This Week – 19/01/2025
Hello welcome to another edition of This Week, a week where the drivers got answers to where the money from fines goes, Sergio Perez speaks for the first time since his departure from Red Bull, and have also explained the reasons why they believe that they lost the championship. Also, a shake up at Sauber with Alessandro Alunni Bravi will leave the role of team principal at the end of the month
General News
The FIA has countered criticism from drivers on how it spends the money generated by fines. The situation around driver fines was one of the several topics that caused unease among F1 drivers last season as they grew increasingly frustrated at how FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem had been running things.
In 2024 around £225,000, excluding suspended fines, from fifty offensives ranging from pitlane speeding, impeding, driving a car in an unsafe condition, crossing a live track and swearing, were generated. Theo GPDA wrote to the governing body asking for more transparency on how the revenue was spent.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, the FIA’s head of single-seater racing Nikolas Tombazis says all money generated by fines helps fund the FIA’s grassroots projects and social initiatives, which saw investments of over €10 million last year.
Tombazis said, “The FIA is not a profit-making organisation. We don’t have shareholders who are looking at some numbers in the stock exchange and hoping for share price to go up or get more dividends or anything like that.”
“So all the money is spent on what is considered to be beneficial aspects, whether it is for safety, for grassroots in motorsport, or sometimes other projects which are to do with road safety.”
“The amount of money spent in grassroots vastly exceeds the fines accumulated, which I think indicates that anything that goes in there will have a positive impact. You would struggle to find projects at the FIA that don’t have some motorsport grassroots or social impact.” He accepted anyone paying a fine is aggrieved but the money is used on campaigns, grassroots and safety projects.
McLaren
Oscar Piastri has fine-tuned the way he’s working with the McLaren team, having completed his second season with the team. The Australian played a key role in the team’s first constructors’ championship in a quarter of a century, with two wins, eight podiums as well as twelve top-five finishes.
2024 after the controversy about the way he came into F1, saw Piastri became more confident and show more of a leadership role. Asked by Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview if he played a bigger role in pushing and motivating the team in 2024, Piastri replied: “I would say not in my demeanour or the way I’m working with the team. Maybe I know a little bit more of what I want from the team or from the car, but I think for the large part it’s very, very similar.
“I’m certainly not now in my second year telling the aerodynamicists how to design the car and stuff like that. I’m still trying to give the same helpful feedback where I can. Maybe now that I know some more people, I’m not as afraid to be a bit more pushy in what I ask for. But I have certainly not changed my personality from year to year. That just comes with experience, and the best way I can help is by trying to do my best every weekend.”
Piastri was also pleased with his working relationship with Norris, saying it’s why they have so much success and they both want similar things which makes it easier for the team.
Red Bull
Sergio Perez has spoken for the first time since Red Bull’s departure, the Mexican was dropped and replaced by Liam Lawson despite having a contract after only scoring nine points in the final eight races. Perez has since been taking time out in his native Mexico and, over the weekend, gave an inspirational talk for students from schools in the city of León to open their State Fair, the conversation, inevitably, touching on the F1 world.
Asked for an update on his future plans, and whether he will return to F1, Perez said: “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s too soon to have an answer. Everything happened very quickly at the end of the season, so I didn’t expect it. Now I’m in an incredible, dreamy position, which I didn’t even realise I was in, so if you ask me now, I don’t know. I’m very happy with my life, very excited about what’s ahead.”
“For sure, if I receive a good, interesting project, then I’ll definitely consider it and think about it. It will all come in its own time. For now, my priority in the months ahead is to have fun, do what I haven’t been able to, travel, be with my family… In the next six months, I’ll make a decision on what I want for the next step of my career.”
I think that Perez has been damaged by his time at Red Bull, but he did deserve a second chance but I don’t know if there will be a way back into the sport for him as there is so many talented young drivers coming threw at the moment.
Lawson has insisted he was not “trying to set an example” with his hard racing during his six-race stint with RB last season. The Kiwi replaced Daniel Ricciardo at RB [now known as Racing Bulls] ahead of the last two triple-headers of the 2024 season, as Red Bull was keen to evaluate him with a view to promoting him, to the main team – and eventually did so.
