This Week – 09/03/2025
Hello welcome to This Week, this time next week we will know who won the opening race of the season. It maybe a new year but friction remains because of the upheaval at the FIA, GM was given final approval to enter next season, why Williams are playing down expectations?
General News
Motorsport.com says it has learned that the steward’s panel will be expanded from four to six. The change is covered in Article 15.1 of F1’s 2025 sporting rules, which have been overhauled in several places just before the new campaign starts. Currently, stewards are appointed by the FIA and the ASNs, comprising of a chairman, two others and a retired driver.
Article 15.1 has been changed to state that “a minimum of three and a maximum of four stewards, one of whom will be appointed chairman” will be appointed each race from the holders of an FIA Super Licence (which differs from those earned by F1 drivers).
But Motorsport.com understands the expansion will only apply at six 2025 events the FIA considers to be high workload, based on previous races at the tracks concerned. It is understood that the races in Australia, China, Canada, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil this year will get the four-stewards panel, with the other 18 races using the standard three-person panels.
Stewards not only oversee F1, but F2, F3, F1 Academy and other series the reason for this change is to increase stewarding capacity and resources at the events the FIA’s data has suggested would best benefit. The change will allow the extra member of the stewards’ panel to perform initial reviews and collate evidence to be considered after incidents.
But decisions will continue to be made by the full panel – rather than the extra member having any greater authority – and a chairperson will still be appointed at each race.
Stewarding is one of the disputes between Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the GPDA and some teams. Stewards are volunteers but Ben Sulayem has said he is open to having permanent stewards but has raised the question as to who should pay for them, telling Motorsport.com late in 2024 that “[the drivers] don’t want to pay for it”.
The FIA has made a raft of changes to Formula 1’s sporting rules for the 2025 season, with two loopholes concerning formation laps and damaged cars the most notable alterations.
General Motors / Cadillac
The American car giant General Motors have had its bid to enter the sport next season formally approved. The move supersedes a deal in principle that was reached between F1 and General Motors last November and now ratifies Cadillac’s slot on the grid as an eleventh team.
Cadillac will be based next door to Aston Martin at Silverstone, with Ferrari power units while it develops its own power unit for 2028. The entry was approved after F1 rejected the joint bid with Andretti, after Michael Andretti’s aggressive approach to try and enter the sport. Including a long-running standoff involving US Congress and the Department of Justice.
However, a revised bid led by Dan Towriss’s TWG Group after Andretti stepped down has now been given the green light. A joint statement from F1 and motorsport’s governing body the FIA said Cadillac’s bid had been approved “following the completion of their respective sporting, technical and commercial assessments”.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said: “As we said in November, the commitment by General Motors to bring a Cadillac team to Formula 1 was an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport.
“I want to thank GM and TWG for their constructive engagement over many months and look forward to welcoming the team on the grid from 2026 for what will be another exciting year for Formula 1.”
The UK-based operation has been slowly growing despite the pending confirmation and will start F1 after the biggest set of regulation changes in the championship’s history.
The project has been led by the former Marussia/Manor team principal, who also is Cadillacs team principal Graeme Lowdon.
F1 was swayed by key factors that it saw as differentiators over the initial Andretti bid. These were that there was a commitment to a full works team over the coming years. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem described the decision as “a transformative moment”.
Towriss said: “For the past years, we have worked hand-in-hand with GM to lay a robust foundation for an extraordinary F1 entry. Now, with 2026 in our sights after today’s final approval from the FIA and F1, we’re accelerating our efforts – expanding our facilities, refining cutting-edge technologies and continuing to assemble top-tier talent.”
Cadillac, Audi and Red Bull – Ford will join Ferrari, Mercedes and Honda as engine suppliers over the next few years after Honda reserved it decision to quit in 2021. Renault will leave the sport after fifty years.
McLaren
Former Haas team principal and reality TV star Gunther Steiner says that Oscar Piastri could be a future world championship if he “starts off good on the right foot”. Piastri was the first driver to win in his debut season, abet a sprint in Doha in 2023, since Lewis Hamilton with two Grands Prix wins last year.
Piastri finished fourth in the championship, 82 points behind his teammate Lando Norris, who finished second. Speaking to CNN, Steiner said, “He can be [world champion]. As I said, you always need to be in the right car. But in the moment, he could be already this year. I said it before.”
