ThePitcrewOnline

Jack Prentice

  • Adrian Newey To Step Down As Aston Martin F1 Team Principal

    Adrian Newey To Step Down As Aston Martin F1 Team Principal

    Adrian Newey will step down as F1 Team Principal at Aston Martin’s F1 team principal.

    The 67-year-old world renowned designer, who replaced previous Team Principal Andy Cowell four months ago, will continue in his work as Aston Martin’s F1 Managing Technical Partner, with Audi’s Jonathan Wheatley – himself less than a year into his role – most likely to replace him.

    Wheatley and Newey spent almost two decades working together at Red Bull Racing before both announcing their own departures in the wake of the Christian Horner misconduct scandal in 2024.

    The news comes after a disastrous start to the Aston Martin-Honda partnership, largely on the engine side, which has seen repeated reliability issues and a lack of performance at the start of a new era of F1 technical regulations, which has aimed for a near 50/50 split between the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the battery powered by the MGU-K.

    Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have been unable to finish a Grand Prix due to excessive vibrations that have shaken the engine to the point of failure, with Newey revealing that the drivers risked long term damage to their health in a pre-weekend press conference at the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

    Kieran’s Analysis:

    This entire Newey/Wheatley/Aston Martin news came out of NOWHERE from my side. Two races into the season and a big change already?! Deja vu from 2025 in the Red Bull stables!

    In all seriousness, this change shapes 2 teams futures: Audi and Aston Martin.

    Firstly the positives from my side: Aston will have 2 of the biggest personnel at their best areas which will be a MAJOR boost for the entire team and drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Newey is widely regarded as the best car designer in the business and Wheatley, in this writer’s opinion, is one of the best team principals in F1 with DTS showing behind the scenes of the private man who would have been ideal for Red Bull to promote to succeed Christian Horner.

    Now the negatives and it will come primarily from the Audi side: losing a key figure to their long term project is a MAJOR negative for their plan. Wheatley was imagined to be the leading man in the case for Audi to become world champions in Formula One. However, it seems that train has been derailed which is not good for Audi. The question then remains: who will take over the seat? They could place Binotto who has experience as being a team principal but is overseeing the engine development. Could Audi promote someone with experience like Andreas Seidl who left the Audi project in 2024? Could we see a name like Allan McNish jump into that seat? Or is there another name in the hotseat? This writer is certain of something: shockwaves will be sent around the paddock as this could shape silly season for both team principals and drivers!

    Jack Prentice:

    On the face of it, this adds more chaos to an already unstable start to 2026 and the partnership between Aston Martin and Honda.

    After firing shots in the pre-weekend press conference at the first round in Australia by telling the world’s media that Aston Martin weren’t aware of how different the makeup of this Honda engine department was from the successful team that powered Red Bull to victory, and that the engine represented a danger to the driver’s long term health, Newey left observers in no doubt as to his feelings on a torrid start to the season.

    That however is not thought to be behind Newey looking for a new Team Principal, as is thought to have been leading the process for as long as he has been in that very role and it is coincidental that Aston Martin’s start has been as bad as it has.

    Formula One being Formula One, this does increase the spotlight on an already beleaguered partnership with the team 11th in the Constructors’ Championship following well documented inabilities to get the car to the finish.

    While this is undoubtedly going to create even more noise around the team, it does not alter or solve Aston Martin’s current problems with the engine and understanding of its car, and while Honda have made progress in identifying the root cause of its well known vibrations that could still take months to get on top of.

  • The Key Achievements That Will Represent Tangible Success for Cadillac in 2026

    The Key Achievements That Will Represent Tangible Success for Cadillac in 2026

    Cadillac has already ticked off plenty of its 2026 to do list, in not looking like breaching the 107% qualifying rule and getting two cars to the finish at the second attempt at the second attempt in the Chinese Grand Prix.

    With those goals achieved, this is not the time for F1’s newest team to rest on their laurels as the scale of their medium and long terms competitive aims has already hit home at the General Motors backed entry.

    While the latest American team to join the F1 grid is another to have been built from the ground up after Haas joined the grid, at its core for 2026 is decades of F1 experience with Team Principal Graeme Lowdon having formerly been in charge at 2010 new team Virgin, latterly Marussia, until 2015. Executive Engineering Consultant Pat Symonds having previously worked for Benetton and Renault at Team Enstone and later Williams, while drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have 14 and 12 years’ experience in F1 respectively.

    With the prospect of points an unlikely one for 2026, we take a look at what milestones and achievements would represent a successful debut season for Cadillac.

    Consistently Clean Weekends

    While Cadillac have gotten two cars to the finish faster than World Champions McLaren, neither weekend has been trouble free for the team, which follows a winter schedule in which the team was ahead of only the beleaguered Aston Martin Honda entry in terms of mileage completed across the two official Tests in Bahrain.

    In Australia, Perez only managed 16 laps across the first two practice sessions as reliability issues hobbled the Mexican former Red Bull driver, while Bottas was able only to complete 12 laps on Saturday morning ahead of qualifying before retiring with an engine failure after 15 laps in the race.

    In China, Perez was once again hamstrung on Friday morning.

    He only completed 13 laps in the sole practice session of the first Sprint weekend of the season before failing to set a time in Sprint qualifying, and having his Sprint race and Grand Prix Qualifying were once again compromised as deployment issues set the 36-year-old back. Those gremlins would last into the race, notwithstanding a clumsy collision with Bottas at the start of the Grand Prix.

