The DRS Zone

Tag: Red Bull Racing

  • Should F1 Shorten Races?

    In short, no.

    There has been a lot of talk over the last few days after comments from F1’s boss Stefano Domenicali after his comments about F1 races being too long for the modern audience. In short I think these comments are a load of drivel.

    An F1 race generally last between an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters. There are many other sports that last longer, for example. Football (soccer) games often last longer than their allotted 90mins, Cricket matches go on longer as do Tennis matches. Over in the US Baseball games go longer as do most NFL games. There are also other forms of motorsport that go on longer, like Indy car and World Endurance Championship races. Even films these days are longer!

    The problem with F1 is not the length of the races, it is everything else. Let me break down my thoughts.

    The Cars

    In my opinion we are in the worst generation of F1 cars that there has ever been. The thing that makes F1 races seem longer than 90 mins, is the fact that the majority or races are absolutely tedious with very little of interest going on. This generation of ground effect cars, make it almost impossible to drivers to follow consistently and closely. The dirty air that is thrown out the back of the car means the car behind suffers a reduction in car handling due to the turbulent air and also overheating of the tyres and of the car due to the hot air.

    The rules were introduced to try and promote racing, but that hasn’t happened. We had a couple of seasons where the racing felt closer and more overtakes were possible, but we have gone the opposite way now. DRS has been around in F1 many years ago as an artificial way to increase overtaking and by proxy improve race excitement. DRS is more effective at certain races than others, some circuits it is only effective if the car behind is 2 plus seconds per lap quicker than the car in front. It is not uncommon these days to see DRS trains where no one can get past the car in front and they all cancel each other out. Take this past race at Zandvoort for example, Hadjar had a DRS train behind him and despite the Ferrari being a quicker car he still couldn’t get past. The reason being, the combination of the style of the circuit, the result of the dirty air and the fact the he may have been quicker, but not by enough of a margin to get past.

    I also feel that the current electric/hybrid engines make the sport worse, not only do they sound terrible, they are much heavier than a car with a naturally aspirated engine installed, which means the tyres carrying the car wear and overheat quicker. From 2026 we are going to a more electric 50/50 split of power and I feel this will only make the races worse. Pirelli get a lot of stick about the tyres but the cars are so much more heavier and grip hungry than they have ever been. My opinion is F1 should look at going back to a V10 or V8 naturally aspirated engines, using bio fuel. It’s proven to be possible, Williams have converted Mansell’s old “Red 5” car to bio fuel and it sounds great. There are more options to be carbon neutral than using electric power, which lets face it when you look at the wider picture is not a very green technology.

    The Circuits

    It is also my opinion that a lot of the tracks that make up the current F1 calendar are terrible and do not promote good racing. We have a lot of street circuits that are terrible for racing and overtaking. Whilst it is very cool to see an F1 car blasting around Singapore at night, let’s face it, generally the races are not thrilling. F1 fans have been calling for less street circuits and we seem to get more every time a new race is added to the calendar. I will say, however that if there were a different style of F1 car, some of these street circuits could well produce good races. A good number of the “classic” tracks that produce good races are either not on the calendar any more, or they are constantly at risk of being dropped off. Monaco is the only “classic” circuit that is never at risk, if there wasn’t such an attraction from the rich and famous for it, it would not be on the F1 calendar.

    The Tyres

    I won’t dwell on the tyres too much because I have already mentioned it, but the current Pirelli tyres are terrible. Generally speaking, during races drivers cannot push for fear of the tyres falling apart. They all “race” to a target time set by the team, that maximises the strategy and tyre life. They are told not to get too close to the car in front because it overheats and ruins the tyres and they take several laps to come back into their window. It results in boring time trial like races with everyone trying to go as far into the race on one set of tyres as they can. It has long been my opinion that in the age of no refuelling, F1 should introduce a mandatory two stop race. It might allow the drivers to push in races more often if they know they are not required to do 40 laps on the same set. I would also like to see either another manufacturer enter the sport to create another “tyre war” or a completely new tyre suppler altogether if it is to remain as a solo supplier.

