Not a big Ham fan, but his choice of words.... Finally!

Ferrari is to strategy as military is to intelligence. This is same the organization that boxed Fred in attempt to cover Mark Webber from a championship, when the rest of the world knew that Vettel was the golden child and Mark was to sacrificed.

And yes, chapeau to Williams. Seems they have finally rid themselves of all that Paddy Lowe funk.

It was still a little tame.

I think McLaren finally showed their real pace this weekend and it is a warning shot to all other teams . And I doubt they will just lay back and enjoy , they will add updates if/when needed . The line has been drawn in the sand , time for others to step up and meet the challenge .

One one of the near future races, the testing procedure for the front wing will change. Many believe the McLaren's front wings flex more than the other cars. If the new front wings suddenly slow them, we ail all know the reason. Of course, it they still are the class of the grid, the other teams will have to catch up.

How much does a F1 machine cost? Interesting article here:
https://www.newsbreak.com/share/3964811868536-the-actual-cost-of-every-f1-car-part?_f=app_share&pd=0E8lGPpS&lang=en_US&send_time =1744836692&trans_data=%7B%22platform%22%3A0%2C%22 cv%22%3A%2225.15.2.8%22%2C%22languages%22%3A%22en% 22%7D&sep=ns_foryou_blend_exp_25q1-v5%2Cns_foryou_recall_exp_25q2-v7%2Cns_push_exp_rt_bucketv12-control%2Cns_local_strategy_25q1_exp-v2%2Cns_foryou_model_exp_25q1-v4&s=i4

Piastri's move on Verstappen was a beauty.. When's the last time someone made Max outbrake himself ? Norris must be wondering what he has to do to win one at the moment, waited all that time for a good car, and his team mate is 3-1 now (and today was bad luck really).

Ferrari? IMO much ado about nothing. Sure they shoulda switched sooner, and switched back sooner also. But in the end they had almost exactly the same pace and I sincerely doubt either of them had a shot at Antonelli. Sad days. I was hoping to See Sainz stay ahead of them and make a comment on the radio about his new car being faster than his old one, just for fun.

A bit off the subject. Worked the race and had time to visit some team stores and the official F1 store. Holy moly, they wanted $135 for a baseball hat (figured less than $10 to make) and between $85 to $135 for a $20 t-shirt. Not particularly fan friendly pricing.

That's the Liberty Media tax.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the Miami race contract extension to 2041(?). Meanwhile, Spa will be an ad hoc scheduled race and Hockenheim, Nurburgring have no race at all.

I could be wrong, but I believe when Hammy retires, a lot of the celeb and fair weather fans will leave. Maybe then the market will correct itself WRT prices and traditional track venues.

F1 merch pricing has been high for years. I paid, I think around $65 for a Ferrari LeClerc hat at COTA in 2021. Its the only piece of F1 stuff that I have bought.

The Miami venue is so tight that is seems like it is AI generated. The track is so narrow and the grandstands are so close to the track it doesn't seem real.

Is there a tariff on foreign made F1 merch yet?

Sainz sustained damage to his car . The team told Alex to help Sainz by keeping him in DRS zone . Albon ignored the order and sped off . Carlos made a reference to the incident on team radio and apparently Vowles completely agreed . I imagine that debrief was interesting :D

I'd bet some at Ferrari are wishing he would have stayed.

Let me pass, let me pass so I can drive slower!!!!
LeClerc need to practice his tantrums to keep up with lewis.



On another note, they've completed 6 races so far in 2025 and ocon has still not crashed out his teammate.
Bizarro season.

Looks like Doohan is out at Alpine and Colapinto in for Monza, as was leaked earlier.. showing up in the european press now here and there... The "fake" Alpine team manager Ollie Oakes (joke, he just seems unaware what's going on most of the time) denied it at the press conference in Miami but it would not surprise anyone if the "real" manager Flavio made the call after yet another DNF.

Part of me feels bad for Jack, nice guy, tons of pressure from day 1 with rumors of Colapinto... It must have sucked !
Part of me has to admit he has not shown all that much over 6 races so far to warrant escaping Briatore's hatchet, knowing all the time that was a possibility.

Colapinto was immediately "wow, look at him go", then a crash - Doohan so far has been "meh, 15th-18th, or a crash". And Alpine did him no favors here and there screwing up his qualifying, I get that, and I still think it's unfair to drop a young driver so soon, but I mean, look at how good Hadjar and Kimi have looked so far... Can't help ! Bummer.

Standing in the box at 3.7 and watching them make the turn 4 left without lifting was impressive. My post was looking downstream and just the speed was almost unfathomable. Strong neck muscles are required.

Got to figure the $135 hats are China made for less than $10. Figure at those prices they should suck it up and eat the tariffs. But given the attitude of the merchants who seemed to think they could charge what ever they wanted, assuming they will not give up their $120 profit on each item

I think the place swapping was a direct result of the difference in tires. They had both just changed to their alternate compounds so Charles was on the hard and Lewis was on the mediums. The mediums come into their 'window' sooner, so Lewis had some performance advantage. Ferrari should have recognized that immediately and swapped the order of their drivers. Their hesitation diminished the advantage. Later, when Charles' hard tires were superior, they were again late making the swap. This time the fact that Carlos was close to DRS was certainly a factor.
Ferrari pit,"Sainz is 1.4 seconds back."
Lewis, "Do you want me to let him by too?"
Classic!
Even with the fumbling, they managed to close the gap to the Mercedes from 6 to 2 seconds.
The McLarens pulling out a half minute gap to their nearest rival was sobering.

Best
Les

If Alpine go ahead and replace Doohan with Colapinto does Doohan become the reserve driver ? Or do they fire him and he's out of F1 ?

Never quoted myself before, but I should go buy lotto tickets.. Alpine just announced Ollie Oakes is out ("resigned", which means nothing).. Flavio is no longer pretending he's the boss (or, Ollie has enough of covering for Flav or maybe he rooted for Jack?)...Either way that opens the door wider for Colapinto and his $.

Probably the final nail in Doohans coffin. Colapinto is supposedly going to do a test in the car . F1 is a tough environment. I feel bad for Jack .

I'm too cynical to care enough to look it up, but I'd thought that Flavio had been given a lifetime ban. I guess that all changed when liberty bought the company.

I'm probably mis-remembering.

Never mind Jack, Ollie, Alpine's team principle has resigned with immediate effect

https://www.planetf1.com/news/alpine-oliver-oakes-resigns-f1-flavio-briatore-takes-over

I predict, Otmar will buy Alpine for his investment backers, rebuild Enstone up again

https://www.grandprix.com/news/ex-alpine-boss-wants-to-launch-12th-f1-team.html