Tag Archives: Ferrari

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 · 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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May 24, 2025 · 7:04 pm

Why Russell and Mercedes could be the surprise package in Monaco race

Russell was left frustrated after his PU switched off [Photo: @tinnekephotography]

Qualifying in Monaco was a disaster for Mercedes, but could the team and in particular George Russell be the dark horses on Sunday as strategy choices play out with the bespoke two change rules?

The Brackley outfit’s day went from bad to worse after Kimi Antonelli crashed at the chicane at the end of Q1, and then Russell stopped in the tunnel early in Q2 after his engine cut due to a suspected electrical issue.

They will thus start Sunday’s race in P14 and P15, and thus somewhat out of position given that after a frustrating FP3 Russell found pace for qualifying, and was as high as P5 in Q1.

Amid all the speculation on crazy strategies by those at the back with little to lose Russell clearly has the quickest car of that group, and if the team makes the right calls and he benefits from clean air and optimum stop timing, he could make progress.

The stoppage remains something of a mystery, although it was related to a bump on the track.

“Yeah, it was definitely the cause,” he said when I asked him about it. “But it was a bump in the straight, a bump that’s been there all weekend and a bump that I’ve felt all weekend.

“But for whatever reason on this occasion, the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump. Really disappointing, because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the setup, and we went back to basics for quali.

“From lap one, I felt back in the game, and also Kimi stayed with probably more with the setup he had in FP3. I went back to something that we knew. He was struggling. And we were. And I really feel we would have been in the top four today. And now we’re not.”

Russell was clearly pleased with the huge step made at the start of qualifying.

“Absolutely, it was clicking in Q1, and we were one of the few drivers not to take any new tyres.” he said.

“I did one corner in Q2, and I was already almost two-tenths up, and already that have been plenty enough to be into Q3 with two sets.

“We have the two hard tyres. We had a real chance this weekend, but now it’s up in smokes and weekend over. So it’s pretty deflating.”

But can Mercedes roll the dice and do something special on Sunday? The only other team with two sets of new hards is McLaren.

“For sure, there’s going to be some crazy strategies, but we qualified 14th, we probably should have been in the top five,” he said. “So there’s 10 cars between me and where we should have been.

“And if people are doing crazy things with the strategy, half of those guys will go one way, the other half will go the other way. Therefore whichever one we decide, we’re still stuck behind five drivers.

“You’re going to see one of two things, people pitting on lap one, or people going really long into the race. We do have a small advantage with the two hard tyres, but if you can’t pass, there’s not much you can do.”

I asked Russell which route he would prefer if he had to make that choice now.

“We will probably choose as soon as we know what tyres teams have started on,” hew replied. If they’re starting on the C6, you know they going for a very early one.

“If everybody starts on a hard tyre, you know they’re intending to go longer. So as soon as we see what they’re on, we’ll make that choice…”

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May 22, 2025 · 5:17 pm

Why Monaco will be a test of Hamilton’s Ferrari learning curve

Can Hamilton build on his promising Imola race? [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

Lewis Hamilton was in upbeat mood on Sunday at Imola after his charge from 12th on the grid to fourth at the flag, and he was particularly happy with how he felt at one with the Ferrari SF-25 on the medium tyres.

There have been other sparks of hope in recent weeks, notably of course the Shanghai sprint, but also the odd race stint elsewhere.

The question now is can that Imola performance translate to Monaco and other upcoming races?

Lewis and the team did their best to ensure that it does by taking advantage of the track’s proximity to Maranello. The day after the race – and before he headed home to Monaco – he was hard at work in the factory, punching the numbers with his engineers, and seeing what could be learned.

“I was in the simulator on Monday,” he said when I asked him on Thursday if he had done a deep dive into the Imola data in search of answers. “I was there nice and early Monday morning.

“It’s really incredible to see. Probably people don’t realise, but the engineers and mechanics, it does not stop.

“They go straight from the track, you go home Sunday night and they’re in the factory the next day. It just does not stop, they’re churning through the data.

“Yes, there’s lots of, lots of positives, as we said last weekend to take from it. There’s still areas that we need to improve on.

“Clearly, our qualifying has been our biggest weakness so far this year. We’re not extracting the performance from the tyres, and that’s something we are working on.”

Time is of the essence, and as each race weekend goes by so team and driver get to know each other better and have more opportunity to try stuff.

“I had some ideas, the team had some ideas,” said Lewis. “And so we’ll try those this weekend. It’s not the best place to try those things, but we will try to make a step, and qualifying, as you know, is everything here.

“It’s a natural progression. I’m feeling more at home in the team. Things work differently here. They’ve never had anyone like me here, and so it’s been challenging on both sides, but we’re really finding harmony, I think, in the way that we’re moving forwards.”