    The Drivers

    I wouldn’t say the current field of drivers is the worst we have seen, however there are a lot of drivers on the grid that I feel should not be there. We also seem to be in a period where every team is looking for the next Max Verstappen. Max is a once in a generation driver, but all the teams, in my opinion are trying to rush these young drivers into F1 and they cannot cut the mustard. Not only is it detrimental to the team, but also to the young driver that may lose their confidence and hinder their career in the long term.

    Once upon a time F1 drivers were seen as gladiatorial, they were men, not boys. Drivers used to look physically and mentally finished at the end of the race because they have had to wrestle this beast around a circuit for 50 laps. Very rarely these days do you see the drivers visibly struggling after a race, there is obviously the odd occasion where this is not the case, but most of the time they get out of the car and look like they’ve been on a leisurely drive. Which in some respects I suppose they have been as they have not had to push the car. Obviously you have to take into account the fact these drivers are much fitter than their predecessors, but they also have things like power steering which never used to be the case.

    It could be due to the fact that team radio is broadcast more now than it ever has been, but the current crop of drivers seem to complain over the radio so much. All they seem to do is complain over the radio trying to get one another penalties. Just get on with it!

    Final Thoughts

    I think there are wider issues in F1 than the race length. If they can make the races more entertaining you get more people hooked and for longer, when something is entertaining and engrossing, time evaporates. It’s not rocket science. We are in an age where peoples attention spans are shorter than ever, there are so many distractions and it really takes something to keep someones attention. Also a lot of new fans are coming to sport for drama, they have seen Drive to Survive, where it is edited to portray more drama and entertainment than there actually is. This is because it hooks people in, however when these people watch a race where there is a bunch of cars stuck behind one car their attentions start to go to other things.

    Let me know what you think.

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  • A Game of Thrones – Red Bull Racing

    With the departure of Christian Horner, it had me thinking. This move by Red Bull has a whole Game of Thrones feel to it and in my opinion has actually been in the works for several years. Here are some of my thoughts (it may be a long one).

    Catalyst One

    The motions at Red Bull started when founder Deitrich Mateschitz passed away. Mateschitz was not only a good friend of Horner but also his biggest supporter, and why wouldn’t he be? He put Horner in charge and he made them one of the biggest teams on the F1 grid. He stood by Horner for the difficult period after Sebastian Vettel left the team where they floundered for several years and had a very public fall out with the engine supplier Renault. But ultimately they would once again taste victory and success before he Mateschitz passed away. Once Mateschitz passed away others, mainly Helmut Marko smelt an opportunity.

    There is no denying the close bond that Marko and Verstappen have forged in F1. It was Markos decision to bring him to the junior Red Bull team, having only completed one season in F3 and the rest as they say is history. After being promoted to the main Red Bull team he went from strength to strength and the relationship between him, his father and Marko only strengthened. We thought at the time this relationship included Christian Horner, but maybe it was all part of the game and a keep your enemy’s closer type of situation.

    Catalyst Two

    This is where we enter the other party in this saga, Jos Verstappen. I do not know Jos Verstappen and I can only form an opinion of him by what I read, but the narrative is that he is a shady character. Once known as “Jos the Boss”, I always wondered what this meant considering his racing career is largely underwhelming. The stories are well known about the tough upbringing he gave Max in the face of failures combined with the stories of previous domestic abuse; it paints a picture that the bloke is just not very nice. That has come across more than ever over the last couple of years leading up to Horner’s exit, he has pulled no punches and not disguised the fact he wanted Horner out of the team. It is my personal belief that Jos Verstappen sees this as his and Max’s team.