But he was criticised by Fernando Alonso in Austin and Perez in Mexico City both in 2023 for his robust defensive moves. Alonso called the youngster an “idiot” over team radio while Perez told media that Lawson needed to be “more humble”. Nevertheless, the RB driver was not disciplined by the stewards.
Asked by Motorsport.com in an end-of-season interview whether he was striving to lay down markers and show he is no pushover, Lawson replied: “No, it’s not like… I’m not trying to set an example or anything like that. I feel like I’m racing everybody the same way, I’m not racing anybody any differently.”
“I have a very short window here at the moment, so it’s very important [to prove myself], but I’m not trying to set an example, or set, like, a – I don’t know what the word is. Prove a point? I’m not really trying to do that, no.” these comments were published on Friday but were made before he was announced as a Red Bull driver for this year.
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has delved into the reasons that led the squad to lose the constructors’ title in 2024, although Max Verstappen retained his crown to become a four-time world champion. While Red Bull dominated most of the first ten races they then found themselves struggling to fight at the front.
Wache revealed to Autosport, that they did not even expect to be dominant at the start of the season. He said, “The season was basically as challenging as we expected. I would say we were more surprised at the beginning of the season because of the gap we had. We expected the whole season to be like the end of the season, a big fight with the others.”
“We didn’t expect such a big hole in the middle of the season ourselves, but we did expect a big fight with others.” Red Bull has suggested that this year they need a wider operating window, as one of the key issues last season was correlation between track and wind tunnel which is such an important thing in modern F1.
But there were other issues like downforce and balance, which are so important to performance and wind tunnels over the last few years have become so restrictive under the regulations.
The balance problems were particularly tricky to handle on kerbs and weren’t acted on straight away due to how dominant the RB20 initially was – no car got within two-tenths of the pole sitting Red Bull over the first five qualifying sessions in 2024. This placed the team on the back foot as McLaren caught up making Red Bull’s issues magnified.
He added, “I think we spotted it, but after that the car was quick and we didn’t want to modify it massively. When we came back to Europe and were challenged more by McLaren, then it started to become more and more evident that it was one of the biggest issues for us to go quicker.”
Red Bull has also announced that its strategy chief Will Courtenay will remain in his role with the team through the 2025 season, rather than securing an earlier exit to his new employer McLaren.
Courtenay was announced by McLaren in September as its new sporting director, reporting to racing director Randeep Singh as the world champions shore up its racing operations. But Courtenay will remain as head of strategy for the 2025 season before six months gardening leave.
Mercedes
Motorsport.com says that it has learned Mercedes has decided not to have a traditional Silverstone launch for its 2025 car. The car will instead be run during a filming day on the 25th February in Sakhir the day before pre-season testing at the circuit. The current sporting regulations allow teams to cover 200km during ‘Promotional Events’, which means that Russell and Antonelli can share up to 36 laps of the Sakhir track.
Previously, Mercedes typically launched its new F1 challengers at Silverstone, with every car unveiled early in the morning before a filming day was run. This has been the case since 2017, with an exception for the W12 in 2021, when England was in its third COVID lockdown.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff joked at the time, “It always rains in Silverstone, so we decided that we don’t want to stand in the freezing rain again! We will be doing the filming day on the Tuesday after the Bahrain test. This, I think, is more representative and better pictures than we could probably get at Silverstone.”
However, Mercedes’ new livery will still be on display at London’s O2 Arena on 18 February at F1’s official season launch, which commemorates the world championship’s 75th anniversary.
An iconic Mercedes driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Sir Stirling Moss in the 1954-55 seasons is set to be sold for around £45,000,000 at Indianapolis. The W196R is just one of ten cars which made it to the end of the 1955 season, also one of just four of the models mounted with the Streamliner coachwork and the first of those sporting it to be offered for private ownership.