The learning process is ongoing. Hamilton may have done seven races with Ferrari already, but Monaco is a law unto itself, and this is his first time here with the red car.

“I’m still in that first year with this team, every weekend is something new, like the last weekend was the first time I’ve been into the European races, seeing the truck, finding my room, getting accustomed to a new layout.

“And this weekend, walking into the garage, it’s all red, and that’s the first time I’ve been in Monaco.

“I’ve never been in the Ferrari garage at Monaco, always walked past it, always wondered what it like to be in the team. Still having to pinch myself – it’s awesome.

“And I have for years always wondered what a Ferrari would feel like around this track. Even my first year, I think the Ferraris were very strong, Felipe and Kimi were very strong. And obviously Charles in the last few years has been rapid here.

“You can see the car works a lot different to what I had driven in the past. How that will reflect this weekend, I don’t know. I’m definitely excited to experience it.”

Meanwhile like other drivers Lewis has to adapt to the new two-stop tyre regulations in place this weekend.

“I think it’s good to try something different,” he said. “You keep doing the same thing over and over and over, you can get the same result. And so I think it’s cool that they’re trying something different.

“Whether or not it’s the answer, we’ll find out this weekend, it’s definitely going to be different to what we’ve had in the past. Whether that’s better I have no idea, I can’t predict. But I like that we have something different.”

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May 20, 2025 · 8:12 am

Why Imola F1 race was “torture” for Alonso and Aston Martin

Alonso was out of luck at Imola once again [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

The Imola weekend was one of mixed fortunes for Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin Formula 1 team after the promise of a brilliantly executed qualifying session was followed by a race of frustration.

With pit stop timing working against him and sending him down the order Alonso used team radio to call himself the unluckiest driver in the world, while also suggesting that the rest of the race would be “torture” for him.

On the plus side a major AMR25 upgrade package that Lance Stroll trialled on Friday and that Alonso took on Saturday worked well. The team then took a bold step for qualifying by focussing throughout on the C5 medium tyre, which others suspected might work better than the C6, but were hesitant to use.

While George Russell also took that route in Q3 Aston used mediums throughout, with Alonso Stroll progressing through the three sessions in P3/P4, P6/P7, and P5/P8 – way better than recent form suggested was likely, even with the upgrade boost.

In the early laps Alonso maintained his fifth place behind Russell and Norris before an early stop dropped him back. Like others who took that route it didn’t pay off as a VSC gave a free stop to rivals.

In addition while most of those who stopped early cut their losses and went for a second stop under the VSC, Alonso and Stroll stayed out on old rubber – and paid the price as they slipped down the order.

The full safety car later in the race at least gave them both a chance for a cheap change to new tyres, but it was too late.

Alonso made some passes and recovered to 11th, but he missed the points. It’s the first time since the dire 2015 season with McLaren that he hasn’t scored in his first seven outings of the year, and this time you can throw in two sprint races as well.

“The car was very strong today,” he said when I asked him about his race. “We started strong, and then I could follow Norris and Russell. Actually, Russell was a little bit slower than both of us. So I had to pinch myself that I was in the in the front part of the field and that competitive.

“And then we did a stop. We were okay, I think, to secure P6/P7 today with both cars. And then the virtual safety car obviously gave the opportunity to stop for free for the people that didn’t at that point. And they left the pits just in front of us already with newer tyres.

“And the race was over. So yeah, I think in 100 scenarios of the race, 99 were okay for us to score strong points for the team today, one was not, and it did happen. But let’s hope for other races that maybe we don’t deserve the points and we do score because of luck, but today I think it’s a little bit unfair.

“It was just the wrong time, the wrong moment for us, and at the wrong place.”

So should he have stopped under the VSC like Aston’s immediate rivals?

“I mean, I was out of the points. So it’s difficult to really make decisions at that time. And even at the end, I think the car was super strong, because in nine laps I overtook three cars, Nico, Lawson, Gasly.

“Our normal midfield group, they were very slow compared to us today, which is a very good sign for us, but with no points.”

It’s been a tricky year so far for Alonso, with everything that could go wrong going wrong when he perhaps had a sniff of the points.

“The whole season has been incredible, if I look back,” he said. “Australia, I felt strong. I had fire on the brakes [in China] when I was P11 at the start. And then there were three cars disqualified in Bahrain. In Miami, we didn’t stop for dry tyres.

“Today we have finally a strong car that we can score points on merit for the first time. And there is this virtual safety car. It was not virtual safety cars when we were P12, P13 in all the seven races.

“And in general as you know, my career has been always, on the on the bad part. And people that had a very average weekend, they are still top five.”

