The DRS Zone

Category: 2025

  • Bahrain Grand Prix

    Image obtained from F1.com

    Bahrain Shows The Importance of DRS

    Whilst the Japanese Grand Prix was a snooze fest, the Bahrain Grand Prix proved slightly more entertaining with some decent amount of action up and down the field. What it does highlight however, is the reliance of DRS for any chance of meaningful overtaking. The track has 3 DRS zones compared to Japan that has 1, and highlights that the current generation of F1 cars are not very good at “racing”. The race was refreshed towards the end with a safety car that brought some closer racing for the closing stages. Piastri always looked in control and was never put under pressure. Could we have a new favourite for the title?

    Does Lando lack the mental strength to become champion?

    After a poor qualifying, Norris was rather down beat afterwards, sure sixth on the grid isn’t great but in a car that in race trim at least is clearly quicker than everyone else, it shouldn’t be the end of the world. We have seen Max and Hamilton many a time come from much further back to finish a race on the podium.

    Norris during the interview suggested that his issues lay within his head, and he looked very depressed. It’s made me wonder whether he has the mental strength to succeed in a tight championship fight. If you look at other drivers like Max, Alonso, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Pastri and many more they never seem to be too fazed by anything, or at least that’s how they appear in front of the media. I don’t mention Hamilton because he does tend to wear his heart on his sleeve, however he rarely questions his own mental strength in front of the cameras.

    I don’t know who Norris surrounds himself with outside of F1, but if it were me I would be associating with people that can help nurture and improve my mental strength. The problem with being a star is finding the right people to associate with, there are a lot of snakes out there that will just want his money and won’t have his best interests at heart. My suggestion to him would be to take stock on who he associates with and make sure to weed out anyone just there for a free ride. If he can’t find a way to improve his mental strength, he needs to try and manage it better and not let it show to the world, else he may see this year’s title, slip through his fingers, despite McLaren protecting him.

    Turmoil at Red Bull

    It’s been a mixed start for RB, they have a couple of podiums including a win in Japan and they have swapped the second drivers around. Tsunoda should have been given the seat in the first place in my opinion, and it will be interesting to see how he compares to Max. The team however had a nightmare in Bahrain. Starting in practice they looked miles off the McLaren pace and they both qualified poorly and then in the race they both had issues in the pits with the traffic light (bring back the lollipop man) which caused them to lose places.

    Sky Sports reported after the race that there was a rather heated discussion between key personnel in RB and Max’s manager. The problem when you have so much continued success is it is hard to let that go. It’s the natural cycle in F1, one team dominates for a couple of seasons, other teams eventually catch up and surpass them and then the regulations change and so the cycle begins again. Max has had his was for so long, like Hamilton before him and Vettel before him, maybe it’s time he had a new challenge and move teams like Hamilton did. Red Bull have obviously been hit by the controversy last season and the loss of key personnel to other teams which has exasperated their decline. What Horner and Markko will be saying is “we need to get through this tough spell together, but we look strong for 2026”.

    Max is clearly not going to leave mid-season, but rumours are that he is already losing confidence as the upgrades that have come, so far have not worked. It will be interesting to see what happens for 2026, no doubt he will have a get out clause, however I can’t see which team would have him. Any team that has him will have to be prepared to upset the apple cart. Ferrari are likely to be happy with Leclerc and Hamilton, so far, they seem to get on and don’t attract much wrong attention towards the team. McLaren are happy with Nozza and Piastri and Max won’t go to Mercedes unless George is outed. The only viable place I could see him is Aston Martin, but they are having their own issues at the moment, and you would assume he’d replace Alonso.

    Ferrari strategy costs them again.

    Finally, a note on the Ferrari strategy calls this race. Initially rejecting Leclerc’s calls to go on the hard tyre looked like a strong shrewd strategy call. The hard tyre was clearly not a good tyre for anyone using it. Unfortunately, at the safety car they put both drivers on it and it cost Leclerc a podium, not long after pitting both drivers complained they had no grip. They couldn’t run another set of mediums, having started on them and then fitting another set at the first pitstops, but the soft tyre in the early stages lasted well and I can’t help but think in the latter stages on lower fuel, they would have been even better.

