AI officiatingā¦
"Drivers will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it "
Soooo does that include the car leaving the track horizontally 
I thought the gravel traps at Qatar did a great job of enforcing track limits. We saw that you didnāt want to touch them for the optimal lap time, but then in that battle between Tsunoda and Magnussen where Magnussen got run out into the gravel, he still was able to maintain control and actually make the move into the next corner. So it penalized obvious track limit violations but didnāt nerf the on-track battles.
OR WE COULD JUST USE AI I SUPPOSE
Exactly! Iāve been saying this for ages. This would eliminate so many issues with penalties for track limits.
Good. Makes room for some young, eager driver to have a chance (which is Lawson, it appears)
Is Bortelto completely screwed because of Sauber/Audiās incompetence, or is there hope for him to impress and jump to a top team like George Russel did?
Sauber will probably be trash again next year because Audi doesnāt want to burn a bunch of money before they have their name on the team, and because there is a new ruleset for 2026. I expect in 2026 they will have their stuff together a bit more. But because they have lagged behind in the past few years it will take them several years to start seeing real progress I imagine. Williams has been trying to dig itself out of a performance hole for 15 years now. Of course an Aston or McLaren style renaissance is possible if they get the right people in the right spots and develop smartly, but I still would expect it to take a few years to have things on an upward trajectory.
Bortoleto needs to focus on beating Hulkenberg who has proven he is still devastatingly quick. That will be a tough task for him. IF he can do that then Iām sure bigger teams will start sniffing around.
George didnāt āimpressā so much to earn his seat. He showed he was competent. But he was a Merc junior and was always headed to Mercedes if he showed he could handle the job.
Everyone knew Checo being sacked was coming, just waiting on the parties to haggle over the 
.
Regardless if you liked Checo or not, the data supports dumping him. I am shocked they didnāt pull the trigger mid-season. Albon had a better go vs Max and was sacked.
Checo ended the season 7 positions, 285 points, 9 wins, 10 podiums, and 8 poles behind his team-mate and 1/2 second off on fast lap pace on avg. Checo was minus 22 on head to head comparison, only finishing ahead of Verstappen when Max DNFād in Australia. Verstappen amassed the same number of points in 2024 that Checo did in 2023 and 2024 COMBINED. That is a HUGE divide. His form pretty much fell apart around China/Miami and never recovered.
The team undoubtedly missed out on the top step due to his inability to handle the stress and cope with the relative loss of pace in the Red Bull. $18 Million difference to the bottom line.
That $18 million hit is minor compared to the sponsorship money and fan base Checo brought. Thatās why he kept his spot for so long. He was extremely marketable in Latin America and brought huge money from that to the team.
Lawson will perform better but Iām concerned he will butt heads with Max. Both seem stubborn and hard-headed. Yuki wouldāve absolutely melted down next to Max and crashed that car a dozen times, even though I think he has the pace to be in that seat. But for him, I feel like he needs to dump Red Bull. They donāt believe in him clearly. Iād take that Honda money and start knocking on Mr. Strollās door to see if Lance can be coaxed out for a Honda engine deal and a superior driver. Iād be curious to see how Yukiās discipline changes when heās not being ultra-micro-managed by Red Bull while also constantly being overlooked for promotion. Plus, I think Yuki could learn a lot from Alonso and really become a good all-rounder.
Yuki would be a nightmare choice. He is extremely strong-willed and stubborn and also a total wild-card as a team mate. Given the choice between Yuki and a young talent, RedBull should choose the young talent and take the risk/reward that goes with that. Yuki just doesnāt have enough upside to justify the shenanigans that will accompany. Ideal world, Redbull needs a solid and experienced No2 driver that will rack points and play team rules, unfortunately they passed on Hulk when the opportunity arose.
I think Ferrari will be a train wreck next season. Leclerc and Hamilton will not mix well, both will expect to be the No1 driver and will make waves. I think McLaren is the team to beat for next season. They just have to manage the inter-driver rivalry. If Red Bull had a path to a decent and reliable No2 driver they could be positioned for a solid P2 in constructors or even P1 if the McLaren rivalry implodes. As it stands, I imagine they will be fighting between Ferrari and Merc for P2, 3, 4.
I think Max can drag Red Bull pretty close to Constructorās contention and Lawson can play spoiler more often than Checo, so I think itāll be a true 3-way fight between McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull. Merc might be in the mix more now that they are understanding the car better but losing Hamilton has weakened their line-up. George is good but not as complete as some of his peers at the moment and Antonelli, while he might be the next big thing, is totally fresh and I think there will be a lack of direction there a bit for them.
I agree that the Hamilton/Leclerc pairing is going to implode. Itās the most talented pairing on the grid, but I just donāt think Hamilton will mesh well with the culture there. Vasseur has managed that team back to a much more professional organization, but that Italian passion doesnāt seem aligned with Hamiltonās personality.
I think next year will be a big challenge for those three top teams to manage their intra-team driver battles. They all have drivers with strong personalities and race winning talent.
Bortoleto will have to be patient.
I do wonder what value there is for a manufacturer in F1 nowadays.
EV cars like Tesla and BYD havenāt relied upon any racing heritage. Obviously Audi Group have serious challenges. Not sure how F1 relates to
Only fully electric models starting in 2026
Audiās plan is to have more than 20 fully electric models in its portfolio by 2025. By as early as 2026, the only new models the brand with the four rings releases on the market will be fully electric.
Aston and McLaren have their challenges, but of course one could argue itās be worse with F1 involved. Maybe, maybe not. Ferrari are Ferrari. Honda is now looking to merge with Nissan
Itād be good to get an honest study on this.
With how they sold a part of their F1 team to Qatar I sometimes think itās a getaway to sell Audi eventually in case things go worse as expected.
With KTM in trouble in MotoGP as well I do think having āreal teamsā is more sustainable. I could be wrong I am just riffing Teams building their own race vehicles with the owners name on the door. Certainly itās easier to be a fan of, lets say Williams, than Merc, Audi or Aston.
As we will see with Lewis, fans gravitate towards human names, unless the brands were born from the fires of racing like McLaren and Ferrari.
Frenchman Isack Hadjar has been promoted to Red Bullās second team to race alongside Japanese Yuki Tsunoda during the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Iād advise listening in on the RB radio channels at every race next year, itās going to be spicy.
Hadjar is a head case.
well well well, how the turn tables.