This Week – 02/11/2025
Hello, welcome to This Week, a week where two court cases were being heard, but what could they mean for the FIA, as even more questions could be asked? Lewis Hamilton discusses the impact and responsibility of joining Ferrari. But there are already talks that next year could be his last? Ollie Bearman in line as his successor…
General News
The FIA has confirmed that all ten teams successfully complied with last year’s budget cap, while Aston Martin found to be in a “procedural breach”, the FIA has confirmed.
F1 introduced a cost cap in 2021 to try and create a more level playing field between the top and bottom teams, as frontrunning outfits had significantly larger budgets than backmarkers. 2024’s cap was around £130m. A seven-month investigation has led to the FIA confirming today (28 October) which teams met the requirements for last season.
It stated that every team gave its full support in providing the required information and “acted at all times in a spirit of good faith and co-operation throughout the process”. Though it was already known that Aston Martin had committed a procedural breach and it was thought that another team had potentially done the same.
But the Silverstone-based squad has since been confirmed as the only team to have done so, while still meeting the cost cap level. The FIA said that it “was of a very minor nature, originated by unpredictable circumstances outside the control of the F1 team. AMR and FIA have entered an ABA (Accepted Breach Agreement) on 29 September 2025 to resolve the matter.”
The statement from the F1 governing body added: “No financial penalties were levied to AMR due to these exceptional and unpredictable circumstances. The Cost Cap Administration confirm that there is no accusation or evidence that AMR has sought or obtained any undue advantage as a result of the breach.”
An ABA, as per Article 6.28 of F1’s financial regulations, is a mechanism whereby the FIA suggests a penalty which is then accepted by the team in question. The statement confirmed that Aston Martin had accepted the offer. Its breach comes down to the fact that teams are required to hand over documentation to show they have complied with the cost cap by 31 March the following year.
Motorsport.com understands that Aston Martin had prepared its documentation in time, but its auditor was unable to provide a crucial signature due to extenuating circumstances beyond its control, leading to the March deadline being missed.
Laura Villars has launched a legal action against motorsport’s governing body to challenge its election process. Villars had expressed an intention to stand in December’s presidential election against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem. But a quirk of the FIA election rules means no other candidate is able to run.
The legal summons requests a Paris court “to order the suspension of the FIA presidential election, which is due to be held on 12 December, until a ruling is made” over the dispute. The case will be heard in Paris next month.
Villars told BBC News, “This procedure aims to ensure that the FIA’s upcoming presidential election, currently set for 12 December 2025, complies with the organisation’s own statutes and with fundamental democratic principles.”
“The legal action is grounded on Article 1.3 of the FIA statutes, which commits the FIA to ‘respect the highest standards of governance, transparency and democracy’, and on the fact that the FIA is a French-law association headquartered in Paris, thus subject to French jurisdiction.”
Adding “I am not acting against the FIA. I am acting to protect it. Democracy is not a threat to the FIA; it is its strength.”
An FIA spokesperson told BBC Sport: “Due to the nature of the process, the FIA is unable to comment on this legal action and will not be able to provide further comment on this matter.”
Villars said the court had invited both parties to a mediation meeting and that she would attend it “in a spirit of openness and good faith”. Saying “I will go to this mediation hearing with the same attitude I have maintained from the beginning – calm, openness, and determination.”
If Villars wins her case, the presidential election would likely be stopped until the conclusion of an investigation into what needs to change at the FIA in terms of governance processes. If that took longer than the time left before the election, Ben Sulayem would stay in power but with a caretaker mandate that would prevent him from making any significant decisions or changes.
Fellow candidate Tim Mayer accused the FIA of “lacking transparency” and “the illusion of democracy” when he said this month he was abandoning his campaign for the presidency.
Former world champion Jenson Button has announced he is retiring from professional racing following next weekend’s WEC race in Sakhir, Bahrain. The Englishman has been racing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) for the past two seasons with Team Jota.
Button won the 2009 world title with Brawn in 2009 and retired from F1 in 2016 having contested 306 races across eighteen years and won fifteen Grands Prix. He has since been racing in various disciplines, including the endurance of Le Mans, supercars, Extreme E and rallycross.
