This Week – 26/01/2025
Hello, welcome to This Week, a week when Lewis Hamilton made his first appearance as a Ferrari test in Maranello. Politics is back with a bang as the row resumes between unions and the governing body, swearing, stewarding and freedom of speech by drivers set to rumble on… it also felt like a week we are gearing up for the new season.
General News
The South African government has opened a bid process for prospective Grand Prix organisers to return to the country. The government has appointed what they are calling a Bid Steering Committee which has been tasked with finding potential organisers for South Africa’s return to the F1 calendar.
South Africa last hosted an F1 grand prix at the Kyalami in 1993. Plans to return the race in recent years have failed to come to fruition, but the government has long been vocal about its desire to make a deal happen with F1 management. F1 and the country last held a meeting in Baku in September, now the government has issued a request for expression of interest which details the various requirements for organising a race.
The document reads, “The DSAC [Department of Sport, Arts and Culture] has been in direct communication with F1 Management, including CEO Stefano Domenicali, to align with the necessary hosting standards. A bidding process for potential promoters has been initiated, with the DSAC forming the F1 BSC [Bid Steering Committee] to manage this process, assess bids, and select a promoter.”
“Comprising twelve members from various sectors such as motorsport, broadcasting, media and law, the BSC will assess each proposal for financial robustness and infrastructural adequacy. While no venue has been definitively chosen, potential Promoters and/or host city and venue partners are encouraged to suggest any suitable location (subject to the criteria detailed in this document) within South Africa.”
The government is seeking a promotor for a ten-year deal starting in 2026 but 2027 is seen as a more realistic start date given F1’s calendar congestion. Kyalami remains a favourite for the bid which is a return after three decades, but there is also a rival bid from Cape Town on a proposed street circuit around the waterfront, with a purpose-built circuit on the outskirts of the city as another option.
While F1 management has expressed an interest in returning to the African continent, and similar talks are underway in Rwanda, a South African Grand Prix remains a distant dream for now, with the short timeline indicated in the bid document appearing optimistic at best. South East Asia is also lining up a bidding war with Thailand and Indonesia bidding for races and South Korea also looking to return after a twelve-year hiatus.
FIA
drivers face race bans if they repeatedly swear or criticise the sport’s governing body under new rules introduced this year. Changes to the FIA’s sporting code for the 2025 season codify the steps to a potential race ban for drivers deemed guilty of such offences.
They mean that if a driver commits three such offences they are at risk of a “one-month suspension plus deduction of championship points”. The move is likely to exoculate the war of words and criticism with the GPDA, the trade union which represents drivers, but they say they had “no comment on that matter for the time being”.
But a source close to one top driver told BBC News the move was “ridiculous”, adding: “He [FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem] acts like a dictator”. Other BBC sources have that “a lot of” people at the FIA were against the move.
One source said it was pushed through on a “snap e-vote and with no consultation with other stakeholders or the GPDA or the FIA’s own drivers’ commission”. Others have questioned why the change was rushed through and why this couldn’t have been discussed at the next meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).
The GPDA has been hugely critical of the leadership of Ben Sulayem, at last month’s general assembly in Kigali a hugely controversial set of rule changes were approved which opponents said would reduce accountability at the FIA. The row between the GPDA and the FIA began in November with union leader George Russell, the Mercedes F1 driver, said he and his colleagues were “a bit fed up with” the FIA leadership.
The changes for this year define heavy fines and a rising sequence of punishment for drivers guilty of breaching the sporting code. This applies to all FIA world championships, with the maximum penalty of a £100,000 fine and a one-month ban for a third offence, not only drivers but team principals.
An FIA spokesperson said the changes were an attempt to “further enhance transparency and consistency in decision-making”.
The spokesperson added: “The aim of this new appendix is to provide clear guidance to stewards regarding the penalties for violations of specific international sporting code articles. By establishing a more structured framework, the FIA seeks to ensure that penalties are applied uniformly and transparently, benefiting both stewards and drivers/competitors.”
