Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” gets flack for creating drama — but sometimes, the drama is creating reality. As when, in episode four of the latest season (releasing March 7th), we see Carlos Sainz ghost James Vowles and Williams in June of last summer, prolonging what Vowles assumed was a done deal.
In an episode from the latest season of “Drive to Survive,” aptly titled “Carlos Signs,” cameras follow the 30-year-old Spaniard as he figures out where to go, having been ousted from his Ferrari seat by Lewis Hamilton.
“I honestly didn’t expect it. It leaves me bitter,” Sainz says of being replaced by the seven-time world champion. “I’m going to negotiate and get myself a good deal.” We see Williams’ Vowles, courting the Spaniard, tell the shows producers that Sainz could completely transform the team. “I wake up in the morning and I go to sleep at night thinking of nothing else,” Vowles says.
At the time, the paddock was abuzz with speculation that Sainz would put pen to paper in Barcelona at the Spanish Grand Prix after Vowles was spotted having a confidential meeting with Sainz’s manager, Carlos “Caco” Oñoro. “I really am confident this is a good contract and a good place. I know I’m going to get stronger over the next few races, I’m quite an honorable individual,” Vowles tells Oñoro during the closed-door conversation. “You want a relationship? I want a relationship. Let’s put a piece of paper together that covers it off.”
Carlos Sainz, James Vowles, and Alex Albon at the F1 75 event
Photo by: Getty Images
In the episode, McLaren’s Zak Brown is seen telling Lando Norris that he “busted Caco and Vowles having breakfast.” Norris reveals that his friend and former teammate is still trying to decide between Williams and Sauber (set to become Audi in 2026). “I spoke to Carlos yesterday. In the short term it’s Williams, but longer term Audi,” Norris shares. Word of the deal had even made its way to Red Bull, where communications boss Paul Smith was heard telling Christian Horner that Williams had “pretty much confirmed Sainz.”
Vowles was so confident that the contract would be signed at his hotel that night, he’s seen in the episode telling Williams board member (and Pippa Middleton’s husband) James Matthews that they are “pretty much there.” He then quips to camera, “Signing a driver has some similarities to dating. You start with texts, then [there’s] dinner, then you end up in a hotel room.”
Cut to: Williams team members closing the blinds of a hotel conference room and putting champagne on ice next to Sainz’s soon-to-be-signed contract. More than 20 minutes go by without word from his Sainz’s team. Eventually, it’s revealed that the smooth operator won’t be coming. “You were going to sign for Williams but then changed your mind. What happened there?” a producer asks Sainz, to which he responds, “Flavio [Briatore] called me.” The controversial Italian businessman returned to Formula 1 last spring as an executive advisor to Alpine, and set out to complicate Sainz’s plans.
“Carlos has got doubts. I think he’s evaluating every single team available,” Oñoro is heard telling Vowles on the phone a few weeks later at the British Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz during pre-season testing in Bahrain
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Meanwhile, we see Sainz probe Alpine driver Pierre Gasly for information about the car’s performance, while Jack Doohan jokes that the Spaniard is acting like “the paddock sl*t” for continuing to weigh up his options. Horner says that Briatore won’t give him the best deal. “Flavio will f**k him 100 per cent, and he’s expensive, which Flavio will hate,” the Red Bull boss is caught by “Drive to Survive” cameras telling colleagues.
As we know now, a few more weeks would pass before Sainz finally signed with Williams in late July, inking a two year deal.
“Congratulations,” Vowles says as his new driver walks into a hotel conference room to make the signing official.
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In this article
Emily Selleck
Formula 1
Culture
Carlos Sainz
James Vowles
Williams
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The FIA has made a raft of changes to Formula 1’s sporting rules for the 2025 season, with two loopholes concerning formation laps and damaged cars the most notable alterations.
Article 43.8 of F1’s sporting rules has been changed to state “all cars starting from the pitlane able to do so must leave the pitlane and join the formation lap”.
Previously, such cars would only leave their garages when the grid was finally forming up and not take part in the formation lap.
Now, once the formation lap has been completed including the pitlane starters, these will re-enter the pits and line up in qualifying order, unless they first form up after the five-minute signal pre-race start – in which case they must join the back of any queue that heads out for the formation lap at the back of the pack.
Motorsport.com understands that by changing this rule, the FIA has closed several possible loopholes the teams could have exploited under the old regulations.
The first is that, under the 2024 wording of this rule, pitlane starters could join an extra formation lap or formation laps held behind the safety car (say, in very wet conditions) if they desired, but in the case of multiple cars being in this scenario some could chose not to do so and therefore automatically gain places when the others returned to the pitlane for the start.
Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, waits for the green light at the pit lane exit
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Previously, in the event of an aborted start and an extra formation lap, cars starting from the pitlane could also automatically gain an extra lap of fuel to use even with the race distance reduced by one lap.
And in the event of a wet race starting with safety car laps, a pitlane starter could in theory wait for conditions to improve and then head straight out on intermediate tyres when racing commenced, while their already-circulating rivals would have to pit at the end of the first racing lap to switch off the extreme wets mandated in such situations.
With all three of these loopholes in mind, the FIA is understood to have taken the option to now require all pitlane starters to complete all formation laps before returning to the pitlane in every start circumstance.