    A round up of elsewhere

    William had a race to forget, Sainz retired with damage and was then given a 10 place for the next race after failing to serve his time penalty for causing a collision.

    Nico Hulkenberg was disqualified after the race for having excessive wear on his plank under his car

    Results

    1stOscar Piastri11thKimi Antonelli
    2ndGeorge Russell12thAlex Albon
    3rfLando Norris13th Isack Hadjar
    4thCharles Leclerc14thJack Doohan
    5thLewis Hamilton15th Fernando Alonso
    6thMax Verstappen16thLiam Lawson
    7thPierre Gasley17thLance Stroll
    8thEstaban Ocon18thGabriel Bortoleto
    9thYuki TsunodaDNFCarlos Sainz
    10thOliver BearmanDISNico Hulkenberg

    Race Rating: 6/10

    What’s next?

    Short week before the Saudi GP, not expecting this one to be a barn stormer but we will see.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • A Quick Update

    Firstly, let me say thank you and welcome to all of the new subscribers to my site. I appreciate you visiting the site and signing up for updates.

    Secondly, please accept my apologies for the lack of content the last couple of weeks. I have had a fair amount of personal issues to deal with at home and with that and working my normal day job I just haven’t had the time I would like to dedicate to the articles and opinions.

    The good news is hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel and I should be able to dedicate more time soon enough.

    Hopefully this weekends race will be better than last weekends snore fest!

  • Eddie Jordan Passes Away

    Sad news from for the F1 world today with the passing of Eddie Jordan. The former team owner led a full life enjoying success on and off the track. Well known for owning the Jordan F1 team, he gave a Michael Schumacher his debut in F1 and had several stars drive for him. The height of Jordans success came in the late 90’s, he had a 1-2 finish at the 1998 Belgium Grand Prix and the team would challenge for the Drivers’ Championship in 1999 with Heinz Harold-Frentzen. Before landing on harder times and eventually selling the team. During its time the team was well known for its striking yellow and black liveries with the most memorable being the Snake and the Buzzin Hornets.

    The current Aston Martin F1 Team can trace its roots all the way back to Jordan and I am sure there are still some staff working there that have been there since the Jordan days.

    After selling the team Jordan became a pundit, first for BBC and then Channel 4 in the UK, where he was known for his controversial comments and his willingness to not pull any punches. For me although I didn’t always agree with some of the things he said, it was a refreshing approach from other pundits who quite often sit on the fence. Most pundits don’t want to annoy other teams in case their lose their privileges of visiting their hospitality areas during a race weekend or to duck out of the rain, something that Jordan didn’t care about. He has famously been banned from several teams’ hospitality areas thanks to his frank and honest opinions.

    One of Jordans most notable comments as a pundit was the revealing of the deal that took Hamilton to Mercedes, at the time he said it on live TV, he was laughed and ridiculed up and down the paddock for his wild and “inaccurate” claim. Fast forward several weeks/ months and the rumour Jordan revealed came to fruition.

    Later, he would become Adrian Newey’s managerial representative and managed to secure him with a lucrative contract at Aston Martin.

    It is a sad day in F1. Rest in peace Eddie Jordan.

  • Australian Grand Prix

    Image obtained from F1.com

    F1 is back baby!

    The 2025 season got under way this past weekend with Australia raising the curtain, something that they haven’t done for several years.

    With Albert Park being quite a niche circuit, it is still difficult really to get a real feel of the pecking order, I don’t think we will really find out the complete order for a couple of races. I think we can all agree that Haas seem to be struggling, both cars scored points last year, this year they finished last.