Speaking to BBC Somerset, he said, “This will be my last race, I’ve always liked Bahrain, I think it’s a fun track, and I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can because this will be the end of my professional racing career”
In recent years, he has combined racing with broadcasting for Sky Sports as a pundit and relief commentator. He says it was not difficult as he did not have the time to commit to another season in WEC, especially with a young family.
However the Englishman would compete for fun in his own classic cars when he can “pick and choose” what he does. This could be things like Goodwood Festivals, Monaco Historic Grand Prix or wildcard entries. As well as racing his classic car collection.
2008 Championship Heads to court
The high court in London has been hearing the case brought by Felipe Massa over Crashgate at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, which cost him the race win and ultimately the drivers’ world championship, a court has heard.
The Brazilian is taking legal action over an alleged “conspiracy” that he says denied him the title, which was won by Lewis Hamilton for McLaren, breach of contract and failure to investigate. He is seeking about £64m plus interest from former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, Formula 1 and governing body the FIA.
Ecclestone, Liberty Media and the FIA are defending the claims, and on Wednesday applied for the case to be thrown out.
Alpine, then Renault, team principal Flabio Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds were found guilty by the FIA of conspiracy Nelson Piquet Jr crashed deliberately to trigger a safety car, which helped team-mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win from fifteenth on the grid.
Ferrari pitted Massa during the safety-car period, but messed up the stop, which dropped him down the field and out of the points. Ecclestone’s lawyer David Quest, said Massa and Ferrari’s mistakes, rather than Piquet’s crash, led to him missing out on the title.
Massa’s case rests on an interview Ecclestone gave to F1 Insider in 2023, in which he said he and then FIA president Max Mosley knew Piquet’s crash was done on purpose but took no action in an attempt to “protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal”.
Ecclestone’s lawyers argue that Massa’s botched pit stop, and he left the pits with the fuel hose attached to the car, accidentally knocking over a crew member. He rejoined the track towards the back of the field and finished thirteenth, outside the points.
F1 lawyer Annelise Day KC said in writing, are defending the claims, and on Wednesday applied for the case to be thrown out.
Piquet and his father Nelson Sr allegedly told Ecclestone at the Sao Paulo GP, “he had been asked by the team to deliberately drive into the wall at a certain point in time in order to trigger a safety car phase and help his team-mate Alonso. We decided not to do anything for the time being. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal.”
Ecclestone denied making that comment to a newspaper in 2023.
Arguing that the case should not be thrown out, and should go to a full trial, Nick De Marco KC, for Massa, said in written submissions that the defendants “cannot establish that Mr Massa’s claims have no real prospect of success”.
De Marco, in his evidence, said the FOM and the FIA were involved in a “deliberate concealment” to protect their own interests. He said, “What then happens is the deliberate concealment of the conspiracy to have a crash, the deliberate concealment by those with responsibility for protecting the integrity of the sport, deliberately conspiring together to cover up one of the most serious scandals in the history of sport.”
Quest had countered in court that “Mr Massa’s poor performance in the race was not related to the crash, and neither was Lewis Hamilton’s strong performance. Neither of them were aware of Renault’s (now Alpine) ploy.”
In response, Day repeated FOM’s argument that Massa failed bid to become champion was simply a matter of Hamilton having “outperformed” Massa over the season, and that Massa had “the misfortune” to be in competition with the seven-time champion.
The case is said to be being watched closely by Mercedes and Hamilton, as it could pave the way for a challenge over the 2021 Abu Dhabi scandal.
As of the time of finalisation on Friday evening, no decision had been made whether it would go to full trial.
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton has claimed that aligning his brand with Ferrari was “even more powerful” than he imagined. The seven-time champion made a huge move to the team after twelve seasons with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven championships.
Speaking to Ferrari’s magazine, Hamilton said, “I knew that aligning our brands would be big. But it still hits you and you’re like, ‘This is even more powerful than I imagined.’ It’s beautiful, and there have been plenty of positives, although a lot of responsibility and weight comes with it. Everyone expects to win straight away, but ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’ How long did it take? We’ll have to look that up.”