With Stroll finishing a lowly 15th the lack of points was frustrating for the whole Aston Martin camp after the promise of Saturday.

“It would have been wonderful to get a point today,” said team principal Andy Cowell. “Until the VSC, we were hoping and fighting for both cars to get points. But in this industry, you’ve got to go chasing after everything. You’ve got to make the race car quicker.

“You’ve got to make the pit stops better. You’ve got to make the detail of everything better, and then you’re not relying on good or bad luck, you’re just relying on an awesome machine and an awesome team. So that’s what we’ve got to strive towards.”

On the plus side the qualifying performance was genuine, and the indications are that there was a a positive correlation between the track and the new wind tunnel, something that the team was seeking with the upgrade package.

The successful call to use the medium tyres was also a confidence boost for a team that has been somewhat on the ropes of late.

“Being in Q3 with both cars, Fernando fifth, is a huge reward for all the hard work that this team’s been putting in,” said Cowell when I asked him about the tyre strategy.

“So yes, the mood shoots up. Picking either the soft or the medium was something that was being debated from Thursday even, as people were traveling here, exactly the way to play out. The car was quick on the soft as well as the medium in qualifying, a little bit quicker on the medium.

“But I think that the setup, the package, the understanding of the package, which is down to good wind tunnel data, good driver in the loop simulator work, do good preparation work before getting to the track. So it’s lifting all of those aspects up that’s helped this weekend.”

It remains to be seen how much the upgrade package helps at other tracks – and Monaco will be the first test.

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May 19, 2025 · 7:44 am

How Hamilton turned his Imola F1 weekend around

Hamilton got a great reception from fans [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

It’s not been easy few first months at Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton, and finishing qualifying at his first home race for the team in Imola in only 12th place was not what he envisaged when he signed up.

However on Sunday he turned it around with a superb performance, starting on the hard tyres and taking advantage of good strategy calls to climb up to fourth.

With the safety car having bunched up the field in the closing laps he even had an eye on the third placed McLaren of Oscar Piastri up ahead, but despite being on older tyres the Aussie remained out of reach.

The China sprint win was an obvious high for Hamilton in the first part of the season, and there have been odd stints elsewhere when he felt at one with the car, but it hasn’t happened very often.

On race day at Imola things came together for him, and now it will be intriguing to see if it really is a turning point as he continues to build up his knowledge of the car and the team.

“China was pretty great, but I would say this one was better,” he said. “I’ve always loved when you’re fighting from further back and coming through, that’s how I started off as a kid, around Rye House.

“It’s such a better feeling than starting first and finishing first, but definitely an absolutely mega race, and so many positives to take.

“There are tons of positives to take from today. One is the strategy was really fantastic today, they made great calls, didn’t put a foot wrong there.

“China, I felt really aligned with the car. And then the only other time is this today, like I felt that real synergy. And I think the setup was great. I think we made a bit of an improvement in our performance for the race.

“We’ve just got to unlock the potential in qualifying. Now, if we had qualified better, we would have been fighting for a podium, which is something we didn’t think would be possible.”

Could he really have challenged Piastri?

“I think I needed probably another five laps, something like that, to have really got close enough to really challenge. That McLaren’s still damn fast on old tyres!”

Nevertheless he raced plenty of other people, and made a few passes, including jumping team mate Charles Leclerc when he got tangled up with Alex Albon.

It was very different to Shanghai, where he started at the front and held on to win.

“Just the whole thing was entertaining,” he said. “Obviously, at the beginning, it wasn’t spectacular. I got a decent start. Kind of got squeezed and then lost ground to a Mercedes [Kimi Antonelli] that had the hard tyres. And then I was just sitting there waiting.

“Definitely had to be patient, just breathe. And then bit by bit, strategy started to plan out, and the car really came alive when I got into the medium tyres. And a great call at the end to switch.”

Imola was of course Hamilton’s first proper encounter with the tifosi since he switched teams, and it was clear that he enjoyed it.

At the end of Sunday’s driver parade lap both he and team mate Charles Leclerc stepped off the flatbed truck at the start of the pit straight to greet the crowd.

Lewis got a great reception, and after the flag he dedicated his feisty race – albeit to a humble fourth in the grand scheme of things – to the fans.

“It’s been incredible,” he said when I asked him about the love he’d received. “What an amazing experience. Already just on the drivers’ parade lap, all the drivers were all doing their normal talking, but I really wanted to see what… I even took a picture where there’s a memorial of Ayrton, I was just taking pictures, film, of the crowd, and just a sea of red everywhere.

“And it was just really reminiscent of when I was growing up, watching sitting at home on my couch having a bacon sarnie, watching Michael Schumacher here racing with Ferrari, and seeing the connection he had with the crowd.

