Tag Archives: formula-1

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 23, 2025 · 9:15 am

Norris still needs time to address his “bad job” in 2025 F1 qualifying

Norris can’t afford to read headlines about another below par Saturday

The struggles of Lando Norris in qualifying this year have been well documented, and the McLaren man has been very honest about not feeling at one with the MCL39.

In Monaco a below par Saturday could be particularly costly in the title battle, even allowing for the new two-stop tyre regs meaning that pole is not necessarily a guarantee of victory.

Norris has been trying hard with his engineers to get to the bottom of his problems, but team mate Oscar Piastri has generally (but not always) had the edge over one lap in 2025.

“I’m confident I have the speed,” Norris said on Thursday. “But it’s true that this year I’ve not been able to put things together as well as what I have done in the past, for many, many years.

“So it’s always something I’ve been very at one with, and very – I wouldn’t always say, confident – but something I’ve always just been very, very strong in. And I’ve just not done well enough this season.

“So it’s not like I’m doing a bad job, but when you’re against the best in the world, not doing a perfect job, is also the definition of probably doing a bad job.

“I’m focusing on and I’m working with my team when I’m back home, or when I’m here at the track, on improving these things, because it’s been my biggest let down so far of my season.”

Norris has no issues with his race performance this season, although Piastri is ahead in the points after his string of victories.

“My races on Sunday have been very strong,” he said. “Maybe not every one, but my decision making, so my Sundays I don’t even need to think about. I’m very happy with them.

“My opportunity is on Saturday. So I know what I need to focus on, but like I said before, and I’ve said the last few weeks, it still takes time.

“It takes work from both halves, both from me as a driver, and people I work with, and also as a team, providing me the equipment, the feelings that I need to perform at the level that I did last season.

“I think the level I performed at last season is a level that will have got me a lot more poles this year. So I’ve got it. I know that is there somewhere, but unlocking it just takes work and time.”

Just how long it might take remains a grey area – and the clock is ticking.

“It could be days, or it could be months,” he said. “But I’d say weeks, weeks still is probably the best way of saying it. It could be a matter of months.

“It’s a constant thing that we’re looking into, and trying different things, and from those different things that we try, we get different answers, and that might lead us to more stuff. So, yeah, it could be weeks. It could be still a couple months.”

Meanwhile Norris is sceptical about Max Verstappen’s efforts to downplay Red Bull’s potential form in Monaco.

The Dutchman has been cast as the plucky underdog in 2025, and Norris doesn’t see it that way.

“They won last weekend, they’ve been pole several times this season,” he said. “Max has won several races, he should have won Saudi.

“There’s also slow speed corners in Imola, where they were very strong. So I think we have more of the facts than I think what people on the outside do. There’s a lot of negative stuff about how bad their car is, but they’re very quick.

“We’ve said that the whole season. Outside people have underestimated them, but we know that they’re a threat, they have been the whole year. They will continue to be, especially when you have a team that has won many World Championships, especially in the last 5-10 years.

“And they have Max. And I don’t think you can ever doubt them. They won last weekend because they deserved it. They were good in slow-speed, they were good in high-speed, and they have a good car, but like we saw between Miami and Imola for ourselves, we can look like heroes one weekend and then we get beaten the next.

“And it’s not because anything changed, literally just the track. The car is the same. Obviously, tyres were the same, it’s literally just the track is different, and we go from one to the other. So we just take every weekend as it comes. They could be amazing here. And we’ll wait and see.”

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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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May 18, 2025 · 7:33 am

“Gutted” Hamilton calls for more Ferrari upgrades after missing Q3

Hamilton is urging Ferrari to find performance [Pic: @tinnekephotography]

Lewis Hamilton’s first appearance for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team in front of an Italian crowd was always going to be special, and which makes a below par performance for the home outfit at Imola even more painful.

Hamilton could manage only 12th in Q2, and it was of little comfort that his team mate Charles Leclerc was only one place and just 0.161s ahead.

