This Week – 30/03/2025
Hello, it’s only week three of the season and there are serious questions at Red Bull as they decided after just two races to sway Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda could this reengine fractional infighting and what has changed in the last three months? Nervous excitement could be building at McLaren… Williams looking ahead having already bettered 2024 in just two weekends…
General News
Organisers of the Hungarian Grand Prix have given an update on the modernisation work and redevelopment of the Hungaroring. The works will include a modernised paddock, main building, and main grandstand, but won’t affect the track.
With tickets for the new sectors of the main grandstand expected to go on sale on this Monday, much earlier than expected, the circuit has shared photos of the progress. Speaking to the media president and CEO of The Hungaroring Zsolt Gyulay said “The construction of the Hungaroring is progressing faster than planned, and as a result, ticket sales for new sectors on the new main grandstand could start on Monday.”
The ground floor will be completed by the race in August, however, the new media centre will not be completed until 2026. The rest of the tower blocks were demolished at the end of this week. But added, “the building will look completely finished from the outside, but for now only the pits and the first floor will be used for their intended purpose, while the media centre and race control will be located in a temporary location.”
McLaren
Lando Norris has admitted that there is nervous excitement building between him and his team-mate Oscar Piastri following a dominant race in Shanghai. Piastri finished comfortably ahead of the Englishman as he managed an issue with his car, but they are both confident that they will be fighting between themselves this year.
Norris said, “We were free to race. We’re both excited – probably nervous and excited at the same time – as I’m sure the team will be. But we’re ready.”
With Norris banking generous points in Australia while Piastri spun off the wet track finishing ninth, the former is currently leading the standings. But he’s aware that this gap of 10 points could well shrink. Adding “ As much as we work together and we have a good time and enjoy ourselves, we both know we want to try and beat each other and show who’s best. And that’s inevitable.”
Papaya Rules became the buzz phrase of the 2024 season as McLaren began to define their rules of engagement. This led to a few difficult races for the duo as they struggled to interpret their hierarchy. But for the beginning of 2025, these racing rules were “refreshed.” This was expected as they have become the front runners, after three-point scoring opportunities this the lead by twenty-one points in the constructors.
Norris said “There are clearly rules we cannot cross. Both cars will always have to stay in the race and that kind of thing. We are both competitors. That’s clear. We both want to fight for a win and fight for victories, that’s clear. But there’s just boundaries around the car.
While Piastri added “It’s been an incredible weekend, and the car has been mega the whole time. The tyres behaved very differently to the earlier sessions in China but the race we’ve managed to pull off this afternoon has been excellent..”
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel has told the BBC in an interview recorded last week that he is backing Lewis Hamilton to fight for the championship this year with Ferrari. The German spent six years at the team fighting his rival turned friend and political ally, only to lose out to the seven-time champion.
Speaking to the BBC World Service, asked if the pressures and expectations feel different at Ferrari compared to other teams, Vettel said, “Maybe it is a bit, but I think Lewis is a competitor and he has very high expectations about himself so I think he’s probably very ambitious to be in that seat right now and not so focussed on the noise around, but more to make it work.”
He was further asked why he wasn’t able to make his championship bid stick, adding that he will be crossing his fingers for Hamilton’s attempt this year. Adding “ For me it didn’t quite work because Lewis was there so let’s see now how he will get on. But, yeah, my fingers [are] crossed. I obviously raced him a long time, we get along really well, and he’s by far the most outspoken driver on the grid at the minute, his on-track skills don’t need to be repeated.”
Vettel says what Hamilton has achieved in terms of statics speaks for itself and he uses it in a positive manner.
Dino Beganovic will make his official debut in FP1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. This will take place alongside his existing responsibilities in F2 as he and Hitech TGR ready themselves for a busy weekend. The Swedish driver will be replacing Charles Leclerc for the unreprehensive first session and will be one of the two sessions that he misses this season.
Beganovic began racing in karts in his home country, quickly establishing himself as a talented driver within Europe. On joining Formula 4 in 2020, he immediately proved his talent when he finished third in the Italian race with PREMA. He finished sixth in the last two F3 seasons and scored a F2 podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Following the opening race in Melbourne he is currently fifteenth going into Bahrain in two weeks time. Though early in the season, Sakhir not being the opening race, being a night race and drivers already tested their in February, makes sense as it circuit drivers in F1 and its feeders know well from testing and support races.
Beganvic said “Having the opportunity to do those two rounds in F2, the whole aim was just to have some experience going into this year, gain as much experience as possible and just have a baseline of where we can work from. Obviously, we have a very good baseline to work from now.”
“It went very well and I’m very, very happy with how it went after a tough season in Formula 3. I’m very happy that, jumping in a new car and just doing well and proving some people wrong, I think it was very important for me, but also some other people to see what I’m capable of.”
Red Bull
Red Bull announced on Thursday they will demote Liam Lawson and replace him with Yuki Tsunoda with immediate effect. The decision to demote the New Zealander comes two races into the season and three months after Lawson was prompted over Tsunoda from Racing Bulls replacing Sergio Perez.
Tsunoda, 24, will partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull from the next race in Japan on 4-6 April, while Lawson will return to second team Racing Bulls as team-mate to French rookie Isack Hadjar.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a statement: “It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the RB21 at the first two races and as a result we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch.”
Red Bull is third in the constructors’ championship after two races, behind McLaren and Mercedes, and Verstappen has expressed his belief that their car may be only the fourth fastest in the field. There are reports that the Dutchman feels Lawson has been made a scapegoat for the team’s poor start to the season, with him believing that their car may be only the fourth fastest in the field.
Horner added, “We acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21 and Yuki’s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.” since the middle of 2024 the team has fallen from their dominance, Verstappen has only won two of the last sixteen Grands Prix, the last being in Sao Paulo in November.
