Toto Wolff

RaceFans Round-up: 13th January 2025

Posted on

| Written by

Welcome to Monday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.

Comment of the day

This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is Roth Man – thanks to everyone who joined in!:

James Vowles, Franco Colapinto, Williams, Yas Marina, 2024

“If you crash at Singapore, I’ll be really suspicious”
Roth Man (@Rdotquestionmark)

Social media and links

What Makes Toto, Toto? (Mercedes)

'I got a puncture at 180mph. I went off into the barriers and slid 250 metres on the roof. I got out of the car by myself, but the paramedics found me unconscious behind the barrier, lying down with my helmet and safety equipment on. I have no recollection of this.'

NASCAR’s rule change to guarantee spots for celebrity drivers goes too far (The New York Times)

'NASCAR desperately wants eyeballs from fans of other series, so it can’t bear the thought of a Lewis Hamilton or Daniel Ricciardo coming over to compete but then missing the race.'

Mexico City EPrix race highlights (Formula E via YouTube)

Formula Regional Oceania, round one, race two (Toyota Racing New Zealand)

Formula Regional Oceania, round one, race three (Toyota Racing New Zealand)

RaceFans always endeavours to credit original sources. Want to share a relevant motorsport link with us? Send it in via the contact form.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Ace, Kei and Diego!

On this day in motorsport

  • Gianni Morbidelli was born on this day in 1968
  • 45 years ago today a new F1 season began at Buenos Aires. Alan Jones won for Williams and Alain Prost scored the final point for sixth place on his debut

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

24 comments on “RaceFans Round-up: 13th January 2025”

  1. El Pollo Loco
    13th January 2025, 9:36

    The COTD reminds me how, in the context of F1, it’d be appropriate to substitute the use of the term double standard to the Briatore standard.

    1. It’s a disgrace that F1 / the FIA let him get back into the sport like this.

      1. @bascb back in the late 2000s, they did try to impose a permanent ban on Briatore being able to return to Formula 1, but the French legal system ruled that the FIA did not have the authority to impose a permanent ban on Briatore at the time (it was on the technicality that Briatore was not a licence holder at the time, and “The FIA … can sanction licence holders, leaders, members of an ASN [national motorsport authorities], but it cannot with respect to third parties, take measures equivalent to a sanction – in contravention of article 28 of its statutes,” to quote from the ruling that the court made).

        The licencing system that was then brought in afterwards was, in part, so it could impose sanctions on senior members of a team if they did conduct that sort of behaviour in the future – however, it’s not allowed to retrospectively cover previous actions. Therefore, as much as you and many others may object to it, because of the way that French court interpreted the FIA’s powers at the time, the French legal system has allowed him to reapply to rejoin the sport later on.

        1. Yes, that was a big load of egg on the face of the FIA, i remember that only too well. It’s not legal things per se that should stop Briatore. But Alpine should have been clearly told behind the scenes that hiring Briatore was a no go IMO (by liberty, by the FIA, by other teams etc. not to mention by their own board).

          Did he get rid of the investigations over tax fraud in Italy already or is he still avoiding the territory?

          1. Did he get rid of the investigations over tax fraud in Italy already or is he still avoiding the territory?

            I don’t know, but the old saying is that the only things you can’t avoid are death and taxes,
            meanwhile, Briatore recently said the only thing you can’t avoid is death. Clearly, he has the tax avoidance thing sorted in some way.

          2. He was cleared in 2022 on appeal.

          3. @bascb the thing is, it does seem that the decision to re-hire Briatore wasn’t universally welcomed in private amongst those parties, even if some of them have been more diplomatic in public about the decision.

            It’s worth noting that Briatore has talked about how he has personal connections to Luca de Meo that pre-date de Meo joining Renault, and mentioned in interviews last year that he’d been making suggestions to de Meo about how to run the Alpine team for at least three years before de Meo personally approached Briatore and made a direct offer to him to run the team.

            In that respect, even if all of those parties might have suggested to Alpine that it wasn’t a good idea to appoint Briatore, de Meo was the one making the decision and there may have been an element of emotion in that decision that was beyond logical reasoning.

        2. anon, there was a bit more to it than that. The French court also said the attempted penalties were too harsh in any case. The EU has limitations for the amount of penalty that can be imposed outside a court of law, with sporting authorities not being allowed to set anything in excess of a handful of years (it used to be 5 but appears to have since reduced to 4) unless there is exceptional reason. Flavio’s conduct would probably qualify for “exception reason” had the FIA not fallen foul of its own Article 28 of the Statutes, but Pat Symonds’ did not. This was why Pat Symonds had his penalty overturned as well.

          (Out of interest, Flavio and Pat did eventually settle the appeal by agreeing to a 5-year paddock-only ban… after securing a F1 role that meant he didn’t need to go back into the paddock until after the ban was served to the FIA’s satisfaction).

      2. El Pollo Loco
        14th January 2025, 2:08

        My point was actually the opposite. I was referring to the double standard Briatore has been held to.

        Brawn cheated just as badly and was literally the guy at Benetton running the technical side. Briatore is the guy who puts together the engineering and driver talent. He can’t engineer illegal solutions. Brawn had his own crash gate at Ferrari. He encouraged Michael to spin out in Monaco to prevent Alonso from being able to nail pole. Yet the British F1 media have never dragged his name through the mud ever. The fact that Schumacher and Alonso were up against popular British drivers and in a French team and that Briatore was Italian and Brawn British I’m sure had nothing to do with the difference in how the two were treated. The disgrace is the utter hypocrisy.