Built in 1954 as the Silver Arrows returned to racing the car proved victorious at the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix for Fangio, who would go on to claim the third of his five titles that season. While Moss, who used it to set the fastest lap at Monza at the final race of the 1955 season. The car is presented in its Monza livery from the event, its final competitive outing.
Aston Martin
Former Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has insisted owner Lawrence Stroll is understanding and supportive of the journey faced to reach the top of F1 despite his “impatience” for success. The Canadian businessman brought the team in mid-2018 before transitioning to Aston Martin in 2022.
Since introducing Aston Martin back into F1, the Silverstone-based outfit has undergone a rapid upscaling in the form of an influx of personnel, including some of the biggest names in the sport such as Adrian Newey – who joins ahead of the 2026 season – as well as building a new state-of-the-art factory.
Last week Krack was appointed chief trackside officer as part of a management reshuffle – said: “Well, he has continued to be supportive, especially when you see the recruitment that he has made since. So, it really looks like [he’s saying], ‘they need more help, they need more expertise’ and he goes and does it. I think that is characterising him. You see that he wants to do well, he wants to support, he wants to help.
“He is also impatient, which is understandable but the combination of the support, the impatience, but also the understanding of how difficult this is has led to him… I’m not saying giving the time, but understanding that sometimes it’s just not like: ‘turn-key’ – you put everything in place and it has to work.”
Krack said that Stroll was impatient but that comes with support, giving the example its not just about turning a key that Stroll recently admitted this was the most difficult project he has had.
Krack has previously conceded that the team must be self-critical to find solutions to its disappointing development arc in recent years, yet he has pointed to the small field spread in modern F1 as a reason gains can be so difficult to come by.
Motorsport.com says that it has learned that former Haas race engineer Gary Gannon has joined Aston Martin, having left the team at the end of 2024. Gannon has worked as a race engineer for the team since they entered the sport in 2015, but it has not been announced if he will engineer Lance Stroll or Fernando Alonso.
In 2024, Stroll’s race engineer was Ben Michell, who has worked with the Canadian and son of team owner Lawrence Stroll since 2021, while Alonso worked with Chris Cronin. Cronin previously held the same role with Alonso’s predecessors at the team – Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez (during Aston’s previous guises as Force India and Racing Point).
Gannon’s appointment comes a year ahead of Aston’s switch to Honda power units when the team will become the Japanese manufacturer’s works partner team and cease to be a Mercedes customer.
Alpine
Alpine team principal Ollie Oakes says he has taken positive from the team’s competitive finish and recovery to sixth at the end of 2024, but has warned there will be “no magic” in them moving further up the order.
Hopes of taking the next step and becoming a front-runner have so far failed to materialise, though, prompting a host of managerial changes over the past couple of years. The latest being Oakes’s arrival as team principal and Flavio Briatore return as an advisor. In his ten races as team principal the team rose from ninth to sixth in the constructors’ standings, aided by a spectacular double podium finish in a rain-hit encounter at Interlagos.
He told F1’s Beyond The Grid Podcast, where he reflected on his journey and looked ahead to 2025, “I think you’ve got to be pragmatic, but you can’t also just be resting on a plan – you’ve got to be flexible as well. There’s no magic. We just have to get the team working together. We have to produce a better car.”
“I think [in 2024], one of the main positives is that we brought performance to the car. We had a tough start to the season, but actually, the upgrades we brought worked. We’ve done it twice. That shows that we’ve got a good group here.”
One story which will define the season as we talked about in Behind The Headlines, is balancing resources between this year’s and next year’s regulation change. Oakes is hoping to find this compromise and balance between 2025 and 2026.
Racing Bulls
Racing Bulls says there is “no magic” from the team taking as many parts as allowed by the regulations from parent Red Bull, amid unease over itself and Haas. From this season as well as taking the power train from Honda, it will also take the gearbox and both rear and front suspension.
These kinds of relationships aren’t without controversy, a decade ago as Haas prepared to enter the sport there were questions about its partnership with Ferrari. But despite both teams having these partnerships it hasn’t turned into success, with Racing Bulls not delivering a step forwards.