    This ultra-complicated era of Formula One engine regulations have caused problems for numerous teams including the aforementioned McLaren, who failed to start with either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri in Shanghai on Sunday, while Audi have yet to have both scares start a Grand Prix this season and Red Bull have had at least one retirement in each Grand Prix so far, so this inexperienced at ground level team are far from alone.

    Nevertheless, the team will be targeting cleaner weekends as it attempts to build a better understanding of its car and the new era.

    Taking advantage of F1 experience inside the team

    We earlier referenced the F1 experience that Cadillac does have including a combined 26 seasons of experience across its driver lineup.

    Few were enthralled when it was announced that Bottas and Perez would be taking the two race seats ahead of an unlikely berth for now F2 and Cadillac development driver Colton Herta, himself an Indycar race winner.

    Coming into the season, the two men had 16 grand prix wins and 527 starts between them. Both drivers have been part of dominant F1 teams in their career, with Bottas a fine understudy to Lewis Hamilton for five seasons from 2017 through to 2021 at Mercedes, while Perez was at Red Bull for four seasons during their return to domination with the all-conquering Max Verstappen up until his untimely departure in 2024.

    Both are known to have strong technical feedback which should help the team build a better understanding of their car in more timely fashion compared to an inexperienced rookie, and they will be able to bring to the team elite level processes after recent stints with two behemoths of Formula One.

    Cadillac CEO Dan Towriss pointed to the experience brought by the two drivers when both men were announced for 2026 back in August last year.

    In Team Principal Lowdon it has a man experienced in starting a Formula One team from Ground Zero. While Virgin’s ambitions and scale did not compare to the plans that Cadillac will eventually have, Lowdon has seen the challenges the team will face all before. Given the difficult birth that Virgin suffered, including a fuel tank that began 2010 too small to complete a Grand Prix, he is quipped to solve problems that new teams will face and implementing processes across an entirely new team.

    With Symonds in an Engineering Consultancy role, the team has a man who’s been involved in the good – and bad – of Formula One with his time encompassing title victories at Benetton with Michael Schumacher and Renault with Fernando Alonso. He was a key part of the leadership team during his time there and was in a consultancy role when Lowdon was in charge at Virgin-Marussia.

    The presence of both Bottas and Perez have given the new team instant credibility and tapping into the F1 experience and nous they already have will be vital to the team’s short and medium term progress.

    Getting on to the back of the midfield

    Cadillac’s pace is at the higher end of where they were expected to start in 2026, but over a single lap they are still behind even the troubled Aston Martin package, and while they have been clear in the races that is mostly down to the reliability measures Honda have had to take.

    They were a thrice lapped 16th with Perez in Melbourne, while both drivers were lapped down in 13th and 15th in China, albeit aided by a Safety Car after 10 laps as Lance Stroll retired.

    The Ferrari Power Unit that the team has until at least 2028 is a competitive one bested only by Mercedes at this stage of the season, and with the current generation of cars being so young the rate of development will be huge, and Perez did tentatively target points by the end of the season when speaking after the Chinese Grand Prix.

    Time will tell whether that proves to be realistic this season, but there is only so long that the team will accept being on the back row and a second off the next nearest team.

    The team will learn a lot about how well they can develop a car throughout their debut season ahead of providing a solid base for a more competitive 2027.

    Image: Pirelli F1 Media

  • The F1 Driver Who Is Already Under Pressure In 2026

    The F1 Driver Who Is Already Under Pressure In 2026

    On the face of it, two races into a season is very early to be talking about a driver losing his place on the Formula One grid, Red Bull and Liam Lawson from last year excepted.

    But it is a position that Esteban Ocon could find himself in come season’s end if performances relative to young teammate Ollie Bearman do not improve, with Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu admitting at launch that the team “expect(s) more” from Ocon in 2026.

    Ocon joined the team as an Alpine refugee, giving up his seat one race early at the end of 2024 after a tumultuous two years as teammate to Pierre Gasly came to a head when Ocon ran into Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix, with the former publicly admonished by then Team Principal Bruno Famin. That followed another acrimonious ending to a teammate partnership with Fernando Alonso two years prior.

    The one time Grand Prix winner was 15th in the Drivers’ Championship standings in 2025, three points off 20-year-old Bearman and Ocon is yet to score this season, while Bearman has two top 7 finishes in a Haas that looks a strong contender for points in the early races of F1’s new era in 2026, while comparisons from last season can be split almost exactly between the first and second halves.

    2025 Rounds 1-13

    In the first half of last season, Ocon seemed a good fit for an improving Haas team as a rapid but raw Bearman would often match the Frenchman for pace if not consistency. This showed in Ocon’s slender average Grand Prix qualifying pace advantage throughout the first half of 2025 of 0.013s, excluding sprints and the Australian Grand Prix where Bearman failed to set a lap time following a crash in practice.

    A disappointing start in Australia as the team briefly struggled with ride heights and balance around the high speed Albert Park circuit was followed up with an excellent fifth for the Frenchman in the Chinese Grand Prix, which coupled with eighth place for Bearman confirmed the team’s second highest ever points haul since their inception in 2016.

    Ocon would then follow that up with an opportunistic eighth place at the Bahrain Grand Prix two rounds later, before began a run of ten Grands Prix without a points finish, save for two points in the Belgian Sprint race.