When it was put to him that anyone who knows anything about F1 would know that it takes time to adjust to a new team, Hamilton added, “That’s not many people. Only when you’re inside a team can you really, truly understand how it works and how F1 works. You can’t imagine how the machine really operates otherwise.”
He says joining Ferrari was different again, and he wasn’t blaming them for the poor season, but rather was focusing on the things he could control and staying positive.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen believes overhauling McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will now be “tough” after “struggling” to third last weekend in Mexico City. The four-time champion had a rollercoaster drive on his way to a sixth consecutive podium, having cut the first corner and clashed with Lewis Hamilton.
The Red Bull driver finished two places ahead of Piastri but lost ground to new championship leader Norris, who is thirty-six points ahead of Verstappen with four rounds to go. However, he says he was less sure that he could make the comeback.
He said, “I lost ten points to Lando, so as I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win, and this weekend didn’t go perfect. So that’s your answer. I think it’s going to be tough, but let’s see what we can do in other tracks.”
“I hope, of course, we won’t experience a weekend like this again, but it still shows that we’re not quick in every scenario. And that’s what we need to understand, I think, a bit better.” Verstappen has closed the gap consistently over the last five races and that has been helped by the floor upgrade in Monza, but last weekend Verstappen struggled with balance all weekend.
Red Bull are expected to bring more minor updates to the car in November, prior to the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Haas
Martin Brundle and F1 Vault editor and writer of This Week Jack Fielding have written in their columns that Ollie Bearman should be first in line for the next available Ferrari seat following his impressive performance last weekend in Mexico City.
Bearman impressed on his F1 debut when he stepped in at the last minute for Carlos Sainz, who was driving for Ferrari at the time, at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Becoming the youngest driver to race for Ferrari, he qualified eleventh and finished the grand prix in seventh to bring home six points on his debut.
He later stepped in for Kevin Magnussen with Haas at the Azerbaijan and Sao Paulo Grands Prix in the same year. He signed a multi-year contract with the American outfit from 2025.
In his first full season he currently leads the rookies in thirteenth with thirty-two points. Speaking on Sky’s F1 Show, Brundle was quick to shower the British driver with praise. Saying “Absolutely outstanding. If you give that young man an opportunity, he’ll grab it, like he did in Saudi Arabia with the Ferrari drive. He kept his head under a lot of pressure, especially in the closing stages with Oscar Piastri’s McLaren behind him.”
“He put a move on Max [Verstappen], made it stick, didn’t go four wheels off the road, just. The moment that there’s a seat at Ferrari for whatever reason, then Bearman should be in it as far as I’m concerned. I think he’s outstanding and he’s learning fast, and he’s making the most of his opportunity.”
Bearman is being seen as a potential successor to Lewis Hamilton when he decides to retire. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur also applauded Bearman for his performance in Mexico. “At one stage, I was thinking about a podium for him,” he said. “No, he did very well. But if you have a look from the beginning of the season, he’s doing well.”
Adding “Quite often, he had a small issue in the weekend, either in quali or in the race. And this weekend, he put everything together. He made zero mistakes and he’s paying off. It’s good also for the team to have two cars up into the points. Congratulations to Ayao and to Ollie.”
Sauber
Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley has insisted that sixth in the constructors’ championship is still in the “realms of possibility” despite a tight fight in the middle of the standings. Last weekend Gabriel Bortoleto finished tenth while Nico Hulkenberg retiring.
With six-point scoring opportunities remaining over the final four weekends Sauber are ninth, but only twelve points cover sixth to ninth in the constructors. He said after the race, “So let’s look at the points table first of all. So Haas took a big chunk out of us today in the championship. Knocks us down to P9, as I sit here today.”
“But the margins are really close in the points. One good weekend can swing it in a completely different direction. Genuinely, mathematically, P6 isn’t out of all realms of possibility.”
After the tenth place, Wheatley tried to put a postitve spin on it saying that the margins are so close but the team were building still, and he could feel the gains every race weekend.