🏁 2025 Starts NOW

Max Verstappen: The four time champ thinks his record 1000+ days leading the Drivers Championship is about to end in Melbourne: “If you look at the lap times, then I think McLaren is the favorite. On our side, not everything went completely smoothly, but on the other hand we have some ideas on how to improve.”

Lando Norris: Not expecting a “big step” from the team, saying that they’ll be matched by Ferrari and Red Bull to start 2025. “We’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than what we would have liked [during the first two days of testing].” Classic sandbagging, imho. I think they’re the fastest at the moment. But we’ll know for sure shortly..

Charles Leclerc: “Surprised” by the similarities in driving styles between himself and new teammate Hamilton, which he says is a positive for the team. Always a challenge when styles differ and the car has to be developed to favor one or the other - i.e. Max vs Checo the past couple years.

Oscar Piastri: Signed a multi-year contract extension with McLaren this week, locking the Aussie in Papaya “for the long term.” CEO Zak Brown says “not only is he an incredibly talented driver, but his work ethic and cultural fit within the team made it a no-brainer.” His previous deal expiring in 2026 was $6M per year - his new one expiring (?) will bring in $20M per year. Not bad, Oscar.

Carlos Sainz: On this year’s expectations: “They won’t see me on the podium or the top five this year, so don’t get your hopes up, but at least they know I haven’t come to Williams to just hang around or let the years go by…I’ve come to push this team ahead.” Too late Carlos. My hopes are already high.

George Russell: Says his “time will come” as he steps into role of team senior driver. “And if I keep delivering those results, as I did over these last three years against the best driver of all time, I believe I will get myself in the fight and hopefully a World Championship to my name.”

Lewis Hamilton: “Itching to get going” ahead of his Ferrari debut. “I've been giving absolutely everything to to training, to push my mind and my body further than I have before, trying to see if I can excel and just squeeze more juice out of this.”

Fernando Alonso: Feature on how he helped rookie Bartoleto in his early career, giving him advice and sponsoring him in feeder series.

Pierre Gasly: “Pieces are falling into place” ahead of the Aussie GP. After testing challenges in previous years, this year “it felt like we started off in a much better place.”

Nico Hulkenberg: On testing: “I think it’s been okay, obviously I’ve no idea where we are…but it’s more about finding a good starting point with the car and understanding how set-up changes work, all these kind of basic things.” Unfortunately, Hulk, I’d posit ya’ll are still near the bottom.

Yuki Tsunoda: He’s not letting the lack of a Red Bull call up get to him - TP Laurent Mekies says he’s embracing the role as Racing Bulls team leader, saying “his motivation [is] high. He is at peace with what happened. And he's here to make another step.”

Lance Stroll: His way of working has left Adrian Newey “positively surprised”, adding “He seems to have a lot more energy than when he’s shuffling around the paddock.” I agree that is surprising.

Esteban Ocon: The last day of testing saw his pace was good enough for P8 on the leaderboard. Look for Haas to try to fight Williams and Alpine at the top of the midfield.

Alex Albon: On team dynamic with Sainz: "I mean, there's no hiding the fact that in previous years I possibly got the preferential treatment.. [this year] it does feel like not only are we equally considered…we're in a much healthier position that we can have an equal hierarchy structure." It’s true, but I do think Carlos will outperform.

Ollie Bearman: Feels good about the season opener with a couple F1 races already under his belt. "I'm quite certain I feel confident heading into round one, what I can do and how comfortable I am in F1 at this stage."

Liam Lawson: Regarding the driver who he replaced last season: “When I got the Red Bull seat, Daniel is still the only driver, past or present, to send me a message about it, congratulating me. It says a lot about him as a person.”

Jack Doohan: Is Alpine’s move to Colapinto already decided? Franco has a strong backing ($$$) and a multi-year deal, unusual for a reserve driver. Jack will have to come out fighting.

Kimi Antonelli: On being a rookie at a top team: "I am really grateful for the trust and opportunity Mercedes gave me. But at the same time, it is a big responsibility as well, Mercedes [is a] top team, and so they've got some expectations as well. I am just going to try to make the best out of this."