    Catalyst Three

    Horner’s dismissal comes after a troublesome 2024 fighting against allegations of sexual misconduct, claims that he has twice successfully been vindicated of. I ask myself the question was this the opportunity Marko and Jos were looking for to start sowing the seeds of discontent with the Red Bull board or were the allegations themself all part of their elaborate plot to oust Horner. The more you look into it, the easier it becomes to put the tin foil hat on and buy into the conspiracies. In the age that we live in, it is very rare for someone to come out of a sexual misconduct allegation with your head held high, but Horner, despite the challenges seemed to come out if it on top. He rode the wave of turmoil and gossip and remained at the helm all season.

    Catalyst Four

    The other part in this game is down to the performance of Red Bull on track. Believe it or not I think the doubts about Red Bulls performance started to come at the back end of 2023. Although they dominated the season, one of the key talking points was the resurgence of McLaren in the second half of the season, this would have undoubtably raised eyebrows. However, McLaren started 2024 off slow and with Max winning the first 4 of 5 races helped paper over some of the cracks, cracks that people within Red Bull will have seen long before we as viewers saw them on track. The writing was on the wall when McLaren upped their game from Miami onwards. Adrian Newey left and the team seemed to flounder with a developmental direction.

    Catalyst Five

    The fifth catalyst was the all the rumours circulating around that Max was looking to get out of his contract and go to Mercedes. These rumours fuelled by his father and others within the Verstappen camp will have made it very difficult for Horner given the current lack of performance. They always say that no one is bigger than the team and no one is irreplaceable, Red Bull however see it differently and will seemingly do anything to keep Max from leaving. Even if it means they have to produce a car that no one else can drive and end up stifling their ability to develop and push with both cars.

    Anyone who knows anything about F1 will know the competitive order ebbs and flows, however when you get strong success it can be very hard to adjust to life when it ends. With the absolute domination Red Bull had in 2023, 2024 must have been a very hard pill to swallow.

    Upon leaving Red Bull, Horner addressed the staff with a heartfelt message. I am led to believe most of the employees think very highly of Horner, whilst he is demanding if you give him 100%, he will give you 100% and by all accounts he was a good boss. Since then, there have been several stories leaked about further addresses to staff from Marko where he told the employees they needed to “smile more” and further comments by Oliver Mintzlaff went down like a fart in church.

    Final Thoughts

    If we combine all of these events as one, it’s very hard to not look at it as some sort of Game of Thrones type story. The timing of some of the events are also too convenient to overlook. Were the misconduct allegations all part of this game to oust Horner? It’s certainly very convenient the way the allegations came to light just before the start of the season. One thing I do think, is that Marko and Verstappen snr were not expecting Horner to come out of it with his job intact. The departure of key staff like Newey and Wheatley did not help Horner’s cause and when they left, I thought it was a matter of time but still Horner fought on. I think Marko and Verstappen snr have continued to try and sow the seeds of discontent with the Red Bull board members and the Thai majority owners who backed Horner last year seem to have had their minds changed. Obviously, all this will not have helped by the fact that Red Bull have fallen down the championship order, but this turn of events has no way been influenced by just the performance in 2025.

    It will be interesting to see how Red Bull get on from here, the new Team Principal Laurent Mekies from Racing Bulls was quickly installed, it will be interesting to see if he is merely the puppet and Marko and Verstappen start to pull the strings. I do think it means Max will no longer be on his way out of the team, if he even was in the first place.

    Will we see Horner in F1 again? In simple terms, if he wants to Yes. The level of success he has had in building a team from the ground upwards is something unheard of in today’s F1. He can be controversial and outspoken but his record speaks for its self. I personally wonder if he will end up at Cadillac, it’s not too far from where he lives and it’s a team that would cry out for his experience and leadership. Will he want to spend time building a team from the ground up again though?

  • Red Bull Sack Horner

    Massive news from F1 today with the announcement of the sacking of Christian Horner. Horner has been at the helm of Red Bull since they entered F1 as their own team back in 2005. Under his leadership they have become one of the most successful teams in Formula One history and he has led the team to 14 World Championships (Drivers and Constructors).