    Ocon, who by now was in his eighth full season in F1 looked on paper to have the measure of the Brit on race day, having finished ahead seven times to three in the ten races where both drivers finished, and scored further points with seventh place in Monaco, ninth in Canada and a point for tenth in Austria alongside a Sprint fifth place in Belgium.

    At this point, he led Bearman 27 points to 8, with notable errors including crashing under red flags in practice at Silverstone seeing the Brit pick up four penalty points and a ten place grid penalty before both men collided in the Grand Prix as one example of the team leaving points on the table early on.

    2025 Rounds 14-24

    The summer break marked an upturn in form for Bearman, while Ocon grew less comfortable in the car following an undertray upgrade brought to the British Grand Prix.

    Bearman put in an excellent charge from the back of the grid in the Netherlands to finish sixth and followed that up with well executed races to ninth place in Singapore and Texas ahead of a more headline grabbing end of season.

    That paled in contrast with Ocon’s struggles, with a particular low point in Azerbaijan as braking struggles stymied his weekend on the way to 14th before an 18th placed finish in Singapore.

    After a major upgrade package was brought to the Circuit of the Americas, Bearman’s season peaked in Mexico with a fourth position finish as he briefly threatened a podium in amongst the chaos caused by Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s early battle, but he was able to keep behind title challenger Oscar Piastri and both Mercedes drivers, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell on pure race pace.

    He followed that up with sixth place in a chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix for another flawless drive to finish as best of the rest once again and move well clear of Ocon in the standings, with the Frenchman recovering to take seventh place in the Abu Dhabi finale.

    2026 – and what has Komatsu said?

    Bearman has continued the form that has led to calls for his promotion to the Ferrari team of which he is a member of their junior driver academy.

    For much of the Australian Grand Prix weekend the two were evenly matched and started Bearman 12th and Ocon 13th, but the race was a different story.

    Ocon renewed rivalries with former teammate Gasly to finish outside of the points in eleventh, while a strong start for the Brit saw Bearman take seventh ahead of RB’s Arvid Lindblad.

    While the Frenchman could count himself unfortunate at the timing of a Safety Car at the Chinese Grand Prix, it is inescapable that a chance for good points went begging solely because of a clumsy move to hit the Alpine of Franco Colapinto after he left the pits, with a top eight finish more than likely. That would have backed up a fifth place for Bearman and left Haas third in the early Constructors’ Standings.

    It is a trend that Team Principal Komatsu has been picking up on since the autumn of last year, telling The Race: “I’m not saying he’s (Ocon) slow, but when he’s not 100% comfortable with the car, he cannot go there. Whereas Ollie, Ollie will drive around anything.”

    At the launch of this season’s car in January, that feedback became more pointed.

    He told F1.com, “If you look purely at a sporting result, without going into details, for sure nobody is satisfied with Esteban’s sporting result last year.

    “He’s a team mate against a rookie – yes, an amazing rookie, but nonetheless he’s got 10 years of F1 under his belt. He’s a race winner, he’s a podium finisher, so we expected more from him. Obviously it’s not totally his fault. Sometimes as a team we couldn’t give him the car that he was comfortable [with].”

    The Frenchman’s contract is thought to expire at the end of this season, and having fallen out with Alpine and what was Force India prior to their Stroll-backed takeover, no realistic prospect of a drive at another midfield team and with no top drive likely, it’s difficult to see where else he’d fit in what could be a very busy silly season ahead of 2027 should he fail to convince Komatsu.

    Ocon’s start to the season has done little to ease his situation, and after losing out to a rookie in 2025, 2026 is threatening to become a Sophomore smashing at the hands of Ollie Bearman.

     

     

  • Kimi Antonelli Dominates Chinese Grand Prix For First Ever F1 Victory

    Kimi Antonelli Dominates Chinese Grand Prix For First Ever F1 Victory

    Kimi Antonelli took a lights to flag win at the Shanghai International Circuit to win the Chinese Grand Prix for his first ever victory.

    Antonelli led home Mercedes teammate George Russell to become the first Italian since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix to win a Formula One Grand Prix and the result puts the Italian four points behind Russell at top of the fledgling 2026 Drivers’ Championship standings.

    The podium was completed by Lewis Hamilton, who took his first podium in a Grand Prix for Ferrari following a race long battle with teammate Charles Leclerc, with Ollie Bearman continuing his strong start to the season in fifth for Haas.

    Pierre Gasly’s sixth place represented a return to form for Alpine ahead of a resurgent Liam Lawson in the RB, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar recovering to eighth following a spin on lap one ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz in ninth and Franco Colapinto, who scored his first points since the US GP of 2024 in tenth for Alpine.

    Max Verstappen retired on lap 47 with a Power Unit failure from sixth, having recovered from a poor start in an underwhelming Red Bull.

    Of 22 cars, only 18 took to the start as Alex Albon for Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi and both McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were unable to start due to technical problems, with Piastri still having not completed a Grand Prix lap this season following a crash on his reconnaissance lap last week.

    As has become a theme in 2026, the fast starting Ferraris leapt towards the front as polesitter Antonelli moved to cover off teammate Russell, allowing Hamilton to swoop for the lead as Leclerc attacked Antonelli for second – the Italian holding out and re-taking the lead from Hamilton soon after.

    Russell was able to deal with the Ferraris by the end of lap 4 to take second place as the race settled down, before Lance Stroll’s retirement with another Honda engine issue in his Aston Martin sparked a Safety Car on lap 11.

