2025 F1 General Discussion Thread

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258795#Comment_123258795

I can't think of a time they ever tried that before.

Certainly not

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260579#Comment_123260579

With one exception. Liam is in the Red Bull position alone in order to finish with Max as Drivers champion.

NinjaTruncs

They did Russell dirty with that intro, whatever about last year when it looked like he was reaching out to walls, now he just looks like an idiot.

Hadjar looks like he's ready for a scrap and Sainz must have thought it was a shampoo ad he was filming.

Jacovs

Just me or that intro feels very rushed, like barely show each driver before cutting to next.

PsychoPete

We haven't even got to the first practice session of the season and Helmut Marko is already causing trouble. He said Doohan is C driver and won't complete the season, Bortoleto is a B driver and Yuki is rather undisciplined for a Japanese. Bortoletos response was good

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260579#Comment_123260579

That intro is far too quick with the first drivers you barely see them and it has moved on ffs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260851#Comment_123260851

I agree.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123260765#Comment_123260765

Lol. This made me laugh lol.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123261929#Comment_123261929

I do not understand the point of Helmut Marko. Like what does he bring to red bull apart from bad press every few months? He's a cretin.

shanec1928

f1tv sorted thanks to my polish cousin😉 reducing the amount of British biased commentary from sky.

Charlie-Bravo

I agree with the above. Really short pieces of drivers, and plenty of graphics in between which wasn't necessary.

At least George is being George. Hey George, do the thing 😂

Longing

That's a bad start for Dunne.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123262304#Comment_123262304

Other than turning out nonsense or racist comments every so often he's head of driver development which he's been horrendous at, it must be the Austrian side of RedBull keeping him around

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123262993#Comment_123262993

Their program did deliver arguably the two best drivers to enter the sport in the last 20 years or so. They're cut-throat with their other drivers for sure but the goal seems to have been not to accept anything less than a Vettel or a Verstappen and it's delivered them multiple world championships with cars that wouldn't have won with other drivers behind the wheel. Being better at nurturing Buemi or Kvyat or whoever wouldn't have delivered that. And it's probably changed now with all the new rookies coming in but a couple of years ago about 30% of the grid were drivers who got into F1 thanks to Red Bull's driver program which is a far higher success rate than any other program.

Aside from that he shouldn't be let anywhere near a microphone though, he seems to take delight in just trolling, saying the most controversial stuff he can think of and generally causing PR problems for the team. I am surprised he's still around after Dietrich's death as he was mainly in the role as his right hand man.


Edit: I just looked up the comments and they're not as bad as they sound. He was specifically asked to grade the rookies in an interview and he probably should have avoided the question but he didn't and he said he'd give Antonelli, Hadjar and Bearman As, he'd give Bortoleto B and give Doohan C. Which you might disagree a little here and there but I wouldn't say is a wildly controversial view, especially given that he's obviously going to show support for Hadjar. But it generated all the out of context headlines that made it sound like he just went on an unprovoked attack against Doohan and Bortoleto.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123263559#Comment_123263559

Did their programme do anything to actually foster/improve Max & Seb? Or were they always going to be winners? It's one thing to have 4 F1 seats and get lots into seats. It's another entirely to say that their programme has helped develop drivers.

And the point with him is that it seems that he goes out of his way to say controversial and, at times, racist comments. For no obvious benefit to the team. It's bizarre he's still tolerated.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123263728#Comment_123263728

Well they signed Vettel onto the program when he was 11 years old and was racing karts in local championships without having ever driven a racing car. Clearly he had the talent but who knows if he'd have even got the funding to get into higher series without them? They signed Max later at 17 years old and he was clearly always going to be a champion, but it could easily have been with a different team if they hadn't been willing to put their faith into promoting him into F1 before he'd ever won any lower tier series or even made it to Formula 2, and then promoting him to the top team so quickly too, all of which was key to getting his signature.

