Tag Archives: formula-one

August 29, 2025 · 7:00 am

Piastri focussing on what he can control as F1 title battle ramps up

Piastri could have a bigger lead over Norris – but he’s not looking backwards

Oscar Piastri heads into the final 10 races of the 2025 Formula 1 season with a nine point advantage over McLaren team mate Lando Norris.

Had things gone his way at certain races, or perhaps more accurately not gone the way of Norris, he could have been sitting on a much more substantial lead.

The most recent example was in Budapest, where as the chasing car Norris had the option of an alternative strategy – one that allowed him to secure victory, a result that created a 14-point swing in his favour.

Having done the difficult bit and been in front in the early stages Piastri could be forgiven for feeling a little bit miffed.

Hungary wasn’t the only time that events that were essentially out of his control conspired against Piastri and favoured his team mate. However, he denies that he feels hard done by in any way.

“No, I don’t,” he says. “I think there’s always going to be things in racing that you don’t necessarily agree with or don’t go the way you want. And that’s just part of it. Sometimes it makes you wonder why you picked this damn sport! But no, I think certainly don’t feel hard done by

“I think we’ve done a lot of things well that we can control this year. There’s been some tough moments, some tough lessons.

“But I’m very confident with the position that I’m in. I feel like I’ve driven well this year, and again all the things I can control, I feel like I’ve controlled very well. There is an opposite universe where a lot of things look very different, but none of that matters.

“So I’m just trying to focus on these next 10 races, and how I can perform either the same or, if not even better, than I did at the start of the year.”

For both Norris and Piastri the intensity of being in the spotlight of a World Championship fight is a new experience, although both have been battling for and indeed winning titles from their karting days and into the junior single-seater categories.

It’s also important to have a good team around you, and thanks to manager Mark Webber Piastri can absorb advice from someone who went through it himself back in 2010.

“The intensity will kind of naturally increase as we get close to the end of the year,” says Piastri. “And I’m ready for that. I’ve been in that position before and in other championships, and that kind of feeling and that countdown to the end of the year, that is the same. So I’m ready for that.

“And yes, I can lean on Mark. Ultimately, it’s down to how I manage it, how I drive, how I cope with the things that are going to be coming. But having an important team around you and a good group of people around you is very important to be able to lean on. So Mark is certainly one of those people. And yeah, I’m excited to see how it goes.”

You don’t have to be a sports psychologist to appreciate that Piastri’s outwardly calm demeanour contrasts with the heart-on-the-sleeve approach of Norris.

However, it would probably be a bit simplistic to suggest that the former will pay dividends as we get closer to the end of the season, and the title battle reaches its climax.

Indeed Piastri concedes that it’s not that straightforward, and there’s more going on below the surface.

“I definitely do get nervous,” he says. “Yes, I think before every race, nerves are there. Firstly, I don’t believe anyone that says they don’t get nervous, because I don’t think that’s possible. And I think it would be a bit weird if you weren’t nervous. So they are definitely there.

“I think it’s just how you how you manage it, how you try and channel it in the right ways. Because I think ultimately, the nerves can be good or bad, and it’s how you manage it that decides that. I think for me, being calm is just part of who I am, but definitely I’ve learned through the years that that’s how I get the most out of myself as well, and that doesn’t look the same for everybody.

“So it’s not a magic thing, but that’s how I feel like I work best. It’s kind of partly natural and partly through experience and through learning. It’s just how I am in some ways, and how I try and get the best out of myself.”

Meanwhile what unfolded in Budapest, and the possibility of future similar scenarios, has been the subject of debate in Woking.

“Yeah, we’ve spoken about it since then,” says Piastri. “I think ultimately there are race situations where being the second car from the team on track, or you don’t even have to be the second car from your team, it’s just being the kind of last car in the train, or the last car in the group, you’ve got a lot less to lose.

“So that kind of aspect is always going to be there. And I think it would be unfair to neutralise that just because of wanting to be on the same strategy. There were discussions about whether there was anything we could have done differently for myself, which were very productive discussions.

“I think we’re still going to be free to pick alternative strategies if that’s what we want. But yes, there were definitely some discussions about how we can tackle that, because it’s obviously a difficult thing to try and cover different strategies, especially when you’re in the position we are in the championship.”

