls, Aston Martin and Sauber, and Alpine is only 11 points adrift in last place. There’s a lot to play for.

“When I saw Nico in front of us, and 10 laps to go, and I said, ‘Wow.’ It was very competitive. And the Sauber clearly made a step forward. So we need to keep the pace. If not, we will lose again the position soon.

“But at the same time, we are getting closer to Haas, closer to Racing Bulls. It’s going to be a nice battle, until Abu Dhabi.”

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June 18, 2025 · 7:25 am

Montreal was Groundhog Day for Hamilton – will Ferrari’s upgrades make a difference?

Hamilton had another weekend of learning in Canada as new parts are finally on their way

For Lewis Hamilton the Canadian GP was very much a case of Groundhog Day, and not just because his race was spoiled by hitting one of the unfortunate animals and damaging his floor.

It was also yet another case of arriving at a track where he’s had a lot of success only to find that the unchanged Ferrari SF-25 behaves in a completely different manner to what he’s been used to at Mercedes. It’s a scenario that has been repeated at every venue this year.

As always it was a case of trying to improve session-by-session and find a way to get the best out of the car that he has.

The end result was a sixth place, and he was at least happier than in Spain a fortnight earlier, when he described it as his worst race ever.

He wasn’t too happy on Friday in Montreal, but P5 in qualifying was a decent outcome.

“We’ve progressed coming into today,” he said on Saturday afternoon. “So that is a positive. More often not we go through P1 and then P2, often at the previous races P2 has not been so great, because there’s been something wrong with the car, like the floor is not working, or the rear wing is not working.

“There’s always been something that meant that we’re down on downforce or something.

“And so then you have a bad P2 and you’re kind of recovering in P3. But we had a good, solid base yesterday, and then today, we made progress. We didn’t change a huge amount, and the car felt solid. We moved forwards, which is I think a first this season. So I’m grateful to get through to Q3.”

When I asked in what areas he’d made progress he said: “I think probably today most progress came from my driving, adapting driving style. So just made a few changes of how I drove.

“This car drives so much different to what I had before. You go into low-speed corners and you’re waiting and waiting; it doesn’t want to turn.”

He underlined his point with a vivid demonstration of crossed arms – the racing driver sign language for terminal understeer.

In Sunday’s race Hamilton initially sat in P5 behind Oscar Piastri, but as early as lap 12 he lost a chunk of downforce after his collision with the unfortunate groundhog.

Thereafter he lost out to team mate Charles Leclerc and to Lando Norris, before the latter’s crash promoted him back to P6.

“Until the damage, I was kind of holding on to Piastri,” he said. “With the damage, then I started to drop off from Piastri, and then we probably should have stopped around a similar sort of time, but we for some reason stayed out and then I lost a ton of time, came out behind a bunch of people, got stuck behind people, just sitting there in no-man’s land.

“But to still come away with a sixth it’s a positive. I think if everything was perfect, if we had done everything right and we didn’t have any problems, maybe we would have fourth.”

As noted he was in a much better place than he was after Spain, despite the relatively modest result. He could at least see signs of progress.

“I think mostly just me adapting,” he noted. “But I think this track really highlighted the weaknesses of the car, and I’ve never had a car understeer so much at low-speed here, just doesn’t want to turn through Turn 2 and Turn 10. So definitely not my most favourite weekend, but the next one will be better.”

He added: “Just incremental steps. We’ve not had any upgrades or anything like that. So it’s the same car for quite some time now, and so with the same package each weekend, I’m just challenging the guys. I’m constantly battling the engineers, asking questions.

“They set things up and this is how we always do it. And I’m like, Well, what about this? And so we work on trying things, and bit by bit, we are making progress. We’ve improved in our qualifying from Monaco onwards, which is positive.

“But ultimately, we need upgrades. We need an upgrade to be able to fight the guys up front.”

Hamilton and Leclerc have both mentioned upgrades on a consistent basis. Hitherto Fred Vasseur has been coy on commenting to the media. But after Montreal when I pushed him on the subject the Frenchman finally confirmed that something is coming “before UK,” with more to follow.

A performance boost before his home race would be welcome for Hamilton.

“It’s my first half of the year in a new team,” he said when I asked about the obvious frustration of having to wait. “It’s interesting to see different how different teams work and operate.

“There’s been times in my career where you’ve had a whole bunch of upgrades very, very early on in the season, and then you plough ahead very early, and then you stop and taper off. And then sometimes it’s been slower.

