Last Updated on April 1 2025, 2:10 pm

These are crazy times in Formula One land with Red Bull topping the headlines after making Liam Lawson the driver with the shortest ever career with the team. Whilst the timing of Lawson’s demotion was a surprise for many in the paddock after the departure of Sergio Perez who had raced alongside Verstappen since 2021 filling the seat with a junior driver was never going to be easy.

Now the headlines in Japan are all about their man Yuki Tsunoda as he debuts for the best Honda powered team on the F1 grid. Lawson meanwhile may yet spring a surprise and out qualify his Japanese rival given the Racing Bull car is way easier to handle and was placed well in China before the team’s race strategy team imploded.

In other shocking news the FIA is having a ‘Pontius pilate’ moment as it appears to be washing its hands of the incoming “Frankenstein” monster power units incoming next year. Their man Nikolas Tombazis has offered the F1 teams the opportunity to retain the current hybrids before transitioning to more traditional V10 layouts in 2-3 years time.

 

 

 

Briatore joins the crazy gang

The eye watering cost was cited as the driving force behind the move from the FIA, yet there are those who suspect all is not well amongst the arrays of dynos testing the upgraded hybrid units for 2026.

Someone who loves to be considered as socking, Alpine’s Flavio Briatore, is now making his own bid to join the crazy gang as he seeks to join the Red Bull bandaging by replacing his junior driver Jack Doohan. Briatore was appointed as Alpine’s Grand Inquisitor late in June last season and come August it was announced that Jaco Doohan would be replacing the outgoing Esteban Ocon for 2025.

Yet Doohan has never made a particularly strong claim for an F1 seat, his junior record is okay, but not in the league of Gabriel Bortoleto or Isack Hadjar and definitely not in the same volume as his countryman Oscar Piastri. Doohan’s appointment felt as though it was a reaction to the team losing their junior Oscar Piastri three years ago and being in the early days following his appointment by Renault, the seriousness of the decision was underneath Briatore’s radar.

Briatore of course is Doohan’s manager, but in the topsy turvy world of F1 this may even count against the Australian driver. Flavio has been commissioned to make Alpine more efficient and to perform better with less money being pumped in by Renault. And so spending it on a Logan Sargeant type driver, who is unlikely to score a single point, does not fit Briatore’s mission which puts Doohan’s future in jeopardy.

Mercedes under the radar as Hamilton magnifies Ferrari woes

 

 

 

Bizarre Alpine permission sought from FIA

Alpine signed rising star Franco Colapinto from Williams in January which was an intriguing move from both parties. Williams boss, James Vowles had promised he would do everything in his power to get the young Argentinian a drive for this season and at the same time rumours persisted of Doohan having just five Grand Prix guaranteed in his contract.

Now ‘Flav the great’ is joining the recent wave of madness spreading through the F1 paddock as he will arrange a race off amongst the junior drivers of the French owned F1 team. The prize will be an F1 drive come round four in Bahrain, according to publication Auto Hebdo.

Doohan is said to be a dead man walking as Alpine have made an unusual request from the FIA to run no less than four cars simultaneously in a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) session for their reserve drivers. The run plan will be identical for each driver who will receive one hour of testing, a flying quali lap then a Grand Prix style 50 lap race against each other.

This will pit Paul Aron, Franco Colapinto, Rio HIrakawa and Kush Maini against each other with Alpine requesting special permission from the FIA to hold a race at a TPC session. Special dispensation was also required to run more than one car in a TPC session.

Marko slams Horner: “I Never wanted Perez anyway”

 

 

 

Race to include ‘safety cars’

Whilst this may appear to be a bit of larking around for the Alpine kindergarten, the session will consume a significant amount of Alpine’s annual allowance for TPC. Further, having raced in more than two F1 Grand Prix weekend’s, Franco Colapinto will be treated as a full time driver for the purposes of TPC constraints meaning he is allowed just four such days a year and a maximum of 1000km in total.

The race will feature safety car periods and pit stops to see which of Alpine’s drivers is best suited under such pressure. Yet the unusual nature of this event cannot be understated as not in living memory has an F1 team organised its own mini Grand Prix weekend for four junior drivers. Alpine’s exact intentions are not clear, because regardless is will be Franco Colapinto who replaces Doohan for round four in Bahrain.

Of course were Colalpinto to emerge the ‘winner’ from the Alpine academy event, then complaints from his peers that he has unfairly jumped those waiting patiently in line would be put to bed once and for all.

Red Bull new livery leaked

 

 

 

Aron or Colapinto set to emerge on top

A number of reports have suggested a number in the Alpine senior management have expressed the opinion that they would prefer Paul Aron in the car alongside Gasly, rather than Johnny come lately Colapinto. Aron beat the young Argentinian in F2 last year coming third in the championship behind Bortoleto and Hadjar.

The race could then be used to establish whether Aron has a prayer of becoming Doohan’s replacement or not. Alpine are currently bottom of the F1 table with no points to their name and even prior to the disqualification of Gasly in China he had finished outside the points in P11.

The owner of Alpine and once proud French manufacturer of championship winning engines, Renault, is pulling out of its manufacturing of F1 power trains come 2026 and will buy in Mercedes units instead.

Piastri spills the beans on Red Bull drive

 

 

 

 

FIA hints: “Frankenstein era” looms

Why Alonso is wrong about F1 return to V10’s – Formula One was thrown a curve ball in January this year, when the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, threw his weight behind the sport returning to more conventional engine power. This echoed suggestions made by F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, who upon the announcement of the final hybrid specifications for the 2026 power units last June, admitted of the decision over future F1 powertrains was being now, the new hybrids would not be on the table.

The hybrids on the whole are hated by the drivers and the fans of F1 and their gentle rumble is a far cry from the screaming V8’s these power units replaced. Lewis Hamilton at Ferrai’s recent event in Milan gave his vision for the future of F1 power stating, “I hope that in 20 years we’ll have great races and we’ll have cars that sound good,” said the Briton.

“I certainly hope it’s not completely electric, but sustainable with V10 or V12 engines, with a zero carbon footprint or something like that,” added the seven times champion driver…. READ MORE