The double frustration for Hamilton was that for once he felt comfortable in the car – the speed just simply wasn’t there.

After qualifying he called for more updates for the SF-25, while also stressing that for him that this is a “foundation building” year ahead of 2026.

“I definitely feel devastated, I feel just gutted I guess, because the car was generally feeling really good,” he said.

“I honestly felt like the setup was just right, the brakes were working, everything was kind of in place, and we just can’t go quicker.

“If you look how quick Max is going through Turn 2 and 3, we just can’t match it. And when we put that new soft on at the end, for some reason, it just didn’t come alive. There was no extra grip.”

He added: “I just I really thought we were going to be getting through. I thought the car’s alive, and watching these guys doing 14.7s. We could just get to 15.7, it’s a lot of time missing.”

Lewis insisted that the car felt better to drive after his recent struggles, even if the pace was missing.

“I think we made progress this weekend with the bit that I was talking about before,” he said.

“It’s still not where it needs to be. And there’s performance in that. And we need more upgrades for sure. We’ve got to start adding performance to this car.

“Clearly, we’re not at the level. I mean, look at Max’s rear, it just doesn’t move. He’s doing, like, I don’t know, like 6-10kph faster through Turn 2 than us, and we can’t match that. Same with the McLarens.

“So we just got to keep pushing, keep applying pressure. I believe that the guys can find some performance.”

However time is running out as every team turns its full R&D focus towards 2026 – and Hamilton himself is also eyeing next season.

“I think this is at least from my side, this is a foundation building year,” he said. “And getting to grips with everything within the team, making changes that are needed in order to help the team navigate to success long term.

“That’s stuff that I’m focused on. In the background, there’s a lot of improvements we can make across the board, as well as a faster car. I have all the faith and beliefs we can do that.”

In the meantime he has a race to do at Imola on Sunday. Ferrari has better long run pace than qualifying performance, but actually using it and passing people won’t be easy.

“This is not a great race circuit to great circuit to race on,” Lewis said when I asked about race form. “It’s great to drive a single lap, but overtaking, you get stuck in a DRS train, and there’s not going to be a lot of movement tomorrow.

“But we are all on softer tyres, and see what we can do strategy-wise. We’ll try and pick them off if we can. I feel like race pace could be good.”

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May 16, 2025 · 8:41 am

Why Sainz Jr believes his father is the right man for the FIA

Sainz Jr backs his father for the FIA job

The news that Carlos Sainz Sr is contemplating a run for the FIA presidency has created quite a stir, mainly because the 63-year-old is such an obvious potential candidate.

Universally respected, he brings with him the knowledge and experience gained not just during his own sporting career, but also from nurturing and guiding that of his son Carlos Jr.

At the moment it remains just an idea, and the former World Champion is clearly gauging the interest. However it would be naïve to think that he hasn’t already attracted useful support from around the world of motor sport, and potentially from senior FIA folk.

What matters of course is getting support from within the wider body of the FIA and the voting members, and it remains to be seen how that develops in the coming months, given that Mohammed Ben Sulayem scored such a convincing victory back in 2021.

Sainz will also have to come up with a full team, including deputy presidents for sport and mobility, and a head of senate.

The bottom line is that a challenge to the incumbent is a healthy thing and a good test of the democratic process in any field – may the best candidate win, and so on.

On Thursday in Imola Carlos Sainz Jr gave an intriguing insight into his father’s mindset, while stressing that the inspiration for him to stand came from elsewhere.

“Obviously we’ve been talking about it for a while now,” he said. “Interestingly enough, I think it’s something that didn’t actually come from him.

“A lot of people in the paddock were kind of putting it in his head, and little-by-little, he started considering it, and now he’s obviously thinking about it.

“I think the key is that he’s still hasn’t put together a team. But he’s considering it, and depending obviously how he sees it and sees his fit, he will go for it or not.”