    The changeable conditions caught out several drivers both rookies and experienced alike, it added a bit of intrigue to the race however it also made it a bit slow and stuttery. An F1 car is never designed to run in the wet it is however clear that with the torque and power the cars have, once they go in the wet it’s very hard to keep it under control. This may well get worse next season with more electrical power being applied.

    A race of crashes and a tough weekend for the rookies

    In a weekend of crashes, it was the rookies that had the lion’s share of them. Albert Park is a tough street circuit and will punish you if you make a mistake. It’s not an easy circuit to master for a green driver and I am sure they would have much preferred Bahrain as the first race of the season.

    Bearman at least kept his crashes to practice, however come qualifying when his gear box failed, one must assume it was a knock on from the shunt in practice. Antonelli damaged the underside of his car during Q1 and compromised himself which meant he couldn’t progress any further.

    Hadjar crashed on the formation lap before Jack Doohan and Bortoletto crashed and Lawson almost with a carbon copy of Hadjar also crashed out. Hadjar was quite dismayed and embarrassed about what happened, however the fact that the conditions also caught out Sainz behind the safety car and Alonso as well as Lawson in a similar fashion, I think he will take some solace from.

    McLaren lead the way

    I know I said it’s hard to call the order after the first race, there were some hints that McLaren were possibly hiding some pace. Firstly, the gap in qualifying was larger than what I thought it would be. It was quite close in Q1 & Q2 then the run on the new softs in Q3 was almost half a second quicker than the Red Bull. The other tell tail sign that the car has significant performance was during the first stage of the race on the intermediate tyres. Verstappen seemed to be keeping up well, made a mistake and he was gone. His tyres seemed to be shot, whilst both McLarens scampered off into the distance. The biggest hint was when everyone had pitted for dry tyres, they both pitted and went onto the hard compound with Verstappen on the medium. Normally you would expect McLaren to be at a disadvantage here with the conditions at the time and the fact that the harder tyre is slower to warm up. I expected Verstappen to put them under pressure and potentially pass them, however the opposite happened, and both cars again started to pull away.

    Finally, Piastri managed to go from 13th to 9th, obviously he was helped by unlapping himself during the safety car, however he showed great pace and pulled off a couple of fantastic overtakes without really looking like he was throwing the car about.

    Williams best of the midfield?

    Williams showed well all weekend and although you shouldn’t read too much into practice it was no surprise to me when the qualified well. I think Williams are going to finally move forward this year with two drivers that can be competitive and know how to score points. Albon finished 4th thanks to a penalty for Antonelli, which would later be rescinded dropping Albon back to 5th. It meant that had he scored almost as many points in the first race as he managed all season last year. The only negative to come out the weekend was Sainz’s crash behind the safety car, a bit embarrassing but without that crash they were on for a good points haul. Hopefully the pace in the car isn’t a one off and they can carry on as they started.

    Out for a Stroll

    I Just wanted to add that Lance Stroll quietly went about his weekend and ended up getting a positive result for Aston Martin. He may have benefited from some of the accidents however, he kept his nose clean and scored some solid points.

    Results

    1stLando Norris11thPierre Gasly
    2ndMax Verstappen12thYuki Tsunoda
    3rfGeorge Russell13thEstaban Ocon
    4thKimi Antonelli14thOliver Bearman
    5thAlex AlbonDNFLiam Lawson
    6thLance StrollDNFGabriel Bortoleto
    7thNico HulkenbergDNFFernando Alonso
    8thCharles LeclercDNFCarlos Sainz
    9thOscar PiastriDNFJack Doohan
    10thLewis HamiltonDNSIsack Hadjar

    Race Rating: 6/10

    What’s next?

    It’s been a long time since we had the first race of the season and then had to wait 6 weeks for the next race. The teams have a few days to turn round and get to China. Could be an interesting race, it’s a proper circuit and we may see some more “normal” running orders. Also, those that suffered crash damage could be short on spares with such a quick turnaround. One thing though is the Chinese Grand Prix can produce some entertaining races.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • F1 Testing Day 2 – Rain in Bahrain

    Yes, you read that correctly, the morning session was interrupted by rain. The only two teams to bring intermediate tyres are Alpine and Haas. During the period where the track was wet, we saw Ocon venture out for some laps on the intermediates, although the track was not wet enough.