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August 28, 2025 · 3:46 pm

Why Hamilton is determined to “have some fun” and turn his F1 season around

The Ferrari driver wasn’t happy in Hungary – but he’s made the most of the summer break

Lewis Hamilton ended the first half of his maiden season with Scuderia Ferrari on a low with a frustrating weekend in Hungary that saw him publicly express doubts about his own ability.

The timing was unfortunate given that he then headed into the three-week break with his head clearly in a bad place. There was a long wait until the next race, and a chance to try and move things on.

On the plus side he used the summer shutdown part of the gap to in his words be “completely unplugged”. He returned to Maranello at the start of this week to dig through the data with his engineers and prepare for the second half of the season.

He is of course keen to have something of a reset and turn things around from this weekend onwards.

“I feel determined to and motivated to, yes,” he said in Zandvoort on Thursday. “We’re going to work hard, keep our heads down, try to change a few things in our approach and start to enjoy ourselves. It’s been so much pressure in this first half of the season.

“It’s not been the most enjoyable. So I think just remembering that we love what we do, we’re all in this together, and yeah, trying to have some fun.”

Pushed on that intriguing aspect of having fun and enjoying what he’s doing he made some interesting observations that can be applied to all of us.

“I think it’s probably the most important part,” he said. “Because that’s the reason I got into this sport, that it was fun for me.

“And I think for anyone who in whatever career you’re in, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, then why are you doing it? And there can often be so much noise, you can lose sight of what’s really, really important.

“So that’s what I’m saying, I just really want to focus on getting back to that enjoyment. I joined the team that I’ve always dreamed of driving for and there’s been so much noise around that it’s kind of clouded us from getting to enjoy it.

“So now it’s about kind of moving those things aside, and just getting back to focusing on the pure love of what we do.”

There has been plenty to distract him thus far. Asked about his earlier reference to pressure he mentioned the workload that he’s faced in his new job.

“I think ultimately, just to get on top of everything, the amount of work we have, all the new partners, the amount of shoots we’ve done, getting integrated into a new team.

“And it’s a big, big team, and it’s also the biggest brand in our sport as well. So a combination of all those different things has been it’s been a lot.”

It’s a difficult process. How do you balance driver having to adapt to his new team versus the other way around? Hamilton admits that it’s not easy.

“I think it’s a very fine line,” he said. “I think my approach this year was really to adapt as much as I could to how they work, rather than arrive and say you have to change everything, and get a perspective of how they like to work.

“And then just try to then bring my experience to see how we can make those bits even better. But it’s a fine line, for sure.”

Asked if he’d experienced similar difficult times with an F1 car he made it clear that it was nothing new for him.

“I never just got in and just won,” he said. “There were always difficult times. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to get complacent, and be comfortable.

“And that’s really kind of where I was with a long-term relationship I had before, and taking this step into a team that I truly believe in, and I still believe in the potential here and what we can achieve together, and I think everyone in the team does.

“But no one succeeds without going through those tough patches. So I do welcome it. Look forward to the sunnier days, for sure.”

Whatever happens this weekend in Zandvoort the real test will come at Monza next weekend, and his first Italian GP in red.

“I’ve not really thought about it, to be honest,” he said. “Trying to take it one day at a time. I don’t really know what to expect. Obviously, what I saw in Imola was incredible. And I have obviously been to Monza and seen how Ferrari has been received there, and I’m always excited to see the tifosi.

“The support this team has around the world from the tifosi is unmatched. I’m sure it’ll be a unique experience.”

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June 8, 2025 · 11:02 am

Haas still riding F1’s midfield rollercoaster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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April 10, 2025 · 4:31 pm

Sainz left frustrated by “out of the question” national anthem fine

Sainz was fined in Suzuka for being late to the national anthem ceremony

Carlos Sainz’s fine for being late for the national anthem ceremony in Japan has again highlighted the frustration of Formula 1 drivers over increased FIA penalties for off-track offences introduced for 2025.

Punctuality at the anthem has been a point of discussion in drivers’ briefings and was mentioned in Suzuka, and thus the timing of Sainz’s transgression was perhaps unfortunate.

As the FIA stewards in Japan noted “he experienced discomfort due a stomach issue which delayed his appearance on the grid,” as confirmed by his doctor. Nevertheless he landed a €20,000 fine, with half of it suspended.

Asked about the subject in Bahrain on Thursday Sainz made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the turn of events.

“I think I’m the biggest supporter of punctuality,” he said. “And being – in a way – a gentleman, being punctual to things, and especially a national anthem, with all the authorities there. So I was the first one to put my hand up and say, ‘I’m late, I’m sorry for that.’