        1. Sorry, but I don’t remember Brawn ever asking a driver to crash on purpose though El Pollo Loco.

          1. El Pollo Loco
            14th January 2025, 20:23

            How is that any different? And they were doing it purely to influence the title fight rather than to ensure their team could stay on the grid which seems even worse to me (Renault threatened to pull the plug on the team if they failed to win in 2008, which is what made FA winning the next race fair and square doubly ironic). Either way, my point is not that what FB did was OK, but that guys like Brawn and Symonds have not only faced nearly zero backlash from the media, but have gone on to work for F1 at the most senior levels.

            And Nelson Piquet himself first proposed the idea. Not that it absolves Briatore or Symonds at all. Piquet was doing it for his own selfish reasons, which makes a huge difference. He knew he’d never get another seat if Renault dropped out of F1.

            It seems you, like most fans, are pretty hazy on a lot of the details and context.

        2. Brawn (and Benetton) were penalised according to the standards of the time and the regulations that were breached. The FIA was heavily criticised for not penalising Ferrari for a certain breach of the regulations, but there is an interesting section in the book “The Art of War” where Ross explained that Ferrari had already managed to persuade everyone to put in the relevant loophole because nobody challenged it at the appropriate point the previous year.

          Briatore masterminded the strategy that saw Piquet Jr. crash, with Symonds’ assistance. That breached a different set of regulations, as well as being 14 years later with a more cynical bunch of people involved. Also, the way the scandal got thrown in at a time when FIA President Max Mosley was politically weak and could no longer protect the Renault duo, led to the much harsher penalty.

          1. El Pollo Loco
            14th January 2025, 20:36

            But does everyone go bananas and scream about what a disgrace it is every time Brawn’s name is mentioned like they do with Briatore? No. Personally, I think Brawn is a genius, but let alone the teddy bear many perceive him to be, he did all the same stuff as Briatore. And so did others on the grid.

            But Briatore made for the perfect villain, not to mention likely source of a bit of envy: Italian, flashy, F1 outsider, middle aged man married to 20-something super model Heidi Klum, indelibly associated with two of the most disliked or at least controversial drivers (in Britain) in F1 history who had extremely contentious clashes with British F1 heroes like Hill and Williams and Hamilton and McLaren. It is so easy to see why Flavio was made public enemy number 1, especially when Brawn was a long time British, F1 insider who put Button in a title winning car (when the story broke) and then of course handed Hamilton a car that allowed him to break almost every F1 record.

          2. @El Pollo Loco If we speak over Flavio Briatore who is banned for life from the F1 (which is lifted by an non F1 organisation) for Cheating (and something different then evading the rules in car design) by influencing an race through letting a driver crash.. Is not strange to be maded Public enemy nr. 1 when he is that..
            So Brawn di this also no they didn’t only Flavio Briatore did.

          3. El Pollo Loco
            15th January 2025, 17:13

            That was unintelligible. If you were attempting to say Brawn didn’t do the same thing… quali decides who wins in Monaco. So, it’s literally the same thing and it’s funny you’re trying to split hairs and make excuses for others cheating.

  2. Nice to see these videos of smaller series. I would probably never have found those myself!

  3. I’m surprised Toto referred to speed in mph even though he’s from a metric country, even more so since he referred to his sliding distance in meters anyway.
    A rather British-style inconsistency, but anyway, I never knew he’d had such a big accident in the distant past or at least I don’t recall hearing or reading about anything like this before.
    The most surprising thing is falling unconscious only a little later.
    Unsurprisingly, zero recollection as a result, but most importantly he survived with only relatively minor injuries, & finally, I could’ve never guessed his first meeting with Susie would’ve been a consequence of an on-track accident.
    Always something new to learn.

    A weird new rule in Nascar.

    1. I’m surprised Toto referred to speed in mph even though he’s from a metric country, even more so since he referred to his sliding distance in meters anyway.

      Maybe he’s “gone native” :)

      I never knew he’d had such a big accident in the distant past or at least I don’t recall hearing or reading about anything like this before.

      There’s a lengthy interview around (I saw it a few years ago) where he says he “loves the Nordschleife” and says Suzy argues that he loves her and likes the Nordschleife – then leans forward conspiratorially and says, like a naughty schoolboy, “but I do love the Nordschleife”

      1. I must’ve failed to notice that interview at the time.

  4. Negative Nelly Day.

    Still do not understand the “new format”. Just seems to be much more brief. Am I missing something?

    No disrespect to Roth Man, but the were quite a few much better captions. I know it is subjective, but I do not usually comment just because my favourite didn’t win. Or else all I can assume is that there is some subtlety to the caption that I am – once again – missing.

    1. El Pollo Loco
      15th January 2025, 0:04

      He’s driving for Briatore/Renault now. Briatore was the boss of the F1 team when Crashgate occurred at the 2008 Singapore GP.

      1. Yeah, I get that. It just seems to be too much of a stating the obvious for me.

        1. Just wanted to reiterate that It’s nothing personal against Roth Man who has put forward many other excellent caption entries.

          1. El Pollo Loco
            15th January 2025, 17:14

            It was super personal. This grudge against Roth Man has to stop!

Comments are closed.