This Season Is Already HOT 🔥🔥

Presented by

Good morning. This season is already heating up, team. Although, I caution you against placing your bets on Lando Norris for the World Title this year. We are clearly seeing a multi-team battle for the top of the field between McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull Racing.

The last two weeks have been pretty tame in my opinion but we are starting to see some off track battles that could bring drama in the future. For example, we are clearly going to experience the sequel to the famous “papaya rules” that made us question which driver is priority at McLaren. Furthermore, some of the rookies aren’t working out the way the teams wanted. Plus, we are seeing a rekindling of the flexi wing drama from 2024.

All of this promises to lead to some contentious political drama throughout the season.

For now, we will enjoy the action-packed GPs!

-Jake

🌎 DQs Shake Things Up

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified from the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix after their Ferrari cars failed mandatory FIA checks post-race. Hamilton's disqualification occurred because his car's rear skid-block plank, designed to prevent teams from running cars too low, was worn below the required 9mm thickness (measuring just 8.5-8.6mm). This small difference matters since thinner skid-blocks suggest cars are running closer to the ground, potentially boosting aerodynamic grip and cornering speed.

Leclerc faced a different issue: his car was underweight. Even after Ferrari replaced his damaged front wing from first-lap contact, his car weighed only 799 kg—just below the legal minimum weight requirement. Pierre Gasly of Alpine faced a similar fate for the same weight infraction.

A quick breakdown of weighing procedures:

​In the 2025 Formula 1 season, the process for weighing cars after a race involves several critical steps to ensure compliance with technical regulations:​

1. Minimum Weight Requirement: Each car, without fuel, must weigh at least 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds). This increase from previous seasons accounts for technological advancements and enhanced safety features. ​

2. Driver Weight: Drivers, including their seat and gear, must weigh a minimum of 82 kilograms (181 pounds). If a driver is under this limit, ballast is added to the cockpit area to meet the requirement. ​

3. Post-Race Weighing Procedure:

   • Car Weighing: After the race, cars are directed to the FIA's weighing area. Here, each car is weighed without fuel to verify it meets the minimum weight requirement.​

   • Driver Weighing: Drivers are weighed immediately after exiting their cars, still wearing all their racing gear. This ensures accurate measurement of any weight loss during the race, which can be significant due to factors like dehydration.

4. Fuel Sample: Teams must ensure that a minimum of two liters of fuel can be extracted from the car after the race for analysis. ​

5. Compliance and Penalties: If a car or driver fails to meet these weight requirements, the team faces penalties, including possible disqualification from the race results. For instance, during the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, both Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly were disqualified after their cars were found to be underweight in post-race checks. ​

_______________________________________________________________________

These disqualifications aren't about cheating but rather minor oversights that can have major consequences. Fans can expect increased scrutiny on teams' setups in upcoming races, meaning teams will have to double-check every technical detail to avoid similar embarrassments.

Drama-wise, look for teams to push FIA rules to their limits—raising tension both on and off the track.

🚀Headline Sprint

is Lawson Doomed? Speculation is high regarding Lawson’s future at Red Bull, even going as far as suggesting he will be replaced at the Japanese GP. A rumor that Yuki Tsunoda most likely started 😉 . In all seriousness, Lawson is struggling to find his footing in a car that Verstappen says is “tricky to drive”. Christian Horner is telling fans to put the brakes on the rumor mill since they have only 2 races worth of data but fell short of denying the claims of assessing potential Lawson replacements.

Reliability at McLaren: Lando Norris faced a late-race brake scare during the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, describing it as his "worst nightmare." While comfortably in second behind teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris experienced brake issues in the closing laps, forcing him to carefully manage the situation. Effectively what happened is the pedal started going “long” which means you have to press the pedal harder down to get the same brake force. This is an uncomfortable feeling for drivers since you start to worry about having no brake feel or worse, no brakes at all. When brakes fail completely, the pedal falls to the floor and you lose all stopping power. Hopefully we don’t see an ongoing reliability trend.

