🏅Lewis Still Got It, Red Bull Loses $$

Good morning. Well, there isn’t much going on in the world of F1, so many of you will be searching for meaning in an otherwise meaningless world without racing. You would be forgiven for taking this time to clean your house or organize your sock drawer. Go ahead, take car of the things that you neglect when your weekends are consumed by Formula chaos.

In these dark time, I will still bring you brief commentary on the hot news stories as well as updates on my race team.

Pro tip, use this time to get caught up on 2026 regulations or those pesky F1 rules that you always ask your significant other about.

🌎 Lewis Has Still Got “it” according to Verstappen

“Definitely not fast anymore.”

These were the words uttered by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton after being out-qualified by his Mercedes teammate in Qatar last year. These words cut deep for any Hamilton fan. This felt like a moment of comprehensive defeat for the soon to be 40 year old British icon. In this moment, fans were left asking themselves if Lewis has truly his edge. Is he suffering from the dreaded age-related decline? Or, is he in his head?

With drivers like Fernando Alonso in F1 or Jenson Button and Robert Kubica in the World Endurance Championship competing well into their 40s, one must push back on the idea that Lewis has all of a sudden hit an age-related wall that is preventing him from performing.

If we are to believe Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton was simply suffering from motivation issues. “It has been tough for him to get motivated fully this year [2024] because he knows he is leaving the team,” Verstappen said. This was especially evident at Silverstone and Spa. When the Silver Arrow felt competitive, Lewis was right back to his old self. When the car was sh*t, however, Hamilton simply shrugged his shoulders and gave up trying to make excuses.

Hamilton’s latest performance woes bring driver mindset and mental health to center stage. The mind is a powerful thing, and if driver’s aren’t careful then they will spell out their own decline before it physically takes a toll. This, in my opinion, is what happened to Daniel Ricciardo. These drivers have a point to prove and if they feel like the team hasn’t given them the tools to perform, then the season is basically over.

Thankfully, Verstappen seems to agree that Lewis still has his elite talent and will likely be fighting for race wins and potentially an 8th title as long as Ferrari delivers an outstanding car.

🚀Headline Sprint

👩‍🚀Are women forbidden from F1? No. Women are not forbidden from racing in Formula 1. There is no regulation in the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) rulebook that prevents women from competing in F1. There have been a handful of female F1 drivers in the 70s. More recently, Susie Wolff served as a development driver for Williams and Tatiana Calderon served the same role for Sauber. However, the spot is male-dominated, which comes down to sponsorship availability, the competitive nature of motorsport, and lack of junior feeder series. Susie Wolff is currently working on the latter as she spearheads F1 Academy, which serves as a pipeline for female drivers into higher-level racing.

🚶Williams is on the front foot: Williams finished 9th in the constructor’s championship after slipping back from 7th primarily due to their late-season performance. But, there is a shining beacon of hope for the team in 2025. If you recall, Williams started with a fast car in 2024. This is meant quite literally. The car was overweight because the team had to rush the development of parts for the car. This, reportedly, equated to a loss of .45 seconds per lap. Now that Williams will be starting with a 2025 car that is right at the weight limit (as in just as light as any other car) we may see what Williams is really made of, especially with the help of incoming Carlos Sainz.

💸Red Bull loses sponsor: Bybit is ending its sponsorship agreement with Red Bull before the 2025 season. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange has been a sponsor of the team since 2022 in a deal that was worth $50 million per year over 3 years. This represents a huge blow to the team's revenue and comes at an inconvenient time. Red Bull is onboarding Liam Lawson as a noobie driver for the team and is also sifting through solutions to their 2024 issues so a shotgun blast to their sponsor revenue will be the last thing Christian Horner wants to deal with.

🛞 Should F1 Extend Points Beyond Top Ten?

In July 2024 the F1 commission voted unanimously to reject a proposal to start awarding championship points down to P12 which is two more places over the current points system.

Even though the commission voted against this proposal, it didn’t stop a couple of F1 legends from providing some color commentary on the prospect of awarding more championship points.

Former Red Bull driver, David Coulthard says “- I think it’s just a case of spreading the financial love, because we’re looking at giving credit to anyone outside the top 10.”

Coulthard is alluding to the revenue split that is handed down to teams according to where they finished in the constructor’s fight.

Former team boss, Eddie Jordan had some more pointed words to say about the points extension. “There’s the winner, and then second is the first of the losers, and then it’s the second of the losers and the third of the losers… that’s how I see it.”

Jordan then went on to tell a story of how he motivated Ralf Schumacher to score points by finishing 6th, which was the lowest position that could score points at the time. He maintains that if points were available for P7-P10 at that moment, Schumacher would never have finished P6. Basically, Jordan is suggesting that limiting points makes driver’s more competitive.

Regardless of your thoughts on how the points system should be designed, there is a case to be made for extending championship points. That argument revolves around the potential for a higher churn rate at the bottom of the field. It is becoming increasingly difficult to afford F1 and maintain a presence on the grid, especially for a back marker team like Sauber or Williams. This is a scary thought considering F1 will be welcoming Audi and Cadillac to the grid in the coming years. The management at F1 will want to make sure to hold onto big-name teams in the nascent years of their F1 stint. An easy way to “reward” their entry into the pinnacle of motorsport is to make championship points a bit easier to obtain.

Does this cheapen the sport? Yes. But could this be the best way to ensure F1 sticks around for the long haul? That’s for us to find out!

🏎 What’s Next For Jake?

First of all, if you aren’t following along on my racing journey, then what are you doing with your life?

Go subscribe to the Youtube channel so you can watch all of the car and racing shenanigans we get into as I climb the ladder to Le Mans with my driving/business partner Danny Soufi. Subscribe Below

An update: I am participating in my first Miata race of the 2025 season on January 17th here in Texas. I race Miatas to stay sharp and keep the budget light while I wait for the prototype season to start.

Shortly after my Miata round, we are headed to Wales to test the Praga at the beautiful Anglesy Circuit. It will be cold and rainy, no doubt, but we will bring you all the test day action as I take to the circuit along with the youngsters in the Formula 3 and 4 cars.

💨 Hot Laps

Take a trip down memory lane and bask in the former glory of F1 tracks that no longer host the pinnacle of motorsport.

Fernando Alonso makes it clear that he will be racing for many years even if his F1 career ends soon.

Mercedes is unsure of the progress being made on their 2026 power units.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Learn: Have you ever wondered what happens to all the coins tossed into the Trevi fountain in Rome?

✅Movies: The most anticipated movies of 2025 includes Brad Pitt’s “F1”.

✅Read: This is how to enjoy everything all the time.

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