So is he the right man for the job? Carlos Jr cites his dad’s vast experience of all forms motor sport.

“I’m his son, so I’m biased!,” he said. “But I just honestly speaking from the most objective position possible, it doesn’t come to my head anyone that has lived through all the karting days with his son, and knows the roots of motor sport in go-karting, as he did four or five years of go-karting with me.

“He did four or five years of single-seaters with me, knowing how tough, expensive, difficult is that ladder. He’s done 10 years in F1 with me. He’s done 40 years of rallying, raids. He does a lot of mobility work in Spain.

“So a guy that covers so many experiences in so many different areas of motor sport, coming to the end of his career, obviously, in racing, and trying to find a way to give back to motorsports what motorsports has given to him.

“From the most objective position that I can find, obviously being his son and obviously a very optimal candidate. Whether he will decide to do it or not is obviously completely up to him.

“But interestingly enough, as I said, it didn’t actually come from him, it came from a lot of people in the paddock putting it on his ear. And he started, maybe? It’s actually not so much from him, but people coming to him and suggesting it.”

So how likely is the bid to come to fruition?

“I can just tell you that he’s considering it seriously,” says Carlos. “Like he said, he’s evaluating all the options, obviously, now starting to think what team, what people, individuals, he would like to have in his team. He’s trying to understand how the elections work, how much convincing, how many people he needs to obviously go and talk to.

“But he’s evaluating the whole thing, and trying to understand how everything works. It’s his thing now. I’m obviously very busy here with Williams, doing my own thing, so I’m leaving it to him, in a way, and he gives me an update of the situation every one or two weeks, how much progress he’s doing, or what’s the situation. And he obviously wants my opinion, but not more than that.”

It’s not an easy job, and inevitably you can’t please everybody. Does Sr have a thick enough skin to cope with the challenges and criticism he’ll face?

“He seems more up for it in a way, where he has a thick enough skin to deal with it,” says Sainz Jr.

“My mum, maybe not so much! She’s like, come on, now that you are about to retire, give yourself a break, or do something not so demanding as this. But my dad is just non-stop.

“He loves motor sport, he loves racing, and he sees there an opportunity to put an end to his racing career, but still do something further, still actively, and find ways to give back to motorsport, and give back to the FIA, an entity that he has a lot of respect for, for all his years.

“And he knows what the FIA has done over the last 20-30 years, to improve safety in motorsport, to improve everyone’s life here in in motorsports. So he feels like he could give back, and that motivates him.”

Inevitably people will question how a serving FIA president could have a son racing in the organisation’s flagship championship.

However it’s inevitable that any credible candidate with relevant experience will have connections of some sort with teams, manufacturers and drivers.

When Jean Todt was president his son Nicolas was an active driver manager and team co-owner, and that wasn’t seen as a conflict. Carlos Jr is confident that it won’t be an issue.

“I’ve been trying to think scenarios where it could, but I actually don’t see any way how that could be seen,” he says. “If anything, obviously, he will be extremely careful. I will be extremely careful, because the last thing that I want is my or his image or career to be damaged by that situation.

“So if anything, we would do the opposite effect, and I don’t see any conflict of interest the moment you personally know my dad or you personally know me. We are honest people that would never, ever compromise that situation in motorsport.”

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May 15, 2025 · 4:42 pm

Can Norris start to turn the McLaren tide in Imola?

His team mate Oscar Piastri has usually had the advantage of late, but Lando Norris is trying to change that

With Oscar Piastri having won four of the first six races of the season and established a lead in the World Championship his McLaren Formula 1 team mate Lando Norris has to strike back as soon as he can if he is to retain his title hopes.

We are already 25% into the season, and with a busy European triple header beginning in Imola – a track where the Briton has a solid record of doing well – a lot of points are up for grabs over the next three weekends.

Piastri clearly has momentum on his side, and a good run over this sequences of races will be a further boost.

Norris has made it clear in recent months that he’s not felt fully comfortable with this year’s MCL39, and is not getting the feedback he needs to feel the limit of the grip available.