    Antonelli was able to retain his lead having pitted for hard tyres as Russell dropped behind Esteban Ocon and Colapinto, who had stayed out, and a tough race was compounded when the Brit lost out to former teammate Hamilton and Leclerc in short order following the restart, to drop to sixth.

    The three frontrunners were able to pass Ocon and a particularly stubborn Colapinto, who proved a roadblock to the two Haas’, teammate Gasly and Verstappen before Bearman opened the floodgates on lap 22 with a move into the hairpin at Turn 15, Gasly and Verstappen following shortly after as the tyre advantage told.

    That gave way to a mid race scrap between Leclerc and Hamilton that saw a Scuderia battle see-saw until a lockup for Leclerc on lap 38, with the Ferraris side by side through turns one and two on numerous occasions as a frustrated Russell watched on behind in fourth.

    Russell would be past them by lap 30 but could do nothing about teammate Antonelli ahead as he was forced to settle for second.

    Further back it was another mature drive from Ollie Bearman as the Brit, in his second season, was fifth having had to avoid a spinning Hadjar on lap one, which saw him drop back to 12th.

    Bearman recovered in part due to the Safety Car allowing him to pit, but the pace was strong and prior to Verstappen’s retirement he had kept the Dutchman at arm’s length.

    This was in stark contrast to experienced teammate Esteban Ocon, who was compromised due to that very Safety Car as he started on the Hard tyres compared to Bearman’s mediums, but the Frenchman wasted a chance to score strong points by needlessly running into the back of Colapinto as the Argentine exited the pits.

    Ocon was already placed on notice by Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu prior to the start of the season, and a torrid start to 2026 will not have helped the former Alpine driver.

    His former team this week delivered on the promise shown in testing, as Gasly followed up his seventh place qualifying with sixth in the race, notwithstanding the McLarens failing to start he kept pace with Verstappen’s Red Bull and were it not for a delay in the pits, he had the pace for fifth place.

    The previously maligned Colapinto put in a similarly mature performance in holding off drivers on fresher tyres for 10 laps prior to Bearman’s pass on lap 22, and would have been likely to finish inside the top eight were it not for Ocon’s brain fade on lap 33.

    While Cadillac were able to get both cars to the finish, both Aston Martins were forced to retire as Stroll stopped with an engine issue on lap 11, while Alonso could only last 32 laps before the now infamous vibrations left his hands numb.

  • Honda’s future in F1 at stake if they cannot fix latest problems

    The 2026 Formula One season is now underway, and while Mercedes confirmed themselves to have the best chassis and engine, it was actually another engine supplier whose performance was the biggest talking point in Melbourne.

    Honda sounded warning signs about the performance of its engine from pretty early on in pre-season, but nothing could have prepared both it and F1 team partner Aston Martin for the pain that it would endure during the two official test sessions and the Australian Grand Prix.

    Lance Stroll failed to run at all on Saturday and both he and Fernando Alonso were unclassified on Sunday due to the need to save engine components as Honda tries to work out what’s causing all of its reliability problems.

    Regulations mandate this season that the power is split almost 50/50 from the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the electrical element from the battery, with 350kw (469 bhp) supplied from the retained MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) – which harvests energy from  braking, coasting and on throttle.

    Honda and Aston Martin’s engine woes were laid bare in pre-season testing

    Expectations set very low on Thursday

    The writing was on the wall as early as the Thursday media day when Design Technical Partner and Team Principal Adrian Newey and Honda Racing Company’s F1 boss Koji Watanabe called a press conference, after being unable to run on the final day of testing two weeks prior in Bahrain due to battery issues and a lack of stock.

    That session drew enough headlines to last an entire weekend, where Newey revealed that excessive vibrations from the ICE was causing the battery to fail (this would eventually leave the team with two working batteries going into Saturday) but more strikingly was a possible risk to the drivers’ long term health.

    “That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems. Mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off – all that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers,” Newey began.

    “So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”

    Honda introduced countermeasures aimed at reducing the effects of those vibrations but even after two weeks of testing on the dyno at their factory in Japan, they still have not been able to identify the root cause of those vibrations. While that remains the case, Honda will not be able to solve that problem and extract any more performance from an engine widely thought to be the weakest in terms of power output, behind newcomers Audi and Red Bull/Ford.

    And when they got to the track?

    Friday and Saturday went broadly as Newey warned it would.

    Alonso failed to run in the first Friday Practice while Stroll completed three laps, while in FP2 Stroll ran 13 laps and Alonso 18.

    Stroll may as well have stayed at his hotel on Saturday as he failed to run in either the third practice or in qualifying. Alonso did complete 20 laps in FP3 but was unsurprisingly out of qualifying in the first session, outqualifying only the Cadillac duo of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez while Carlos Sainz of Williams, Stroll and Max Verstappen failed to set a time.

    A crash for the McLaren of Oscar Piastri on his way to the grid, and a DNS for Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg promoted both men up the grid by two spots. Alonso ended up 10th on the opening lap before a lack of power and reliability curtailed his afternoon as he completed 21 laps. Stroll, fresh from his enforced Saturday hiatus, saw the chequered flag – albeit 15 laps down.

    This was broadly in line with what was briefed, with Newey explaining that “we will need to be very restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source.”

    Hasn’t Honda been here before?