Damaged cars ordered to stop
The other loophole the FIA has closed for 2025 concerns what happens when a driver tries to bring a damaged car back to the pitlane after an incident.
Although sources within the FIA insist the thrust behind this change does not come from any specific incident in 2024, and instead is the result of thinking going back several seasons, there is an illustrative example from last year involving ex-Red Bull driver Sergio Perez.
During last year’s Canadian GP, Perez crashed solo after switching for slicks and then brought his car back to the pitlane with a smashed rear wing – dropping debris onto the track as he did so.
Perez was subsequently given a three-place grid penalty for the 2024 Spanish GP, with Red Bull fined €25,000 for confirming his decision.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Patrick Vinet / Motorsport Images
The Montreal stewards felt this was all done to avoid causing a safety car activation that might have hurt eventual race winner Max Verstappen in the other RB20.
Now, changes to Article 26.10 mean F1 race director Rui Marques will be able to order a team to stop their car immediately in such circumstances.
But it is not yet clear if Marques will communicate directly with a driver as occurs in some other categories or instead get the message relayed via their race engineer.
The rule now states: “Any driver whose car has significant and obvious damage to a structural component which results in it being in a condition presenting an immediate risk of endangering the driver or others, or whose car has a significant failure or fault which means it cannot reasonably return to the pitlane without unnecessarily impeding another competitor or otherwise hindering the competition, must leave the track as soon as it is safe to do so.
“At the sole discretion of the race director, should a car be deemed to have such significant and obvious damage to a structural component, or such significant failure or fault, the competitor may be instructed that the car must leave the track as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Essentially, this means a much quicker implementation of the black-flag-with-an-orange disc rule that usually requires damaged cars to return to the pits for repairs.
This has been contentious since the 2022 season following a series of incidents involving lightly damaged cars continuing racing – after which the FIA opted to reduce the warning flag’s use.
Motorsport.com understands that the reason for changing this rule for 2025 stems from the previous text being considered too generic and difficult for both teams and race event stewards to interpret.
In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
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Carlos Sainz’s pre-season testing press conference appearance alongside most of the rookie drivers entering Formula 1 in 2025 revealed much about his current position in the championship.
The first is that, at 30 and about to start his 11th grand prix racing season, he is now one of F1’s veteran figures – the youngster of his 2015 Toro Rosso debut alongside Max Verstappen long gone.
The second is how Sainz has chosen to use this status to try and benefit his peers.
Because – sitting alongside Oliver Bearman, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar in the press conference room on the final day of Bahrain testing – Sainz wasn’t even a week on from being announced as replacing Sebastian Vettel as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.
He’s joined chairman Alexander Wurz, George Russell and Anastasia Fowle (the GPDA’s legal counsel) as the body’s representatives.
Sainz’s decision to work on behalf of the F1 racing pack came over a winter where he’d reflected on his age and career achievements. He also felt that as he was stepping back down the grid in swapping Ferrari for Williams, he might be well placed for the GPDA in acting away from the bitter infighting frontrunners must engage in (see Russell’s ongoing spat with Verstappen).
Having called Wurz, they met in Monaco in January and it was quickly agreed Sainz was to become the GPDA’s second active racing director since Vettel retired at the end of 2022.
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“Now that I’m 30 and have 10 years of experience in F1, I start to understand how this sport works,” Sainz explained in Bahrain about his ambition to join the GPDA. “And the combination of the drivers, FOM, and that link with the FIA, how with my experience I could potentially bring myself forward as a candidate.”
Sainz also revealed that the GPDA has “three or four things that we need to work on and that is going to take part of our time” in 2025. The current driver expression clampdown being enacted by the FIA likely tops that bill, but the adjusted racing rules coming for this year and ongoing frustration with the application of penalties and collection of driver fines are also in the spotlight for the GPDA.
“Some of them are private issues that we are trying to address in a private manner,” Sainz added. “Others are more public.
“You’ve seen the letter that we posted [on the GPDA’s Instagram account last November] and the support that we got from rally drivers not long ago [after Rally Sweden in February, with a similar public address to the FIA]. It seems like we all seem to be in a similar mind frame in that sense.”
Sainz’s appearance alongside the majority of 2025’s rookie crop meant he was asked to assess their tricky position – with Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) running restricted to just 1000km this year.
By way of historical context, back in 2007, Lewis Hamilton was able to log nearly 5000 miles in pre-season running with current and former F1 machinery ahead of his debut. TPC running had previously been more generous for upcoming racers.
And, after wishing the rookies “all the best”, the Spaniard again showcased his calm and intellect as he presented an idea that reveals just how the GPDA will gain from what many paddock insiders consider to be wisdom beyond his years.
Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47
Photo by: Williams F1
“F1, if I’m honest, could do a bit of an effort in trying to do a better job in how we go testing,” he said. “In the end, you have a lot of teams spending an infinite amounts of money in simulators.
“You have drivers flying to the UK from Monaco to go to the simulator and I don’t understand why we get three days of testing when all that money could be invested into, I don’t know, eight days of testing – I’m not asking for too much – eight-to-10 days where every team picks their places to test.
“It’s nice to have a collective test, I think it should stay, but my proposal would be to put in the budget cap the number of days, put in the budget cap the simulator also and see where the teams want to spend their money – if it’s in the sim or it’s in 10 testing days.