“It’s also in the last year of this generation of cars, it’s harder to find performance. And also, you’ve got to be focused on the next year. With this car, hopefully we can still fight for a second in the constructors’. That would be great, yeah, but I want a car that can win next year, so that’s priority.”

Hamilton has faced a lot of criticism this year given his struggles, but he insists that it’s all about the bigger picture.

“What all you guys don’t see is what’s happening in the background, and there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot that needs improving. A lot of things need to be changed. For me, I know we’re not fighting for a win this year. I know we’re not in the championship, which is not a great feeling.

“And also I know I’m in a period of getting accustomed to working with the team. foundation building and trying to steer them to make those changes so that next year we can have a car that can win, and we can then fight and be consistent and do have strategy and all those different things. So with that in mind, I’m okay, but obviously I want to win.

“And so when you’re not competing at the front, you’re not fighting for podiums, I’m definitely a little bit gutted with that. I was hoping today I’d have a fight for a podium, but we don’t have the performance currently, so hopefully, with an upgrade, maybe at some stage, we’ll be a bit sharper.”

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June 16, 2025 · 2:45 pm

How Montreal mishap will only make McLaren stronger

Andrea Stella insists that valuable lessons will be learned from Montreal

It was inevitable given the high stakes that at some stage this year McLaren team mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would get into a tangle on track. Even team boss Andrea Stella acknowledged recently that it was a matter of when, and not if.

It happened in Montreal on Sunday, but in slightly unusual circumstances in that the drivers weren’t racing each other into a corner with blame to be apportioned, as was the case in the past with controversial famous moments involving Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg or Sebastian Vettel/Mark Webber, for example.

In this instance they’d survived a wheel-to-wheel encounter heading into the final chicane, and it was on the straight that followed that Norris hit the back of Piastri, and paid the price.

He made a simple misjudgement under DRS in the Australian’s slipstream, and immediately told the team on the radio that it was his fault. Later he did the same when he bumped into Piastri in the TV interview pen.

It might not have been the typical sort of team mate conflict that we were expecting, but contact is contact, and the drivers are well aware that it’s a cardinal sin in any team.

Fortunately McLaren is in a good place at the moment, and Stella is a brilliant manager, always able to deal with any situation and find the positives.

When he spoke to the media shortly after the race he’d already found a way to ensure that the incident could be used to ensure that there would be no repeat.

“We said a few times that it wasn’t a matter of if, it was more a matter of when,” said the Italian. “And the when is Canada 2025. We never want to see two McLarens having contact. This is part of our principles. We saw it today.

“This is just a result of miscalculation, a misjudgement from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time, it’s part of racing, and We did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation.

“He raised his hand, he took responsibility for the accident, and he apologised immediately to the team. He came to apologise to me as team principal in order to apologise to the entire team, and it’s important the way we respond and we react to these situations, which ultimately will be a very important learning point.”

He added: “I don’t think it’s a learning from a theoretical point of view, because the principle was already there, but it’s a learning in terms of experiencing how painful these situations can be, and this will only make us stronger in terms of our internal competition and in terms of the way we go racing.”

For Stella Norris’s immediate mea culpa was crucial, and it was also a reflection of the team-focussed environment that he has built.

“I think in order to make an assessment as to the reason of having this sort of misjudgement from a racing point of view, I think we will have to have a few good conversations,” he said.

“Now that we are in the heat of the moment, for me, the most important thing is to see a reaction where people take responsibility of their actions, and we have already seen it.

“And I talked to Oscar as well, and he sort of is cool with the situation, because Lando apologised, they know that a misjudgement in racing can happen.

“But I think obviously in the coming days, thanks to these conversations, we will have to go into what is needed in order to make sure that when we go racing, we preserve the margins that are required.”

Stella downplayed the suggestion that having qualified only seventh Norris was perhaps under extra pressure to find a way by Piastri and get a result.

“From Lando’s point of view, specifically, I’m not sure that there is any reason to do with the fact that he might have struggled a little bit yesterday in qualifying to capitalise on his speed,” he said.

“Speed that he had demonstrated throughout the weekend. Surely, there was a bit of frustration for not having been able to qualify as high as he would have liked. But at the moment, I wouldn’t say that that’s the reason why there was a misjudgement today.

“I think this is too long a shot in terms of correlating these two events, but definitely, there will be good conversations, but they will happen once we are all rested and calm and we have the possibility to take all the learning and discharge what doesn’t have to come with us in the future.”

