🏁 Off Track Fireworks

PLP Season 2 Edition 10

It’s Race Weekend!

It’s our first back-to-back race weekend of the year and we’ve got another Saturday race, with lights out at 12pm on the east coast. While there’s always a lot to cover on back-to-back race weeks, but consider it doubled this week as the off track drama fire hose remains turned up to 11. We better save some words at the top here and jump right in.

Quick Quiz!

Answer revealed at the bottom ⬇

Bahrain GP Recap

Podium: 🥇 VER 🥈 PER 🥉 SAI

DNF: None

If you missed our detailed race breakdown in Monday’s PLP Premium preview, you can check it out here. Going forward these Monday editions will be reserved for premium subscribers. We’ll still report some highlights here but just don’t have the space to bring the same level of analysis.

Bahrain gave us déjà vu all over again, with Max hitting a grand slam (pole position, fastest lap, led every lap, and won the race) for the 5th time in his career on his way to a 22 second win. Checo shook off the ick and drove to a necessary P2 for his confidence.

The best drive of the day came from Carlos Sainz who provided the most exciting on track action overtaking teammate Charles Leclerc twice, who was suffering from braking issues. Mercedes and McLaren were in a dead heat pace wise, though Russell was struggling from an overheating engine after looking good early. Also putting in good drives were Zhou taking P11, and Stroll finishing P10 after getting spun out by Hulkenberg on the first turn.

While Kick Sauber and Haas had some better race results than expected, the same could not be said for Alpine who are currently slowest on the grid. Also having tough races were Sargeant and Tsunoda - albeit for very different reasons. Yuki was NOT happy about a driver swap order and responded with many heated radio messages, and even dove in on Ricciardo on the cool down lap. Daniel responded “He’s a ******* helmet!”. An exceptional new insult to add to the repertoire.

Overall not the most exciting race of all time… but I believe we’ll see a bit more on track fireworks this weekend.

Saudi Arabia GP Preview

While it’s just a 2 hour flight away, Jeddah as a track is significantly different than Bahrain. It’s a temporary street circuit with some permanent sections, but don’t be fooled - it is lightning fast. Average speeds of 155mph are second only to Monza (aka “The Temple of Speed”), and features the most corners on the calendar at 27 - most of which are super fast, twisting, winding bends ripping along the waterfront. If it’s before 8:30 EST you can still catch FP3, with Qualifying at 12pm. And again, the race is Saturday at noon - after which we’ll move back to Sundays (until Vegas of course)

While we’re all hoping for a closer fight at the top, there could be some hope. Both Ferrari and Mercedes struggled with car issues in Bahrain that should now be rectified, McLaren’s car is much more suited to Jeddah’s fast, twisting, low downforce nature, and Alonso looked good in FP1 & FP2 for Aston (Took P2 in FP1 and P1 in FP2 ahead of Russell). Practice data so far shows potential for a really tight fight for pole

That being said, the odds on favorite is still Max - but don’t overlook the proclaimed “King of the Streets” Checo Perez’s shot at taking P1 here for the second year in a row. The best shot to disrupt this outcome would be to get a few cars ahead of the Red Bulls on the starting grid, in hopes of slowing them down. Easier said than done.

Also: The F1 Academy season gets underway with two races this weekend: 7:10am EST Friday and 7:05am EST Saturday.

Red Bull? More Like Mad Cow

Ok I’m going to immediately apologize for the headline: Sorry. But to see the top team be so dominant on track and absolutely spiraling off of it has us feeling diseased. It’s basically unheard of in any sport. The teams that are the best at drama and dysfunction are rarely also good at what they’re supposed to be good at. Shoutout to my New York Jets.

It’s increasingly looking like the Christian Horner fall out cannot be contained and it’s hard to imagine the team continues to exist in it’s current state. Here’s the latest updates:

• Jos Verstappen dropped some soundbites saying that Red Bull could “explode” and the team is “in danger of being torn apart” if Horner remains as principal

• There is an apparent clause in Max’s contract that allows him to leave in the event Helmut Marko is to leave, with Marko saying he “will not stand in the way of Max”

• Toto is spotted meeting with Jos, resulting in some of the silliest rumors we’ve ever heard: Max is now in play for the Mercedes seat. I think we should pump major brakes (not Charles’) on this one. We know that all drivers and teams conduct due diligence on seats, and this particular speculation is PEAK silly - As much as I’d love to see Max go to a worse car to level the playing field a bit.

