This Week – 12/01/2025
This Week – 12/01/2025
Hello and a happy new year, the first week of 2025 sees a start of a new era in F1, ahead of its 75th anniversary season the sport is beginning to set itself up for what could be an all-time classic, we are bearing in mind still two months away from the start of the first race weekend in Melbourne. But it’s an important time were teams, and especially those who have changed teams try to get a understanding of each other and set the tone for year ahead.
General News
F1 has announced TAG Heuer as the first individual partner and official timekeeper, as part of its ten-year deal with LVMH. The announcement followed a decades-long deal with LVMH to bring a number of its luxury brands into the sport, the Swiss brand had previously been F1’s timekeeper from 1992 to 2003.
The partnership continues a long legacy for TAG Heuer in Formula 1, having first appeared as a sponsor in the sport 56 years ago. The brand already partners with Red Bull Racing and the Monaco Grand Prix. The reported deal which was announced in October is reportedly worth $1bn over ten years.
F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali. “I am delighted to welcome TAG Heuer as the Official Timekeeper of Formula 1 as they start the next stage of their long history in our sport. With their focus on innovation, accuracy and excellence, they are a natural partner, and I am excited to see how our intertwining heritage can tell new stories for the future as we celebrate our 75th year.”
TAG Heuer CEO Antoine Pin said “In a sport defined by mental resilience, physical strength, strategy, innovation and performance it is only natural for TAG Heuer to be at the very heart of Formula 1 as Official Timekeeper. With decades of history in F1 connecting us to the most successful drivers and teams of all time, we are honoured and privileged to be the name connected to the very thing that defines the winner: time.”
The move is the latest venture into sport for LVMH, who also have sponsorship deals with the Olympics, Paralympics, Premier League, FIFA World Cup and the NFL. More brands which are owned by LVMH including Moet and Louis Vitton
Organisers of the Belgian Grand Prix have announced the race will join the new rotational system from 2026 signing a six-year deal to host four races with no race in 2028 or 2030. The Belgian race’s contract was set to expire after this year’s edition, with the organisers pushing for a fresh five-year deal.
But with interest from prospective venues to host a grand prix at an all-time high, and F1 particularly keen to expand into Asia, Spa had long been earmarked as one of several European rounds to enter a rotational system. It’s a compromise between F1 who wanted to expand the calendar in Asia without going beyond twenty-four races and the Walloon Government wanting to cut costs and move away from short-term deals.
Spa is one of three circuits which featured during the first season in 1950, both Silverstone and Monaco have long-term deals up to at least 2034 or 2031 for annual races.
Domenicali said, “Spa-Francorchamps is rightly lauded by drivers and fans alike as one of the finest racetracks in the world and it has played host to some incredible moments over its many seasons in Formula 1. In recent years it has undergone significant work to improve the facility and overall fan experience.”
Organisers Melchior Wathelet and Vanessa Maes added: “We are both very proud of this renewal, which reflects the mutual trust built as we have upgraded our infrastructure and delivered record attendance and fantastic fan experience over recent years.”
“This contract extension has once again been made possible thanks to the support of the Walloon Government but also the fans of what we believe is the most beautiful circuit in the world. Together we are strengthening our commitment to the development of our wonderful region.”
In Europe, Spa’s deal leaves just the futures of Barcelona and Imola to be decided, with both races also facing expiring deals. Like Spa, Imola’s current deal is running out after this season, while Barcelona’s last races is currently scheduled in 2026 when it loses its Spanish Grand Prix moniker to a new race in Madrid.
McLaren
Andrea Stella has outlined how McLaren will approach the situation should both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri find themselves fighting for the championship in 2025. The team hopes it can be an “opportunity” rather than a “problem”
As last season progressed the team were able to challenge for podiums and wins, which coupled with Red Bull’s midseason drop in form allowed them to secure their first constructors since 1998. Following his win at the final race in Abu Dhabi, Norris said 2025 “would be their year.”
Should McLaren start the season with the level of performance that they ended 2024 with, both Norris and Piastri could arguably be in a position to bid for the title. While this was not a scenario that the squad faced last year, there were some team orders incidents which did not always play out entirely smoothly.