“This year, if he starts off good on the right foot. I always say, Oscar, I don’t know him personally very well. I know [him] from saying hello, but I know Mark Webber, who coaches him.” Webber manages him alongside his role as a broadcaster for Ten and Channel 4, acting as a mentor and Steiner described him as ‘the best teacher to have.’
In response at a filming day, Piastri said, “Everyone is starting on zero again, and I think last season towards the end it was natural that I still had the opportunities to go out and put my best foot forward.”
“Yes there were a couple of situations where I ended up helping Lando, but there were some ways he still helped out me so it wasn’t as clear-cut as that. But definitely, we are starting on a clean slate and I do think that I can become World Champion this year.”
While he admitted last season he did have some weaknesses which he is still working on, he would be putting his best foot forward every weekend
Ferrari
Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lit up the roads of Milan’s Piazza Castello in a celebration of Corsa Rossa on Thursday, with the former feeling the pressure from fans of the team. Hamilton drove the SF-21 at a demonstration event in the regional capital Milan in front of. 35,000 fans which was streamed online.
His 2025 teammate drove the SF90, a car he won his first Grand Prix with in 2019. That year, he finished first at both Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. Hamilton said “I’ve seen the Tifosi over the years for Sebastian [Vettel], I’ve seen them for Fernando [Alonso], I’ve seen them for Charles and Carlos [Sainz], so I wasn’t surprised.”
“Bit by bit I’m getting to see more and more of the Tifosi and getting to know them a little bit more. I really really want to be able to communicate with them in Italian, so I’ve got to work on it.” The former Mercedes driver is excited to start the upcoming season with the team and has been working hard to integrate himself into Maranello.
The seven-time champion said that while they don’t need another championship to add to their legacy that’s what the team exists for and the Tifosi are dying for.
Working with Hamilton will be a very different experience for his Monegasque teammate. Leclerc said, “Obviously it’s very different, the situation that Lewis finds himself in joining the team.”
“When I joined, I only had done one year in Formula 1 [with Sauber], so everything was still new to me and I had to learn how a team like Ferrari would work in Formula 1, even though I knew the factory and everything by being in the Ferrari Driver Academy before.”
Red Bull
The son of Red Bull’s co-founder Mark Mateschitz has brought the car collection of Bernie Ecclestone intending to make the collection public. The car collection, amassed by the former F1 driver, team principal and CEO, was reportedly being sold through a private treaty sale instead of an auction. But Mail Online has confirmed the details of the substantial sale of the sixty-nine cars.
These cars reflect some of the greatest history of motorsport, with the group including more Rosso Corsa than any other colour. It includes Michael Schumacher’s legendary Ferrari F2002, a car reportedly valued at £10 million alone. Sat alongside this car was Niki Lauda’s race-winning Brabham BT46 ‘fan car’ designed by Gordon Murray and a Lancia D50.
With the cars now in the safe hands of the Red Bull billionaire, Ecclestone is glad they’re with someone who appreciates them for what they are: “History.”
Adding, “These are unique vehicles. They have written sport history and marked technical milestones. They embody seventy years of F1 history. It means a great deal to me to know that this collection is now in the very best of hands. Mark is the best and most worthy owner we could ever imagine.”
Mateschitz is equally as happy with his purchase, teasing that the cars will eventually be opened to the public. Saying “I am very pleased that Bernie has placed his trust in me to take care of this historically significant collection. It will be carefully preserved, expanded over the years, and in the near future it will be made accessible to the public at an appropriate location.”
Mercedes
Toto Wolff appears to suggest Lewis Hamilton did not want Max Verstappen at Mercedes when he was driving for the Silver Arrows, the release of Netflix’s Drive to Survive season seven has revealed.
The latest series of the documentary has an episode which focuses on which driver would replace Hamilton after the seven-time world champion shockingly announced he would leave Mercedes at the end of 2024 for Ferrari. That appears to contradict Hamilton, who said in 2023, he would be team-mates with anyone and told Sky Sports in 2023 that he “100 per cent would be more than happy” to race against Verstappen in equal machinery but thinks the Dutchman does not want to be team-mates with him
The scene where Wolff is speaking to his wife, F1 Academy managing director Susie, ponders whether George Russell is good enough to lead the team from 2025 and who should replace Hamilton.
Toto says “So Carlos [Sainz] is somebody to look at. He’s had some really good performances. Fernando [Alonso], I mean, race pace, racecraft is still very good.
Susie replies: “You’re not going to be starting a new era with a long contract with Fernando, it’s an interim…. You don’t think Max is an option?”