Gabriel Bortoleto: Teammate Hulkenberg has praised him as being “fast as hell” and said he “learns quickly.” Can’t wait to see what all these rookies can do this weekend.

Isaac Hadjar: The F2 runner up to Bortoleto last year is “really hungry” to get started and says he will “try to be spectacular on track".

McLaren: With everyone predicting a hot start for Papaya, Lando Norris says the assessment is “short-sighted”, adding “Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down. We just focus on ourselves.” I think Lando is right about that, but is ALSO sandbagging a bit himself. McLaren is likely in the best shape until proven otherwise.

Ferrari: The SF-25 is reportedly fully aligned with simulator data, according to data gathered from testing and is responding positively to set up-changes.

Red Bull: The RB21 is apparently 0.3-0.4s faster than the RB20. The visible structure remains similar, but many of the hidden components have been changed - such as the cooling, floor, and suspension in hopes to make the new version “less peaky” than its predecessor.

Mercedes: Toto Wolff thinks the team is behind the top teams at the moment. “As a team, we had an uphill challenge over the winter. Our competitors finished 2024 strongly and we know that Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren in particular, should have a performance advantage over us initially.” 

Aston Martin: Team boss Cowell is taking some of the pressure off Alonso and Stroll, saying the onus should be on the team to deliver a good car. “The pressure should come in our direction – we’ve got the job to create a fast race car for them, and I’m absolutely certain that they’re both going to deliver.”

Alpine: Renault CEO Luca de Meo revealed the team recently found “an error in the correlation in the wind tunnel” that was likely hampering development previously. After improving at the end of 2024, hopes are high for the team to be a strong midfield contender.

Haas: Will Cadillac’s entry next year challenge Gene’s squad for America’s favorite home grown team? Are a lot of Americans Haas fans? I’m skeptical.

Racing Bulls: Technical Director Jody Egginton is getting the call up Yuki desperately wanted - he’ll become Engineering Director at Red Bull on April 1st.

Williams: Former F1 driver Shinji Nakano provided some insight on that top Day 2 time Carlos put up in testing: “If the car platform itself is poor, you cannot get a good time like that even if you attack with less fuel, so I think the fact that Williams was able to record the fastest time is proof of the evolution from last year’s car.” He says testing times don’t directly reflect pecking order, but thinks the result points to a chassis leap and not just a low-fuel fluke lap.

Kick Sauber: Former Red Bull Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley will assume his new role of Team Principal on April 1st. No foolin!

• Return of the V10? FIA Prez MBS recently said he’d love to see F1 return to the beloved engine of old, last seen on the grid 20 years ago. Even Max Verstappen agrees, but he’s not holding his breath: “Of course I think it's a very nice idea…but whether it's possible or not, that's obviously a completely different story. I always think it's better to not just shout so many things. It's better to try to solve things behind the scenes - that would be better for everyone.” 

• Don’t Flex: The FIA is cracking down on flexible wings since some teams are still thought to be using “mini-drs” flexible components. There will be new checks this weekend for rear wings, as well as front wing checks by Spain. The crack down allegedly angered teams like Red Bull who had spent budget developing here - who have since called out McLaren and Ferrari for still exploiting this loophole.

• Domenicali Extended: F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali has extended his contract with Liberty Media through 2029. Liberty President and CEO Derek Change says “Stefano has been an excellent steward of the business, building on its successful foundation and accelerating Formula 1’s rate of growth both commercially and in fan engagement.” Translated from corporate speak: “He be bringing in that cash, homie. We ball.”

• F1: The trailer for Brad Pitt’s new movie is out now.

• Madring: That’s the name of Madrid’s new street circuit, which will host the Spanish GP next year.

• Behind the DTS Scenes: Are you watching Drive to Survive? As always some internet folks are complaining about over dramatization and major season events that were left out. I’m about half way through and while what they say is mostly true, it’s still entertaining. Just don’t take all those dramatic edits as gospel. Here’s some logistical numbers from the operation.

• Vegas Numbers: Sin City released their economic impact report from 2024’s race - totaling almost $1B, which was comparable to what the Super Bowl did for the city in 2024. So F1 is clearly just as big as the Super Bowl in the eyes of every American, right? Definitely.

Quick Question (My answer)

Give me Oscar to kick off the season with a home race W.