He’s been working away with the team in an attempt to improve the situation, and Imola will be another test of whether or not he is finding the answers.

“I go to the factory every week, so it’s a constant thing,” he said on Thursday when I asked if he had made progress on that front since Miami. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, there’s new issues, let’s dig into them.’

“We’re always trying to improve things. I’m trying to improve my own things, whether that’s the track or away from it. And the team are doing a great good job to try and help me understand things and figure out things and give me the things that I need to get more out of the car.

“So now there’s been a lot of a lot of work behind the scenes, as there always is. But more than more than ever, I would say, which is a positive thing.”

It’s easy to be sceptical when F1 drivers talk about a car not suiting their style, especially when their team mate seems to be perfectly attuned to the same machine.

However we’re talking about fine margins when these guys are operating at the absolute limit, especially when poles and race wins are at stake.

“Every driver has different ways of driving cars,” said Norris. “In the end of the day, I have no excuses, because I also feel like it’s my job to drive whatever car I get driven.

“So I’m not going to have excuses, but I’m going to have reasons at times, but in the end of the day, I just want to drive the best I can. So I might have days I struggle. I might have days I perform better.

“But no driver is ever satisfied. I’m still trying to improve myself, but we’re still trying to improve the car even though we’re winning races, we’re second in races, we’re dominating races, we still come away at times not happy and expecting more and wanting more.

“So yeah, this is one of the things that’s made my life trickier this year than it was last season, and it’s not allowing me to get my full potential. But I need more from the car, and I also know that I need to – at times – do a better job too.”

The challenge Norris faces is obviously firstly to fully understand what’s not working for him, and secondly to find solutions. It’s not easy to turn things around.

“I don’t always have to have reasons straight away,” he noted. “Sometimes it takes time, just like some of the difficulties I’ve had with the car this year, I know that some of the things that we’re trying to work on to improve my feeling takes time, and I have to be patient with certain things, and I have to be patient with my own improvements at times.

“You always want to go into the next weekend and things to be perfect. But it’s not always the case. You look at any other sports, no team just goes from one day to the next day and becomes a loser and then a winner.

“Sometimes it takes two or three races, whether it’s a football team or tennis player, a golfer, you never see them going from a shocking weekend to just dominating all of a sudden, especially when you’re at the top.

“Sometimes it takes weeks, months, different amount of races. So I don’t always need to have the reasons, but it’s always better to find them out so you can work on them.”

On the plus side Norris knows he has a car that can win races when everything falls into place.

Why the MCL39 is so good at managing its tyres is the question that is vexing the opposition.

“A lot of people talk about the tyres a lot, all the time, but it’s not just the tyres,” he said. “There’s a lot of different things that we do well, including just the balance and how the car performs. So all we have to do is keep focusing on our own job.

“We’ve not really had any upgrades or many big improvements when other teams have. So we’re taking our time with stuff, and making sure we do it our way. And I’m happy with that.”

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May 10, 2025 · 10:05 am

How Antonelli’s mixed Miami weekend showed he’s learning fast

He was a star in qualifying in Miami but the GP itself was a struggle for Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli is the gift that keeps on giving, and every race seems to have a story attached to it as his Formula 1 rookie season with Mercedes continues to unfold.

As I’ve said before he’s brutally honest about any mistakes or any perceived underachievement, which is very refreshing, and helps to give context to his progress.

The Miami weekend saw two extremes for the Italian. This was a track he knew only from the Brackley sim, and yet after just a single FP1 session he outpaced team mate George Russell in sprint qualifying to become F1’s youngest ever pole winner.

Given how hard it is for everyone to get tyre preparation bang on these days, it was no small feat.

In the sprint itself he showed he still has a lot of learning to do when he ran wide on the wet first lap and dropped to fourth.

His race was then ruined when he pitted for slicks and Max Verstappen was released into his path. His quick reaction, carrying on through the pits rather than attempting to stop and potentially putting crew members at risk, showed what an instinctive racer he is.