“At the same time, I was five seconds late. And to be five seconds late and have to pay €10,000 or whatever the fine is, for me, it is out of the question that we are having to pay these fines.

“I don’t know if I’m going to get another fine for saying this, but shit happens. It’s the way it is, it’s the way it goes sometimes. I mean, €10K is—you guys know what €10K is. And for five seconds, it’s disappointing.

“As I’ve always said, I hope someone tells me where this €10K goes. And they say, ‘OK, at least it went to a nice cause,’ and I will be looking forward to seeing where they go.”

As noted last weekend, drivers are pretty busy either side of the ceremony with comfort breaks, and sometimes logistics make their lives difficult.

Sainz’s fellow GPDA director George Russell agreed that it’s not always straightforward to get to the anthem ceremony.

“I totally appreciate that we have a duty to be there for the national anthem,” said the Mercedes driver. “It’s not quite as straightforward as people may think for us to be there on time.

“We’re often running to the toilet, and there’s sometimes not toilets available between the time you jump out of a car, and going to the anthem.

“And then you get stopped by some people have agreed, or people asking for a quick interview. It’s not like we’ve got one sole job, and that’s only it. We’re trying to take our moment before the Grand Prix, and being there on that minute is sometimes not straightforward.

“So I appreciate it from F1’s perspective, because it’s a very important moment of the race, but also from a driver’s perspective, there are genuine logistical issues that sometimes you’re literally waiting to get into a bathroom cubicle.”

The Sainz fine is part of a bigger picture of driver frustration with the penalty system, which saw a debate over swearing during the off-season. It will be intriguing to see what the next example will be.

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April 9, 2025 · 6:37 am

Bearman makes his point as revised floor boosts Haas

Bearman was in the top 10 for the second time in two races

Oliver Bearman continues to impress at the Haas Formula 1 team, and the young Brit caught the eye in Suzuka by comprehensively outperforming team mate Esteban Ocon.

To be fair it was a slightly tougher weekend for the Frenchman. From the start of the weekend Bearman had the team’s new floor, fast tracked to the car after it proved difficult in Australia.

Ocon in contrast got it for Saturday, and thus only had FP3 in which to optimise the car and get fully comfortable prior to qualifying.

While Bearman qualified 10th and finished in the same position as he logged a useful point, Ocon had to settle for starting 18th, and he wasn’t able to make progress from there.

Like other drivers who have switched teams Ocon is still finding his feet, and it’s also worth recalling that he had the better weekend in China, outpacing Bearman and taking eighth on the road and sixth in the final results.

Nevertheless Suzuka was a statement of intent from Bearman, who has quickly overcome the disappointment of a huge practice crash in Australia.

Japan was a straightforward race for him.

“Pretty boring, I was pretty lonely out there, a bit sleepy,” he said when I asked him about his afternoon. “It was a fun race. With the temperatures dropping like they did today, and the track kind of resetting overnight with the rain, the grip was incredibly high, and the level of pushing was also incredibly high.

“The tyres were super robust today, and it was basically just a flat-out race, and I didn’t quite have enough pace to attack, and I wasn’t slow enough to be attacked either. So it was a bit lonely.”

Bearman confirmed that the revised floor worked well, and he also made an intriguing observation that suggests he might less affected than Ocon by the car’s quirks.

“For me, it seems positive,” he said. “So I’m happy with that. The team has done a great job bringing it so quickly after the upset of Australia. So I think we did a great reaction, and for it to work as expected is a good feeling. Let’s see how it how it performs on the rest of the tracks that we have in this triple header.

“We just had a little bit less bouncing in those high-speed corners, which, anyway, I feel like I’m not super sensitive to, so with or without the floor, I don’t complain that much about bouncing. I’m used to F2 which doesn’t have suspension, essentially. So anything’s an upgrade!

“And the floor has definitely improved the bouncing, and it doesn’t really change the feeling for us. But it allows us to run the car a bit more aggressively, and get a bit more performance out of it, which is good. And it seems like it’s worked this weekend.”

Ocon meanwhile downplayed the suggestion that only having Saturday to get used to the new floor was the reason why he struggled.

“I think it’s a bit more complicated than that,” said the Frenchman. “I think it’s good overall, that the teams managed to bring this update this quickly and react this this quickly. It worked on one car, which is very good.

