With Mercedes and Haas apparently set to make an announcement about Esteban Ocon’s future in Hungary, Aston Martin are one of just four teams who have two contracted drivers for the 2025 Formula One season.

Despite Red Bull being one of the others, noises emanating from Milton Keynes suggest Sergio Perez may suffer a review during the summer break and be found wanting from a lack of performance clause in his contract signed this year.

Red Bull have found themselves in a pickle having backed Perez for two more years, but since his new deal the Mexican’s results have fallen off a cliff. The team missed out on the obvious choice to replace Sergio, with the impressive Nico Hulkenberg, but he was signed by Sauber/Audi just as Checo’s results were taking a nose dive.

 

 

 

Red Bull quandary 

The team now appears in a quandary. Checo’s position is becoming untenable and even Christian Horner admitted prior to the recent race in Silverstone, that the lack of points coming from the Mexican’s side of the garage was “unsustainable.”

In reality Perez has this upcoming weekend in Hungary and the back to back Belgium Grand Prix to save his drive for Red Bull. Otherwise the team will surely promote Daniel Ricciardo for the final ten Grand Prix weekends of the year.

Yet Ricciardo is not a sure bet moving forwards and now Dr. Helmut Marko is talking up the hopes of Issac Hadjar, Arvin Lingblad and Ayumu Iwasa who is racing in Japanese Super Formula this year. Then there’s Liam Lawson who did not feature in the Red Bull consultant’s weekly column for Speedweek.

Aston Martin have no such problems given both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have been issued with contracts for 2025 and beyond. Yet there were questionable marks over the team retaining the Canadian driver given his poor record in qualifying which then translates into less points during the race than his team mate. Now half way through this year Lance has just 23 points to Alonso’s 45, that’s kind kind of ratio a tease would expect rookie driver to score against a more experienced team mate.

Schumacher: “Formula 1 is in reach”

 

 

 

Stroll SHOCKING quali stats

While Stroll’s qualifying count has been better this season, he is still 7-5 down to Fernando and has Neve beaten in this metric any team mate he’s ever raced against. Lance’s combined score against team mates in 152 outings is 42-110.

If we compare Lance to Esteban Ocon who has had a similar number of outings in F1, the French driver fairs much better against all comer team mates with his score currently 73-79. Ocon was also paired with Fernando Alonso and his qualifying score at the end of their time together was 23-20 in Fernando’s favour. Last season Lance trailed Fernando 19-3.

Alonso is the latest in a string of team mate drivers who have beaten Lance Stroll in qualifying over there course of a season. Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez, Sergey Sirotkin and Felipe Massa have all defeated the Canadian over the course of a year. When Nico Hulkenberg substituted four times for the Silverstone based team, he out qulaified Stroll 2-2, only Paul Di Resta drafted in at the Hungaroring in 2017 as a substitute win Saturday morning failed to out qualify Lance Stroll.

Given the critical nature of qualifying, as Sergio Perez is finding out, the question is surely, why did Aston Martin not consider another driver given they lost a place in the 2023 final team standings to McLaren due to Stroll’s lack of contribution to the team score?

Mercedes insider ‘leaks’ Hungary announcement

 

 

 

Krack reveals ‘Plan B”

Team principal Mike Krack explains there was a Plan B, although unconvincingly argues Lance Stroll was always the team’s first choice. This season the Canadian’s 50% contribution when compared to Alonso is less critical although a resurgent RB have the time to close the 37 point deficit which exists at present.

When asked by Motorsport Week whether Aston Martin should have considered other drivers before just signing Stroll, Mike Krack replied: “I think you should not get pressurised yourself by the driver market.”

“I think you need to formulate what you want, which we were quite clear about and we pursued these targets. So, of course, you always look at what is there and what is available. I think plans B and plan C, obviously, everybody’s having.

“But if you can manage to make your plan ‘A’ happen, then you should do that,” said Krack.

Zak Brown predicts Red Bull infighting set to resume

 

 

 

Aston to focus on variables

The Aston boss explains a stable driver lineup means the team can focus on the variables they don’t understand and with relative harmony across the garage, driver disputes are not an issue for the team either.

“I think for many weeks I said we want continuity, stability and continuity,” he added. “I think it’s very important for a team, especially heading into a new regulation set.

“And we’re quite happy that we have quite a mature line-up on the track. We know who our main opponents are and they are certainly not the other green car [Kick Sauber].”

Of course Lance is driving the Aston Martin because his father permits him to stay, yet should the team benefit from the upcoming regulation change plus the hundreds of millions spent on their new facilities and start looking like front runners, different decisions will surely be made.

Aston attracts key talent, outpacing F1 rivals

 

 

 

Krack confirms the collaboration between Stroll and Alonso has been important: “So that is something that we have seen over the past years. They work very well together, pushing in the same direction. So we always wanted to do it like that.

“And obviously at this stage and throughout the season, I think the drivers was not our main problem. So we are quite happy that we have done this now and get some more calm into this situation.”

Krack is right. Aston Martin’s problems are not due to Stroll’s inability to contribute properly in proportion to the results gained by his team mate. Yet the day will come when this is not the case, but by then Lance may well have racked up a decade in Formula One.

TJ13 reported two days ago that Mike Krack is currently being targeted by the CEO of the Audi project for the role as team principal as the German brand enters F1 in 2026.

Ex-Ferrari boss doubts Hamilton title

 

 

 

Marko omits Liam Lawson from his RBR young driver review

According to Red Bull consultant Dr. Helmut Marko, the organisation has done a U-Turn on its future plans for the RB sister racing team. On his appointment as CEO of the then Alpha Tauri named team, Peter Bayer revealed “We had lots of discussions about the future of the team, and our shareholders said, ‘we want you to continue and educate young drivers, but we also want you to be successful’.

“I think, ultimately, you can’t have both,” he added. “You can’t have two young – inverted commas – drivers in the team.” Bayer went on to outline how the team would retain the services of Daniel Ricciardo for 2024, in a break from the tradition hai has seen the team over the years blood two young drivers at a time.

Bayer outlined how the experienced Ricciardo was helping the team  improve the setup of their car, something young inexperienced drivers are less capable of… READ MORE