I think people only see drivers who get to F1 and don't succeed in getting to the top team or don't succeed while there (and lets face it, succeeding is all but impossible when the bar they're up against is Max Verstappen), but don't recognise that they often raised these guys from much lower categories and just getting to F1 and scoring points or podiums or race wins, as many of their young drivers have, is a pretty big achievement in itself.

To put it in numbers, Red Bull's program has produced 2 world champions and 5 race winners. Ferrari's has produced no world champions and 2 race winners. Mercedes' has produced no world champions and 2 race winners. McLaren's has produced 1 world champion and 2 race winners. Renault / Alpine's has produced no world champions and 1 race winner. No other team's program has produced any race winner.

And yes, they have a bit of a leg up with a junior team. But Williams have served the same role for Mercedes and Haas / Sauber at different times have served that role for Ferrari. And nobody forced Red Bull to put this kind of investment into running a second team to give young drivers a chance, nor did anybody stop the other teams from doing so.

But aside from all that, I definitely don't disagree at all that he's a disaster whenever he speaks to the media.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123264648#Comment_123264648

But do they actually develop drivers? Or just fund loads and ruthlessly take the cream and discard the rest?

I genuinely don't know, but from the way they've treated drivers over the year, I'd question if they actually do anything to bring on drivers other than offering seats at the various junior formula. Which is still a valid thing to do, but I don't think that helmut is anything other than a helmet.

Barrett

If it will be a wet race I expect Max to win this one.

Jordan 199

China this weekend.

flazio

Tá sé seachtaine na rás arís. (It's race week again) Happy St Patrick's Day.

niallm77

The Horner/employee situation from a year ago is now going toll the labour court In UK in early 2026 apparently. There is a reporting ban in the UK on it

PsychoPete

From the main Chinese GP not including the sprint race the FIA have got stricter on rear wing flexibility, the slot can't vary more than 0.5mm instead of 2mm with a temporary tolerance of 0.25mm for Shanghai. They said that looking at the footage from the Australian GP there was enough deformation to justify stricter controls and all cars were legal for Albert Park

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123272666#Comment_123272666

The video footage from the Australian GP most of been quite eye-opening to the FIA to implement this so quickly.

Appletart Upsetter

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-to-introduce-tighter-rear-wing-tests-after-australia-flexing-evidence/

"Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache told The Race during pre-season testing that, despite the FIA’s best efforts, some teams still appeared to be exploiting this area.

"It is still going on," he said. "I think Ferrari and McLaren are doing the mini-DRS stuff still.""

Let's see if it changes the pecking order significantly, probably not.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123272753#Comment_123272753

There must be a team or teams gaining some kind of an advantage from it for the FIA to get stricter with the regulations around the rear wing flexibility

Longing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123273062#Comment_123273062

No way of proving here, but there is talk that a certain team were using flo vis paint on the rear wing to cover up early in the weekend how far the rear wing was opening. Now the whole rear wing was covered, which is not normal. But what I have read the shot themselves in the foot. Because the Flo paint was calculated by the opening, And the new (FIA) that 2mm regulating was not been adhered too.

But I ask myself would a 2mm+ to 2mm would it make that much of a difference to performance.

Well the FIA think so.

Appletart Upsetter

I assume the 2mm flex is during the static test, where 75kg is loaded onto the wing.

At high speed, this flex becomes greater than 2mm, this reducing down force through faster corners and straights. This has a beneficial effect on tyre wear too.

flazio

German Sky Sports is reporting that Eddie Jordan has lost his cancer battle. Waiting for confirmation from English speaking outlets.

Edit, not seeing anything on their socials this morning so maybe, hopefully, a false alarm.

Appletart Upsetter

That's extremely sad (if true).

Jordan F1 was probably the main reason I became a fan of F1.

rameire

On BBC now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/cq8y1335qlwo

geotrig

wow looks to be on the bbc now

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/articles/cq8y1335qlwo

dulpit

Brutal news to wake up to. The reason I started to watch f1.