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“Rookies would benefit and I think F1 teams would benefit because even though the simulators are good, they are not as good as some of the engineers or people tend to believe they are. I would always choose testing, and for these guys also, than going to a simulator.”
The cost of flying drivers on regular short-haul journeys would need to be balanced against how much it would take for flying as many as 75 staff members required to run a car in testing, in Bahrain or elsewhere, in pre-season.
But this example alone demonstrates Sainz’s worth to his peers and how thoughtfully he will go about representing them.
In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
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Carlos Sainz completed the second day of Formula 1’s pre-season test with the fastest lap of the three-day Bahrain event so far, overturning Lewis Hamilton’s time from the morning.
Sainz went fastest with a 1m29.366s lap 30 minutes after testing resumed following the lunch break, and then found a smidgen more time at the end of the afternoon’s opening hour to set a 1m29.348s on C3s.
This put him just 0.03s clear of Hamilton’s earlier benchmark, and then the Spaniard survived a subsequent spin while indulging in a flurry of laps on the C4 compound.
Although a minor spattering of light rain emerged before nightfall, this cleared and ultimately did not create as much disruption as the pre-lunch shower – which effectively took an hour out of the available running.
After Sainz took control of the timesheets, there were scant few attempts to supplant him as the majority of teams opted for race simulations; the Williams driver himself took to a lengthy race stint on the C3 tyres rather than try to improve on his own benchmark.
Lando Norris attempted to give his former McLaren team-mate a run for his money with a lap in the final 15 minutes on C3s, but could not capitalise on an impressive medium sector as he ran wide at Turn 14 and immediately made a beeline for the pitlane.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
This ensured Sainz remained top, and with the highest lap count – 127 – of anybody through the day.
Charles Leclerc, who took over from Hamilton in the afternoon session, finished third, half a tenth shy of his new team-mate. The Monegasque had a spin at Turn 14 while setting a more rapid set of times on his C4s, but ultimately carried on to collect a total of 83 laps for the evening.
George Russell’s effort from the morning session remained good enough for fourth, a scant 0.006s clear of rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who showed good speed but also endured a couple of excursions off-road as he continued to get used to the rigours of F1.
Lance Stroll was sixth fastest over Liam Lawson, as Red Bull fixed the water pressure issue onboard the Kiwi’s car that had restricted running in the morning.
Alpine duo Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly were eighth and ninth, as Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 – the only driver to do their fastest time on C4s, rather than C3s.
McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Norris were only 13th and 14th but, apart from Norris’s aborted lap, showed little in performance running – although the Briton’s race pace nonetheless appeared to be impressive.
The Haas duo again propped up the order, having again spent the day focusing on longer runs.
2025 F1 pre-season testing Day 2 results
Photos from the Bahrain Pre-Season Testing – Day 2
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
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Carlos Sainz completed the second day of Formula 1’s pre-season test with the fastest lap of the three-day Bahrain event so far, overturning Lewis Hamilton’s time from the morning.
The Spaniard went fastest with a 1m29.366s lap 30 minutes after testing resumed following the lunch break, and then found a smidgen more time at the end of the afternoon’s opening hour to set a 1m29.348s on C3s.
This put him just 0.03s clear of Hamilton’s earlier benchmark, and then he survived a subsequent spin while indulging in a flurry of laps on the C4 compound.
Although a minor spattering of light rain emerged before nightfall, this cleared and ultimately did not create as much disruption as the pre-lunch shower – which effectively took an hour out of the available running.
After Sainz took control of the timesheets, there were scant few attempts to supplant him as the majority of teams opted for race simulations; the Williams driver himself took to a lengthy race stint on the C3 tyres rather than try to improve on his own benchmark.
Lando Norris attempted to give his former McLaren team-mate a run for his money with a lap in the final 15 minutes on C3s, but could not capitalise on an impressive medium sector as he ran wide at Turn 14 and immediately made a beeline for the pitlane.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
This ensured Sainz remained top, and with the highest lap count – 127 – of anybody through the day.
Charles Leclerc, who took over from Hamilton in the afternoon session, finished third having been half a tenth shy of his new team-mate.
The Monegasque had a spin at Turn 14 while setting a more rapid set of times on his C4s, but ultimately carried on to collect a total of 83 laps for the evening.
George Russell’s effort from the morning session remained good enough for fourth, a scant 0.006s clear of rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli – who showed good speed but also endured a couple of excursions off-road as he continued to get used to the rigours of F1.
Lance Stroll was sixth fastest over Liam Lawson, as Red Bull fixed the water pressure issue on board the Kiwi’s car that had restricted running in the morning.
Alpine duo Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly were eighth and ninth, as Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 – the only driver to do their fastest time on C4s, rather than C3s.
McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Norris were only 13th and 14th but, apart from Norris’s aborted lap, showed little in performance running – although the Briton’s race pace nonetheless appeared to be impressive.
The Haas duo again propped up the order, having again spent the day focusing on longer runs.
2025 F1 pre-season testing Day 2 results
In this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
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Take a step back in time to January 2024 and tell yourself that in a year’s time you’ll know that Lewis Hamilton has moved from Mercedes to Ferrari, Carlos Sainz is at Williams, Liam Lawson has landed a Red Bull seat, and a fellow called Franco Colapinto (did you even hear of him back then?) is in line for one of the Alpine seats after having competed in nine grands prix at the end of last season.
