FORMULA ONE 2025.

[Cleoriff]

From 1/1/2025 Lewis Hamilton became a Ferrari driver.

The Ferrari media team released a very clever post.

Note the time it was posted. 16.44. 16  is Charles Leclerc's race number and 44 is Lewis Hamiltons number. (they are now team mates). Interesting to note that Mercedes have lost just under a million followers and Ferrari have gained over a million.

With all his farewell commitments to Mercedes, Lewis has not tested in last years Ferrari. (All new drivers did a test run in Abu Dhabi.) It's understood, he will be testing in Marinello, Italy, later this month.

A lot to learn. New car, new steering wheel, new team, new race engineer and new language.

Personally, I'm not expecting him to do that well initially. Only time will tell.

* F1 live at the O2 Arena London. February

* Pre- Season Testing in Bahrain 26th-28th February.

* 1st Race - Australia Friday March 14th-Sunday 16th March.

[pgn]

FIAT (also Italian) - Fix It Again Tomorrow 😖

[Cleoriff]

I'll just say this.

The checks are meant to be random. Random doesn't mean both cars from the same team.

Since this rule came in, I've never known this happen before.

Also, so many people are sick to death of watching races, seeing the results and then having them changed 2-3 hrs later!

[madasaf1sh]

Well that was on the cards, but a bit of a shame after 2 races to see Lawson dropped from Red Bull and demoted to the Racing Bull team, and Tsunoda moved up to the RB 2nd car.. 

Will be an interesting to see what happens in Suzuki

But Red Bull seems to be in a bit of a mire with drivers and how they treat them.

[Cleoriff]

@madasaf1sh 

I've been searching for that news but found nothing official?

Even this says 'Announcement expected later this week'

But yes, that 2nd seat in Red Bull is a poisoned chalice. The car is built round Max and everyone, including Perez, has a problem driving it.

Sad for Lawson. He's only raced a total of 9 times, RBR put him in the car expecting miracles and boot him out before he's had chance to get comfortable.

[madasaf1sh]

@Cleoriff 

Kym Illman has the linked article from a Dutch newspaper, which is unsurprisingly behind a paywall..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcLFXR_pKds

[Cleoriff]

@madasaf1sh 

It seems, if all is true, a lot of money changed hands between Honda and RBR to get Yuki in that seat before Japan. In fairness, if anyone can 'tame the beast'. I'd put my money on Yuki.

Even so, it's poison, has been a career 'buckling' seat for Daniil Kyvat, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, and Checo Perez.

Danny Ric left of  his own accord in 2019, when he saw RBR were putting all 'their eggs' in Verstappens 'basket'

As good as he is, Max can't win RBR a WCC on his own!!

Oh well, lets wait for the official news.
I do wonder why, they didn't chose Sainz when he became available? 😂 Maybe Max didn't fancy his chances against him?

[Cleoriff]

The news is now official. Yuki Tsunoda is replacing Liam Lawson for the Japanese GP.

Red Bull Racing announced today. It's understood that Honda paid RBR in excess of $12,000,000 to get Yuki into the 2nd RBR seat.

Liam will go back to Racing Bulls.

Pitiful to give a young kid only 2 races to acclimatise himself to the Red Bull. The car is built round Max and even he (particularly this year) has difficulty driving it!

Apparently Max Verstappen isn't pleased about this move. He told Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko, that they should give Liam at least 4-6 months to get used to the car!

I can see Japan F1 being a very 'interesting' race.

Wouldn't it be a laugh if Liam, in the Racing Rull, beat Yuki in the Red Bull? 😂

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/breaking-tsunoda-to-replace-lawson-at-red-bull-from-japan... 

[Cleoriff]

It's Japan F1 this weekend!

Again, too early for the Practice sessions.

We see Yuki take over from Lawson in the RBR 2nd seat. Fingers crossed for him.

However every driver whose been in that car says, with it being built round Max Verstappens style of driving, it's unlike any other car on the grid. This is why they find it difficult. Max can handle any car 'on the edge' but other drivers struggle.

Liam  Lawson has gone back to Racing Bulls and I'm really hoping he does well. This may show RBR that the car is the issue and not the driver.

[Cleoriff]

JAPAN Free Practice 1

Yuki did well on his first practice run for Red Bull Racing. He came 6th.

Piastri wasn't happy with the set up of his McLaren and didn't get a good run in this morning.

Norris headed the session.

[Cleoriff]

FP2 Japan.

Very messy session. Nasty crash with young Jack Doohan who lost it on turn 1 at 185 mph.

Inconclusive as to whether it was a car failure or driver error. The car destroyed the barrier and the session was Red Flagged.

Alonso then went off at speed into the gravel. Session Red Flagged.

Then the grass caught fire twice. The sparks from the cars caught the tinder dry grass. Red flagged twice.

So an hours session diminished to 26 minutes with the crashes and 4 red flags.

Interesting to see the Racing Bulls were faster than both Red Bull cars. Lewis seems happy with the car but Leclerc does not. So work to do there.