When asked if the team would change their approach if Norris and Piastri were fighting each other for the championship in 2025, Stella responded: “First of all, I hope you are right [that they are fighting each other]. We do want to have that kind of problem. We worked very hard to have a problem of having a car in condition to win races and two drivers in condition to win races, and we know that this one in Formula One always comes with some complications.”
“But these are complications that we have already faced this season to some extent. I think we have always approached that in a cohesive way. Both drivers were always fully aware that we needed to find solutions that, first of all, put the interests of the team and then the interests of the drivers.”
I do find it quite interesting that we are only days into the new year and just over three months away from Melbourne and we are already talking about what McLaren calls ‘Paypa Rules.’ But I think they have to if they are to beat Max Verstappen, but Stella admitted they need to perform at the start of the season.
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton says he “could not be more excited” as he embarks on his new career at Ferrari in 2025. In a post on LinkedIn his first comments since joining. The team and ahead of his forty birthday last Tuesday, he wrote, that he was “embracing new opportunities, staying hungry, and driving forward with purpose”.
Hamilton chose a post on LinkedIn to make his first comments since joining Ferrari, adding: “Let’s make it one to remember. Moving to Scuderia Ferrari, there’s a lot to reflect on. To anyone considering their next move in 2025: embrace the change.
“Whether you’re switching industries, learning a new skill, or even just taking on new challenges, remember that reinvention is powerful. Your next opportunity is always within reach.”
On other platforms, he posted on social media a picture of him racing in karting as a boy wearing a helmet in red, Ferrari’s colour. Ferrari go into 2025 with what is described as the strongest lineup on the grid. The 2025 Ferrari will be launched on 19 February, one day after F1’s first official season launch at the O2 in London.
Addressing the team at the Christmas lunch team principal Fred Vasseur said, that Hamilton’s first six weeks with the team were “critical”.
Vasseur said, “It is not easy but he is coming with his own experience. “But he is not the rookie of the year, I am not worried at all about this. It is also the continuity of the previous regulations so we have some reference. I am not worried, but it is indeed a challenge.”
Red Bull
Red Bull says it is ahead of its initial schedule with the building of its new wind tunnel. Red Bull Racing currently uses an outdated wind tunnel compared to its main rivals, with its facilities near Bedford being over seventy years old.
The wind tunnel has been labelled “a Cold War relic” by team boss Christian Horner. While the team has been continually improving the tunnel to keep it up to date, its technical personnel sees it as a limitation in the long term.
The Red Bull has given the green light to build the new wind tunnel at the Red Bull Campus in Milton Keynes, with the work currently in progress and three months ahead of schedule. Over the last few years, several teams including McLaren and Aston Martin have built or upgraded their wind tunnels
Speaking to Motorsport.com technical director Pierre Wache said “With the building work and afterwards all the new machines you never know when it’s coming, but we are ahead of the schedule at the moment. We are three months ahead of the plans. The guys are doing a very good job, but you never know if you get any delays somewhere else. It is a big project.”
The new wind tunnel should be operational in 2026, meaning it can be beneficial to Red Bull for its 2027 challenger.
Horner insisted Max Verstappen’s commitment to the squad has never been in doubt despite rumours of a split last season. The future of the four-time champion was placed in doubt throughout 2024 following turmoil and a civil war within the team.
That prompted Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff’s courting of him in the wake of Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari for the upcoming campaign. In Jeddah last year, Verstappen said if Helmut Marko left the team he would trigger a break clause in his contract.
Red Bull has a contract with Verstappen through to the end of 2028 and asked whether any of the speculation around his future would persist into the new year, Horner told Motorsport.com: “Max has always been crystal clear with the team. His commitment has been unwavering. He enjoys. the people that he trusts and the people that he works with and enjoys very much being a part of this team.”
“Of course, with the talent that he has, I’m sure he’s on every team principal’s Christmas wish list. That’s inevitable. But, as long as we can continue to provide him with a competitive car and an environment that he enjoys racing in, I don’t see any desire for him to be anywhere else.”