    Fernando Alonso was driving for McLaren when it disastrously linked up with Honda in 2015

    On the face of it, yes.

    Honda announced that they would return to Formula One in 2015 with McLaren towards the end of 2013, with the hope being that they could rekindle the glory days of the late 1980s and the early 1990s.

    To say that failed to materialise would be a catastrophic understatement as the three year partnership ended with McLaren breaking its contract at the end of 2017 to conclude a partnership that failed to even yield a podium and became synonymous with endless engine failures and a lack of performance.

    The reality is that there is more nuance to this, more reasons to be positive and more questions about how Honda found itself in this position yet again.

    In 2015 McLaren demanded that Honda fit its Power Unit within the team’s bold “size zero packaging” requirements that Honda simply couldn’t, and the upshot was that McLaren would almost relentlessly brief the media that the car and chassis was up to standard and being let down by the engine.

    McLaren did not compromise throughout those three years, and would ultimately find out the hard way that was not the case, only returning to true competitiveness in 2023.

    Honda and Red Bull linked up in 2019 and built a good working relationship with Newey in his previous role at the head of the Red Bull design department, and Newey referenced that with his comments on Thursday about Honda “having a track record” of recovering from a bad start to engine regulations.

    Honda announced it would leave Red Bull and F1 at the end of 2021 in early 2020, but gave Red Bull and sister team Alpha Tauri (Now Racing Bulls) technical support over the next two years.

    Honda will now be operating under an engine budget cap of $130m and so cannot just throw money and resource at the problem, and will be limited by upgrade windows to a maximum of two upgrades this season, in the name of reliability.

    Did Aston Martin know about these issues before the season started?

    Another telling quote from Newey revealed that Honda’s engine department had been gutted in that time away, and he estimates that 30% of the original engine department remain now.

    “Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport kind of at the end of 2022, so roughly a year and a bit out of the competition. When they reformed a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever. So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1, they didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.

    “Plus, when they came back in 2023 that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines so all their rivals had been developing away through ’21 and ’22 with continuity the existing team and free of budget cap.”

    He then went on to reveal Aston Martin were not aware of that when the deal was agreed to link up in 2024 ready for 2026, and that Aston Martin were not aware of any performance deficit until a meeting in Tokyo in November last year to discuss rumours of Honda missing its targets back in November.

    Those unusually candid comments point to a frustration felt by the higher ups at Aston Martin, alongside comments made on the chassis (sound familiar?!) that it was the fifth best with scope to be the most competitive.

    That is not to absolve the team of any blame for this, as while they were not in charge of the Honda engine department and didn’t oversee any of the reassignments, quitting and re-entering F1, the fact they did not know about all of this points to a lack of due diligence done ahead of signing off on the deal to leave a now all-conquering Mercedes to partner with Honda.

    Time will tell on whether Honda can recover again, should they not this crisis could end up costing them their future in Formula One.

     

    Image credit: Pirelli F1 Media

     

  • PitCrew Online F1 2025 Driver Rankings Revealed

    PitCrew Online F1 2025 Driver Rankings Revealed

    Ranking the 2025 grid is not an exact science, as there are a myriad of factors behind any driver’s performance across a season.

    Still, eight members of the Pit Crew Online have tried to do just that with each member placing emphasis on different factors.

    These rankings are taken from a mean average of where those eight members have ranked every driver, with lowest average to highest average.

    So, with that introduction done, let’s start with the lowest ranked driver.

    21: Jack Doohan
    It feels harsh to judge Doohan on the basis of six races, but Doohan was on a hiding to nothing given his position was subject to rumour even before the season started. Some high profile crashes in Australia, Japan and Miami made the probable inevitable, but the Australian did have some highs and deserved points in Bahrain but for a safety car. Needs to leave the Alpine stable.

    20: Franco Colapinto
    Colapinto arrived at Alpine with a big fee and a big reputation, but got off to a horrible start after a needless crash in qualifying at Imola. For a while, he was nowhere and not helped by rookie errors such as switching the car off in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. He will benefit from stability going into 2026.

    19: Yuki Tsunoda
    A strong start at Racing Bulls ultimately proved his undoing as he became the latest victim of Red Bull’s second seat. A solid start to his Red Bull career at the Japanese Grand Prix foreshadowed what was to be the root of most of his problems, as his lack of qualifying pace in an albeit tricky car meant he was always out of position. Another to crash in qualifying at Imola, his spectacular accident spooked Red Bull and meant until Laurent Mekies took over from the sacked Christian Horner after the British Grand Prix, he was always a spec behind teammate Max Verstappen. 2025 reputational damage was complete when he dangerously weaved in front of Lando Norris in Abu Dhabi like a poor man’s Sergio Perez. Out of F1 for 2026.

    18: Lance Stroll
    It is abundantly clear that only family has kept Lance Stroll in Formula One for ten seasons. A fortunate but nevertheless impressive sixth in the season opening Australian Grand Prix soon gave way to a now familiar mix of frustration and a lack of pace. Was the only car lapped in Japan at the third round and thereafter failed to finish above 14th until an excellent 7th at the British Grand Prix in July. Save for two more 7th places in Hungary and the Netherlands, this wasn’t backed up and the Canadian admitted to being lost compared to teammate Fernando Alonso.