    Driver lineup wise, it was very similar to day one except Lawson drove all day in the Red Bull and Sainz was in all day for Williams.

    Talking of Sainz, he topped the time sheet at the end of the day, he also did the greatest number of laps for one single driver with 127. Very positive signs for Williams. They have said that the most of their focus has switched to 2026, but they have continued to develop the chassis that they used last season. The Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc were 2nd and 3rd respectively.

    Mercedes158
    VCARB140
    Kick136
    HaaS135
    Ferrari128
    Williams127
    Mclaren121
    Alpine120
    Aston Martin102
    Red Bull91

    With temperatures unusually low in Bahrain it’s even harder to judge how teams are faring and how the order stands up. However, one thing to note from watching it on TV was the long run pace of Lando Norris. He was significantly quicker than anyone else on long run pace, however whether this will have been helped by the lower temperatures meaning less tyre degradation, only time will tell.

    The only real drama from the drivers came when Piastri mad contact with the rear of Hulkenberg’s Sauber in turn 8 in the morning session. Thankfully for both drivers there was no significant damage that caused them to lose significant time.

    Most of the teams had some decent running although Liam Lawson lost some time whilst Red Bull worked to resolve a water pressure failure and the team saying they needed to “service” the car in the afternoon session, which seems a bit odd as no one else needed to service their cars. Regardless of the issue for Red Bull everyone seems strangely pleased with their cars which is quite unusual. However, as this is the last season of the current rules, we generally see quite a close field.

    1) Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:29.348, 127 laps

    2) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:29.379, 45 laps

    3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:29.431, 83 laps

    4) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:29.778, 71 laps

    5) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:29.784, 87 laps

    6) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:30.229, 57 laps

    7) Liam Lawson, Red Bull, 1:30.252, 91 laps

    8) Jack Doohan, Alpine, 1:30.368, 80 laps

    9) Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:30.430, 40 laps

    10) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:30.675, 94 laps

    11) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:30.700, 45 laps

    12) Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 1:30.793, 46 laps

    13) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:30.821, 44 laps

    14) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:30.882, 77 laps

    15) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:31.057, 80 laps

    16) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:31.457, 56 laps

    17) Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:33.071, 69 laps

    18) Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:34.372, 66 laps

    The final day looks like it should be warmer and sunnier, and we may well see some qualifying simulations towards the end of the day.

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  • Monaco Mandatory Stops

    Yesterday the FIA announced that at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix it will be mandated that all teams must make a minimum of 2 pit stops during the race.

    The surprising move comes after the idea was submitted by the World Motorsport Council for consideration by the FIA.

    It’s a positive move and one that recognises that the Monaco GP can be a bit of a dud. In my opinion this mandate should extend to all races, it would remove to some extent these boring races where they try to save tyres as much as they can, so they only have to stop once.

    Do I think it will spice up the Monaco GP? In short, no. The modern F1 cars are too large for the layout and there are almost zero overtaking opportunities. It has long been my opinion, that if it didn’t draw in the rich and famous, the race would not feature on the calendar. I wonder if there is scope to change and extend the track layout to further down the harbour and remove the tight hair pin section.

    Do you think it will improve the race? Let me know below.

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  • F1 Testing Day 1

    The 2025 F1 Season officially started yesterday with the first of three days of testing in Bahrain

    The first day saw all drivers take part and one of the key things to note, was reliability. None of the teams seemed to suffer any major reliability issues that caused them to lose any significant time, and most teams managed a good number of laps.