“We need to pick that up, understand the data from Ollie’s side, and it’s good that he’s managed to pick up a point. And yeah, we are very happy on that side. Now it’s just a matter of turning it into our car as well. And no doubt that this will come too.”

Team boss Ayao Komatsu insisted that as of Saturday the two cars were identical.

“The data is pretty clear,” he said. “It’s working. So we haven’t understood why Esteban couldn’t perform. Both cars as far as we can see, are performing very, very close to each other within the resolution of what we can measure? Not to say there might be something that we cannot measure, but so far, we haven’t found anything.”

Bearman hadn’t sampled any of the first three tracks in an F1 car, although he knew Melbourne from F2, and Suzuka from a Super Formula test.

He now goes to two venues that he has sampled in faster machinery, including Jeddah, where he actually raced last year.

“Every weekend I’ve done so far has had a mistake somewhere,” said the teenager. “Maybe not China, but this one completing the full weekend without any bad points, good qualifying, good race, I’m happy with this one, and it’s a good baseline to improve from.

“I’m definitely excited to go to tracks that I know. At the end, it doesn’t change much by the time you get to qualifying, because even here, having three free practices is enough to learn the track for most.

“So it really all comes down to how comfortable I am in the car. This weekend, I felt really confident to push and lean on it. And if I have that feeling, I hope we can be that competitive in the future races too.”

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April 5, 2025 · 2:21 pm

The brutal honesty that will serve Antonelli well

Antonelli will start sixth in Japan on Sunday

Kimi Antonelli continues to impress as he works his way along a steep learning curve at Mercedes, and after a wet debut in Melbourne followed by a full race with a damaged floor in China he could have done with a straightforward weekend at his third attempt.

Instead he got Suzuka, a track he didn’t know – plans to do a Super Formula test late last year were abandoned due to illness – and which is one of the most difficult on the calendar.

After struggling to find his way over the three practice sessions he showed that he learned by being P8, P7 and P6 over the three qualifying decisions, those numbers somehow symbolising his overall rate of progress.

But what really caught the eye when he talked after the session was his brutal honesty about his own performance. He cited a lack of confidence in the free practice sessions, and took full responsibility for opting for a “safe” setup, in other words one with higher than optimal downforce.

That honesty is a quality that has helped endear him to the team and which will serve him well as he continues to progress.

“Happy with how the session went, but on the other side, disappointed,” he said when I asked him about it. “Because I had to make such a step in driving from free practices. I was very lost in practice. I really had no confidence to push more, and to progress.

“And I was like, kind of stuck from where I finished in FP1. I headed into qualifying with very little confidence, and having to make a really big step in driving. So overall I was getting there, step-by-step. But yeah, it definitely is a good lesson ahead of the next race.”

These days drivers do so much work in the sim that they could drive their first real laps of most tracks blindfold, but Suzuka isn’t quite that straightforward.

“The thing is, it’s definitely a really fast track,” he said. “It’s not easy as well, first sector especially, because it’s quite narrow. But you need to get the timing right with all the turning points. But as well I think also with the setup, we started quite safe, because I didn’t have confidence, so I needed to get confidence.

“But then as the track was improving and cooling down, I didn’t really had the courage as well to push the setup even further. So also, that is something that I learned for the next qualifyings. But overall I’m happy, because I felt like I maximized the result.”

He made it looks easy, but it wasn’t: “Mentally it was really tough, because when you’re kind of stuck there and you see that you really struggle to make steps, mentally it’s difficult. Especially because you see that you have to make such a step in all the sectors.

“It’s every corner you have to make a massive step in driving. So I really dug deep, and really tried to focus on what I had to do. And eventually it was a decent lap. Of course, far from perfect, but I cannot complain about it either.”

So how did he find that improvement?

“It was a mix of everything. What I really like to do is re-watching my lap, because I can see where maybe I do a wrong line, or where I could have done better. I was getting there, step-by-step.

“Also, I think using two sets in Q1 didn’t really help, but that was on me, because I didn’t do a good enough lap at the start. Because I think with two sets in Q3 it definitely could have helped me as well, to make a further step.”

Regarding the set-up chosen for qualifying he said: “It was not massively different, but definitely it was more safe. Because as I just said before, I had no confidence, and so definitely was more on the safe side, but definitely on the end of the quali it was a bit too safe.

