Welcome to Monday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Is it a two-horse race in the drivers’ championship now?
After Imola, I had a glimmer of hope that Verstappen might be able to challenge McLaren if they were to falter later in the season but it’s clear that it won’t be the case and after the European rounds they’ll be even more unbeatable.
I hope the duel between Norris and Piastri heats up after the winter break, this peace cannot last. @MarkWebber
Frederic Vasseur: 'This result, following the one in Monaco confirms we’re building momentum. We’ve now had three strong races in a row and have moved back up to second place in the constructors’ championship, which is a positive step.'
Jonathan Wheatley: 'I want to single out and congratulate the pit crew who worked so hard throughout the race, including an outstanding 2.1 second stop.'
'The Safety Car was withdrawn on the final lap and Lindblad crossed the line to claim his second victory of the season. Montoya was second and Verschoor third, with Crawford and Dunne’s late charge seeing them into fourth and fifth respectively, while Marti ended up (sixth).'
'The Brazilian also embellished the Catalan weekend by signing the fastest lap, scoring further points that allow him to extend his lead in the overall standings to twenty-six points on his closest rival.'
'Lacorte has been handed a one round ban that he is set to serve at Spielberg. Secondly, Roman Bilinski has received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Jose Garfias.'
'It has emerged on Sunday morning that Stroll lost his temper in the garage after being knocked out at the end of Q2, in which he lapped 0.535 seconds slower than team-mate Fernando Alonso. Word was going around the paddock that Stroll had broken things in the garage and sworn at team members. Asked about this, a team spokesperson said: 'Lance was upset.''
While the Sky Pad segments and commentary were really good today, the media pen interviews were sub-standard.
"No comment" from drivers is always difficult to work with I can imagine, but saying to a driver "I hate seeing you in this mood" feels like poor form to me.
That indeed seemed to be the case, which means that being forced to retire was all on him for not bothering to back off when he’d clearly lost the battle against Lawson at T1.
Re Rachel Brookes’ interviews, I’ve always felt she was trying to “mom” the drivers during many of her interviews, not just today in the pen with questions to Max and Lewis. I generally don’t find her interviews informative. But that doesn’t excuse how Max treated her today. He was petulant and was trying to intimidate her while she was doing her job. They’re both professionals doing a job and while one shows far too much deference the other shows not nearly enough.
@g-funk @tophercheese21
How exactly did Max treat her? I don’t live in the UK, so I don’t use Sky’s coverage & therefore, I’m unaware of how her interviews go most of the time (including this time around), although I’ve heard some of them over the years on YouTube.
It was just Max being Max after being asked some difficult questions really. Quite aggressive body language and tone but nothing too dramatic. She really burned him saying the incidents take away some of his sparkle and set a bad example. Can see him refusing to speak to Sky again.
@rdotquestionmark That’s his problem in the end since he voluntarily gives a reason for tough questions in the first place over & over again.
People shouldn’t give any reason for justified criticism if they struggle to handle it.
Rachel Brookes was simply making a valid point over which Max unreasonably & unjustifiably got butthurt.
I never have any sympathy for people who get butthurt or upset because people criticize their totally self-inflicted illogical or clear-cut blatant indefensible actions instead of accepting reality & immediately admitting to doing something wrong, not to mention deliberately.
@g-funk I didn’t think she was trying to “mom” Verstappen yesterday. In fact, I think if she’d wanted to get anything out of him, her strategy was wrong. She could have started the interview by asking about the race, the strategy, the tyre choice under the safety car – all things that Verstappen was more likely to provide answers to. Then after softening him up and discussing the things he wanted to speak about, she could have asked about the two incidents with Russell.
By going straight in and asking about the clash with Russell, his response was predictable. It might have made no difference if she had tried to build some rapport first, but I think it would have given her a better shot at getting something out of him.
I think I she started out fine. Just get straight to the biggest story of the race. But once Max stated to stonewall and intimidate, her tone immediately reverted to the obliging mom asking her son about his day at school and her line of questioning switched to what would children think if they were watching.
Her interview with Lewis was where we got the I hate seeing you in this mood line, which doesn’t feel very professional. It came across as a coddling mother trying to cheer up her child rather than a reporter doing a job. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her say this line before on a number of occasions. It seems especially so with Lewis. There is a fine line with recognizing that it was a difficult day in the office to telling a driver that you hate seeing you in a particular mood.
