Same old Red Bull
TBH, I don't think many other teams would fare that much better, but, yeah this particular issue is entirely one of their own devising. You got to feel for Yuki, he's done everything asked of him, and watched as a succession of drivers come along to be told "Beat Yuki, and you get to drive the in no#1 team", and neither Riccardo nor Lawson have achieved it, but still Lawson gets the nod.
Still, it should be all the motivation he needs to at least put the CASHAPP Visa Barclaycard Mastercard American Express Diners Club higher up the grid every qualis, even if he can't beat them in the race
Its probably more the case that: “we wont be using Honda engines from 2026, so dont have to run a Japanese driver to keep them happy”
Oh, of course—we can take that as read. There was never any way Yuki was stying there long term without Honda. But what might be lurking below the surface of what Horner’s saying, is that there’s the possibility of an opportunity for him this year—which would only be if they swap him and Lawson. That approach is straight out of the Red Bull playbook: launch a young hotshot into the top team and see if they sink or swim. Immediately. If Horner’s alluding to a possibility of Yuki having actual race time in that car then it’s because they’re running that playbook on Lawson, they’re not settling him in for the long haul until he’s proven himself. They seemed to have plenty of uncharacteristic patience in Checo, who was far more experienced and really shouldn’t have needed nurturing, but perversely they seem to be back to their total lack of patience with the fresh young talent that does need that nurture,
You got to feel for Yuki
I guess he’s ended up as a sort of miniaturised Tommy Byrne. Not as outrageously talented, nor as outrageously unemployable, but still somehow having done enough to permanently close some doors on the basis of first impressions.
They seemed to have plenty of uncharacteristic patience in Checo,
But he was on the pace immediately. He didn't require any 'nurturing'. When he started he said "It will take me five races to get used to the car" He won his sixth race for the team. In his first season he was "a legend" and did exactly what was asked of him. He then delivered the team's first ever 1-2 in the driver's championship and two constructors championships, although was obviously less pivotal in that in 2023.
He started this year well with a string of podiums, and then his performance just nosedived for whatever reason.
Yes, they showed more patience with him in the final two thirds of 2024 than they showed with Kvyat, Gasly, Albon but prior to then he had decent results and was doing what was asked.
I agree that he had to go unfortunately, the last two thirds of 2024 had been utterly abysmal, but before that he had been exactly what they needed.
.
To add one more stat to the 'Checo bashing'. In his entire F1 career Logan Sargent out qualified Alex Albon once. In 2024 he out qualified Checo six times.
I got the impression that the Red Bull was virtually undriveable, a car which was flattered to a very high level by Verstappen’s ability to drive around it, and also a car that should very much take the blame for Red Bull’s lack of enough points for the constructor’s championship, rather than Checo. I hope he got a very satisfactory pay out, because he has earned one
I don't often quote Whinger Spice, but he did say 'If the season was twenty four races at Baku, Checo would be world champion'
I can't think of anything else positive he's said in the last few months.
So today I happened to find myself in the Design Museum in Zürich, which currently has a large exhibition of Olivieri Toscani’s work, the most famous of which is his groundbreaking advertising work for Benetton in the 1990s. Part of the exhibition is an interview video in which he discusses the images and the reaction to them. He describes “real fights” about them and relates an anecdote about Flávio Briatore who was particularly vocal: “‘Why are you using n**roes?’ he [Briatore] said, ‘You should use Trump’—he actually used the word ‘n**groes’. Real racism.”
So if anyone had a dislike for Flav and wanted some confirmation bias, turns out he’s not just a mendacious little cheat but also a racist.
In other Swiss news, the Swiss Transport Museum at Lucerne includes a Red Bull Racing room, which holds a few Red Bull F1 cars (and Johnny Herbert’s Red Bull-sponsored Sauber), a simulator, and a video wall which seemed to be largely an exercise in trolling as it appeared to be replaying Red Bull’s favourite bits from Abu Dhabi 2021, complete with smug commentary; eg (as below) “Max Verstrappen (sic—yes, they really did fail to spell the name of their golden boy) overtakes Lewis Hamilton in an ice-cold maneuver 60 seconds before the end of the race.” Bleugh.
They seemed to have plenty of uncharacteristic patience in Checo
My understanding is that Checo brought quite a lot of sponsorship money with him from South American markets. I wonder if part of the timing was so the team could find alternative revenues from somewhere else. I read over the weekend that one of RB sponsors is pulling out and not renewing their contract.
Mercedes have joint up with Adidas now, will we see Stealth gripped race boots?
I read over the weekend that one of RB sponsors is pulling out and not renewing their contract.
Yep Bybit have ended their deal...
https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-news-sponsors-f1-2025-bybit-exit
...at the end of the article it seems like they've filled the gap already. I can't see Red Bull struggling for money.
Absolute travesty that they are wanting to rotate this historic circuit, but expand into new areas with bland tracks with poor attendance (looks at Las Vegas and the Middle East venues)
Its like saying we're only going to Wimbledon every other year, as someone in Timbuktu is giving us a load of cash so they can host an event.
As much as Bernie would threaten to remove these circuits to get them up improve, he always knew there value to the championship.
