F1 2025 - Watchalong Thread

[Brazilianadventure]

Happy New Year.

We start with the first all teams season launch on 18 February. Ferrari reveal their 2025 car the day after.

Pre season testing will take place on 26 to 28 February in Bahrain. Australia will host the opening race on Sunday March 16th.

Not surprised - Flávio likes to be in charge.

I thought the DTS episode when Carlos was deciding who to sign for was interesting as Flav threw a spanner in the works. I was so glad Carlos went to Williams.

Guess what Flav’s first move is - to put Collapinto in Doohan’s seat. Poor Jack, he doesn’t deserve that.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13354224/alpine-replace-jack-doohan-with-franco-colapinto-on-five-race-deal-starting-from-emilia-romagna-gp

Wasn't a surprise to hear about Doohan after yesterday's news. Not sure Collapinto is going to be a better choice. Obviously comes with more money and some other perk.
Feel for jack. F1 isn't what it was.

Poor Jack, should have stuck to 2 wheels, but I do like Franco.
Flavio is ruthless

I heard the rumours since the season started that Doohan had six races to make an impression or Colapinto was waiting for his seat. Surely part of the problem is that Alpine have a rubbish car?

Doohan has been really outperformed by his team mate, PG is 12th Doohan 19th so can't all be down to the car, it could be a lot to do with money - e.g Colapinto bringing in more sponsorship cash. When Colapinto was in the Williams he seemed to have good pace but crashed a lot from what I remember.

@midlandsmummy123thats true, I actually prefer Colapinto to Doohan. Yes he did have good pace and even with the crashes, he was better than Logan Sargent.

I have no idea if this it true, but I hope it is, X I has a post saying Carlos Sainz SNR considering standing against MBS for FIA presidency.

Sky F1 also reporting it https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13363345/carlos-sainz-sr-emerges-as-candidate-to-become-fia-president-ahead-of-december-2025-election

Papa Sainz would be brilliant, I was hoping for Susie Wolff but sadly being a woman would be against her.

I think he would be great, but surely a conflict of interest?

@spottedinthewildstotally agree. Great but surely biased?

I let a female racing driver recently @Brazilianadventureand she had very little good to say about Susie, which is a shame as I always thought she seemed very much one of the good ones.

That's a shame, i don't think I've ever read anything negative about Susie W.

And it seems that Doohan has recently had so much online in the way of online hate and threats he's had 24/7 security since the start of the Miami GP only Lewis/Charles/Oscar/Lando have full time security usually, so pretty awful situation for Doohan.

I agree it’s a shame to hear that about Susie as she does seem to have done so much for women.

I do wonder how tough she has had to be to get anywhere in the sport.

@midlandsmummy123 That’s awful for Jack.

Unfortunately these days no matter what the sport or public profession the keyboard warriors are everywhere.

No more than Jean Todt was going from Ferrari to FIA President or Stefano Domenicali going to CEO of Formula One Group from Ferrari via Audi, FIA Single Seater Commission and Lamborghini.

I know Sainz SNR has links to Red Bull and Audi and also other motor sports manufacturers. I see that as a good thing.

The fact he is Carlos’s dad shouldn’t be a barrier. It would be more concerning if he was applying to be a Steward or Race Director but President is a leadership role and everything I have seen says he is a thoroughly decent man and would do the best for motor racing - he wouldn’t be a dictator.

Why had Jack been getting online hate? He’s had some bad races but nothing horrific for a middle of the pack team.

I am not exactly sure as he is no worse than some drivers.

One theory is he took No 7 which was Kimi Raikkonen’s number. Which is funny because Kimi wanted No 6 but knew it was Keke’s number and Nico wanted it so said what was my number last year? 7 I’ll take that.

He has had crashes etc but honestly the pressure he was under from day 1 was ridiculous.

The interesting news floating around is why Oliver Oakes left Alpine, apparently his brother has been arrested with a large bag of cash.

The Oakes brothers gained ownership of the Hitech Grand Prix team formerly owned by the Mazepin’s - as in racing driver for Haas.

According to Reddit it’s crazy Argentinian fans.

Carlos has done a new L’Oriel advert - thankfully they have changed the line to “because we are worth it”.

IMHO only David Ginola could get away with “because I’m worth it.”

I read that on threads, the Argentinian fans think Colapinto is the next Senna - he does look very much like him.

Argentinians certainly sound ‘spirited’ 🤣

I didn’t watch F1 last year so I haven’t seen him drive before. Apparently he crashed a few times so it should interesting …

As an Australian I’m not as upset as I thought I’d be about the Doohan situation,, mostly because he was always on borrowed time unless he exceeded everyone’s expectations. Besides, I’ve still got Piastri and I’m following Antonelli as my second driver.

As we've been a bit light on F1 news these past couple of days, I thought I'd post this recent youtube short of Nico Rosberg describing to Daniel Ric the mind games that Michael Schumacher used to play on him https://youtube.com/shorts/NIiKwKpuW-k?si=fxDcMC1gEp228UpZ

@Brazilianadventureand yet Oakes is now being touted as Horner’s replacement.

Interesting. They don’t call it the piranha club for nothing.