I assumed Lance at least aggravated his wrist relieving frustrations on a wall, or something harder, however I would be really surprised if he didn’t reappear for his home grand prix. Hopefully he will use the Canadian GP to farewell his fan, who ever that may be.
I find the story extremely unlikely, since this was under parc fermé and the garage would have been under camera surveillance. Had anything actually been broken, then Aston Martin would have been in more trouble (since it is ultimately responsible for the actions of its employee in FIA philosophy and breaking things in the garage in parc fermé is a breach of regulations in and of itself). The FIA would have made comments on it had it occurred.
Sadly, Andrew Benson is either making things up on this occasion or relying on inaccurate sources.
@alianora-la-canta whilst it’s not completely unheard of for drivers to have kicked or thrown things around in the garage, I’d agree that those reports are probably exaggerated.
COTD: That’s indeed the high likelihood, given the average performance levels & points-scoring rates.
BBC: Quite a strong claim about Stroll & even if that were true, it went unseen on the world feed in any case.
Dave Nelson seems to be exaggerating the matter to some extent because not only did he (or anyone else, for that matter) literally answer that way, but I also doubt anyone would word a question that way.
Does Lance still want to do this? He has seemed agitated and annoyed for a good two or three years now, always giving short or sarcastic answers, and generally not seeming to be very fun to be around. I guess being partnered with Vettel and Alonso finally put to bed the illusion he might ever become properly competitive in F1, and that can’t be good for his motivation.
But no drama. He’s still in his mid twenties, has raced a lot in F1, had some good results, made some silly moves, but maybe it’s now time to move on and do something else. Get himself set up with a fancy MBA, sit on the board of some foundation, play golf and make a family and do the occasional Ferrari Challenge race up in Canada.
Guenther’s breaking down in Sunday’s Formula E race again in an apparent ‘red car’ electrical safety condition does rather damage the credibility of my previous comment accusing of him deliberately breaking down in exactly the same way to cheat and fix the race to propel fellow Stellantis driver Vandoorne to an unlikely win in Tokyo: https://www.racefans.net/2025/05/18/round-up-18th-may-2025/
Guenther lost something like 6th place yesterday, so they wouldn’t have done this deliberately to simply allay any previous suspicisions. It appears to be a genuine ongoing problem they have.
I understand that after Tokyo, the FIA did have extended discussions after the race with Stellantis, but The Race podcast thought these done to hopefully prevent future red car conditions from causing red flags. I’m the only person who theorised that it was race fixing with parallels with Piquet’s Crashgate story.
Mooa42
2nd June 2025, 0:56
Is it fair to assume that Albon retired because Williams didn’t have any spare wings? (only the 2 he smashed)
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd June 2025, 7:05
That indeed seemed to be the case, which means that being forced to retire was all on him for not bothering to back off when he’d clearly lost the battle against Lawson at T1.
Leroy (@g-funk)
2nd June 2025, 2:57
Re Rachel Brookes’ interviews, I’ve always felt she was trying to “mom” the drivers during many of her interviews, not just today in the pen with questions to Max and Lewis. I generally don’t find her interviews informative. But that doesn’t excuse how Max treated her today. He was petulant and was trying to intimidate her while she was doing her job. They’re both professionals doing a job and while one shows far too much deference the other shows not nearly enough.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
2nd June 2025, 4:24
I agree. I always find her interviews incredibly vapid, but that’s also no excuse for Max behaving the way he did.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd June 2025, 7:11
@g-funk @tophercheese21
How exactly did Max treat her? I don’t live in the UK, so I don’t use Sky’s coverage & therefore, I’m unaware of how her interviews go most of the time (including this time around), although I’ve heard some of them over the years on YouTube.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
2nd June 2025, 8:27
It was just Max being Max after being asked some difficult questions really. Quite aggressive body language and tone but nothing too dramatic. She really burned him saying the incidents take away some of his sparkle and set a bad example. Can see him refusing to speak to Sky again.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd June 2025, 11:48
@rdotquestionmark That’s his problem in the end since he voluntarily gives a reason for tough questions in the first place over & over again.
People shouldn’t give any reason for justified criticism if they struggle to handle it.
Rachel Brookes was simply making a valid point over which Max unreasonably & unjustifiably got butthurt.