“But that’s not on the team, it was my decision, because I was feeling good with it. I was getting the confidence back. Definitely in that last lap that I had decent confidence, I probably could have asked the team to push the setup a bit more on the edge.

“Melbourne was a really big test, the race. But I think on the mental side, this was a good test as well, because when you’re so far off in in three practices, not one free practice, all of them, it’s really hard mentally.

“And especially you go into qualifying and you’re uncertain of what you can achieve as a result. So, it was really good test mentally, and I was happy with how I reacted to it.”

He admitted that he would have had a decent head start had he done the Super Formula test as planned.

“Also that didn’t help, because I was meant to test, but I was ill, so I couldn’t really do anything. So I just went home after Abu Dhabi, because even in that post-season test, I wasn’t feeling very well, and I was meant to fly right after it, but I was too ill to go there and drive.

“So of course, it was unfortunate, because probably it could have helped, just to know the track a little bit more. But as I said before there’s still some disappointment with the performance, but at the same time, I cannot complain with how the session went.”

Kimi scored decent points in the wet in Australia, despite a spin, and he’s not afraid of more of the same. Pretty brave considering how tough Suzuka is in the wet…

“I wouldn’t mind some rain, maybe a bit of chaos at the front, but we’ll see tomorrow. I think we’ll see in the moment. But a lot of data to look at overnight in order to be ready for tomorrow.”

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February 27, 2025 · 1:42 pm

Lower Las Vegas GP numbers impact F1’s 2024 overall income

The Las Vegas GP didn’t generate as much cash for F1 in 2024 as in its inaugural year

The Formula 1 organisation continued to increase both revenue and operating income during the 2024 season – but Liberty Media admits that a poorer performance by the Las Vegas GP in its second season had an impact on the overall figures.

The headline numbers were up in part because there were 24 races in 2024, as opposed to 22 the previous year, with China returning and Imola back after the 2023 flood cancellation.

Revenue by was up 6% from $3,222 million to $3,411 million, while operating income rose from $392 million to $492 million, a gain of 26%.

While the numbers continued the upward trend Liberty concedes that the Las Vegas GP, which feeds directly into revenue as the only race promoted in-house, was not as successful as in its inaugural year.

Liberty notes that “sponsorship revenue grew due to recognition of revenue from new sponsors, contractual increases from existing sponsors and additional sponsorship inventory with two additional races held.

“Media rights revenue increased due to contractual increases in fees and continued growth in F1 TV subscription revenue.

“Race promotion revenue grew primarily due to fees from the two additional races held compared to the prior year, following the return of China and Imola to the calendar, as well as contractual increases in fees, partially offset by lower ticketing revenue generated from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.”

It added that “growth in hospitality income at most events and higher freight and licensing revenue was offset by lower hospitality revenue generated from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.”

However F1 also gained from the “lower event promotion, hospitality and experiences costs incurred in promoting and delivering the Las Vegas Grand Prix compared to the prior year.”

The 10 F1 teams shared payments between them of $1,266 million, up 4% from $125 million the previous year.

Despite the Las Vegas setback F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali remains bullish after the overall numbers continued to rise.

“Formula 1 capped off a record 2024 in race count, revenue and Adjusted OIBDA,” he said. “We are equally optimistic about 2025 as we mark F1’s 75th anniversary which will provide incremental momentum for our brand, and we celebrated this milestone by welcoming the entire F1 community to a first of its kind season launch event at The O2 last week.

“Our sponsorship roster is the strongest in the sport’s history and the commercial pipeline remains robust. This commercial success is paired with on-track excitement, as we expect more intense competition after last season’s highly competitive championship and we welcome several rookie drivers to the grid.”

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November 22, 2024 · 3:56 am

New Ferrari SF-24 floor purely for tunnel correlation in FP1

The new floor is just a test item Picture: @tinnekephotography

Scuderia Ferrari ran a new floor on Carlos Sainz’s car in FP1 in Las Vegas on Thursday, but only as a wind tunnel correlation exercise – and it won’t be used for the rest of the weekend.

The appearance of a revised floor on the FIA’s list of new aero parts for Vegas suggested that the team might been attempting to find a valuable performance boost for the final three races, but that is not the case.

The fact that the team made the effort to design and construct the floor for use in a single session is a good indication of how valuable the information that it provided is deemed to be.

It was not supposed to provide any performance gain, and Sainz finished the session in sixth place, two-tenths behind team mate Charles Leclerc.