Toto immediately responds: “I think he is. But, if you win all the races in a season, I think he is.”
Susie says: “There’s not much reason to leave.”
She then asks: “You don’t think Max is an option?”
Wolff immediately responds: “I think he is. But, if you win all the races in a season, I think he is.”
Susie says: “There’s not much reason to leave.”
Later it would emerge that Wolff would hold talks with Verstappen up until the summer partly caused by the civil war and fall out within Red Bull following the allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against Christian Horner
Aston Martin
Honda who will supply Aston Martin from next season says it plans to push back its FIA homologation process until just before the 2026 as it aims to develop its V6 turbo hybrid engine until the “very last moment”. The new regulations will split in power delivery between the internal combustion engine and the electrical components; although the 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines remain in place.
Honda made a big U-turn to return as a manufacturer in 2026 after withdrawing in 2021, though they still provide support to Red Bull and Racing Bulls to maintain its title-winning power unit design. But it will partner with Aston rather than Red Bull who have partnered with Ford.
Honda’s head of F1 Tetsushi Kakuda, the overall leader of the F1 project at Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), says that the brand has reached a “considerable stage” with its engine project and is continuing at a pace with its test bed operations as it seeks to firm up its combustion engine.
He told Motorsport.com, “We are aiming to submit the homologation in February next year – since we had a slightly late start, we want to push forward until the very last moment. It’s difficult to say exactly what percentage of progress we have made, but I believe we have reached a considerable stage.”
“Regarding how we handle high-speed combustion, fuel-related factors also come into play. The environment is changing drastically, and things will not work the same way as before.”
The newly formed HRC UK will primarily handle power unit maintenance and operational tasks. Koji Watanabe, president and CEO of HRC, will also serve as the president of HRC UK.
Alpine
Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has addressed Dmitry Mazepin’s presence in the French team’s garage during pre-season testing in Bahrain. The Russian billionaire and his son Nikita are currently sanctioned by the UK and EU because of the war in Ukraine, leading to him losing his seat.
Dmitry’s appearance shocked fans at a moment of friction between European and Canadian allies with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance following the row in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Friday.
Responding to questions from the media, Oakes, who assumed the role of team principal in July 2024, commented: “Yes. I’ve said hello to him, I haven’t met him. Yes, he’s a friend of mine, yes, I used to be together with him in Hitech. He was here catching up with another friend of his. It’s nice to see him. I’m not going to go into that, the world’s a crazy place”.
A spokesperson of Dmitry Mazepin claimed that it was a “personal visit.” They stated: “Dmitry was on a personal visit. He has remained friends with many people in the Formula One family and was happy to see them in Bahrain.”
While Nikita had his EU sanctions lifted the Russian driver has since decided to take his career in a different direction. He recently spoke about the “trauma” from his exit from the sport, explaining: “This is because I have a certain trauma from the premature end of my career in Formula 1. The feelings I experience when watching the races is like watching your girlfriend talk with her new man.
“I was among the top 20 drivers in the world, I had a 5-year contract with the Haas team, and I planned to spend at least 5 years in Formula 1 and achieve success there.” Though the war was the official reason for his dismissal, results were poor and he had several crashes
Williams
Carlos Sainz has tempered expectations following the team’s strong performance during the Sakhir test. Throughout testing the team appeared to have made a big jump with the investment and restructuring over the last two years under James Vowles coming through as well as doubling the teams workforce.
Speaking last month, Vowles said, “You’re going to see us progress forwards but what I’ve always said is we’ve put our focus into 2026, ’27 and ’28. We’re developing elements that come online as a result of that. We have this year huge infrastructure changes that have come online.”
On day two Sainz topped the times with a 29.348, which was 0.169 off last years pole time set by Max Verstappen. That raised eyes in testing with suggestions they could firmly be in the midfield. Speaking to Marca, translated to English, Sainz said “I’m sure you won’t see me on the podium or in the top five this year, so don’t get too motivated, but at least make sure that I haven’t come to Williams to pass the time, to let the years go by, to be in the middle of the grid.”
“If I’ve come to Williams it’s to get this team moving forward and I trust that I can do that, and that the first thing yesterday at least serves to show people that I’m here for it, we’re going for it.” The Spaniard say he thinks the team can be in the midfield but warned fellow backmarker Haas are also not far off, suggesting that its between half a second to seven tenths on qualifying sims