    The announcement comes after a turbulent 12-18 months for Red Bull and Horner; they have lost some high-profile team members and then the allegations of misconduct against Horner. That combined with the struggles they have had with the car. Despite Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship they have only won one race this season and last season in the second half of the season they won two races after winning 7 of the first 10 races.

    Along with the changes and car troubles, they have had issues with Jos Verstappen. Last year he claimed that unless Horner left the Red Bull team would flounder. To me this whole affair reeks of the Verstappen’s.

    Horner’s position has been slightly more uncertain after Dietrich Mateschitz passed away. He was a big friend and supporter of Horner and ever since it has left a void where a power struggle has continued to rumble away. The Verstappen’s are clearly close with Helmut Marko and we know Horner had a falling out with him last year which has been leading up to this event. My theory is they have given an ultimatum, Max leaves or Horner leaves. If this is the case it’s an absolute sad state of affairs that a driver and his father have such a say in how the team is ran. No one should be bigger than the team.

    It’s controversial to say but I personally quite like Horner, he has always protected the interests of the team first and foremost even in the most difficult of times and I genuinely can’t remember a time of Formula One without him. He always speaks well to the camera and out of all the team principles seems to be one of the more open and approachable. People will say that he would likely have preferred to go on his own terms, however with his clear love for the team, he was never going to walk away willingly. It is a shame for someone that has helped the team and drivers achieve so much, that this is the way that his time at Red Bull has to end.

    This will obviously hurt Horner, at the moment it is unclear if all his ties with Red Bull are done or not. I think he will take some time out of F1, but I do think we will see him back in the future.

    I also think, contrary to popular opinion that this is confirmation that Max will not be leaving Red Bull for Mercedes.

  • 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.

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  • Spanish Grand Prix

    Image obtained from mclaren.com

    Max’s Meltdown

    In what was a reasonably dull Spanish Grand Prix, the final few laps were brought to life by the safety car. For Max Verstappen it brought about a rare meltdown from the champion. Such has been the dominance of Verstappen the last couple of years we have not seen the darker side of his personality. I will cover this talking point in a separate post, but the incident cost Max and Red Bull significant points, the loss of points is probably more significant to Red Bull as they still can’t get that second car regularly scoring points and they run the risk of being usurped by Mercedes and Ferrari.

    F1 Says Goodbye to Barcelona

    2025 will be the last year Barcelona hosts the Spanish Grand Prix, for 2026 the race will be switching to the streets of Madrid. For me, Barcelona has always been a bit of a dud race, made worse in recent years by the change to the last couple of corners. Last year they returned the F1 layout to the original format in a bit to increase overtaking down the main straight.

    Despite this reconfiguration, overtaking has been difficult. I really worry that with the loss of DRS next season, overtaking will be even harder. Barcelona has always had the added difficulty because the teams have so much data on the circuit and its layout from years of testing, I think it ends up nullifying most races.

    Technical Directive Introduction

    This race also saw the introduction of a new technical directive from the FIA on front wings and the amount they are allowed to flex. The directive comes after months of complaints from other teams that the front wing of the McLaren in particular flexes more than what is allowed, despite it regularly passing the FIA load tests.

    As a result, most teams brought new front wings to the race, there were a couple of exceptions, McLaren being one. Instead of a whole new wing, they modified their existing wing. There was speculation around the grid that the directive would impact McLaren the most. Judging by the times from practice, qualifying and the relatively untroubled race, it seems that is not the case.

    Stroll Out

    Other news came post qualifying. Aston Martin announced Lance Stroll would miss the race due to needing surgery on the hand he injured several years ago. Rumours are that he may not make his home race in Canada with Valteri Bottas waiting to take his place. One amusing fact is, if Bottas does replace him, he will have a 5-place grid drop following a penalty that was handed to him after the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

    Results

    1stOscar Piastri11thLiam Lawson
    2ndLando Norris12thGabriel Bortoleto
    3rfCharles Leclerc13thYuki Tsunoda
    4thGeorge Russell14thCarlos Sainz
    5thNico Hulkenberg15thFranco Colapinto
    6thLewis Hamilton16thEstaban Ocon
    7thIsack Hadjar17thOliver Bearman
    8thPierre GaslyDNFKimi Antonelli
    9thFernando AlonsoDNFAlex Albon
    10thMax VerstappenDNSLance Stroll

    Race Rating: 4/10

    What’s next?