An open letter by the GPDA calling on the FIA to ‘treat them like adults’ in November hasn’t been responded to and when request for comment by the media was also not responded to. They are seen by drivers across motorsport as an attempt to gag the drivers and a demonstration of Ben Sulayem’s sensitivity to criticism.
The governing body also believes its new official’s department will lead to a “more professional” governing body in the future. In September the department will help train officials across all its sanctioned motor racing activities.
The department, headed by the experienced Italian steward Matteo Perini has been commissioned to provide training to the next generation of officials and ensure there is a bigger talent pool for the FIA to work with, with the FIA recognising it doesn’t have as much training race stewards, race directors and other officials as desired.
According to the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis, the department will also lead to a “more professional body” in the future rather than predominantly relying on volunteers, which will provide more scope to analyse matters away from race weekends.
Tombazis told Motorsport.com, “It’s probably getting a bit unfair to just rely on people to do it out of their good heart, and that’s what we have now. We want to go to a more professional body in the future. That’s not to exclude volunteers, but it’s to have a body that can spend the Monday morning after a race analysing every single decision, making sure it was reached correctly, seeing what could be improved, etc.”
Stewarding and the way the rules are applied are another one of the criticisms made against the FIA by the GPDA and it will be hoped that these changes could improve consistency. But speaking about that criticism made last year, Tombazis hit back saying its analysis has shown that F1’s stewarding decisions are generally more consistent than claimed but said the governing body must increase the number of officials in its pool to ensure a steady supply of the next generation of officials.
It’s well known the governing body needs to increase its stewarding pool with national ASNs with the current number around thirty to cover F1, Formula E and rallying.
McLaren
Lando Norris says he is “ready to bring the fight to everyone” having “learned a lot” during his breakthrough season in 2024. Norris won his first four grands prix as he finished second to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.
Speaking to the BBC, the Englishman admitted losing the championship to Verstappen ‘hurt,’ but he was ready to come back stronger. He said, “When that realisation kind of sets in of ‘it’s gone’, it’s a tough one. This is what I’ve done since I was a kid, this is all I want to do. So, as soon as that kind of candle is gone and it’s over, it hurts.”
Norris remained in mathematical contention following his maiden win in Miami, taking a further three wins. But going into the final four races he had a forty-seven-point gap to Verstappen, the Dutchman took victory in a wild and wet Sao Paulo giving allowed him to secure the title at the following race in Las Vegas.
Norris said in the Back at Base podcast, “It’s been a year where, actually, I’ve been pretty proud of my performance. Proud of performing under the pressure that we’ve been under, and delivering when I have. I’ve made my mistakes and, at the same time, I’ve learned a lot from those mistakes. So for us to go into next year, going ‘we have what it takes, we have a car’… I believe I’m a good enough driver and I’ve got everything it takes.”
The series followed McLaren and Aston Martin for the final ten races of the season, with interviews with all the key players.
Meanwhile, teammate Oscar Piastri, also a first-time Grand Prix winner in 2024, told the series: “I feel like I’ve definitely improved from my rookie season. In qualifying, I’ve made life a bit more difficult for myself than I would like, but the positive in that has been that I’ve had the ability to come through in the races and make the ground back up.
Team principal Andrea Stella has created a winning culture at McLaren, although he keeps the key to his success a closely guarded secret – and is already strategising for the new season ahead. Adding “It will be incredibly naive to think that because we achieved the constructor championship, now we deserve it for the future.”
“Something that you have to deserve by doing a good job and, in a way, by doing a better job than you have done in 2024, and it was important to discuss the many opportunities we have to do better.”
Former de facto Sauber team principal Alessandro Alunni Bravi has joined McLaren in the team’s newly created role of chief business affairs officer. Alunni Bravi’s departure from Sauber was announced last week, his new job will also see him manage legal affairs, contracts and what its called ‘rights holders/governing body management’.