What a difference a year makes.
Formula 1 sometimes produces snooze fests on race Sundays, but it’s always full of craziness, at least off the track – so you can almost never rule anything out. Here are some wild predictions from the fans that have a good chance of not looking so wild a year from now.
Verstappen won’t be a championship contender this year
Sorry, what? To imagine that the driver who dominated F1 in 2022 and 2023 will not even be in contention for the championship is difficult. But is it really so unlikely?
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
No question, even with arguably the third-fastest car last year, Verstappen was able to score consistently and didn’t even allow Lando Norris to close the championship gap in the second half of 2024. But the new Red Bull looks incredibly similar to last year’s – and visually, at least, some of the rival teams’ cars represent major developments.
There are a lot of ifs in this equation, but what if Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren make a bigger step forward than Red Bull? Verstappen is certainly a great driver, but will he be able to compensate if the gap gets too big?
The prospect of the Dutchman not being involved in a title fight still sounds too unrealistic, but 12 months ago it looked like 2024 would be as easy as the previous two seasons.
Alonso’s 33rd victory
Did you hear Lando Norris say that it won’t be just the top four teams that win races this year? As bold as it sounds, he has a valid point. The gaps tend to shrink when F1 keeps the same regulations for several years – and if nothing anomalous happens, we’ll definitely see some close racing at the front. And maybe it won’t just be McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes fighting it out. If so, who better to bet on for a surprise victory than Fernando Alonso?
Fernando Alonso on the podium in Sao Paulo in 2023
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Yes, Aston Martin clearly struggled last year – the string of podiums from early 2023 already feels like a long time ago. But back then, Alonso was just one strategic decision away from winning at Monaco: had the team put him on intermediates on lap 54, he could have already secured victory number 33.
Lawrence Stroll doesn’t back down – he just keeps upping the ante. Sooner or later, Aston Martin’s impressive team of engineers will have to get to the bottom of what has stalled the team’s progress over the past year and a half. Plus, Adrian Newey is due to join at the beginning of March, and maybe – just maybe – the genius will casually point them in the right direction for car development.
It will probably take more than just: “Oh, guys, this part should be 2mm higher and that’ll give you 20 extra points of downforce”. But Newey has long proven to the F1 world that he alone can make a difference.
Lawson and Tsunoda to swap places
Given Christian Horner and Helmut Marko’s reluctance to even consider putting Yuki Tsunoda behind the wheel of one of Red Bull’s cars, it’s almost unimaginable that the Japanese driver will end up as one of the team’s drivers. It was only last December that Tsunoda was offered a test with Red Bull – apparently after the team had already decided on its 2025 line-up – and now it’s almost unthinkable that he will ever be presented with such an opportunity again. Outperforming the likes of Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson clearly wasn’t enough for Tsunoda to convince his bosses that he was up to the task of being a top team driver.
Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
However, crazy things have happened with Red Bull’s driver line-up in the past. Sacking, swapping and promoting drivers mid-season is Marko and Horner’s habit, so is it completely out of the question that Tsunoda will get his shot?
You don’t have to think too hard about the circumstances that might force Red Bull to at least consider swapping Lawson for Tsunoda. The New Zealander was moved to the main team after just 11 races in F1 – and there’s still a chance he could repeat the fate of Pierre Gasly, who was sent back to Faenza after just half a season with Red Bull Racing. If Lawson’s season turns out to be as bad as Sergio Perez’s last, the team chiefs may be left with no choice.
Antonelli to break Verstappen’s record as youngest winner
It’s a tall order – not just because of the lack of evidence that Mercedes will be able to win races this year and Antonelli’s inexperience, but also because Kimi only has three attempts to break Verstappen’s record as the youngest grand prix winner.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
The Dutchman won the Spanish Grand Prix, his first race for Red Bull Racing, at the age of 18 years and 228 days. As a result, Antonelli’s chance of surpassing that achievement will expire after the Japanese Grand Prix at the beginning of April. Furthermore, no rookie has won a race in their debut season since Lewis Hamilton in 2007 (with the exception of Oscar Piastri’s sprint victory in Qatar in 2023). Even for the eventual world champion it took six races to reach this milestone.
A lot will have to go right for Antonelli to win one of the first three races of the season. But Toto Wolff wouldn’t be giving the young Italian a seat in the car if he didn’t believe in his potential. How quickly he can adapt to F1 remains one of the biggest questions ahead of 2025 – but what if he is indeed a once-in-a-generation talent, as the Mercedes boss clearly believes, and stuns the F1 world in his very first races?
Sainz to bring Williams back to the podium
James Vowles’ plan to take Williams back to the top is in full swing. Ditch the Excel spreadsheets – check. Hire a top driver – check. Secure a huge sponsorship deal – check.
He was clear last year: 2025 is not a priority for his team. In fact, he’d rather sacrifice the final season before F1 enters a new era in 2026 than jeopardise the future. However, Williams made real progress throughout last season and begins the new campaign with a car that was born in a much better environment than its predecessor and is at least not suffering from excess weight.
Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47
Photo by: Williams
Can Sainz make the difference? Alex Albon was showered with compliments during the time he shared a garage with Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant, but who can rule out the idea that he didn’t always get the absolute maximum out of the car? Now Williams has a proven race winner. In a crazy race – and in a season of 24 rounds, some are sure to be chaotic – you can count on Sainz to keep his nose clean and come up with something special.
Drivers to strike against FIA
Back in 1982, Formula 1 drivers were so fed up with the organisation now known as the FIA that they went on strike and locked themselves in a hotel ballroom during the South African Grand Prix. They played games, told stories and Elio de Angelis entertained the group with some piano jams…
It’s hard to gauge whether Mohammed Ben Sulayem and the FIA are close to reaching the same level of discontent among grand prix drivers as Jean-Marie Balestre and FISA did some 40 years ago – but there is clearly some form of frustration in their ranks, especially in light of the recent news about swearing fines. Repeat offenders face not only financial penalties (which are quite hefty!) but also a one-month suspension and a deduction of championship points – and that’s pretty serious. The thought that a casual F-word dropped in an interview could affect the title fight is rather uncomfortable.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President, FIA, with Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The grand prix drivers have already shown their unity by taking the decisive step of creating a joint Instagram account (an unprecedented move!). What comes next is hard to predict.
Just imagine: someone like Max Verstappen (name chosen randomly) finds himself on the verge of a third offence and punishment in the form of points deduction, say before the Austrian Grand Prix – but instead of heading to the stewards’ room, he rallies the other drivers to go on strike and they lock themselves up in, say, Helmut Marko’s Hotel Steirerschlössl? There’s no shortage of those who could play the piano on the current grid.
Bearman to beat Ocon comfortably
That doesn’t even sound so wild… All the F1 rookies of 2025 will have a difficult task going up against experienced teammates. But it’s probably Ollie Bearman who stands the best chance of actually beating his garage neighbour.
On paper, Ocon, a race winner with almost 10 years of F1 experience, would appear to be the clear number one driver at Haas – given Bearman’s lack of experience. But the young Briton has already demonstrated his speed and ability to learn quickly. Defeating Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying in Baku and then scoring a point in the race was excellent proof of his quality as a driver – and even more impressive than his infamous Jeddah performance.
Ayao Komatsu and Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Ayao Komatsu believes that Bearman is a future Ferrari driver. And while that’s a nice compliment from a boss, it’s also a statement of expectations: any driver who wants to drive a red Formula 1 car one day shouldn’t just aim to beat any of their team-mates – that has to be their only goal.
Perez to return before end of season
The four-year stint (or maybe just the last couple of seasons, to be fair) has really damaged the Mexican’s reputation. At times, he looked hopeless in the second Red Bull – and that impression was only exacerbated by Max Verstappen’s brilliance. But is this really the Sergio Perez we knew from his Force India days? Perhaps the toll of sharing a garage with a generational talent has simply been too great – and in different circumstances, he could rediscover some of his old speed and tenacity.
For now, as Perez enjoys time with his family and travels the world for pleasure rather than work, it’s hard to imagine him back on the grid. But F1 has seen its fair share of comebacks in the past – even from those who had been written off. After all, who would have thought that Daniel Ricciardo would swallow his pride and return to race for his former Toro Rosso team after a stint with McLaren?
Can Sergio Perez get back to F1?
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Would Christian Horner organise a tyre test for another of his former drivers in July? And if Isack Hadjar is as much slower than Yuki Tsunoda as Nyck de Vries was, could there be an opening? You could say there’s too much bad blood between Horner and Perez at the moment, but don’t forget Ricciardo left Red Bull to sign with Cyril Abiteboul, who seemed to annoy Horner almost as much as Toto Wolff! You never know…
Hulkenberg to qualify on front row with Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg has always been a strong qualifier, but it was during his two-year stint with Haas that he really showcased that skill. The German’s ability to put a lap together on demand is nothing short of extraordinary – and some of his Saturday performances deserve some serious praise. Remember him qualifying second in Canada in 2023?
He’s moving to a team that, on paper, looks like favourites to finish last in the constructors’ championship, but does that preclude some qualifying highlights?
Nico Hulkenberg, Stake F1 Team
Photo by: Sauber
Sauber also improved its car towards the end of last year, and in Abu Dhabi Valtteri Bottas made it to Q3, setting a time just 0.4s off the front row! Hulkenberg was fourth in the same session. If the field is indeed closer this year, the German could really raise some eyebrows.
Is it too hard to imagine him putting his Sauber on the front row in mixed conditions? Definitely not. It’s not like we’re talking about him getting a podium, right?
Doohan to complete full season with Alpine
Let’s just hope Jack Doohan hasn’t been reading the motorsport press over the winter – because if he has, he must be feeling immense pressure. Too many in the paddock are convinced that the Australian’s days at Alpine are numbered – and that translates into tons of articles suggesting that Doohan’s only job is to warm the seat for Franco Colapinto.
The reasons for such speculation are clear: the Argentinean wouldn’t have left Williams if he wasn’t hoping to get into one of the Alpine race cars in the near future. And the news of the team signing up sponsors from his homeland only adds fuel to the fire.
Doohan doesn’t need to read the press to be concerned. The facts are enough.
Jack Doohan, Alpine F1 Team, in cockpit
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
But guess what, he’s still starting the season alongside Pierre Gasly – and as long as he’s in that seat, his destiny (you’d like to believe it!) is in his hands. A strong performance in such circumstances could really boost the Australian’s image and secure not only a full season with Alpine, but a long career at the pinnacle of motorsport.