From the outside at least if there was any glass half full reflection it was the fact that as team McLaren had lost only a fifth place, as opposed to a first and second. However when I put that to him Stella insisted that the relative low cost didn’t make the incident any less serious.

“The fact that the points today, or what we were fighting for, was not a victory – even if you never know in a race until the chequered flag – I think this is just a very, very minor mitigation, let me say.

“We act based on principles, and based on principles, there should be no contact between two McLarens. So from this point of view, if anything, let’s say Lando pays the price, from a championship points point of view, and let me say, luckily, there was no double penalty with the points loss for the other car, which had no responsibility in this contact.”

The key thing now is to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Stella is adamant that it’s now a case of lessons learned.

“I think in terms of the moving forward and possible repeat or not when we go racing, and there’s many races like nowadays, because 24 races, and sprints, so more and more situations where we can have these kinds of episodes, like I said before.

“I think having experienced, rather than having talked, even if the conversations we had about that, they were certainly strong, impactful and absolved, but having experienced this kind of situation, I think it will make us just more robust as a team, and in terms of each of our two drivers against these situations because the two McLarens racing close to one another, it will happen again.

“But there will have to be better judgment in terms of the distance, because today, in effect, is just a matter of distance between the two cars. There’s nothing like one driver wanted to demonstrate something else.

“If anything, the dangerous situation was more approaching the last chicane when they were side-by-side. And I saw some wisdom there. But somehow after that, and we know that with the DRS, there could be some misjudgements that we have seen in the past as well.”

Stella insists that the drivers will remain free to race, and that it really will be a case of the best man winning – the team won’t make a call.

“The being free to race and the being clear as to how we go racing, is a value of racing,” he said.

“And is a value of racing that we want to try and exercise and respect as much as we can, rather than every time that we have a proximity between the two cars, then having control from the pit wall.

“I think like that, racing may soon become a bit of an artifact, and we want to give Lando and Oscar opportunities to race and opportunities to be at the end of the season in the position that they deserved to be in based on their merit, based on their performance based on the racing quality that they have expressed through the season, rather than being at the end of the season and realise that the points have been controlled more by the team, rather than the quality of their driving.

“This is not necessarily a simple and straight exercise, but we want to try and do it as best as we can. So I don’t foresee that today’s episode will change our approach from this point of view, if anything, it will reinforce, and it will strengthen that the principle we have require more caution by our drivers.

“Because if we say that there should be no contact between the two McLarens, we need to have the margins to make sure that we have no contact, even if, in a DRS situation, the car may get almost a little bit sucked onto the other car, and cause this kind of misjudgement as to the distance.”

The bottom line is that Montreal will ultimately be a perfect demonstration of how with Zak Brown’s help Stella has built a great team, and has proven to be a great boss.

“In the heat of the moment that looks like the worst disaster ever,” said Stella. “But in reality, the strength of being racers, the strength that comes from having a strong culture, is the fact that you will process the episodes you will review, you will take all the positive learning, and you will dismiss anything that doesn’t have to come with us into the way we go racing in the future.

“This is the mindset that we all have at McLaren, and I think this has been proven by the way Lando handled the situation, and definitely that’s going to be the kind of conversation that we will not only have with our drivers, but this is the kind of conversations that we will have with the entire team.

“We lean on our culture, which is very strong, and we use these episodes once they are a little chilled and our mind is colder than it’s in the heat of the moment to become a stronger team with two stronger drivers.”

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June 15, 2025 · 1:25 pm

Norris left with work to do after Montreal Q3 slip

Lando Norris will start the Canadian GP from a frustrated P7

The balance of power at McLaren swung towards Oscar Piastri again in Montreal as Lando Norris finished qualifying in P7 following a frustrating Q3 session.

With Piastri himself only third behind George Russell and Max Verstappen it was a below par performance by the Woking team, reflecting perhaps the normal ebb and flow of circuit form and the fact that even the championship leaders have to get everything right to stay on top.

Norris had been looking solid earlier in qualifying, taking second spot in Q2, but it came undone in the final part.

“Just a couple of big mistakes,” he said when I asked him about his session. “One, hitting the wall on the last lap in the exit of seven, and first lap I think the last corner. So yeah, just two mistakes that cost me, I guess.

“I think we’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the car is still performing relatively well.

“And I was happy through all the qualifying. Maybe not the car to take pole today, but quick enough to be up there, and then fighting for a top three.”

Norris conceded that Montreal is not an easy track to get right.