    Canada is up next, I always look forward to the Canadian Grand Prix. Its a traditional circuit that is fast and unforgiving. Throw in the changeable weather and it always makes for a great race.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • Monaco Grand Prix

    Image obtained from F1.com

    Boring!

    To try and get away from the race in Monaco being a precession, the FIA introduced a mandatory two stop race. The hype was there before the race; the TV pundits were pondering when people would stop and what strategies the teams might employ. What was to come, I don’t think anyone except the teams considered.

    Instead of throwing some intrigue and strategy into the race, what we got was a grid of drivers driving as slowly as they could. At one point Norris in the lead was lapping almost 10 seconds a lap slower than his qualifying lap and some drivers were going even slower. It seemed the race strategy was to sacrifice the lower placed driver to get them to hold as many people up as possible, to generate a large enough gap for the lead driver to pit comfortably. It was an absolute shower of sh!t.

    Has F1 Outgrown Monaco?

    In short yes. The current era of F1 cars are too long, too heavy and too wide and with 2026 regulation changes coming, it is only going to get worse. The streets of Monaco are simply not wide enough to get past, all the lead driver needs to do is sit in the middle of the road and its game over. With the drivers lapping so slowly, it also takes out any jeopardy of mistakes and accidents happening after the opening laps.

    What really grinds my gears is the fact you have other historic tracks that produce some great racing, that are constantly fighting to keep their place on the grid. In my opinion, it is criminal that circuits like Silverstone and Spa are always at risk of being dropped off the calendar and yet this circuit, that has not produced a decent race in years, seemingly is impervious. We all know the reason for this, it’s because of the people the event attracts. The rich and famous, most of whom don’t pay to attend and don’t care about the sport.

    Formula Time Trial

    Considering this is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport, this weekend’s race saw the drivers driving as slow as they possibly could. Don’t get me wrong this happens regularly at other races, but this race with the introduction of the mandatory pit stops has exasperated the formula time trial experience the fans get.

    There seems to have also been some confusion for the fans at the race, many of whom seemed to be unaware of the regulation change for the race, with many fans left puzzled as to why Verstappen pitted from the lead with 1 lap to go.

    Redemption for Norris

    Norris secured a stunning pole for the race with the fastest ever lap around the principality. He followed it up with what was really a comfortable win, Leclerc never really looked like he was able to keep up with the McLaren and the only real time for concern was when he was behind Verstappen, who left it as late as possible to make his final pit stop, hoping for a safety car which never came.

    Around the grid

    Everyone else pretty much finished where they started. Alonso suffered an engine failure after running strongly in the top 10 and Gasly retired after running into the back of Tsunoda on the 7th lap.

    A shout out to Hadjar who is proving me wrong by having another solid race, he was helped by his teammate holding everyone up but he made no mistakes and achieved the best result he could.

    Results

    1stLando Norris11thGeorge Russell
    2ndCharles Leclerc12thOliver Bearman
    3rfOscar Piastri13thFranco Colapinto
    4thMax Verstappen14thGabriel Bortoleto
    5thLewis Hamilton15thLance Stroll
    6thIsack Hadjar16thNico Hulkenberg
    7thEstaban Ocon17thYuki Tsunoda
    8thLiam Lawson18thKimi Antonelli
    9thAlex AlbonDNFFernando Alonso
    10thCarlos SainzDNFPierre Gasly

    Race Rating: 1/10

    What’s next?

    Barcelona is next up, it will be the last time the Spanish Grand Prix will be held in Barcelona for some time with the introduction of a boring street race in Madrid for 2026.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • Miami Grand Prix

    Image obtained from BBC Sport

    Piastri Hatrick Hero!

