This Week – 11/05/2025
Hello, welcome to a slightly shorter This Week as I’ve broken my hand and have had other commitments this week. Coming up, Jochen Mass dies aged 78, is tension creeping in at Ferrari or is it proof that Lewis Hamilton wants the best from Ferrari, and the ‘return’ of convinced cheater Flavio Briatore for a third stint at Alpine…
General News
Former F1 and Le Mans winner Jochen Mass has died aged seventy-eight his death was announced during last Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix by his family. The German driver suffered what was described as a “medical emergency”.
A statement said, “Today we mourn the loss of a husband, father, grandfather and a racing legend. It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Jochen Mass has died today due to complications following a stroke he suffered in February, earlier this year.
“Thank you to everyone for the incredible support we have received. Every single message of positivity was relayed to him, giving him peace and comfort in his last days. Beyond mourning his death, we also celebrate his incredible life. A life that he loved sharing with all of you. A life that he lived to the absolute fullest.”
Mass’s only victory came in Barcelona in 1975 around Montjuic Mountain. He had taken the lead in his McLaren from Jacky Ickx before the crash of Rolf Stommelen’s crash which killed four people after a rear wing failure. Mass notched up a further seven podiums during his career, all in his spell with McLaren that started in 1974 and continued through to the end of 1977.
After McLaren, Mass drove for ATS, Arrows and the RAM March team, before calling time on F1 after an aerial accident in the 1982 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, from which he emerged uninjured. Mass retired from competitive racing in 1990m but did a one-off drive for McLaren at Le Mans in 1995, as well as events like Goodwood Revival.
His biggest successes came in sportscar racing, however – first with Porsche, whose books he was on from ’76, and then the Sauber. In what is now called WEC, he won nineteen races and finished runner-up in 1989, after withdrawing from Suzuka. Had Le Mans been a championship round that year, he would have taken the title ahead of Schlesser.
Mass acted as a mentor and driver coach on the Mercedes young driver programme in the last of his three years at Sauber, co-driving with Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen over the course of the season.
The father of Carlos Sainz Jr and former WRC champion and Dakar winner Carlos Sainz Sr could be considering a run for FIA president in December’s general election. Motorsport.com says several key figures from within the motorsport world have approached him about running against Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Ben Sulayem’s term in office has been hit by a swathe of controversies. Most recently, the FIA has seen a string of key figures leaving the governing body. Robert Reid, deputy president for sport, left last month, stating “a fundamental breakdown in governance standards” and “critical decisions being made without due process”.
His term has seen him introduce a controversial swearing ban, an investigation into inference in trying to overturn a race result. He received a ‘cease and desist’ letter from F1’s lawyers over comments he made on social media about the value of Formula 1. Historical quotes also emerged of him making misogynistic remarks.
At the end of 2023, the FIA, under Ben Sulayem’s guidance, also launched a compliance inquiry into Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and his wife, Susie, on the grounds of a conflict of interest. The claim was withdrawn within two days after all of the other nine teams issued a joint statement stating they had no problem, and there is now a legal case against the FIA ongoing as a result.
Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton says his ‘feisty’ radio messages are proof that he remains as motivated as ever. Last weekend in Miami Ferrari was criticised again after both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s strategies ended up hindering one another, quibbling over the same piece of tarmac.
Having started on hard tyres from twelfth on the grid, Hamilton was eighth shortly after his pitstop, and grew increasingly frustrated with Leclerc’s car right in front of him, now that the Briton was on a softer compound. Speaking to his race engineer Riccardo Adami over team radio, he complained about “burning up his tyres”, lamented “not good teamwork”, and added, “have a tea break while you’re at it”.
Hamilton did go on to clarify that his comments were ‘sarcasm, not even anger’, and added: “I mean, it was all PG, at least. Right? For sure, I don’t know what you’re going to write, whether I was disrespectful or whatever. Honestly, I didn’t feel it was. I was just like, come on, guys, I just want to win. I’ve still got that fire in my belly. I can feel a little bit of it really coming out their”
Ferrari did eventually ask Leclerc to let his teammate through but in the closing stages, they faced the same situation again, though they still finished seventh and eighth. Team boss Fred Vasseur then made a point of clearing the air with his drivers, in order to maintain the harmony within the squad.
