The DRS Zone

Tag: Formula 1

  • Mad Max

    A week on from the late race antics of Verstappen, I have been pondering what goes through his head. First let me start by saying that he is clearly an exceptional racer, his close combat racing can be a bit questionable at times, but he is very talented and away from the track he sounds like he is a genuinely nice down-to-earth guy.

    The problem Max has, is he doesn’t like to be told no. It is well documented and reported that when it came to racing, he had a tough up bringing with his father which arguably has made him the talent he is today, but you must wonder if during his childhood he was actually told “no” very often.

    I also often wonder about young drivers coming through the ranks and joining F1 early. There are many differences between the junior categories and F1 but one of the biggest, is that F1 is a team sport. That might seem like an obvious statement, but in all the junior series there is no Constructors Championship, that only occurs in F1. So, for the younger drivers it is every man for himself, even for those within a young driver development stable like Red Bull or Mercedes. It’s very cutthroat as you might expect and I wonder if the young drivers get so focused on themselves that when they join F1 its harder for some to transition into playing the team game. I think in some ways the drivers never lose that “look after number 1” mentality, but you ask the teams, and they will tell you, the team comes first, and you obey the teams’ desires.

    I remember back in his first season at the then named Torro Rosso team. He was alongside Carlos Sainz, at the Singapore Grand Prix he was asked to let his teammate Sainz through and he flat out refused saying “no” on the radio this was just the start of his insubordination, most recently he was asked to let Sergio Perez past at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and he said no. You can’t do that, the team pays your wages, you are an employee whether you like it or not. I have long had the thought that Max doesn’t really care for the Red Bull team, he is focused on number 1, and you will not change that. To be a World Champion, you must have that selfishness but equally without the team you are nothing.

    However, when it comes to handling adversity his first response is to lash out. Maybe that tells you more about his up bringing than anything, but I am no psychiatrist. We all know that his philosophy of defence is “either you back out or we crash” but when someone does the same to him, he gets riled up.

    That’s exactly what happened with Russell, he felt Russell forced him off the track which irritated him, then when he was told to give the place back the red mist descended even further. Casing point, someone has told him “no” and he’s thrown his toys out the pram. The fact that his first reaction was to ram into Russell should have been met with swift harsh punishment, you can’t start letting these things slide when they travel at the speed they do. Verstappen got a more lenient penalty than Russell got at Monaco for corner cutting, which is absurd. In my opinion it should have been a disqualification. This kind of behaviour should be nipped in the bud and met with swift harsh punishment.

    It’s not the first time we have seen this from Verstappen, he did it in Austria last season to Lando Norris, he has done it previously to Hamilton in Monza and I am sure it will happen again. If they are harsher with their punishment, maybe it will make him think again about doing it in the future.

    I have always wondered how Red Bull handle him behind the scenes and I suspect they don’t really bother especially as now with him being the main points scorer, they probably want to try and keep him sweet and stop him from leaving. However, in this season when they are struggling more than ever with that second car/ driver, they are relying on Max more to score the championship points. The actions and penalty for Verstappen in Spain was more detrimental to the team than it was for him. There is a real chance this season Red Bull will finish 4th in the Constructors Championship. With the difficulties they are having with this year’s car, I can see there being more tantrums on the horizon, which will become more costly for Red Bull.

    Let me know what you think.

    Leave a comment

  • 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:

    Leave a comment

  • 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.

    Leave a comment

  • 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.

    Leave a comment

  • 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

    Leave a comment

  • 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.

    Leave a comment

  • 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.

    Leave a comment

  • 2024 Season Review – Kick Sauber

    Zhou Guanyu (CHN, Kick Sauber)

    It was a year to forget for Sauber not only did they have issues on the track, but behind the scenes not everything appears rosy.

    After Audi bought what was then the Alpha Romeo Sauber team, they installed Andreas Seidl to be the head of the project. At the time I thought it was a strange move because Seidls time as McLaren Team Principle was very inconsistent. Yes, he took the team from the back of the grid up to 3rd in the Constructors standings, but the following season they started to fall back again into the mid pack. Fast forward a couple of years and now he has been replaced by Mattia Binotto, formerly a Ferrari Team Principal. Binotto has since revealed that when he joined Sauber the team seemed to be stagnant with no direction.

    Due to the issues in the background, there were very little in season updates to the car and as a result they finished the season with 4 points, all scored by Zhou. A season to forget for Bottas, a poor car combined with some terrible luck, he ended the season with no points and no place on the grid for 2025.

    Looking ahead for 2025, you can’t see them faring much better to be honest, they will be in full preparation mode to become the Audi team in 2026, and one would assume prepping for the rule changes that come in 2026 also. They do however have 2 new drivers in the shape of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. A good move in my opinion on Hulkenberg, one of the more experienced drivers on the grid, he will help them develop the car during the season and help them going into 2026 also. Bortoleto will be in his rookie year having impressed as a McLaren junior in F2, he will also no doubt learn a lot from Hulkenberg. However, can’t see the team improving much.

    2024 Rating 1/10

    Leave a comment