Alunni Bravi said, “McLaren is a team I have been a huge fan of my whole life, and it therefore sparks special emotions personally to have the opportunity to now work with such an amazing group of people.”
“I’m so grateful to be joining such a great organisation with the values and culture that are so clear to see from the outside. I want to reward the trust and confidence that Zak and the board have put in me by giving my full dedication and effort to help contribute to the continued success, as I believe teamwork is key to everything.”
Brown added: “I’m delighted to have Alessandro joining us with his extensive expertise and motorsport background. Alongside managing our legal and driver development functions.”
“He will also provide invaluable support on all professional driver business management matters, racing governance activities across our various rights holders and governing body relationships and broad business support to all our racing series as needed.”
The team also announced the resignation of chief communications officer, Steve Atkins, is stepping down for personal reasons at the end of February.
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton says he has “realised his dream” and his first official day at Ferrari marked a “new era in the history of this iconic team”. Monday marked the seven-time champion’s first day at the teams base in Maranello, almost a year after signing a contract with the team this time last year, but was prevented any substantive contacts until the end of 2024.
he said in a post on Instagram, “There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever and today, my first as a Ferrari driver, is one of those days. I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red.”
“I couldn’t be happier to realise that dream today. Today we start a new era in the history of this iconic team, and I can’t wait to see what story we will write together.” Hamilton is likely to drive the 2023 Ferrari later in the week at the test track and in Barcelona before official testing in Bahrain.
Among the differences to which he will have to adapt is that this will be the first time in Hamilton’s F1 career that he has driven a car that does not use a Mercedes engine. Speaking to the team last month Team principal Fred Vasseur has said that Hamilton faces “a challenge” getting up to speed in the short time available
Meanwhile, tight security measures have been put in place by Maranello mayor Luigi Zironi, notably regarding traffic near the factory and track. Ferrari intends to use up its yearly 1000km of ‘Testing of Previous Cars’ allowed by F1’s new sporting regulations for current race drivers in 2025, benefitting its new hire.
Hamilton describes his first Ferrari test as “one of the best feelings of my life” today. Adding “When I started the car up and drove through that garage door, I had the biggest smile on my face. It reminded me of the very first time I tested a F1 car.”
Hamilton has reappointed his former performance coach Angela Cullen to his support team, Cullen left her role with Hamilton in March 2023 after seven years working with the seven-time world champion. She was a key member of his support team being his physio and part of his performance team led by Marc Hynes.
Red Bull
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has revealed the upgrade in Austin last year was at the expense of ultimate car “potential” but removed many of the correlation and balance issues that affected its RB20.
In the second half of the European season, the team had several problems with them failing to win a race following Barcelona, This led to Max Verstappen stating at the following Baku weekend that Red Bull would be putting further planned developments “in the bin” with the intent of reserving the team’s waning form.
Wache says the Austin upgrade that appeared over a month later set the wheels in motion to reverse the arrears. This was despite the apparent declaration of a small upgrade in the FIA’s pre-event technical documentation that reveals the new parts that teams have introduced at a given weekend.
Wache told Motorsport.com, “We modified the floor and could remove some correlation issues. It came with a loss of the overall car potential, but we massively improved the correlation and a lot of balance characteristics. But as I have said before, it is not enough yet. The package did exactly what we wanted.”
“The aero department did a very good job on that. It means that our understanding of the issues was correct and that we moved into the right direction. It doesn’t mean that we have fixed everything, but at least we have improved the balance characteristics a lot.” He added the list of part changes published by the FIA doesn’t mean the characteristics and downforce points.
He explained the FIA notice just explains the shape and parts changed but doesn’t mean the characteristics or number of downforce points has changed. The Frenchman felt that it was ‘positive’ to endure a difficult weekend to ensure Red Bull could start moving in the right direction for the final flyaway rounds.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin has denied reports in The Daily Mail they were approaching sponsors with the intention of a £1bn deal over several years to sign Max Verstappen. Although that amount was mentioned in capital letters, the interest itself should come as no surprise.