“Just very low grip, I think first of all, is one of the bigger things. And therefore the car balance just never comes together as much as what it does in other tracks. So probably just low grip, and some of the kerb riding bumps, which just hurts us it seems more than some others.”

He added: “It’s very easy track to just push one percent too much, and pay the price, and that’s what I did today.”

Norris is running a front suspension update in Canada as part of an ongoing effort to make him feel more comfortable with the car, especially in qualifying trim. He admitted it was hard to properly assess it.

“It’s tough to say, because this track, everything just feels different. So I think it’s something we’ll have to wait and see on the next few races, through Austria and Silverstone and so forth, to understand, and maybe back-to-back test between them both.

“It’s nothing that I felt just yet, but it’s more than when you go to a new track, it’s hard to remember everything perfectly relative to other tracks. So like I said, we just need a bit more time to understand if it’s any better or not.”

Asked if it was expected to be most advantageous in qualifying he said: “I mean, it can be a benefit elsewhere, but it’s not a guarantee that’s going to be a benefit just yet.

“So like I said, this is aimed to maybe give a bit more feeling. It’s not aimed to make us quicker or give the car more performance. So it’s again something that we have to review over time.”

From seventh on the grid all is not lost, as Canada is a race in which stuff usually happens, so there is a chance to make progress with good strategy calls, and possibly a little mayhem ahead.

“I hope so. It’ll make my race a bit more interesting, and the more opportunity that comes my way the better tomorrow.

“I think we can go forwards anyway, but not a lot. It’s not like an easy one-two, like we have been on other tracks. So it’s going to be a bit more difficult. But, yeah, anything that can help us will be very welcome.

“I think a podium is tough, just because we don’t have the pace we’ve had in the last few races. But it could be easily, a one, two or three-stop, depending on how the tyres behave tomorrow.

“So of course, I’ll hope for a bit more to happen. Not as confident as in other places, for sure, but confident we can go forwards. But clearly, I think we don’t have the best car today, so we’ll be a struggle to get to the top.”

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June 8, 2025 · 11:02 am

Haas still riding F1’s midfield rollercoaster

The team had a great race in Monaco but otherwise it’s been a difficult recent run for Haas

Form and luck swings back and forth among F1’s closely-matched midfield teams, as we saw with Sauber’s remarkable fifth place in Spain.

Just the previous weekend Esteban Ocon had secured a solid seventh for Haas in Monaco, but either side of that it’s been a difficult run for the US-owned outfit.

After a double score in Bahrain the team didn’t better a 12th place in the three races prior to Monaco, and then in Barcelona Ocon and Oliver Bearman finished 16th and 17th.

Ocon wasn’t helped in Spain by being one of the few drivers not to pit for fresh tyres under the late safety car, while Bearman had a 10-second penalty as a result of his fraught fight with Liam Lawson.

Bearman hasn’t had a lot of luck lately, and his progress was hampered by missing his final Q1 lap when the clock ran down in Imola, and by a 10-place grid penalty for a red flag offence in Monaco. In Spain he at least made Q2, but in the end he started 15th as a late set-up change didn’t really pay off.

Recent upgrades to at least seem to have improved the VF-25, which had had a weakness in faster corners.

“We will look at these three weeks, take the positives and draw some conclusion out of these three,” said Ocon when I asked him about his Barcelona race.

“I think there’s a clear pattern, which is quite positive for some track, a bit more difficult on others. But we’ll take the week to analyse and come back stronger in Canada.”

He added: “I think the good points are the strengths we have in some of the tracks which are a bit more slow-speed corners and we struggle a bit little bit more on this kind of track, with longer corners, fast, although we did improve, I think we still lack a little bit.

“Our race pace was definitely better than our quali pace, which is a bit sad, because I think there was a bit more to play today for both of us. Big thanks to the team for keeping on pushing for these three weeks.

“And now we are going to be able to breathe a little bit, analyse what went on, and come back stronger in a race where hopefully we should perform well.”

Ocon remains hopeful that the team can make a step in Canada.

“I think we should be good in in corners in Montreal, we need to see about straight line speed obviously, this is what we need to be sure of. Plenty of work and understanding to go for us.

“But I’m positive that we should be able to come back in a decent level of performance.”

Meanwhile team principal Ayao Komatsu acknowledges that there’s work to be done in all areas.

“I feel like we really need to hit the ground running better, to give a consistent platform for the drivers to run every single run,” he said in Spain. “I don’t like to separate, but for sure we are still learning how to get the best out of Esteban.