    Oscar Pastri became the first McLaren driver since Mika Hakkinen (Jerez 97, Australia 98 & Brazil 98) to win 3 races in a row. A mind-blowing stat, which shows the torrid time McLaren have had in the years since. It was a win that was in some ways gifted to him, due to the shenanigans on the first lap. He made the most of the opportunity given to him and in the superior car, once he got past Max, he was never really going to be trouble.

    Norris and Verstappen Clash Again

    Verstappen out braked himself into turn one which allowed Norris through, it looked like Norris was ahead going into the slight right hand of turn two but was forced off by another aggressive defensive move, the stewards however saw nothing wrong with the move. The incident cost Norris a potential lead and a potential win, he dropped down to 6th and by the time he got back into second Piastri was to far ahead.

    “But it is the way it is with Max, it’s crash or don’t pass”

    Lando Norris on the incident with Verstappen

    Norris was understandably frustrated with Verstappen after the race, but he needs to reassess how he approaches these battles with him. In my opinion he should have had the foresight to know that he was going to be squeezed out, he had the far superior car. He should have taken a step back and waited to get him a few laps later, that’s easy to say sat on the sofa. After watching the battle had with Piastri and compare that to his battle with Norris, I do feel that he tries to push Norris further than he does others. I don’t know if it’s because they are friends or if he knows that he can get easily get into his head and bully him, but I would like to see Norris be a bit more aggressive towards him, but he needs to try and be smarter.

    Tea Break Time at Ferrari

    As the race weekends go by it seems to be getting worse for Hamilton and Ferrari. This weekend the traditional slowness of Ferrari’s decision making potentially cost them more points, they left the decision to allow Hamilton past Leclerc go for far too long. Hamilton cooked his tyres and could make no significant in-roads on Antonelli and eventually gave the place back to Leclerc.

    Hamilton on team radio asked if the team were having a tea break and it transpires that they told Hamilton they would be swapping positions but failed to relay that message to Leclerc. Towards the end of the race as Hamilton let Leclerc back past, he sarcastically asked if he was to allow Sainz past as well.

    There are bigger problems at Ferrari however, the car is not consistent, and the Miami weekend has been their weakest showing of the season so far. They are quickly losing ground to Mercedes and Red Bull.

    Antonelli Shines in Sprint Quali

    Antonelli produced a great showing in Sprint qualifying. He became the youngest driver to take a pole position in F1, although records in the sprint technically do not count towards the main overall statistics in F1 it is still a great accomplishment. Unfortunately, both races did not go his way, and he fell back down the order.

    Around the grid

    The crisis at Red Bull just a few races ago appears to have been a knee jerk reaction to a bad weekend. The car is clearly more suited to Verstappen’s style, and he clearly gets more out of it, but it is by no means a slow car. Take McLaren out of the equation and Verstappen would lead the championship.

    Mercedes had a strong weekend, although qualifying is clearly their strength. Russell benefited from the VSC around his pit window that pushed him into 3rd.

    Williams have had another strong weekend. Albon scored decent points and Sainz also finished in the points, they solidify their position as the top of the midfield teams. Hopefully they can carry this form on the rest of the season, but it just shows what is possible when you put two top drivers in the car and you don’t have to spend each weekend rebuilding it.

    Since the Miami race, Alpine have a new Team Principle and driver. I said before the season started that it wouldn’t be long before Colapinto was in the race seat and I wasn’t wrong. I will cover that in more detail in another post.

    Not much else to say for the other teams really, Hadjar had another strong showing. The race was a race of two halves. The second part of the race was a bit flatter, and the grandstands looked empty towards the end.

    Results

    1stOscar Piastri11thIsack Hadjar
    2ndLando Norris12thEstaban Ocon
    3rfGeorge Russell13thPierre Gasly
    4thMax Verstappen14thNico Hulkenberg
    5thAlex Albon15thFernando Alonso
    6thKimi Antonelli16thLance Stroll
    7thCharles LeclercDNFLiam Lawson
    8thLewis HamiltonDNFGabriel Bortoleto
    9thCarlos SainzDNFOliver Bearman
    10thYuki TsunodaDNFJack Doohan

    Race Rating: 6/10

    What’s next?