Verstappen is seen as a key driver in the long-term future of any team, as a four-time champion he will be hot property in 2028 when his contract ends as Mercedes are also trying to temp the Dutchman away from Red Bull. Though Mercedes say that it doesn’t close the door on Verstappen.
From an Aston Martin point of view, an eye on Verstappen is not surprising either. The Silverstone-based team has built a state-of-the-art campus at Silverstone, in which its new wind tunnel should play a crucial role.
The technical team has been reinforced with Enrico Cardile and, most importantly, Adrian Newey. Besides that, Honda has been signed as an engine supplier from 2026 onwards. Because Aston Martin is the only team that Honda will supply its engines to, it will become a sort of factory team, as is the case now with Red Bull.
All these aspects are ingredients for success, although two pieces of the puzzle do not match them: both drivers. Lance Stroll is not championship material and Fernando Alonso will be 44 next year – when the new regulations come into effect – and 45 later that season. So it’s not a line-up to build on in the really long term.
Verstappen himself has never concealed his respect for both Newey and Honda, but this week’s reports seem rather premature. Aston Martin firmly denied that any sponsors are being approached with a Verstappen and such a business case seems more of an ‘if, then’ scenario.
Team principal Andy Cowell reckons that although the Silverstone outfit “won the world championship for most updates” in 2024, it must work on its internal processes to ensure that new parts deliver the expected performance. In 2023, the team were the closest challengers to Red Bull before they were overtaken by Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.
That theme continued in 2024 with the three teams locked in a fight for the majority of the season which became centre stage as they fought for victories after Red Bull’s dominance disappeared. Aston Martin, however, because of what they discovered that their upgrades didn’t correlate with efficacy, with it being remarked upon several times that the new parts were not adding much in the way of performance.
Cowell said, “There is no lack of effort throughout the team. We definitely won the world championship for the most updates in 2024, but those updates didn’t deliver the lap time – and what everybody wants in this business is to deliver lap time.”
“That’s not to say we must get it right every time. I’ve seen statistics that show that in true research and development environments, a 20 per cent success rate is high. If we can get a 20 per cent success rate then that’s good, but the difference is that this needs to happen at the AMR Technology Campus and not at the track.”
He admits the challenge is making sure the tools and processes work well so upgrades on track work.
Alpine
Alpine executive technical director David Sanchez has admitted the team will have no excuses going into 2026 when the regulation changes. Since parent company Renault brought back the team they have had a target of challenging for wins and championships, but last year was largely a difficult season.
But next year will mark the start of a new era for the team, not only due to the new technical regulations coming into force in the world championship but also because Alpine is ending its long-standing F1 engine programme, switching to a Mercedes customer deal.
Sanchez acknowledged this engine arrangement meant Alpine had no reason not to perform, with McLaren having won the 2024 constructors’ title as a Mercedes client. The Frenchman told Motorsport.com at the end of 2024, “Now, whether you’re a customer or works team, the engines have to perform the same. So it’s not anymore a matter of [if] the works team can get more out of the engine.”
“Then, in terms of packaging and integration, all the engines [are] now very well packaged. And the way the aero regulations are, there are a few legality boxes which are deliberately big enough such that they won’t favour one PU manufacturer more than another one. So I think now, in terms of what engine you have in the car, you can be a customer team and be very good.”
He admitted that 2026 would be a reality check for the team given the challenges of balancing this years car and next year’s car
Haas
Haas has restructured their race operations team with a series of changes that include appointing Laura Muller as the first female race engineer. Muller will work with experienced driver Esteban Ocon as one of two new race engineers at the US-based team, with Ollie Bearman working with Ronan O’Hare.
Haas’ new head of strategy will also be a woman – Carine Cridelich has been recruited from Red Bull’s Racing Bulls team and will start work on 1 March. The race engineer is the person most closely with drivers on the performance, set-up and running of their car. It is their voice that is heard talking to drivers on television broadcasts.