In the main qualifying session later that afternoon he again outpaced Russell to secure third.

On the first lap of the Grand Prix he got ahead of Lando Norris to claim second. Inevitably he was passed by both McLaren drivers, and then he found himself with Russell – who started on the theoretically slower hard tyre – right behind him, and keen to get by.

Following his stop ultimately Antonelli slipped back after struggling on the hards, with both Russell and Alex Albon getting ahead.

Second on the first lap to sixth at the flag was not really the sort of progression he wanted.

“I need to check,” he said when I asked if there were lessons to be learned. “The race pace today was just not good, especially on the hard, I really struggled to make the tyre work during the stint, and I was just sliding a lot around and couldn’t really find lap time. So definitely need to analyse what went wrong in order to be better for Imola.”

Was it the most difficult situation he’d faced to date in terms of tyre management?

“I think it was quite unique, this race, because it was the first time that I really struggled to make the tyre work. But still, a lot to take away into the next weekend.”

Nevertheless from the outside at least it looked like a weekend of decent progress, although his focus was on what he didn’t optimise.

“I think in some ways, yes, in others not really,” he said. “But I think in terms of qualifying pace, it was a strong weekend, and definitely looking forward to the next one.

“I think it’s a lot about experience and getting confidence with the car and being able to push it more and more.

“And I think I felt pretty good from FP1 on that side. And so it was nice. It was a nice feeling also being able to put the lap more together. So yeah, that was really positive.”

For Mercedes boss Toto Wolff it was definitely a weekend of two halves, but he chose to see the glass half full.

“I think the high point definitely is seeing his speed on a single lap,” said the Austrian. “Great. That’s another proof of his talent, and a good indication to how the future can be.

“And then in the race, challenging, because it’s so difficult here to find the right reference. You can say was the medium stint quick enough, with George holding on in the back on the hard tyre? That was not good.

“And then when he went into the hard, he just lacks experience managing it the right way. And then finding the right references. And Bono really tried to guide him, but when you’re in that car, it’s not easy, and I think it’s just part of the learning curve.

“There’s nothing that is disappointing or not. Overall I go away with the feeling that he’s done a good job.”

To be fair to Antonelli Russell may have finished ahead, but he too struggled with tyre management, and not for the first time in 2025.

“We have a really fast car, I believe, on a single lap or on a few laps, absolutely where it can be,” said Wolff. “But we’re just not good on with the tyres over an extended run. And McLaren shows how it’s being done to a degree. I think that Red Bull with Max, they’re managing it better, also tricky performances and I would say we’re solid in what we’re doing.

“But they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them. So this is what we need to look up to, and engineer our way out of that of the topic.”

Antonelli has faced a few unfamiliar tracks in recent weeks, and now he heads to three in a row that he knows from last year’s F2 campaign.

He’s also sampled both Imola and Barcelona in F1 TPC running with an older car, and that gives him a head start.

“Definitely,” he said. “I mean, first of all, Imola is a track that I’ve driven in all the categories. And Barcelona as well. So I know the track well this time. So definitely it can help for the weekend. But it’s not that because I know it that it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be important to be on top of the game.”

What we don’t know yet is what sort of reception he’ll get in front of his home crowd. Over the years Italy has had race winners in Riccardo Patrese, Michele Alboreto, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli. However the received wisdom is that Antonelli is the one, the guy who can eventually be his country’s first World Champion since 1953.

“Well, for sure, first home race, and definitely it’s going to be a special one,” he says. “So I’m going try to make the best out of it as well.

“It’s going to feel weird that I’m going to be sleeping at home. And apparently it’s also the last year for Imola. So I really want to make the best out of it, because it’s going to be special.

“I always try to for myself to keep expectations low. Of course I go on track and try to do my best. Qualifying was really special this weekend, and it would be good to repeat myself in Imola as well.”

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