“It’s simply a development part, and actually it’s a correlation process,” said senior performance engineer Jock Clear. “So it’s a floor that we only have one of, and Carlos will run it in FP1.

“And basically it’s not bringing more performance. It’s just specifically different in one certain area, and that area is the area we want to look at in terms of correlation with what the tunnel is telling us.

“So it’s a bit like when you have these issues on the car, and you’re trying to work your way around which bit of the floor is affecting corner entry, or mid corner/apex understeer, or whatever, you need to really be very specific about which parts of the floor are going to make the difference.

“And actually, that’s quite a difficult process. So one of the things that it’s quite valuable to do occasionally is to bring a part that’s specifically very, very targeted, and say, ‘Okay, does that do what we think it’ll do?’

“So it won’t make the car any quicker, it won’t give him any more downforce, but we need to look at the numbers and say, yes, when we did that, that’s the result we’ve got. And that’s a correlation process for the tunnel.”

Clear conceded that by helping to hone the wind tunnel the new floor will feed into the 2025 development programme.

“I think next year’s cars, obviously there’s not a great big rule change, nothing particularly dramatic,” said Clear. “So they will, to a large extent, be a development of what teams already have. And that’s probably the case for us as well.

“So everything you’re doing at the moment is obviously enhancing your learning for what will probably end up on a ’25 car.

“And again, which probably comes back to this floor that we’re bringing for FP1 here, there are things that you specifically are thinking, okay, we’re going to run out of time.

“We’ve only got three races left, and we really need to understand this particular aspect, because we think that’s important for next year.

“So there are these things that you can target in these last three races to say this is our last opportunity. It’s not like we have a winter of testing like we used to do 20 years ago.

“Testing won’t arrive until February, so we’ve really got to identify on this car the areas that we think are going to be very pertinent for next year. So that’s part of our process.”

Expanding on the effort required to bring the floor to Las Vegas he said: “I think we’ve been quite open in effectively being public about the fact that we brought this floor, and I think you’ll probably find teams do this all the time.

“Obviously a floor is a big part, and actually you have to make a commitment, because it’s an expensive part as well. So it’s not the kind of thing you’re going to do every week.

“But there are bits on the car that are developments and correlating things that are on the car every week, little sensors and little fins on the front brake ducts and things like that.

“So the fact that we’ve obviously put some effort into bringing a floor here, it’s an important correlation, and we certainly think if it gives us the information we want, then yeah, it’s worth doing. That’s why we’re doing it.”

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November 17, 2024 · 10:41 am

How Sauber lost “greatest opportunity” to end points drought in Brazil

Bottas wasn’t able to turn a good grid position into a result in Brazil

Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi admits that the chaotic wet Sao Paulo GP represented the “greatest opportunity” that the Swiss Formula 1 outfit has had to score points this season.

Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th at Interlagos, and the Finn was ninth on the grid for the start as both Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were missing.

However rather than convert that into a priceless points finish Bottas slipped down the order due to the car’s inherent lack of pace and a struggle to get temperature into the tyres.

The team even made the right call under the VSC, keeping Bottas on track – but while others who made that choice made the podium the Finn slipped back to 13th at the flag. His team mate Zhou Guanyu finished 15th and last.

Sauber has yet to score a point in 2024, and remains last in the World Championship.

“It’s very difficult to say and to admit, but I think we lost the greatest opportunity that we had this season to score points,” Alunni Bravi told me. “Because of the excellent qualifying session done by Valtteri, and the position that was a P9 for us at the start.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to keep the position. The biggest problem for us was to have proper temperatures in the tyres at the beginning of each stint.

“And this, of course, jeopardised all the opportunities and the possibility for Valtteri and Zhou to defend and attack any position.

“We have seen in the second part of each stint that the situation was improving, and when the tyres were working in the correct range of temperature, we were competitive.

“But this doesn’t cancel the big disappointment, because it was a very tough day for us. Of course, we have mixed feelings, qualifying was very positive, especially with Valtteri. But at the end what matters are points, and the race result on Sunday.”

Alunni Bravi admitted that it the outcome was even more frustrating after the team made a good strategy call.

“The only opportunity to recover position was to wait,” he said. “According to the weather forecast, the rain after this intense period that led to most of the car pitting would decrease significantly.

“So we opted to stay out with Valtteri and to wait for a possible red flag, because the situation was extremely critical. So we remained on track on inters, and as predicted that the red flag came out, because the conditions were simply too critical.