Vasseur said, “In this situation, [Hamilton] has to understand what was my feeling on the pitwall. He can trust me, I can trust him, and the same with Charles. When I have to make a decision, I am taking a decision for Ferrari with the element that you have live. It’s not that you have 30 minutes to have a look on the data and so on.”
Miami race was the first grand prix this season where Ferrari failed to contend for a podium finish at all, but Hamilton remains convinced that better times are yet to come – with upcoming upgrades, and stringent tests on front wing flexibility, which the Scuderia expects to have a positive impact on its performance relative to its rivals.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin had a race to forget in Miami, with Lance Stroll finishing last and Fernando Alonso only one place ahead. Alonso made SQ3 but in the sprint spun out after contact with Liam Lawson while Stroll managed to keep out of trouble in the Sprint and rose all the way to fifth thanks to a slew of time penalties for his rivals. But that was the last positive for the team.
Both drivers tumbled out of Qualifying in Q1, before lacking the pace to move forward in the race itself – Alonso not helped by a spin on the hard tyres in the first stint either. The Spaniard said “We didn’t have the pace the whole weekend, and we expected the race to be difficult. We faced similar challenges today that we’ve had all season and couldn’t capitalise on any chaos ahead of us. We need to get better and hopefully in Imola take a step forward.”
While Stroll added, “Difficult race for us today and very tricky conditions, as we expected. We just simply lack pace – we’ve been slow all season so far and today wasn’t any exception. With an uneventful race and no opportunities, it just shows how we’re not competitive and need to look at improving the car in all areas.”
Alpine
It’s been a week of upheaval for the team with the resignation of team principal Ollie Oakes and the replacement for at least the next five races of Jack Doohan by Franco Colapinto.
Oakes, who became Alpine boss last summer, will have his duties taken over by executive advisor Flavio Briatore, who oversaw multiple world titles for Benetton in the 1990s and Renault in the mid-2000s. Briatore was team principal until he resigned and was convicted and banned of race fixing in 2009 by the FIA over the Crashgate scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
It’s a remarkable comeback for a third stint as team principal, following the Crashgate scandal where he and Pat Symonds conspired with Nelson Piquet Jr. intentionally crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.
Alpine said: “BWT Alpine Formula One Team announces that Oliver Oakes has resigned from his role as team principal. The team has accepted his resignation with immediate effect.”
“As of today, Flavio Briatore will continue as executive advisor and will also be covering the duties previously performed by Oliver Oakes. The team would like to thank Oliver for his efforts since he joined last summer and for his contribution in helping the team secure sixth place in the 2024 Constructors’ Championship.”
This is also believed to be tied up in the decision to replace Doohan with Colapinto, as it believed there was a power struggle between Briatore who favoured Colapinto and Oakes who favoured Doohan.
While the decision was expected, the plan to effectively give the 21-year-old five races to prove himself against Doohan’s performances was not.
Briatore said in a statement: “Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races. With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up.”
The team say this decision was made “in order to maximise our ambitions next year.” Doohan will remain as reserve driver.
Colapinto said he would “work hard” and that the three races on consecutive weekends at Imola, Monaco and Barcelona would “no doubt be intense and a big challenge for everyone”. He added: “I will do my best to get up to speed quickly and give it my all to deliver the best possible results alongside Pierre.”
Doohan, the son of five-time MotoGP champion Mick Doohan, said: “Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing.
It later emerged that Oakes’s brother Will was arrested and charged by the CPS and Metropolitan Police with transferring criminal property. The 37-year-old was arrested on Thursday (May 2) in the Silverstone Park area of Northamptonshire in the UK, reports the Telegraph.
He was subsequently charged with transferring criminal property, after being stopped with “a large amount of cash” in his possession. he appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (May 3) and was remanded in custody.