“And when he’s in a good spot, in terms of car set-up, mentally and everything, you’ve seen what he can deliver. Shanghai was a very, very good race. Bahrain was amazing. And Monaco, what he delivered in qualifying, was excellent. So we know we can do it.”

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June 6, 2025 · 10:26 am

Albon: How Barcelona exposed Williams flaws – and the need to “take the medicine”

Williams missed the points for the first time in five races – but Albon says lessons were learned

Williams enjoyed a remarkable run of four races from Jeddah to Monaco with both cars finishing in the points, helping to put the Grove team into a comfortable fifth place in the F1 World Championship.

That streak ended with a frustrating weekend in Spain, at a track that the team expected to be a little tricky.

Neither driver made Q3, with Alex Albon qualifying a still respectable 11th and Carlos Sainz a frustrated 18th at his home event.

Both men then suffered early front wing damage, necessitating a premature first stop for Albon that put him out of synch with rivals. Later he received more damage in further contact with Liam Lawson, and that led to his retirement. Sainz meanwhile could manage only 14th.

The positive was that all the woe occurred on a weekend when the car was not at its best, and points would have been a struggle.

“I don’t care, put it all be one race,” said Albon when I put that to him. “We’ll get it all done with, and then we’ll move on to Canada!

“In all seriousness, I think as bad as it looks today, there’s some learnings from this weekend. I think we’ve shown that our car is going in the right direction. Q2 and P11 proves that. It shows we still have work to do. We’re not this ultra-midfield car that that’s quick everywhere. We still have our flaws and our weaknesses.

“There’s a clear trend now that pretty much everyone around us is already upgraded, so we will inevitably fall down the pecking order eventually. We need to look at this track and understand why is it always this circuit that hurts us?

“We know it’s long corners, but we need to understand why the long corners. And in the race honestly, I think we could have been fighting for points. Could have, would have, should have.”

Albon insists that there’s always much to be learned from difficult weekends as Williams continues to make progress.

“It might sound weird, but I enjoy coming to these tracks, because I feel like I want us to be a top team,” he said. “And I know that these are the tracks where we need to be better at if we are going to be one.

“So it’s good to take our medicine and to understand it, and to really put the car to the test and understand and look at it, see it visually, quite a lot of work to do here. Let’s really get on top of it.

“We’ve improved the car everywhere, and we’ve definitely improved the car in long corners, but it’s still a step behind some of the others.”

Albon’s Sunday afternoon in Barcelona was made worse by a poor getaway that saw hm swallowed up by those behind, which contributed to the contact with Nico Hulkenberg.

“We had a clutch issue at the start,” he explained. “My clutch drop felt good, and I believe I was on target, but we just had an issue with the clutch. So we lost out quite heavily at the beginning, that cascaded, or put us back on the back foot into Turn 1.

“There was a concertina of cars avoiding each other, and I was the last one to get hit. So I lost my front wing. It forced us on a three-stop because of that, but an early three stop, and then when we had to a front wing change, you do the three-stop without an undercut. So it’s like the worst of everything, everyone’s coming out in front of you.”

Later in the race Albon had a couple of fraught moments with Liam Lawson, one of which earned him a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He was at least able to take it before parking the car, so that it doesn’t carry over to the next event.

“The first penalty incident, I don’t know how I was ever going to make the corner,” he noted.

“For me, it was avoiding action because he was running me out. So I thought, well, he couldn’t complete the move cleanly without pushing me. So I’m entitled to the position. Maybe it might be I might be wrong in that, but that was my feeling towards it. So I thought.

“And anyway, I boxed the next lap, so I got out of his way. Maybe that wasn’t early enough for them. And then we came with Liam later in the race, a bit of a tricky one. I think I tried my best to stay out the way. I think by that point, my tyres were gone. And another front wing.

“A lot of the contacts I was getting were on the side, not just clipping the front, but clipping the end pieces of the floor. And so at that point, the car was pretty badly wounded, and we just decided to stop.”

Montreal is next, and it looks like the type of circuit that should suit the FW47.

“I agree. We’re good on ride, we’re good on a low downforce wing, so that bodes well for us, and we’re generally quite good in low-speed corners.

“Honestly, I think we’re in a good place. I feel like we’re generally understanding the setup of the car well. we’re in a good rhythm with the car. I feel like I’m driving well with the car. You just have to hope that Canada falls towards us as a track layout, and optimise it.

“I think this weekend, if we optimised everything perfectly, we would have maybe got P10. So it was a tricky one. I think in Canada I’m looking more towards Q3 and that kind of race.”

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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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