What a story that would be!
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In this article
Oleg Karpov
Formula 1
Fernando Alonso
Carlos Sainz
Max Verstappen
Nico Hulkenberg
Sergio Perez
Yuki Tsunoda
Jack Doohan
Liam Lawson
Oliver Bearman
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
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What Carlos Sainz thinks about the lengthy modern Formula 1 calendar might seem an odd place to start when assessing his appointment to a directorship of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.
But it handily sums up why he’ll be so useful to his peers in their ongoing struggle with the FIA.
The drivers regularly moan about having to do 24 grands prix these days – and probably more if Liberty Media wants to squeeze a few extra million pounds from its commercial rights ownership – and the impact such regular travel has on those who arrive at events latest and leave earliest.
They do generally remember their media training just well enough to point out that many of their team staff have it much harder and don’t get to travel first class or indeed, on private planes.
So, when Sainz began to speak on the topic in the context of his hero Fernando Alonso set to reach 400 F1 starts towards the end of last year, an understandable amount of surprise followed.
“I think Formula 1 calendars now are very demanding and this is going to be a very hot topic for the drivers to decide on their future,” Sainz said – having recalled his double world rally champion father’s similar passion to Alonso in continuing in motorsport as he ages.
“Especially if you want to have kind of a stable family life when you turn 35, 40, and you start thinking about kids, et cetera.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Getty Images
“This will be the main deciding factor in individual people choosing whether to take the 24 to 25 race calendar or not. It will also depend a lot on that factor.
“Whether I’m there or not, I have no clue right now, but I do see myself, after 200 races in 10 years, racing for another 200 [in] another 10 years. This, I can say yes. But I don’t know how it will pan out.”
Now, Sainz is going to do at least some of those targeted 200 races beyond his current start total of 206 representing his peers – and at a time when the GPDA is regularly involved in matters well beyond its original remit of improving safety standards.
Only this week, the spotlight is on fan interaction with drivers after the hostile boos Max Verstappen received at F175 in London’s O2 – and the reaction of the similarly barracked FIA.
The governing body, after all, chastised those who booed Verstappen and his Red Bull boss Christian Horner, not even a month after changing its rules to harshly punish drivers that use their own freedom of expression in a manner the FIA is seemingly driven to eliminate.
One doesn’t cancel out the other – as much as that is an overall theme of this horribly online age – but it represents how this topic just isn’t going to go away.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Indeed, Sainz was asked about it in his first public appearance for Williams during its season launch at Silverstone last week. His reply was as thoughtful as ever.
Having insisted drivers should be controlled and mature enough not to swear in their public presentations, Sainz asked: “Do I think this is too much for radio communication and the adrenaline and the pressure that we have inside the car [to be policed]?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I think it’s too much what the FIA is trying to achieve with bans and everything.”
Here is what the GPDA now gains overall – a director many F1 observers (including this writer) believe is perhaps the wisest of the current racing crop. A man of considerable maturity, who will work to ensure calm heads prevail in these tense times.
Take Sainz’s exit from Ferrari.
Insiders from his camp suggest one of the reasons why he took so long to decide his next step was in part because he was dealing with the emotional impact of losing one of F1’s top seats – in which he had excelled alongside long-established Ferrari star, Charles Leclerc.
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Sainz didn’t automatically run to that supposedly lucrative Audi offer, but eventually instead selected Williams as his better short-term move.
That squad is now hoping it will benefit from Sainz having processed the disappointment of leaving race-winning machinery and being fired up to work with new team-mate Alex Albon in preparing Williams for its big chance to leap up the order in 2026 – when the new technical regulations commence.
And so too on this front can the GPDA gain. In Sainz, it now has a director who embodies the high standards of professionalism that are all too quickly ignored in this age.
The F175 crowd booing the FIA logo should serve as a warning to the governing body in this regard.
F1’s fans can see who is acting in the far more reasonable manner – however noble the intent of the swearing clampdown is deep down in trying to reduce the risk of abuse of officials, and that of course, far from all of them were expressing their beliefs in said stark manner in the O2.
The GPDA has clearly felt it was being ignored in an arena where FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is trying to make a clear mark – to the extent it felt the need to address him directly in its protesting statement last November.
In Sainz, it has now appointed a representative always worth listening to.
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In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
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Williams driver Carlos Sainz has replaced Sebastian Vettel as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – joining George Russell as the only two active racers involved in managing the body.
Russell was the only active member of the Formula 1 drivers’ interests organisation since four-time world champion Vettel retired at the end of 2022, when he was racing for Aston Martin.
The GPDA has been led by ex-F1 driver and double Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz as chairman since 2014, with Russell joining in 2021 – after only two seasons competing in grand prix racing.
Along with Wurz, Russell and Sainz, the GPDA’s management is completed by their fellow director Anastasia Fowle, who handles the organisation’s legal interests.
“I am passionate about my sport and think we drivers have a responsibility to do all we can to work with the stakeholders to forward the sport in many aspects,” said Sainz.
“So, I’m very happy and proud to do my part by taking on the director’s role in the GPDA.”
Sebastian Vettel
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The GPDA was first formed back in 1961 with the aim of improving safety standards to protect drivers and motorsport event attendees in an era when racing risks were considerably higher.