    17: Liam Lawson
    Lawson looked on a one-way ticket out of Formula One after demotion from Red Bull after two races. The New Zealander regrouped at Racing Bulls and after his first top 10 of the season at the Monaco Grand Prix, points were semi regular. In the final 8 races, he outpointed lauded teammate Isack Hadjar with brilliant drives in Baku and Brazil and after three years of upheaval for Lawson within the Red Bull stable, 2026 offers the first year of stability. He showed himself to be the right choice to be incoming rookie Arvid Lindblad’s benchmark next season, but his career at the top of F1 appears over before it’s begun.

    16: Esteban Ocon
    If this ranking was during the summer break, Ocon would likely have made the top 10. Showed real class in a drive to 5th in China (albeit assisted by a Ferrari double DSQ) and impressed with 8th in Bahrain, but was buried by rookie teammate Ollie Bearman in the second half of the season to finish behind the Brit in the standings, and qualified on average 1.2 places behind. As Haas’ base pace improved, Ocon was often lost on setup and the car got often got away from him. His reputation has taken significant damage this season.

    15: Lewis Hamilton
    If Hamilton had thought a fresh start for 2025 at Ferrari would rejuvenate his form after a sad end to a wonderful Mercedes partnership, he was sorely mistaken. A sprint win in China was as good as it got as the 7-time World Champion was soundly beaten by one of the current best in Charles Leclerc. The Brit was not helped by a Ferrari team who came up with a totally new concept in the final season a rules cycle and failing to understand their car, and it took both team and driver a long time to adjust to one another. His first year off a Grand Prix podium in 19 seasons in the sport says much about how the year went. He cut disconsolate figure at the end of the season, with the final four races seeing him out of Q1 and relying on recovery drives to score in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. It feels like 2026 could be farewell for a legend of the sport.

    14: Gabriel Bortoleto
    Save for a comment by former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko about being a B grade rookie, Bortoleto’s first half of the season went under the radar as an uncompetitive Sauber had him out of the limelight. Sauber got their act together and points followed in Austria, while he outraced none other than Max Verstappen with an excellent sixth in Hungary. He troubled esteemed teammate Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying throughout the season but will be disappointed that a few rookie errors crept in with two needless crashes in Brazil and another in Las Vegas. Part of a strong lineup for 2026 as Sauber becomes Audi.

    13: Pierre Gasly
    Gasly has proven difficult to rank in what was clearly the worst car. Some excellent drives include a seventh in Bahrain, eighth at the ultimately chaotic Spanish Grand Prix and a brilliant sixth at the wet British Grand Prix. Made Q3 10 times in a car that had absolutely no business being there, but with Alpine moving to customer Mercedes status for 2026 there should be scope for better things for the Frenchman.

    12: Nico Hulkenberg
    2025 will be remembered as the year the German finally broke his podium duck, with a perfectly judged third place at Silverstone. Outqualified 11 times by rookie teammate Bortoleto, it was his Sunday pace that impressed most in 2025 with nine points finishes and another top five in Spain. A strong end to the season for the German yielded an unexpected 11th in the standings as he showed himself to be a sensible choice as Audi embark on their first F1 adventure in 2026.

    11: Ollie Bearman
    Bearman’s potential was highlighted with his parachuted performances for Haas and Ferrari in 2024, and he backed that up in his first full season in F1 at Haas in 2025. Three points finishes in the first four races was a good start, and while rookie errors such as crashing under red flags at Silverstone and needless collisions have him close to a race ban, he can be pleased with his season. As Haas got quicker, so did he and he buried experienced teammate Ocon in the second half of the season, with a brilliant drive to fourth in Mexico threatening a first ever Haas podium the pick of the bunch. Looking like Ferrari’s long-term answer.

    10: Alex Albon
    While he outscored new teammate Carlos Sainz over 2025, his late season slump was alarming as the Spaniard eventually got the upper hand in the final third of the season and it is that momentum that has counted against him here. However, his excellent form before the summer break shouldn’t be ignored and he was for a long time battling Antonelli for 7th in the standings. Four top fives in a body of work containing 11 points finishes show that when the top four teams had an off day it was him more than most that picked up the spoils, and if he can regain that form for 2026 then Williams have a formidable driver pairing for F1’s new era.

    9: Kimi Antonelli
    Antonelli made a consistent start with three top 6 finishes in the first three races including a wonderful fourth on debut that showed his sky-high potential. He went missing in the European season when Mercedes brought in a suspension upgrade they would later drop. There were some rookie errors along the way, such as when he took Verstappen out on lap 1 in Austria and spun predecessor Hamilton in Holland. Showed good mental strength to bounce back in the final third of the season and almost take 6th overall. Two third places in Canada and Las Vegas were good if fortuitous, but his second place in Sao Paolo was another glimpse of his world class talent. Plenty to improve on but a very high ceiling.

    8: Isack Hadjar
    Hadjar suffered a nightmare debut in Australia by crashing out on the formation lap and attracting a needless comment from Helmut Marko. To bounce back as he did with strong pace in China and points in Suzuka was impressive, and the Frenchman carried on that improvement throughout the season. There was bad luck and bad RB strategy along the way notably in Qatar and China, while crashing in qualifying in Austin is a mark against him. Hadjar has shown enough about him to suggest he won’t be overawed by being Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate in 2026.

    7: Fernando Alonso
    That he took until Round 9 in Spain to score his first points was more down to luck than the Spaniard as reliability problems proved costly in China and Monaco, and the Aston Martin wasn’t strong enough to compete. That said, there were costly errors with a crash in Melbourne and a spin in Qatar to drop out of the top 6, but he comprehensively outperformed Stroll again. If Adrian Newey works his magic, 2026 could roll back the years for F1’s oldest driver.