“So that was the right call. We recovered four positions, so Valtteri was P12, we could change tyres, and avoid the pit stop.

“But this was not enough, because at the restart, the pace was not there. So Valtteri immediately lost other positions. And for Zhou, it was even more difficult, because starting from qualifying, he didn’t have confidence with the car.

“We went to extreme wets, because for him, it was impossible to drive the car, and then he simply was never able to attack. So a difficult race in a difficult season.”

Regarding Alpine’s double podium he said: “I think that we need to pay tribute to what they’ve done. They were exactly on the same strategy as us. But of course, they showed have more performance.

“And I think that we knew that the track, in that condition, could bring us opportunity, and they’ve been able to grab everything and to maximise everything.

“I think this is what we need, a good result for the motivation of the people, because we have people that are working really hard back in Hinwil and at trackside, and they deserve like Alpine to have good results. It’s never easy to have such a season.

“We keep developing. We are we will have upgrades coming for the remaining three races. We don’t give up, but we have to do more.”

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November 6, 2024 · 3:57 pm

How rookie driver success gave Binotto confidence to hand Bortoleto 2025 Sauber seat

Binotto says the big question was should Bortoleto start in ’25 or ’26?

Sauber and Audi Formula 1 boss Mattia Binotto admits that the recent success of young drivers helped to give him the confidence to put Gabriel Bortoleto straight into a race seat in 2025.

The Brazilian was announced as the team’s future driver on Wednesday after it was formally confirmed that Valtteri Bottas will leave at the end of this year.

Reigning FIA F3 champion Bortoleto, who is currently leading the F2 series, was released by McLaren to take up the Sauber drive.

Intriguingly Binotto has revealed that Bortoleto was free to leave the Woking team, and that Audi didn’t have to pay for him.

He will join fellow youngsters Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli on the 2025 grid, with Franco Colapinto also potentially in the frame for a seat in the Red Bull camp.

Audi has long indicated that it had to chose between youth and experience, and having decided on the former ultimately it was a question of whether Bortoleto would race in 2025, or use the season as a year of preparation for a debut in ’26.

The instant success of the likes of Bearman and Colapinto encouraged Binotto to go for the earlier option.

“If I look around, I think he’s one of the most talented and high potential drivers we’ve got as rookies,” he said when asked by this writer about the influence of the likes of Colapinto and Bearman on the decision.

“And for Audi, that was a winner – ‘go for it.’ It was between experienced or young drivers, I think certainly young drivers was a certitude, an answer. So it was only a matter by when. So we would have gone for Gabriel. That would have been, anyhow, our choice.

“And I think that the second and last question we were asking ourselves was should it be straight in ’25, or should we give him some time first to develop, and then maybe postpone to ’26?

“But finally yes, we see also young drivers doing well in F1, that give me mainly more confidence on the fact that Gabriel can do very well since the very start.

“And if any, that has been the convincing factor, not of the overall choice for a young driver, which I think young driver for Audi journey and project is important and essential.

“But more how fast, how soon, could that maybe happening? And I’m convinced he will do well since the very, very start.”

Regarding any compensation for McLaren he said: “Gabriel was somehow free to leave because he got the opportunity.”

Binotto stressed that it was key to have a young driver who can learn and grow as the team does.

“Certainly having secured Gabriel for a multi-year contract for us is important in our journey, looking at obviously our future,” he said.

“Audi has committed for a long journey, for being in F1 for many years, and somehow for us really to I would say start the journey together with a young driver, was something as well important.

“There is much that we will need to learn, improve as much as him. He will be a part with us on the journey. I’m very happy because, no doubt, he is a fantastic, high potential driver. I think that his career has proved it.”

He stressed that Bortoleto’s ability to improve over a season in the junior categories was an important factor.

“What he achieved, what he is achieving, the way I think he is driving, has impressed me,” he said.

“But more than that, more than that, as I told him, is his capacity to develop, improve and progress through the season itself.

“And I think he’s doing it as well in his season of F2. The start has been difficult, but then he’s really been capable not to lose, I would say, the direction, what he is trying to achieve, and he’s shown progress, and that’s what counts the most for me.

“I met him now a few weeks ago here in Hinwil the very first time in my office. I’ve been as well impressed by his personality, the attitude and the mindset.

“So I don’t think he’s only a fantastic, high potential driver, but he’s a great person, too, and that’s something very important for our project as well.”

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