It was reformed in 1994 after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at that year’s Imola race and has been active ever since.
In recent years it has been involved in a number of non-racing matters – such as the near drivers’ strike following the missile attack at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Last year, the GPDA also called for FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to treat drivers like adults amid the governing body’s ongoing clampdown on driver expression.
List of GPDA directors
In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Sebastian Vettel
Carlos Sainz
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“I don’t want to keep saying that we’re sacrificing this year for next year. But this year is definitely a time to do that.”
This line pretty much sums up Alex Albon’s thinking on Williams’ upcoming campaign, highlighting the team’s laser focus on catching the right wave in 2026 when F1 introduces all-new cars.
But that doesn’t mean Williams is just throwing in the towel this year. Performance in F1 is not a light switch you can flick on but the result of a long process of installing the right people to build a winning culture and the right tools to execute that vision. The team that is supposed to reap the rewards in the future from a large-scale rebuild is largely the same team that runs the Grove factory today, with team boss James Vowles revealing the team’s staff has swelled to over a thousand people already.
A lot of the pieces those people are helping Williams build should already be coming together this year, whether it’s better ideas, tools or methodologies. Some of those are already in place, as evidenced by the contrast between Williams’ launch last week and its dire situation 12 months ago, when its 2024 car came together late and severely overweight.
“The car will be on the weight limit and on time,” Vowles said. “We demonstrated to the world that we can build a car to the correct standard and make it leave the garage within one minute. So that’s two very different changes from where we are last year. The quality of the fit, the quality of the build, the quality of the product is a huge step upwards. The packaging is another step upwards. And we haven’t even got into aerodynamics and suspension and performance yet.
“Every area I look at on the car is just a world of difference for me from where we were before. We’re not finished on our journey, and I’m not here standing on our soapbox saying that we’re a benchmark, but we’re on the right pathway to getting back there.”
Carlos Sainz, Williams FW47
Photo by: Williams
Despite all those tangible gains, Williams won’t be sure if it has outdeveloped its direct rivals until the end of the Bahrain test, and arguably even until Melbourne qualifying. Albon would like to aim for the “top half of the midfield”, but says his evaluation of whether Williams is on the right track is still more based on the momentum of change he can see behind the scenes than the timesheets.
“I would like to see us making a step from last year for sure, just in terms of quantifying that it’s a little bit difficult to say,” he added. “I’d like to be fighting up at the top half of that midfield fight. We’ll see how big of a midfield fight there is this year. I think it’s going to be closer even to the top teams.
“But it’s not so much result-based as you would expect. I think that last year, if you just look at where we were in terms of timing and being late and being overweight, these kinds of areas were fundamental to be fixed for this year and we’ve already started in a much better position. There are loads of other examples, but they’re the kind of things that I want to see improved for this year, because I think it’s what’s going to create the foundation for a better 2026.”
Some of the changes Albon is hinting at are related to the hiring spree Williams has embarked on, but also to the infrastructure projects the squad has commissioned. The days of keeping track of car parts via a Microsoft Excel sheet are now also a blush-inducing relic of the past. This is all part of the process that Vowles embarked on when he was hired by team owner Dorilton Capital in January 2023, the last phase of which won’t be completed until 2027 at the very earliest.
“Everyone is aligned that we want to be winning world championships. What I can demonstrate is very clear progress that’s taking place in infrastructure, culture, technology that’s kicking in, we’re moving into a new building,” he explained. “This year we’re bringing in what I think will be a benchmark driver-in-the-loop simulator. We’re bringing in tools and technologies coming this year. That was started in 2023, so if you put your focus on the following year, you’ll miss out about long-term evolution.
“There are bits we’re doing today that won’t come online until 2027. That’s unfortunate, but that’s part of a longer journey. The fact that we’ve gone from 700 people to over 1,000 individuals means that you’ll have some low-hanging fruit, just producing a better car – having more performance being added to it. But I consider that secondary to the long-term investment to get us where we need to be.”
Carlos Sainz, Williams, James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing, Alex Albon, Williams
Photo by: Getty Images
Vowles rejects any comparisons with Sauber, where many felt an overwhelming focus on 2026 hurt the current team’s performance last year and, with it, dented its morale.
“I ask you a question back. Do you think that happened in one year, or do you think that was multiple years? That’s the point, it took multiple years for that to happen, so it takes multiple years to build back,” he said.
Vowles says the team, which first put the 2025 car in the wind tunnel back in March last year, already has a firm end date for the in-season development of its car in mind, although he stopped short of disclosing when Williams would fully shift to the 2026 project.
“Not at the moment,” he said. “Mainly because I want to see how we get out the gate, but the bias is very much towards 2026. 2 January was the first legal date our 2026 car was in the wind tunnel and it hasn’t exited since then. We front-loaded the development on the 2025 as much as possible to then front-load the 2026 car.
“The only thing that’s going to make a difference is obviously when we turn a wheel in Australia. But even then, I don’t think our pathway will change where we are.”
Nevertheless, with a second experienced driver alongside Albon in Sainz – a proven race winner too – Williams has vastly upgraded its driver line-up, as well as any other changes that will already have an impact this year.