    6: Carlos Sainz
    It is too simplistic to say that Sainz was poor in the first half and great in the second half of 2025. Sainz was on for points before crashing in Australia, and while he was outperformed early season by Albon there were good races in Saudi Arabia, Imola and Miami while Williams found his technical feedback and mentality invaluable. While he went missing in Spain and Japan and had a needless collision with Antonelli in Austin, Sainz got the upper hand on Albon in the second half of the season culminating in two podiums, on merit, in Baku and Qatar. If Williams master the 2026 regulations, he and Albon will make the most of it.

    5: Charles Leclerc
    Leclerc was a victim of Ferrari’s strange design path from the start of 2025, and took it to six front row starts that the car didn’t deserve. There were a couple of poor races including another horrible wet British Grand Prix outing but this season was another where the car was the issue and not the driver. 2025 being winless does not reflect how good this season was for the Monegasque as he firmly asserted himself over 7 time Champion Hamilton. He must wonder whether it will ever happen for him at Ferrari.

    4: Oscar Piastri
    If this was compiled after Monza, Piastri would top the standings. Unfortunately the Australian’s season completely unravelled after a disastrous weekend in Baku, and he revealed later in the season that being asked to swap positions with teammate Norris in Monza affected him. He was never able to wrestle back control of the season and by Mexico he had fallen behind his teammate in the Championship standings. Despite this, there was a lot of good as he dominated Norris in the first 15 races of the season and the run from China through to Holland was peerless as he was off the podium only once in Canada during that run. He will need to work on his mentality to become the complete driver in Formula One.

    3: George Russell
    Russell showed remarkable consistency and did not deserve to have questions over his future throughout most of 2025. Asserted himself over hotshot teammate Kimi Antonelli after beating Hamilton in two of three seasons at Mercedes. Two wins in Canada and Singapore were brilliant and his worse weekends were mostly car induced, with only the borderline farcical Monaco Grand Prix and a Sao Paolo Grand Prix in which he was outpaced by Antonelli really count against him. Has proven himself the complete driver in 2025.

    2: Lando Norris
    Norris threatened to blow a golden opportunity at the title with a lacklustre and error strewn first half of the season, with an unnecessary collision with Piastri in Canada the nadir of that spell. Victory at the Austrian Grand Prix kickstarted the Brit’s season and he came to form at the right time of the season to knock the stuffing out of teammate Piastri. Norris proved a lot of people wrong by showing enormous mental fortitude to come back and close out his first World Drivers’ Championship. A worthy champion.

     

    1: Max Verstappen
    This season eclipsed Fernando Alonso’s 2012 for the best forlorn World Championship challenge. That Verstappen only made two notable mistakes with the red mist on George Russell in Spain and the halfspin in Silverstone when a dry set up proved too hot to handle in the wet. Apart from those, and a horrible weekend in Hungary, the Dutchman extracted the maximum from his car. His ability to rally the team over a weekend and improve performance on such a consistent basis, and his mentality in chasing at the end of the season means no one can argue when he says that 2025 was the best performance of his career. The biggest asset on the current grid.

    Image credits: f1pressarea.pirelli.com

  • Spanish Grand Prix – Oscar Piastri Dominates Controversial Spanish Grand Prix

    Spanish Grand Prix – Oscar Piastri Dominates Controversial Spanish Grand Prix

    Oscar Piastri dominated to win a controversial Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren ahead of teammate Lando Norris.

    Charles Leclerc took an opportunistic third ahead of George Russell, who was seemingly deliberately hit by an angry Max Verstappen three laps from the end.

    Verstappen received a 10s penalty for that and is the subject of another investigation, which saw him drop from fifth to tenth.

    Nico Hulkenberg took a masterful fifth after overtaking an off-colour Lewis Hamilton in the dying stages, with Isack Hadjar seventh.

    Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso completed the top tenth ahead of Verstappen.

    Controversy came after the a Safety Car ten laps from the end was brought out after Kimi Antonelli suffered an engine failure in his Mercedes.

    Almost all of the drivers still left pitted for used or fresh softs, with the exception of Verstappen who stopped for new hards from third.

    The Dutchman made his frustrations with his Red Bull team clear, and on the restart nearly spun into the inside wall leading on to the main straight.

    That allowed Leclerc’s Ferrari alongside and ahead into third, via a touch on the straight, before the seeds of this race’s defining incident were sewn, as Russell made contact with a now mad Max at the first corner to force him off the track.

    An angry Verstappen was then told to let Russell through having retained fourth, and on lap 64 he appeared to comply with that instruction into Turn 5, before ramming the Brit’s Mercedes in what appeared to be retaliation similar to his incident with Hamilton at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

    Verstappen was given a ten second penalty for his act of retribution meaning he scored one point for tenth.

    Piastri made an excellent start to lead away from the grid, while teammate Norris dropped behind Verstappen after they went three wide with Russell, who was subsequently baulked and passed by the two Ferraris.

    Norris would eventually pass Verstappen after 12 laps and Red Bull switched to a three stop race.

    That looked like it may pay dividends as McLaren woke up to the possibility that they may be caught napping, and before the Safety Car Verstappen was only two seconds behind Norris having covered off a previously two-stopping Leclerc.