I never have any sympathy for people who get butthurt or upset because people criticize their totally self-inflicted illogical or clear-cut blatant indefensible actions instead of accepting reality & immediately admitting to doing something wrong, not to mention deliberately.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
2nd June 2025, 9:53
@g-funk I didn’t think she was trying to “mom” Verstappen yesterday. In fact, I think if she’d wanted to get anything out of him, her strategy was wrong. She could have started the interview by asking about the race, the strategy, the tyre choice under the safety car – all things that Verstappen was more likely to provide answers to. Then after softening him up and discussing the things he wanted to speak about, she could have asked about the two incidents with Russell.
By going straight in and asking about the clash with Russell, his response was predictable. It might have made no difference if she had tried to build some rapport first, but I think it would have given her a better shot at getting something out of him.
Leroy (@g-funk)
2nd June 2025, 13:30
I think I she started out fine. Just get straight to the biggest story of the race. But once Max stated to stonewall and intimidate, her tone immediately reverted to the obliging mom asking her son about his day at school and her line of questioning switched to what would children think if they were watching.
Her interview with Lewis was where we got the I hate seeing you in this mood line, which doesn’t feel very professional. It came across as a coddling mother trying to cheer up her child rather than a reporter doing a job. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her say this line before on a number of occasions. It seems especially so with Lewis. There is a fine line with recognizing that it was a difficult day in the office to telling a driver that you hate seeing you in a particular mood.
HW Small
2nd June 2025, 4:29
Lance ‘broke things’ in the garage – including his wrist?
Factoring his outburst into his withdrawing from the race, fully expecting him to be out permanently now.
Mooa42
2nd June 2025, 5:55
I assumed Lance at least aggravated his wrist relieving frustrations on a wall, or something harder, however I would be really surprised if he didn’t reappear for his home grand prix. Hopefully he will use the Canadian GP to farewell his fan, who ever that may be.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
2nd June 2025, 7:15
I find the story extremely unlikely, since this was under parc fermé and the garage would have been under camera surveillance. Had anything actually been broken, then Aston Martin would have been in more trouble (since it is ultimately responsible for the actions of its employee in FIA philosophy and breaking things in the garage in parc fermé is a breach of regulations in and of itself). The FIA would have made comments on it had it occurred.
Sadly, Andrew Benson is either making things up on this occasion or relying on inaccurate sources.
anon
2nd June 2025, 7:56
@alianora-la-canta whilst it’s not completely unheard of for drivers to have kicked or thrown things around in the garage, I’d agree that those reports are probably exaggerated.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd June 2025, 7:08
COTD: That’s indeed the high likelihood, given the average performance levels & points-scoring rates.
BBC: Quite a strong claim about Stroll & even if that were true, it went unseen on the world feed in any case.
Dave Nelson seems to be exaggerating the matter to some extent because not only did he (or anyone else, for that matter) literally answer that way, but I also doubt anyone would word a question that way.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd June 2025, 8:24
No Martin Brundle column today, of course. Wonder if he spent his birthday shouting at the telly?
MichaelN
2nd June 2025, 8:48
Does Lance still want to do this? He has seemed agitated and annoyed for a good two or three years now, always giving short or sarcastic answers, and generally not seeming to be very fun to be around. I guess being partnered with Vettel and Alonso finally put to bed the illusion he might ever become properly competitive in F1, and that can’t be good for his motivation.
But no drama. He’s still in his mid twenties, has raced a lot in F1, had some good results, made some silly moves, but maybe it’s now time to move on and do something else. Get himself set up with a fancy MBA, sit on the board of some foundation, play golf and make a family and do the occasional Ferrari Challenge race up in Canada.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
2nd June 2025, 13:37
He’s supposedly a fantastic tennis player, maybe he can do some of that and the other things you mentioned.
Alesici
2nd June 2025, 13:33
Guenther’s breaking down in Sunday’s Formula E race again in an apparent ‘red car’ electrical safety condition does rather damage the credibility of my previous comment accusing of him deliberately breaking down in exactly the same way to cheat and fix the race to propel fellow Stellantis driver Vandoorne to an unlikely win in Tokyo:
https://www.racefans.net/2025/05/18/round-up-18th-may-2025/
Guenther lost something like 6th place yesterday, so they wouldn’t have done this deliberately to simply allay any previous suspicisions. It appears to be a genuine ongoing problem they have.
I understand that after Tokyo, the FIA did have extended discussions after the race with Stellantis, but The Race podcast thought these done to hopefully prevent future red car conditions from causing red flags. I’m the only person who theorised that it was race fixing with parallels with Piquet’s Crashgate story.