I don't mind a bit of rotation - keeps things interesting. And I'd rather have some Spa than no Spa.
And I'm not sure circuit history is such a big thing for many new F1 fans. It's all about 'the story' now, and drivers and team personalities are a much bigger deal.
Spa doesn't even have a roller coaster, simulated marina or human rights violations. Boring TBQH.
Looks like Colapinto will be in the Alpine after the first 6 races.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/franco-colapinto-f1-2025-role-jack-doohan/
I'm not against rotation so long as it also includes identikit tracks in dismal countries - but it won't.
I've only been to Silverstone and Spa and as much as I liked the British GP the track and the inclines at Spa was way above although Maggotts,Becketts and Chapel are great
Brands Hatch must have been great in it's day with F1 Donnington '93 Senna on the first lap in the wet
Wee mention for Knockhill if you've never been it's worth a visit if the weather is good
BITD I preferred going to Brands Hatch to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Even though Silverstone was closer.0
https://twitter.com/sim3744/status/1877273678057976286?s=12&mx=2
...with a 44 sign in the background. 🙂
I thought she'd stopped working with Lewis a couple of years ago? Or am I missing the obvious news???
absolute travesty that they are wanting to rotate this historic circuit
I'm not so sure, I know it's a fan favourite and the drivers like it, but that doesn't always mean good racing. Unless it's wet, Spa can be pretty dull, Eau Rouge is flat out now, Albon even questioned whether it was really a corner anymore. I think some of these historic tracks (Monaco also springs to mind) could do with being 'rested' occasionally to give other less well known circuits a go around. Portimao was pretty well rec'd during covid after all.
I thought she’d stopped working with Lewis a couple of years ago? Or am I missing the obvious news???
She did - the obvious teaser here is they are back together at Ferrari.
At this time of year though people look for any snippet of F1 related news to keep interest up! 🙂
I’m not so sure, I know it’s a fan favourite and the drivers like it, but that doesn’t always mean good racing. Unless it’s wet, Spa can be pretty dull
Yup, it’s also a circuit whose interest has been somewhat dampened by DRS as well as modern aero. Get a good exit from La Source and it’s flat through Eau Rouge and a shoo-in pass on the Kemmel.
I don’t know why it is, but Silverstone is the track that’s been delivering the best racing—or at least, most consistently delivering one of the best races of the season if not the best—for a good few years now.
Dohoan has a contract for the first 6 races apparently, he will be out after that.
Excellent choice of car in the background. The last of the interesting Ferraris IMHO 🙂
Although is it me or does the outfit make it look a bit like he’s about to ask a guy in a bulldozer to chuck a couple of E-Types and an Aston off the side of an alpine pass? 😀
Definite Mafia vibes! 🙂
Excellent choice of car in the background. The last of the interesting Ferraris IMHO ?
F50 was pretty special too, but I approve of the choice
Let’s hope that’s not the 3rd F40 getting crashed this week
F50 was pretty special too, but I approve of the choice
Ferrari are all over the numbers in their social media build-up to Lewis's arrival - bet the F40 is there because it was his 40th birthday a week and a bit ago.
Good job they hadn't got Lando's F40 pencilled in for the photoshoot! 🙂
https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-f40-lando-norris-crash-footage-emerges
Definite Mafia vibes
My guess is he's saying Ferrari made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Re this:
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/trick-that-toppled-red-bull-could-be-key-to-f1-2025-revival/
A simplistic view of this is that both Red Bull and Ferrari could make a significant step forward with their 2025 cars, catching up with changes already banked by McLaren and Mercedes.
Given that in the latter half of the season Ferrari often seemed to be close to McLaren and ahead of Red Bull, does this now make them look like the favourites to hit 2025 on the front foot? With Red Bull and McLaren vying for second best and Mercedes fourth?
An interesting prospect if so.
I had similar thoughts to Bez when I read that article. One question will be how close to maximizing the flexi-wing McLaren is? Another will be whether the Red Bull suspension (with extreme anti-dive and anti-squat) is optimal for a flexi-wing. Related to that will be whether the downstream aero needs to be optimized for a flexi-wing. Another factor will whether a flexi-wing makes the Red Bull much easier to drive and Lawson is fast enough to fight for podiums and wins. One thing I'm willing to predict is that Hamilton and Leclerc won't be mates by the end of the year.
I'm copyrighting "Hamo maF1a"
I'm excited for this season with the changes in driver pairings.
Reckon it is Ferrari v McClaren for constructors.
Drivers it will be interesting to see Lewis v Charles, I hope Lewis is a success. It didn’t work out for Seb when he did his Ferrari move. Oscar's development with Lando and that team mate-rivalry playing out will be good. I actually think Max will take the drivers. You'll have Lewis and Charles taking points off each other, and the same for Lando with Oscar.
Shame Sainz doesn't have a better seat. RB should have taken him. Can't see Lawson being a success there, the car will still be tricky and the team structure is clearly not helpful to developing the number 2.
More comedy regulations from the FIA! If I were the drivers I'd go all 1970s unions on the FIA - one out all out if anyone gets a 1 month ban - leave them with an empty grid. Bloody ridiculous...
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-drivers-could-face-misconduct-bans-under-new-fia-guidelines/