    A couple of weeks off again and we head back to Europe for a triple header of Imola, Barcelona and Monaco.

    Let me know what you think below:

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  • 2024 Season Review – Red Bull

    Downfall of the Champions

    It was a tough season for Red Bull, they went from being reigning champions to the third best team. You could however say that was largely down to the fact they only had Verstappen scoring the lion’s share of the points. Initially the team picked up where they left off in 2023, scoring a 1-2 in the first two races. It left everyone feeling that we were in for another season of RB and Verstappen domination. In the first five races Verstappen won four and Checo finished on the podium four times. By the time we got to Miami things for Checo at least started to unravel, he finished third in round five (China) and would not finish on the podium again. Verstappen would continue to challenge at the front and retain his crown as World Champion and barring an uncharacteristic Red Bull mechanical retirement in Australia, his worst finish was 6th. They took a “bold” and “aggressive” approach to their car, but it was a tricky one to drive and their development direction did not work and, in some instances, made the cars worse. Verstappen was clearly able to adapt to the car better than Checo underlining the raw talent that he has.

    The Team

    Obviously, the main talking point was the allegations that surfaced about Christian Horner and his inappropriate behaviour. The allegations came out before the start of the season, but it would be months before the talk died down. During that period, you had all sorts of people chipping in. Helmut Markko was sticking the knife in and then Jos Verstappen was also sticking his oar in. For the latter its very much a case of those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. At the end of the day, he’s the father of the driver, it has nothing to do with him what goes on in the team, keep your beak out and opinions to yourself.

    Clearly however it was a power struggle between Markko and Horner, with the former clearly wanting control of the team. Horner however managed to ride out the controversy and remains as Team Principle.

    A couple of massive changes for Red Bull. Firstly, long-standing Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey announced at the Miami Grand Prix that he would be leaving Red Bull and seeking pastures new for 2025. This also seemed to start the downfall of RB’s dominance. Naturally after he announced his future departure, his involvement with the race team became minimal and as a result they struggled with the development of the car and wind tunnel correlation not matching what was happening on track.

    Later in the season Red Bull would announce the departure of equally long-standing Sporting Director, Jonathan Wheatley. He was placed on gardening leave later in 2024 and announced that he would be joining Audi for 2026 as Team Principle.

    The Drivers

    Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship for the fourth consecutive year, as mentioned earlier he showcased his underlying talent by dragging performances out of a car that really was not a front running car. There were plenty of controversy with him along the way as you expect. He is a hard racer and sometimes I think he crosses the line of what is fair, and it does seem that sometimes his attitude is “if try to come past me we will either crash or you will back down”. Personally, I think he goes too far sometimes and when it happens to him, he cries to the team and tries to get others a penalty, which on occasions he has done successfully. When coming up against Verstappen, you know what he’d like, you must be prepared to get your elbows out and get aggressive. If you’re too nice you will come off worse.

    2024 looks like it could be the last time we see Sergio Perez. He started the season off strongly and it rapidly went from bad to worse. He was awarded with a new contract in Canada and RB had hoped this would give him some confidence to turn his season round and unfortunately it seems like it had the opposite effect. You could argue that his performances were more in line to where the cars performance was, but you cannot deny one of the main reasons RB went from champions to third is because Perez couldn’t drag the performance out of the car. At the end of the season his contract was terminated. He went out of the sport with a bang, but not in a good way it was the bang of a collision with Bottas in the final race which could be his final appearance in the sport.

    For 2025….

    Liam Lawson is the driver to replace Perez. For me the jury is still out on this young Kiwi, I am not sure he has proven he deserves that second seat, but he appears to be the chosen one so we will see how he performs. The team will be looking to challenging at the front of the grid again after failing to win the constructors.

    2024 Season Rating 7/10

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