    HaaS160
    VCARB154
    Mercedes148
    Ferrari141
    Alpine140
    Red Bull132
    Williams131
    Mclaren118
    Kick114
    Aston Martin88

    McLaren will obviously take the headline for topping the session, but we all know that testing means nothing, and we won’t know the true order until we get to Australia. However, the car does look good. From the onboards there isn’t much wheel spin, and it seems very planted through the corners.

    McLaren, unlike some of the other teams have not made any radical changes, Zak Brown has said that whilst it looks the same as last year there are plenty of new innovations on the car that have not been seen, and rumour has it that they have gained 4 tenths on last year’s car. The other three teams at the front have all tried something different this year, Ferrari have changed their suspension layout, Red Bull have re-designed the front of the car to improve their understeer issues and Mercedes are trying something different, which they are trying to keep under wraps.

    The rest of the field look quite close again. Alpine are certainly having a better start to testing than they were this time last year which is positive. Aston Martin, although completing the lowest number of laps look solid and I would say so far, the car looks better than last season. The remaining teams all look like they have made improvements on this time last season but what the order will be is hard to guess

    Unusually there were no red flags brought out by cars stopped on track, however there was a lengthy stop after the power to the circuit was lost which was slightly embarrassing. As a result, the session was extended so the teams could recuperate the lost running time, and all the rookies got through the session without issues save for the odd spin and running wide at some corners.

    This is how the first day ended.

    1) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:30.430, 52 laps

    2) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:30.587, 70 laps

    3) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:30.674, 74 laps

    4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:30.878, 71 laps

    5) Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:30.955, 68 laps

    6) Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:31.353, 72 laps

    7) Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:31.428, 78 laps

    8) Liam Lawson, Red Bull, 1:31.560, 58 laps

    9) Alex Albon, Williams 1:31.573, 63 laps

    10) Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 1:31.610, 78 laps

    11) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:31.631, 76 laps

    12) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:31.690, 59 laps

    13) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:31.834, 70 laps

    14) Jack Doohan, Alpine 1:31.841, 68 laps

    15) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:31.874, 46 laps

    16) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:31.949, 42 laps

    17) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:32.084, 66 laps

    18) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:32.169, 55 laps

    19) Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:33.600, 88 laps

    20) Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:35.522, 72 laps

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  • F1 Returns!

    Its Testing week for F1. The teams have 3 days (26th-28th) to get as much running as they can and try to figure out where they will be compared to the competition.

    The first race is two weeks later as Melbourne returns to what was once its traditional spot as the curtain opener. It is likely that several of the parts that will be on the cars for testing will be upgraded by the time they get down under. There will be some trepidation from the teams however with new parts for the season opener as it won’t be as easy to get replacements out as it would be to Bahrain.

    I will be keeping a close eye on testing and will post some thoughts throughout the 3 days.

  • F1 75 Live Event

    Jack Whitehall presented the F1 75 event at the O2 in London. During the event to celebrate 75 years of Formula 1, the teams were unveiling their liveries for the upcoming season.

    The event was opened by MGK, who is famous in the F1 world for snubbing Martin Brundle a couple of years ago on the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix. That weekend it was also reported that MGK had left the race before it had even reached half distance. For me, it shows how far away from F1 is from fans and what they want. At an event celebrating F1, surely you want people that are fans of F1? MGK doesn’t really strike me as an F1 fan.

    What followed the opening performance was an evening of some cringey uncomfortable interviews and innuendos about Aston Martins Mike Krack. There we’re some lighter moments however when Jack Whitehall asked Gordon Ramsay about the ban on swearing on team radio.

    “These athletes push themselves to the extreme, so sometimes when it comes out, let them be real, let it go. Come on. They’re risking their life every time, traveling over 200 Miles per hour. So, if the s*** hits the fan..”

    Gordon Ramsay

    The latter part of the comment caused Whitehall’s microphone to mysteriously go off and we didn’t hear what else was said.