    More to follow…

     

  • Spanish Grand Prix – Oscar Piastri snatches pole position from McLaren teammate Lando Norris

    Spanish Grand Prix – Oscar Piastri snatches pole position from McLaren teammate Lando Norris

    Oscar Piastri will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix from pole position ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

    Norris had set the early Q3 pace before Piastri powered to pole over two tenths of a second ahead of the British driver for McLaren’s first Spanish Grand Prix front row lockout since 1998.

    Max Verstappen will start third for Red Bull after setting the exact same lap time as George Russell’s Mercedes, the Dutchman starting ahead as he set his time first.

    They’re ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari and the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Charles Leclerc a distant seventh.

    Pierre Gasly was top of F1’s “Class B” with eighth in his Alpine ahead of RB’s Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in tenth

    The first qualifying session saw a two shocks, with eight tenths separating the grid from top to bottom.

    Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda continued his tough start to life at Red Bull with yet another Q1 exit. This time, the Japanese driver will start last on the grid.

    Carlos Sainz was equally displeased with his efforts as after outqualifying teammate Alex Albon for five straight race, he will line up tomorrow in 18th ahead of Franco Colapinto, who will rue a technical issue that left him stuck in the pit lane at the end of the session.

    Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon will start 16th and 17th for Sauber and Haas respectively.

    The second qualifying session provided fewer shocks as Albon, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson all fell by the wayside when it looked as if they might dislodge Gasly’s Alpine from tenth.

    For Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman, things were a little more distant as they completed Q2s driver exits.

     

  • F1: Max Verstappen dominates to win again in Japan

    F1: Max Verstappen dominates to win again in Japan

    Max Verstappen held off the challenge of both McLaren drivers to win the Japanese Grand Prix.

    The result stretches his unbeaten record at Suzuka to 6 years and was both Red Bull and Honda’s fourth successive win at the circuit.

    He finished ahead Lando Norris in second and Oscar Piastri in third, with neither driver able to land a blow on Verstappen save for one challenge from Norris at pit exit which saw the Brit take to the grass.

    The Dutchman is now only one point behind Norris in second place in the Drivers’ Championship in a car some believe is only 4th fastest.

    Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.

    Isack Hadjar took his first points of the season in eighth to become the second highest Red Bull-backed driver in the standings with four points, ahead of a frustrated Alexander Albon and Ollie Bearman in tenth for Haas.

    In what was a largely processional affair, Verstappen made the best of starting from pole position to lead away from the lights, and through the first stint was never troubled as Norris could rarely get close enough to stay within DRS.

    After some jockeying from McLaren in the pit lane, both lead drivers pitting on lap 22.

    A slow stop for Red Bull allowed Norris alongside, but with the pit lane narrowing Verstappen was never going to move aside and Norris went grass-tracking.

    Verstappen was never troubled from there on.

    At points it was Piastri who looked the quicker of the two drivers, the Australian getting to within one car length on lap 50 as the closest he could get to second place.

    Leclerc was best of the rest for Ferrari but ultimately never close to the cars ahead with Hamilton a distant seventh on a different strategy as Ferrari produced a steady weekend after the double-disqualification farce in China two weeks ago.

    George Russell could not re-produce his podium heroics of Shanghai, as yet another quiet race yielded fifth ahead of his charging young teammate Antonelli, whose overcut strategy ultimately yielded no gain from sixth on the grid.

    Further back it was more of the same with little action to excite the fans, the best action coming as Albon and Hadjar both passed slowing traffic including Liam Lawson and Carlos Sainz as they came through the field on new tyres on their way to decent points finishes.

    Hadjar’s pace had been excellent all weekend, and starting seventh he and his Racing Bulls team will be pleased to finish in the top eight on a weekend where former teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who replaced Lawson at Red Bull for this race, could only manage 12th at his new team.

    Albon’s race was apparently blighted by upshift issues and some less than happy radio exchanges, the Thai driver taking aim at Williams’ strategy after earlier shift frustrations, while Bearman built on a superb Chinese Grand Prix to score another point for Haas in tenth.

    Image: Pirelli Media

  • Japanese Grand Prix – Verstappen takes a shock pole for Red Bull

    Japanese Grand Prix – Verstappen takes a shock pole for Red Bull

    Max Verstappen will start from pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix for the first time since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix.

    The Dutchman took a shock pole for Red Bull Racing by 0.012s ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

    George Russell will start tomorrow’s race from fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, while Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli will start sixth.

    Isack Hadjar, who had to overcome seat issues earlier in the day, starts and excellent seventh for Racing Bulls ahead of Lewis Hamilton, while Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Ollie Bearman complete the top ten.

    Eyes were on both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, with Lawson having been moved to Racing Bulls from Red Bull after two poor weekends ahead of the Grand Prix this weekend to be replaced by Tsunoda.

    Lawson advanced through to the second session for what was already his best qualifying session of the season, knocking out Nico Hulkenberg in the process.

    The German joined teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll on the sidelines after the first session.

    That was to be as far as both men would get, with both departing in the second qualifying session.

    Lawson did manage to outqualify Tsunoda in 14th as the Japanese driver, who had looked quick throughout the weekend, made a mistake at Turn 2 to only manage 15th on the grid.

    They’ll start behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in 13th, Carlos Sainz’s Williams in 12th and Pierre Gasly in 11th.

     

    Image – Pirelli Media