“It’s quite an incredible experience to think that I’m now here in one of the two Ferraris having that connection with such a large, passionate group of people. It’s unbelievable.”

At Silverstone he always finds a little extra, so was it a similar feeling?

“Yeah, it’s definitely like that. I mean, the love that the Italian fans have. Silverstone, it’s a connection more so with me, being a Brit, which is super special, and I love it.

“This one’s like, good to see how passionate you get for Ferrari, I guess it doesn’t matter who’s in it. They just love to see the red car. It’s like the red car comes and they get so excited! It’s amazing to see. It’s really cool.”

Attention now turns to Monaco, where Hamilton has had some great days in the past, and where Ferrari has been quick in recent times.

Lewis doesn’t know what to expect, but the car’s inherent weakness in qualifying won’t help.

“Just every race I go to is the first time with this car,” he said. “So I really have no idea what Ferrari feels like.

“The races that are coming up, particularly Monaco, a track where they’ve generally been strong in the past, I hope we can take some of the learnings from this weekend in the car and apply it. I’m really hopeful we can.

“It will still be a question about getting the tyres working on a single lap. If we can figure that out next week, then I think we could be in a good position.”

Despite his strong recent record Leclerc is not optimistic, especially given the aforementioned qualifying weakness.

“I’m not sure either to be honest,” said Hamilton. “We’ve been struggling, particularly on a single lap. So I don’t know how that’s going to go. I’ve got some ideas of that I’m going to try and apply next week that people have been a little bit reluctant to do it, I think because we’ve had lots of other things to focus on.

“But I’m hoping next week we can find something to unlock some more performance. I really don’t know how this car’s going to be.

“I think our car is generally not as good in high-speed, okay in medium, and maybe a little bit not as strong as the others in low, and obviously the next race is all low, so we’ll see how we can try and pull some more out of it next week.”

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May 18, 2025 · 6:40 pm

How Russell’s Imola struggles showed Mercedes has to chase tyre issue

Russell had his most difficult race of 2025 so far in Imola [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

George Russell has had a good run of results for the Mercedes Formula 1 team in 2025, including four podiums.

However the W16 has often been harder on its tyres in races than its main rivals, even if it’s not always been obvious given the solid scoring. However at Imola that trait proved to be costly.

Even on the laps to the grid before the start Russell thought the rear of the car didn’t feel right, and as the race developed at one point he even suggested that it felt like a rear trackrod was broken, so unstable did it feel even on the straights.

The situation nudged him towards an early stop and like others who followed that route he dropped down the order when the VSC came those who hadn’t already pitted a cheap tyre change.

At one stage it looked like he might not even make the points, but he hung on and eventually salvaged seventh place, while admitting that he was lucky to do so. Not great given that he was third on the grid, but it could have been worse.

“Very odd,” he said when I asked about his issues. “On the laps of the grid, I was reporting problems with the car, and I thought something was wrong.

“My team had a good look round, and saw nothing. And that feeling continued for 60-odd laps after, so we had absolutely zero pace.

“There’s clearly a trend. The track was really hot today, when it’s hot, we’re nowhere. When it’s cold, we’re quick. That was the trend last year, the same trend this year. So, yeah, we need to try and solve that.”

The issue appears to have been purely tyre related, despite his comparison with a suspension breakage.

“Well, it didn’t feel quite right,” he said. “It was just like my rear wheels were moving. So we’ll review it. There was nothing obvious standing out, but just even in a straight line, the car was moving around, but the rear tyres were through the roof.

“We do have a bit of a fundamental. It’s either fronts are overheating, or the rears are overheating, circuit-to-circuit. But it’s not the first time we’ve reported that, so it was probably just the first time where all of our rivals probably had a semi decent race.

On the plus side Russell had a race that he described as “an absolute disaster” and still landed seventh place and six useful points.

In 2024 seventh was a pretty normal result for Mercedes, at least in the first half of the season.

“I think the fact is every team has a disastrous race weekend at some point,” he said. “This is our first one of the season. Red Bull had a disastrous one in Bahrain. This is our sort of first one of the year.

“So of course, I’m not very happy. But you know, your car isn’t going to be podium position week in, week out. That’s what we’ve been doing recently. There’s no excuses. It’s just reality of F1. You have all these different tracks, different tyre compounds, different temperatures.”

It’s clearly something that the team has to address, as trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admitted.

“We’ve got to get on top of that quickly as there are a lot of hot races coming up,” he noted. “And we can’t continue to perform at this level. We’ve got a few days to regroup before Monaco, but we’ll be working hard to try and improve from here.”

At least another Mercedes W16 trait might be useful next weekend: “Quali pace has been decent this year,” said Russell. “So that’s the only promising thing.”

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