🛞 Sprint Races Do More Good for Fans

​In the 2025 Formula 1 season, six race weekends feature the Sprint format, offering fans additional competitive action. Here's how these weekends are structured:

Friday:

• Practice Session 1 (FP1): A 60-minute session allowing teams to fine-tune their cars.​

• Sprint Qualifying: Determines the starting grid for Saturday's Sprint race.​

Saturday:

• Sprint Race: A 100 km race, approximately one-third the distance of a standard Grand Prix, lasting about 30 minutes. Points are awarded to the top eight finishers:​

Sunday:

• Grand Prix: The main race, with the grid order set by a separate qualifying session held on Saturday.

All this is to say that the teams only get 60 minutes of practice to setup their cars and test tyres. The engineers hate the sprint weekends to be sure, but they make for amazing spectacles for the fans. You see, the engineers want as much time on track outside of a race to shake down cars, setups, and tyres. But, the issue is that this exercise in mental masturbation by teams isn’t that fun for fans who pay a lot of money to witness this spectacle. So, F1 crafted a plan to introduce more sprints and they do deliver.

The Chinese GP was proof that limiting test time can put teams in a position where they have to improvise. For example, the teams had absolutely no practice on the hard compound tyre because the race was meant to be a two stopper. So it was a surprise when teams started fitting hard tyres during the feature race that a one stop strategy seemed possible.

This is one example of how sprint weekends offer a more grand fan experience, which is precisely why we need more of them!

Take A Moment

It would be immensely helpful if you could go over to our Youtube channel and subscribe. We are making all sorts of racing and car content to fill a much needed gap in the world that we are so passionate about. From my racing in Europe to road trips in old cars, we will be doing it all!

🏎 No Wing No Problem

The big surprise from the Chinese GP was Leclerc finishing an entire race with a damaged front wing.

If you didn’t see it, Leclerc made contact with Lewis Hamilton in the opening lap of the race and lost the end plate on the left side of the Ferrari front wing. According to the Ferrari pit wall, Leclerc lost approximately 20-30 points of downforce on the front of the car.

For those who don’t claim to be aerodynamicists, downforce means air pressing down on the car. That is exactly what a wing does on the car, it forces air to press down on the crucial parts of the car (front and rear). This basically gives more grip to the front and rear axle. What you also need to know is that excess downforce, although it creates grip, does create drag. This is what DRS does on the straights. The wings open up to reduce drag on the straights. Then, the wings add downforce, and therefore grip, in the corners.

Whew, that was a mouthful.

So, when you damage a front wing and lose downforce you should lose grip on the front and get understeer. So, you would think Ferrari would’ve changed the front wing as soon as possible but they didn’t.

Many people watching thought that the damaged front wing fixed something and balanced the car. However, Leclerc claims that the car was fast enough to win that race and the damage prevented it.

So, no need to worry about Ferrari messing up a car setup so bad that they require damage to fix it. For now.

💨 Hot Laps

Alonso retires early from the Chinese GP due to overheating brakes - is this going to be an issue for multiple teams in 2025?

George Russell proved to be somewhat of a strategy wizard early in the Chinese GP after calling the potential for a surprise one-stop race.

Kimi Antonelli is proving to be a pro in the Mercedes. He finished eighth (later 6th) with major holes in the car floor.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Travel: How to plan the perfect vacation for two very different people.

✅Debate: Join the search for the best songs by famous athletes.

✅Stay in: Skip the lines and visit virtual museum exhibits from the comfort of your home.

🚀 We also love this newsletter!

The Curiosity Chronicle → 💡Join 325,000 others who receive the 2x weekly newsletter, which provides actionable ideas to help you build a high-performing, healthy, wealthy life. One Click Subscribe

📣 ^{Want to advertise in The Racing Recap? Learn more here}