Horner has vowed that Red Bull and Honda will “leave no stone unturned” as they end their F1 partnership in 2025 on a winning note. Honda has been Red Bull’s engine supplier since the start of 2019 after the Milton Keynes outfit made the bold decision to ditch Renault.
It was a bold but successful move given the way Honda had struggled following three years with McLaren, with Honda going on to power all four of Verstappen’s drivers championship. In a video posted on X, Horner said, “2025 marks the final year of the Red Bull-Honda partnership in F1. Seven years ago, when we announced our switch from [our] former supplier to Honda power units some people cast doubts on our decision.”
“However, over the years we’ve proven with many historic records such as the 21 wins out of 22 races in 2023 that it was absolutely the right call. For the final season, both Red Bull and HRC will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to win. Until then, we continue working hard together to win every race and secure more championships.”
2026 will see Red Bull partner with Ford to develop its own power unit with Honda switching to Aston Martin, Ford’s parent company General Motors will enter in 2028 with its Cadillac brand.
Mercedes
Mercedes has announced a “groundbreaking” multi-year partnership with Adidas ahead of the 2025 F1 season. Adidas is valued at over £35 billion and will make its first venture into F1, with the deal confirmed a week after Lewis Hamilton officially left Mercedes to join Ferrari.
Mercedes and Adidas will create a range of clothes for their drivers, mechanics and engineers, so the designer clothes brand will be prominent. CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff said “Our partnership with Adidas is a clear statement of intent as we begin to write our next chapter as a team. Adidas is an iconic brand, one that shares our dedication not only to peak performance but to style and sophistication too.
“This announcement therefore represents a groundbreaking collaboration that will redefine what team and fanwear means in our sport.”
Aston Martin
On Friday it was announced that Andy Cowell would replace Mike Krack as team principal, as the German moved to be chief trackside officer. Krack had been team principal since 2022, but he will now focus on getting the most performance out of the car at the track in his role as Chief Trackside Officer.
The AMR Technology Campus-based team, meanwhile, are set to be led by new Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile, while Tom McCullough will remain with the group in a leadership position. Cardile will oversee the architecture, design and build of new race cars, having joined the team after leaving his position as Technical Director Chassis and Aerodynamics at Ferrari last year.
Cowell commented on the restructure: “I have spent the last three months understanding and assessing our performance, and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the dedication, commitment and hard work of this team.
“With the completion of the AMR Technology Campus and our transition in 2026 to a full works team, alongside our strategic partners Honda and Aramco, we are on a journey to becoming a Championship-winning team. These organisational changes are a natural evolution of the multi-year plans that we have scheduled to make
Outgoing Team principal Krack said before Friday’s restructure that Cowell is “very clear” on what he likes. Cowell joined the team from Mercedes HHPT last year as part of the team’s “ongoing journey to become Championship contenders”.
To get acquainted with the team’s working practices trackside, Cowell attended the 2024 F1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while he has also been brought up to speed on how Aston Martin utilises its wind tunnel.
Asked of the job Cowell has done since his October induction, Krack told Autosport: “I think it has been pretty smooth so far. Andy is very clear if he wants it like this or like that. It’s about discussing, ‘What do we have to do first?’. What is first? And it’s obviously performance first. Because we always call it the sausage machine.”
“When the parts are defined, the sausage machine delivers them, and we have made so much progress in so many areas of the team. But you’re always judged on the performance on the track. So, how quickly you bring your upgrades or how quickly you do things, or how you go efficiently about suppliers or commercial – this is all secondary in Formula 1.”
Krack said that Cowell released quickly which areas are working well and developing where they aren’t. but says the key thing is performance where they are ‘focusing intensively’
Aston Martin endured a difficult 2024 campaign as the team continued a slide down the order that began the previous year with developments that failed to match expectations. With Adrian Newey joining Aston Martin officially on 1 March to primarily focus on the all-new 2026 regulations, Krack was cautious when asked how he was feeling ahead of the new season.
He said, “I think what I said before – the diligence of development, we’re working on that, and [asking] ‘how do we do this process better? At the end of the day, it’s also a waste of money. These parts cost a lot and if they’re not working, you’re not using them anymore. So, that is certainly a big part.