Some teams have been questioning whether rivals should continue to be allowed to take gearboxes and suspensions as they move up the grid, although a suggestion to force midfield teams to produce their own parts once they finish in the top five of the constructors’ championship has gone nowhere.
According to Racing Bulls team boss Mekies, the rules enabling the use of shareable components have helped F1 be more competitive by allowing lower-end teams to focus their efforts on chassis and aerodynamics.
Mekies told Motorsport.com, “There was a level of hype at the beginning of last year where, I guess people felt there could be some magic in the fact that somebody takes a gearbox and suspension.”
“But it’s not a new regulation. It’s been there for fifteen years, and you have never seen guys that will be taking these items from somebody else, suddenly fighting for the championship, or fighting for the top three or the top four, it just never happened.” He rightly added that lobbying is part of the sport, and it also avoids a two-tier sport bringing the midfield closer.
Williams
Williams team principal James Vowles has admitted his approach to restructuring the Grove-based outfit always risked being detrimental in the short-term. Two years after joining the team he discovered that some of the infrastructure famously described as dating back to the “Ming Dynasty” and an Excel spreadsheet used to track all car parts, partly due to a lack of budget while the team was still owned by the Williams family.
While Vowles has been striving to revamp the team, he revealed some of the attempted progress was more than it could chew, describing “a reflection of good choices and bad choices” in an end-of-season interview with Autosport.
Vowles continued, “We have to change a lot within our organisation in terms of infrastructure and technology to get us to the right place, and there’s a sign called change saturation. You can change things at a certain rate. You go too far and you break it – in hindsight, moving things a little bit further than we can really deal with in one go.”
“But we won’t undo that learning. That learning will stay with us now for the rest of time. So it’s a positive, just damaged by a negative. And what I’m saying by that is, yep, that’s absolutely spot-on. But we didn’t get it all right, which is why we’re not fighting for those positions. That’s a reflection of where we are as a team and where I want us to be as a team.”
About a year ago Vowles described the team as on the limit and on the point of breaking.
2024 could be described by that word, both literally and metaphorically, with numerous crashes and other flaws, but that’s a price Vowles was ready to pay in order to get ready for the new technical era from 2026.
Asked if this was short-term pain for long-term gains, Vowles replied: “I would say that’s a good view of it, and I knew it would be. I always said from the beginning, before we started the year, we were going to sacrifice 2024 and 2025. This is a little bit what the sacrifice looks like, just with a lot more attrition than I expected.”
Vowles says this approach has the fully supported by the team’s owners, who don’t want short-term fixes because they will fall over quickly.
Sauber
Sauber has announced that defacto team principal and managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi will leave the role at the end of the month. Alunni Bravi joined the team as general counsel and board member in 2017, then in 2022 became managing director and the following year defacto team principal.
Now the Italian is set to move onto new projects and admitted in a statement that seeing his journey with the team come to an end has been “emotional”.
Alunni Bravi said, “Since I joined in 2017, I have seen this team grow and change beyond what anyone could have imagined. This organisation went through exciting and difficult times alike, all without ever losing its spirit and its commitment, which is something I find inspiring, and I was proud of being able to represent the team as its public face in the last two years.”
“As I move on to a new project, I want to thank Finn Rausing, all those who put so much trust and faith in me at Sauber and Audi, and all the colleagues I have been working with for the last eight years. This team is a family and has a bright future ahead.”
Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer at Sauber Mattia Binotto, added, “Having worked closely with him in the months since my arrival to Hinwil, I want to pay tribute to Alessandro, a true team player who came to embody the essence of Sauber throughout the years. Alessandro played a wide range of roles within the team, steering it through difficult and exciting times alike.”
This is the latest step towards the team’s transition into the Audi works team next year.
Red Bull has agreed an earlier exit for future Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley while letting McLaren wait on sporting director Will Courtenay. Wheatley was announced as Sauber/Audi in August and was due to join the team in July, but following Bravi’s departure that has been brought forward to April.