The new season has not seen them regain some of that form, and Verstappen is continuing to complain it has balance problems that affect its performance. While Red Bull are known for ruthlessness with their young driver programme this could be an opportunity to secure his F1 career, at a time when his future in the sport was looking uncertain.
Honda is moving to Aston Martin for 2026 and there is no space for Tsunoda at that team.
Speaking to the media before the decision was announced motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says Lawson was chosen to partner Verstappen because Tsunoda was too inconsistent to be promoted to the Red Bull seat but that Lawson has not coped under the pressure.
He said “Yuki was too inconsistent. That’s why we unanimously decided on Lawson. But under the increased pressure, he couldn’t deliver, right from the first day in Australia. Then he went into a downward spiral. It’s like a battered boxer; it’s very difficult to get out of it. In that sense, it was a mistake.”
Lawson isn’t the only one to have struggled with the RB21. Verstappen has also had issues with his machinery and has not been in a position to fight for race wins as he would have obviously preferred. Verstappen has been at the teams base in recent days trying to improve the car, but there appears to be this acceptance they need to improve the car ASAP which will take time.
Jarno Opmeer and Red Bull have been crowned 2025 F1 Sim Racing drivers and constructors’ champions following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Thursday. Opmeer had a healthy hundred-and-forty-eight-point lead over Sauber’s Thomas Ronhaar, with Willians Ismal Fahssi two points further behind.
Ronhaar found himself with a brilliant chance of overturning that points deficit heading into the race, having charged to pole position during Qualifying while Opmeer was dramatically knocked out in Q2. But in the Grand Prix rose to seventh despite contact between the two while the Dutchman finished seventh.
The race victory went to Aston Martin rookie Otis Lawrence, with McLaren’s Alfie Butcher and Ferrari’s Bari Broumand completing the podium.
Mercedes
CEO and team principal Toto Wolff says it would look ‘silly and erratic’ if it were to introduce V10 engines before 2031 and reduce the planned five-year period for the 2026 hybrids. FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem, with various options under discussion at this stage.
The most straightforward idea is to stick to the current plans to run the all-new hybrid engines for a five-year period between 2026 and 2030, and switch to a radically different formula from 2031 onwards. But some parties are also pushing to introduce V10s as early as 2028, with the secondary question becoming what to do with the 2026 power units that convinced the likes of Audi and Honda to sign up.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Wolff believes it would not reflect well to backtrack from the 2026 regulations that were meant to be used for five years, as F1 needs to be a “reliable partner” that manufacturers can build around.
Asked if he could accept the new regulations only being used for two or three years, Wolff replied: “If there are the right arguments on bringing it forward. We are looking a little bit silly as Formula 1 when we are attracting the likes of Audi and we are pitching a great hybrid engine with sustainable fuels, and then suddenly we are saying we actually only want to keep it three years and not five.”
“We need to be a stable and reliable partner that says: ‘These are the regulations, that is the investment budget, you need to calculate for it’. And then people can join or not.” Wolff suggested that its rivals trying to curtailing the upcoming rules and fast-tracking V10 engines as it is worried about its own performance with the new hybrids – a suggestion Red Bull has publicly denied.
But Wolff did reaffirm that Mercedes is open-minded about where F1 should go next with its future power units, as long as there is a proper process in place to ensure all interested manufacturers are aligned.
he explained, “As Mercedes we are always open to having these discussions. What is the engine of the future? Is it a V8, is it a V10, what kind of hybrid system does it have on the car? Sustainable fuel clearly is going forward, is it a naturally aspirated or turbo engine?”
Alpine
Jack Doohan was much happier with last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, despite picking up a penalty in his battle with Isack Hadjar and not scoring points as well as gaining more experience. Starting down the order, points were always going to be difficult – especially when Alpine pitted him very early for the hard compound tyres.
Having to run that set for forty-five laps meant Doohan found himself fighting the much fresher shod Hadjar late on, and the Alpine man threw everything at his rival to keep position. But having running Hadjar out wide forcing him wide the Australian got a ten-second time penalty
He said, “I’m happy to get fifty-six laps more than I did in Oz, that’s for sure Tough race, elbows out and, in the end, fourteenth on track from where we were wasn’t too bad. We kept that [Racing Bulls] car behind for twenty-odd laps, a car that’s been much quicker than us all weekend, a strong Q3 running car so I think we have to be proud of that.
“I will have to revisit the penalty because we don’t want to be giving away spots for nothing. Although P14, P16 there are no points but still [it] would have been nice. So, just going to have to revisit it and keep our heads down for Japan.” However he did regain fourteenth -when both Ferrari and his teammate Pierre Gasly were disqualified.
Williams
Despite already equalling the points they scored last year in the first three-point scoring opportunities, team principal James Vowles is remaining cautious about the team’s place on the grid. So far this season, Williams has scored seventeen points over the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix including the sprint in Shanghai, with Ferrari’s disqualification last weekend it puts them fourth in the constructors.
Williams’ Shanghai campaign saw Albon on a one-stop strategy, starting on mediums before moving to hards. This enabled him to briefly lead the race – something a Williams hasn’t done since 2015 with Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel. He said “It feels great to have equalled last year’s points tally, but actually I have mixed emotions. First of all it reminded me of how little points we scored in 2024.”
But Vowles says scoring these points while they have done well, has told him that its going to be a tight fight between the second half of the grid for that all-important fifth place behind the top four. Adding “its a stark reminder that we need absolutely every millisecond available to us to be competing ahead of that incredibly difficult midfield battle.”
He also said being ninth last year means that they mustn’t read too much into Shanghai, given the disqualification of both Ferrari’s and Pierre Gasly, as they need to be there on merit and not rely on the misfortune of others.