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With its well-documented weight issues Williams took a long time to get off the mark last year and could only manage ninth in the standings. Regardless of its 2026 focus – which will be shared by a lot of its rivals – 2025 should present a step up by all metrics if it aims to keep up the momentum created by the buzz around its launch.
In this article
Filip Cleeren
Formula 1
Carlos Sainz
Alex Albon
Williams
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Formula 1 is about to host its first-ever season livery launch party in London. Technically the event is called “F1 75 Live at The O2” — landing, as it is, at the outset of the 75th season in the sport’s history. At the centerpiece of the event, all 10 F1 teams will take their turn unveiling their car (or their car’s main livery, at least) for the 2025 season — on a stage, in a massive arena, as well as in front of a global audience of millions.
Given this is the first-ever event of it kind, the only concrete details we have are the ones we’ve been given by F1 itself.
Here’s everything you need to know about the F1 75 Live event at The O2 Arena in London:
When is the F1 75 Live event?
Everything kicks off at 5:30pm GMT, and the event is scheduled to last for five hours.
How can I watch it?
Unless you were one of the lucky few to grab arena tickets in the literal minutes before they sold out, you can watch along on F1’s YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook pages.
What is the plan for the F1 75 Live event?
Traditionally, each team pulls the covers off its new cars in their own ways: a racetrack with a few media in attendance, or in more recent (and boring) ways, as an email or social media post with a few images of the new car’s paintwork and some canned driver quotes.
This time, Formula 1 has stepped in to bring all the teams together on one night in London in front of a live audience with musical acts, streaming the show for free. Though the event is fronting F1’s 75th anniversary, think of F1 75 Live more as an opening ceremony than a birthday party.
More importantly, it’s F1’s chance to build up — and, possibly, better control — the biggest moment before cars hit the track for pre-season testing. By turning the normally workaday livery launches into a spectacle, there’s a chance to invent something of a 25th audience-friendly event in a schedule already stuffed with races. And, given the musical performances (more on those in a moment), there’s a chance to do something that’s a little more loose, and globally pop cultural, than the usual nose-down focus of a race weekend.
How will the event go?
All 20 drivers will be there, plus the team bosses — as well as, of course, the new 2025 F1 cars.
Each team will have a seven minute segment on the O2 stage to do what they wish, meaning we are in for a range of interpretations when it comes to a livery launch. It’s worth noting: in advance of F1 75 Live, we’ve already seen both Williams and McLaren unveil their car designs — but not the liveries the cars will wear. For the other eight teams, everything we see will be new.
The running order will be the reverse of last season’s constructors’ championship standings, meaning the evening will kick off with Sauber and end with McLaren.
If you’re doing the math, 10 teams multiplied by seven minutes doesn’t nearly fill up a five-hour arena-sized production. That’s where the host and musical acts come into play.
What artists are performing at F1 75 Live?
F1 75 Live’s musical line-up
Photo by: Formula 1
F1 finally announced the event’s musical line-up on Monday, and it’s quite the varied bill. There’s American country singer Kane Brown and rapper mgk (formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly), who had a famous interaction with Sky F1’s Martin Brundle during the 2023 Sao Paulo GP that led to the two falling out.
Also performing are UK pop legends Take That, who these days perform as a trio, minus Robbie Williams.
Composer Bryan Tyler, who produced the F1 theme, will also provide the musical backdrop.
Who is hosting?
F1 75 Live Host
Photo by: Formula 1
The main emcee for the evening is Jack Whitehall, a London-born comedian and actor who is likely unrecognisable to the rest of the world save those who have seen “Jungle Cruise.”
Of course, since this is an F1 event, we’ll also see familiar faces from its broadcast channels, including Laura Winter and Lawrence Barretto. One we won’t see: Will Buxton, who left F1 TV to join Fox Sport’s IndyCar coverage for 2025.
Is there a way to make Lewis Hamilton central to this moment?
Absolutely. The F1 75 Live event will be Lewis Hamilton’s first public appearance with Ferrari. Expect this to generate its own flurry of headlines and social posts.
What about the other 19 teams and drivers?
Every team, aside from McLaren and Aston Martin, have a new driver lineup in whole or in part, so we’ll get to see drivers wearing new uniforms and how those relationships are building up.
What’s the deal with the O2 Arena?
The O2 Arena is a large, multi-purpose arena located in east London, sitting beside the River Thames. It has the third-highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the UK, with a capacity of 20,000. Originally it was called the Millennium Dome, but given how time operates, that quickly turned into a white elephant until sponsorship arrived from communication firm O2.
Whatever the name, the arena was (in 2023) the third-busiest music in the world, behind New York’s Madison Square Garden and the Movistar Arena in Chile. Which is to say, F1 didn’t skimp on the party’s location.
In this article
Ben Hunt
Formula 1
Culture
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Nico Hulkenberg
Carlos Sainz
Max Verstappen
Esteban Ocon
Pierre Gasly
Lance Stroll
George Russell
Charles Leclerc
Alex Albon
Lando Norris
Liam Lawson
Jack Doohan
Isack Hadjar
Yuki Tsunoda
Oscar Piastri
Oliver Bearman
Gabriel Bortoleto
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Ferrari
Red Bull Racing
Mercedes
Sauber
McLaren
Racing Bulls
Williams
Aston Martin Racing
Haas F1 Team
Alpine
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