    The other thing I didn’t like was the booing. With its pandering to drama, F1 has attracted a whole new fan base to the sport and some of them like to boo. Having been a fan of F1 since 98, watching through the Schumacher dominance and controversies, I never heard regular booing until the last 10 years. Obviously, the booing was mainly reserved for Verstappen and Christian Horner, for me real F1 fans have a respect for all drivers for what they do and what some of them have achieved. If you want to boo, go back to the football terraces because it does not belong in F1. Whilst F1 drivers may not be as gladiatorial as some of their predecessors, they still should be respected. I will add to this that the FIA also got booed which did make me laugh, but it serves them right for trying to control everything.

    One thing I did find interesting was a quick shot of Christian and Gerri Horner at the table, with someone sat in-between them.

    Looking at the liveries, they were revealed in championship order starting from 10th onwards. VCARB won the evening for me and Red Bull was the worst. Although I do like the Red Bull livery, it is absolutely the same as it always is. I was expecting more teams to have more unpainted black carbon fibre so they can save a couple of grams in weight, but most cars seemed to be well covered in paint. Here is my rank of best to worst livery of the evening.

    1. VCARB
    2. McLaren
    3. Williams
    4. Ferrari
    5. Mercedes
    6. Aston Martin
    7. Haas
    8. Stake
    9. Alpine
    10. Red Bull

    It was good to see Hamilton in Ferrari red and I am really looking forward to seeing how he does. I hope F1 doesn’t make this an annual event, it’s a bit much really for a livery reveal. We have seen a couple of the new cars showcased from the teams on their preseason filming days, but the majority of the new cars won’t be shown until we get to testing next week.

    Please let me know what you think in the comments.

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  • Should F1 Revise its Point Scoring Positions?

    I was talking to a friend the other day about the point system that is in F1 currently. In this post, we will discuss points for the main race and will ignore the sprint and the point awarded for fastest lap.

    The Current State of Play

    If you don’t know this is the breakdown of the current points scoring positions:

    1st – 256th – 8
    2nd – 187th – 6
    3rd – 158th – 4
    4th – 129th – 2
    5th – 1010th – 1

    Is Anything Changing for 2025?

    In short, no. There was a discussion earlier on in 2024, to increase the points scoring positions from 1st-10th to 1st-12th. However, when it was put to a vote, it was unanimously decided by the F1 Commission to not make any changes.

    What Is My Opinion?

    For 2025 it means that the midfield teams will continue to struggle to make any headway in the championship. Whilst its right to reward success, it’s also right to not reward failure. It’s a hard line to take but let me explain my why I think that way.

    Firstly, I remember watching a Practice Session on Sky and hearing David Croft say he thinks all cars that finish should score points. I don’t agree with this because if all cars finish the race, I do not believe you should reward a driver/ team for finishing dead last. The whole aim of the game in F1 is to push the boundary and try to make your way up that grid. In my opinion if you have point’s all the way down the finishing positions, for me it gives teams less of an incentive to improve and it gives them less of a target to work towards.

    On the flip side however, the reliability of the cars in F1 now, particularly from the top 4 teams is almost bullet proof. I had a quick look through last season’s results and for a large part of the season (save for the odd occasion) the top 8 scoring positions were taken by drivers from Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. That means 60% of the F1 grid are fighting for 2-point scoring positions. The reliability in F1 now is the highest it has been for as long as I can remember, and this might partially be down to the way the cars are driven these days. It feels that 90% of races these days are more of a time trial than a race, the drivers are more focused on saving tyres and fuel than they are racing. Obviously, technology has also come a long way since I started watching F1 in 1998 when you’d regularly see engines or gearboxes let go, but I also feel this generation of cars are not pushed to the limit of tolerances as often as they used to be.

    The midfield is so tightly packed that I personally think the points positions should be extended out to 12th or 13th, it would give the teams more fruits for their labour without rewarding someone for finishing last 30seconds behind the car in front and it could also lead to some more interesting battles in the middle of the pack. It’s an interesting topic of conversation and I would love to be able to see what others think. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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