• Ford was reportedly uneasy about the whole situation and was seeking a quick resolution, though it seems now that the 2026 engine partnership is not in jeopardy

• The employee who made the initial complaint against Horner has been suspended as a result of the investigation, with the team not commenting on why at this time. Some reports say she was lying about “something”… but who knows if she’s just being silenced.

There’s still a lot of speculation flying around, so let’s take some of the above with a large pinch of salt (thanks Plimy). But one thing for certain is the power struggle at RBR is not over yet, and it’s unfortunate that others are caught in the crossfire. Here’s to hoping the truth comes out.

And in what some are saying is related to this whole quagmire…

FIA President MBS Under Investigation

On Monday, a whistleblower leaked that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem had interfered with race results. Specifically, he allegedly made it clear to race officials he thought Alonso’s penalty at the Saudi Arabian GP last year should be revoked. Another report alleges he attempted to prevent the Las Vegas GP from gaining certification as well.

This is a serious accusation, let’s watch as it plays out to see if there’s anything substantial here (like Horner) or it’s much ado about nothing (remember the Wolff’s “investigation” a few months back? But anything that threatens the sports credibility as a true fair competition should be take seriously.

Some people are connecting the dots and thoughts are that because MBS has supported Horner (and even asked Max to back his boss publicly to no avail), whoever is behind the continued leaks on this story has now set their sights on him as well.

1 race in and you could already write a whole season of Succession with this stuff. Netflix absolutely licking their chops for DTS season 7 right now.

More Bad News for Alpine?

After a poor showing this weekend, Alpine Technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer resigned from their roles, adding to the revolving door of team leadership at Team Frenchie.

The team will move to a McLaren based model, with three technical directors each overseeing a key area of car design - with Ciaron Pilbeam as technical director responsible for performance, Joe Burnell as head of engineering, and David Wheater on aerodynamics.

On the changes, Pierre Gasly said “It came as a surprise, but then at the same time I trust my team” with Esteban Ocon adding “I trust the process”.

The drivers are toeing the company line at the moment, and granted it is a long season. Big turnarounds have happened before - adopting this new structure helped McLaren shoot up the grid last season. This shuffle could do the team some good, since it seems like the only direction to move from where they are now is up.

Down the Grid

Tech Talk

• The Mercedes W15 features a unique built-in adjustment capability for its front suspension. This allows for the anti-drive in the suspension geometry to tunable from circuit to circuit. This characteristic can help keep the car more level while braking, shoring up the rear and letting the aerodynamics work more consistently.

• Red Bull rumored to be bringing a large upgrade package to Imola that will produce a big step forward. Oh that’s just lovely. 

• Love a good pace chart. You can see Russell fall off here, drivers staying even and even gaining slightly after they pit, and Alonso’s impressive last stint 🔽 

Off the Grid

• Sebastian Vettel says he’s not currently planning an F1 return, but hasn’t ruled out the possibility in the future. Rumors circulated after he exchanged text messages with Toto Wolff after the Hamilton news. Silly season strikes again.

• New Saudi Arabia circuit Qiddiya renders and details have been released, which is expected to take over once Jeddah’s race contract expires in 2027. It features an elevation change of 350ft over 21 corners, with 3 DRS zones, and a 230ft incline into the first corner known as “the blade”. It’s slated to be longer than any track on the 2024 calendar. The render does look sweet, but I’m a known sucker for bright colors. And the blade thing sounds cool but it’s suspended above the ground like a bridge and seems the opposite of safe.

Alright, I predict we see a bit more action on track this Saturday (super bold, I know). We just need some guys to out qualify Max and hope to at least slow him down a tad. Less we see this 🔽 

Questions? Comments? Did we get something wrong (never 😁)? Let us know ▶ [email protected]