Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Will Cadillac be patient enough to succeed in Formula 1, wonders @MazdaChris:
F1’s history is full of examples of teams who have, on paper, had all of the things they need to succeed, and yet consistently underperformed. This is because you also need all of those elements – the designers, fabricators, engineers, heads of units, and so on – to function effectively together in a way that maximises potential. Even major established teams with huge resources and long histories can fall afoul here. Consider Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, and many others, all of whom have had periods in the doldrums.
The future for Cadillac may well hold success. But you have to realistically expect them to start at a low level, and take a considerable amount of time before they can really get the team working correctly to deliver the results they’re hoping for. The most important question for me, is how long the execs are prepared to continue putting money into the project before that success materialises.
@MazdaChris
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Daniel, Garf, Michael Griffin, Monkzie, nitin24, Obi-Spa Kenobi, Dodge5847, Gerulf Dosinger and Juan!
On this day in motorsport
- Five years ago today the season-opening Australian Grand Prix was cancelled, two days before it was due to take place, due to the Covid-19 outbreak
- 25 years ago today Michael Schumacher took a step towards his third world championship – and first for Ferrari – by winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix
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El Pollo Loco
12th March 2025, 6:46
What are all these dudes doing on each other? Let’s focus on F1, please. Speaking of Jerome D’Ambrosio, it was amusing to learn he’s Lewis’ man in the garage as I’d always use him as my answer to the DOTD because it seemed incredibly random.
Ferdi
12th March 2025, 7:13
I am wondering whether there are any others sports in which the coaches or team principles are this immature and taking aim at each other? It just comes across as really silly.
El Pollo Loco
12th March 2025, 7:30
Mud slinging between coaches does happen, but it’s rare and not embarrassingly juvenile like this.
PeteB (@peteb)
12th March 2025, 10:25
They make the world of football look professional by comparison which is an impressive feat!
tielemst
12th March 2025, 15:43
Yeah, five José Mourinhos is a bit much
Jere (@jerejj)
12th March 2025, 7:22
Honestly, how many reserve drivers does Alpine need before they’re satisfied? I get their intention, but having four at once is abnormal since teams usually have two reserve drivers on average.
Additionally, hiring more & more only gets further redundant because only Colapinto would replace Doohan if anyone.
El Pollo Loco
12th March 2025, 7:28
You’re confused. Besides FC, the others are just paying for the right to have “F1 reserve driver” on their CV. They’re not “signing” them because they think they’re going to use them.
S Arkazam
12th March 2025, 8:50
A bit like in US companies everybody having a title starting with VP.
El Pollo Loco
13th March 2025, 0:08
I worked at a firm which had junior VPs, VPs, SVP (senior), EVP (executive). That way they can really make you feel like you’re climbing ten ladder while not going much of anywhere.
Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
12th March 2025, 9:12
I bet Alpine still think they’ve got Piastri on their books!
sim
12th March 2025, 9:36
“It doesn’t hurt that he doesn’t like Toto and I being friends,” Brown told AP. “We’d all like to see him knocked down.” Plain talking from Zac.
SteveP
12th March 2025, 19:36
I notice an increasing tendency to mutate the dismissal of the accusations of improper behaviour by Horner to being cleared.
First time round the Red Bull board dismissed the accusations, on appeal the board decided they were right the first time.
Whether the whole thing would have concluded, after years bouncing round the legal system, with any finding against Horner is debatable – always assuming the accuser could afford years of legal representation against a set of billionaires anyway.
MichaelN
12th March 2025, 19:44
This has been the phrasing here from day one. It’s somewhat defensible in that, by focusing on Horner being subject to an investigation, it’s not technically incorrect that he has been cleared of that. But it, either intentionally or not, also makes it seem like the subject is not the investigation but rather the complaints themselves.
That Red Bull would do nothing about it was always a given. They have a history when it comes to circling the wagons, and smoothing over Horner’s antics pales in comparison to some of their other shenanigans.
El Pollo Loco
13th March 2025, 0:17
I don’t like Horner. No one likes Horner. But the entire circumstances in which this complaint was first filed, quickly leaked and used as a political weapon by certain stakeholders inside and outside the team make are incredibly suspect. So, just like he has not been technically cleared of anything. Neither was anything ever proven. So, in lieu of anything more coming from this, it’s equally baseless to suggest he is innocent or guilty of anything besides infidelity.
Robbie1
13th March 2025, 20:37
“No one likes Horner.”
Ah, a comment from one of those toxic piles of human garbage who thinks he can speak for everyone.
I prefer Horner any-day over people who do that.