“But then we have also to improve the performance, we have to improve the aerodynamic performance of the car, we have to improve the mechanical properties of the car. So, there is a lot to do.”
Alpine
Franco Colapinto is to be Alpine’s reserve driver this season after signing a multi-year deal to join the team from Williams. The Argentine caught the eye of many teams last season when he took part in nine races after the team dropped American Logan Sargeant.
Alpine has negotiated a deal to remove Colapinto from his long-term contract with Williams, where he was a development driver. Williams had no room for him in a race seat this season as they had already signed Carlos Sainz from Ferrari to partner Alex Albon.
Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore said: “Clearly, Franco is among the best young talents in motorsport right now. It is fair to say his appearance on the F1 grid last year caught many, me included, by surprise and his performances have been very impressive for a rookie driver.
“We have an eye on our future and his signing means we have a great pool of young drivers to call upon and work with in developing the team for future success.”
Colapinto said: “Williams turned my dream of racing in F1 into reality, and I will always be grateful for that. Now, it is time for a new chapter, and to take on this challenge with Alpine is truly an honour.”
Williams team principal James Vowles said: “Franco clearly showed he is deserving of a place in F1 and we always said we would support him to get one.” Colapinto’s debut last season made him an outside contender for a seat in 2025, but that came too late in the season after he impressed immediately matching teammate Alex Albon, but there were a few costly mistakes which reportedly saw interest in him getting a race seat drop off. But he could still be in the mix for 2026
Williams
Williams team principal James Vowles says “a lot of the really positive bits” for the team last year were invisible for the public. The team had a tough season finishing ninth after several substantial crashes for Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto alike damaging the outfit’s results and finances.
Vowles is, however, continuing a process of restructuring the team having joined Williams at the start of 2023. In an interview with Motorsport.com, the Briton pointed out numerous recent high-profile hires which he expects to pay off in the future. These include chief technical officer Pat Fry and design director Matt Harman from Alpine, chief engineer in computing science Fabrice Moncade from Ferrari, and chief engineer Angelos Tsiaparas from Red Bull.
He told Motorsport.com, “The main thing is this: a lot of the really positive bits the world can’t see. I can walk around the building and just see excellence that has race-winning pedigree all a part of our team now. I can see a change in what we’re doing with infrastructure, culture, people, commercial even – it’s just a different world.”
“I’ve always said the journey is 2023, ‘24, ’25 – they’re just progression and the track results won’t necessarily reflect the really big changes going on behind the scenes.” Vowles admitted he was frustrated by ninth as the team didn’t get the most out of last season
He added the pace was there, but they were unable to deliver on them, and move forwards.
General Motors
The US car giant General Motors has announced they have set up an F1 engine division as it planned entry as an engine manufacturer. Though it has agreed in principle to enter as Cadillac next year it will not start producing its own power units in partnership with TWG Global until 2028.
GM says it is forming a specialised engine-building company, called GM Performance Power Units, to build the engine the team will eventually use. It did not specify an exact year for the debut of the GM F1 engine. Cadillac will use Ferrari customer engines from its debut next year until its own engine is ready for use.
A statement said the company would “put Cadillac on the path to being a ‘full works’ team – building F1 vehicles and power units – by the end of the decade”.
GM said testing of prototype F1 engine technology had already started in its motorsport technical centre in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 2026 it would open a dedicated facility for the F1 engine programme nearby. It has also begun engine development at testing at its motorsport technical centre in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 2026 it would open a dedicated facility for the F1 engine programme nearby.
The chief executive officer of the new company will be Russ O’Blenes, head of GM’s motorsports propulsion and performance team. Former Marussia and Manor team principal Graeme Lowdon has been appointed to the same role.
Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Motorsports, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Russ to this pivotal role. His expertise and leadership will be instrumental as we lay the foundation for Cadillac’s F1 journey.
Cadillac/GM is one of three major car companies entering F1 as a result of the new engine regulations being introduced in 2026, along with its US market rival Ford and Germany’s Audi. While Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda remain in the sport, Renault has decided to end its power unit programme.