Cridelic is the fourth woman to be appointed to as a head of strategy after Hannah Schmitz, the principal strategy engineer at Red Bull. Ruth Buscombe and Bernie Collins, both now with F1TV, Channel 4 and Sky Sports respectively as their strategist.
Muller’s opposite number on the car of Ocon’s teammate, Ollie Bearman, will be Ronan O’Hare, another internal recruit who was previously a performance engineer. With chief race engineer being Francesco Nenci who had previously worked at Sauber and Toyota. Mark Lowe, previously Haas’ operations team manager, will be sporting director.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu said diversity was increasing in F1, but added: “It’s not like I chose Laura because she’s female. We just don’t care – nationality, gender, doesn’t matter. What matters is work, how you fit into the team, how you can maximise the performance – and Ronan and Laura I believe happen to be the best choice.”
Komatsu said he had wanted to change the race operations team since the early part of last year after spotting weaknesses. Haas’ changes include appointing a new chief race engineer and sporting director, both common positions the low-budget team did not have filled last season.
Komatsu said this would be the first year that Haas would have sufficient budget to reach F1’s budget cap.
Komatsu also believes that Ollie Bearman could be the successor to Lewis Hamilton, saying the he has no doubts the Englishman is a future Ferrari driver. Bearman has been loaned by Ferrari for his first full season following three stand-in drives in 2024 with both Ferrari and Haas, where he impressed scoring points in all three.
Bearman impressed with points on debut in Jeddah and his next race in Baku, two high-speed street circuits last season, as well as a solid drive with little mistake in a tricky and wet weekend in Sao Paulo. He also out-qualified teammate Nico Hulkenberg in both races for Haas and was just under half a tenth of Q3 in Jeddah.
When asked by Motorsport.com if he saw Bearman as a future Ferrari driver, Komatsu said: “Yes. He is a Ferrari driver and we’ve got him for two years – plus an option for an extra one – but if we do a good job and if Ollie does a good job, there’s no way Ferrari can ignore that.”
“It’s funny about Ollie being a rookie because I don’t treat him as a rookie in the sense, because we pay lots of attention to what he has to say. Of course he’s got good experience in Ferrari’s education, simulator, etc. And he’s been driving our car – VF-23 and VF-24. Every time he gets in the car, his feedback’s been excellent. The approach has been excellent, speed has been great.”
Komatsu has made it clear that he has been impressed by Bearman’s feedback and his attitude, shelving his own attempt to show his speed by working through the team’s programmes during his FP1 outings. Ferrari is going to be watching Bearman closely as if he delivers in the same way that Charles Leclerc did in his debut season.
Williams
Oliver Turvey has left McLaren after fifteen years to join Williams as the teams’ test and development driver, assisting with the teams development of Williams’ new driver-in-loop simulator, and employing his knowledge to help validate the team’s progress with its preparation for F1’s 2026 regulation package.
Alongside his roles in motorsport, Turvey studied engineering at Cambridge University and this background made him a much sought-after development driver across F1, Formula E, and endurance racing. Turvey will assist with the development of Williams’ new driver-in-loop simulator, and employ his knowledge to help validate the team’s progress with its preparation for F1’s 2026 regulation package.
Turvey said, “I am delighted to join Williams. It’s an honour to have the opportunity to join such a historic and successful team. The ambition and determination driving this project are incredibly inspiring, and I’m excited for the challenge ahead to help bring the team back to the top.”
“It is a privilege to work alongside Alex and Carlos, who I consider two of the best drivers in F1. I look forward to using my experience as both a driver and engineer to work closely with the team at Grove to enhance the car’s performance in the simulator and support the race team.”
Sporting director Sven Smeets added, “We’re very happy to welcome Oliver to the team. He brings a vast amount of experience and expertise that will be invaluable to our progression as we continue to strengthen the team across the board.”
“The role of a test and development driver is vital to our journey back towards success, and I am confident that Oliver, who will join Harrison Scott, will result in a strong team developing the current and future cars.”