A delightful return of F1 mind games – The loss of Formula One’s longest serving team boss in July has robbed Formula One of one of its last standing pantomime villains, as under the ever PR cautious Liberty Media the stories off track are becoming ever sterile, corporate and dull.
Where’s the Michael Schumacher storming down the pit lane to try and trying to land a punch on arch rival Damon Hill? Why do we not have two McLaren drivers’ duking it out in the media and on track as did Hamilton and Rosberg?
Fans now have more access to the teams and drivers than ever before, but besides the on track rivalries the back stories to F1 are becoming ever more lacking in interest. In. Austin Texas despite the fact the battle was for P17, Franco Colapitno defied team orders and overtook his team mate and was in fact justified given Gasly subsequently couldn’t keep Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoletto at bay.
Colapinto defies team orders
The Argentinian rookie was chastised by the team’s MD Steve Neilson who said after the race. “As a team, any instruction made by the pit wall is final and today we are disappointed that this didn’t happen, so it’s something we will review and deal with internally.” Yet the real issue was why on earth were the team were issuing orders for their drivers who were battling over P17 and almost a lap down?
More nonsense and political angling. Yet mind games have always been an important tool in the battle to overcome a team or driver’s major rivals. During the epic battle for the 2021 F1 championship, Max Verstappen wold prolong the time it took him to get to the cool down room, forcing Lewis Hamilton to wait. That same year Verstappen closely inspected Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing after the qualifying session in Brazil, something which led to a €50,000 fine but raised awareness of the potential illegality of the Mercedes car.
There are currently subtle mind games going on in Maranello, as the Italian media continue to insist the team is in crisis and suffering an internal civil war. Lewis Hamilton’s revelations he has sent scores of documents to the team during his maiden season as a Ferrari driver, is a subtle attempt to portray the Scuderia as in need of some new kind of input to demonstrate they need to change their ways.
Is F1 becoming a corporate PR show?
Nico Rosberg tells a tale of the ‘un-retired’ Michael Schumacher who joined him at the newly acquired Mercedes team. In Monaco there is a dirty of trackside toilet facilities and Schumacher deliberately locked himself in the only one near the Mercedes garage until the last possible moment, knowing this would affect his team mates pre-race routine.
Some rivalries in F1 have been the most bitter imaginable, yet having run their course rarely resulted in a long term rift between the most celebrated motor racing competitions on the planet. Nico Rosberg who is a regular punter on the UK’s Sky F1 TV coverage talks of his old team mates exceptional powers, although this does enhance his achievement of beating the British driver to the title in 2016.
Formula One is becoming ever more corporate and the drivers at a young age are media trained to within an inch of their lives. Yet there are glimmers of hope for the future in the likes of Isak Hadjar, who walks the paddock with a swagger of a champion in waiting and is never backward in coming forward with his personal opinions.
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Poor sportsmanship or delicious mind games?
Red Bull have been accused of poor sportsmanship, after one of their race crew was found guilty of lingering trackside after the formation lap had begun. The story began as some technical report into a transgression by a Red Bull mechanic returning to “gate 1” as the stewards were clearing trackside waiting for the cars to arrive and for the starting grid.
Yet the tale has a far deeper meaning than just a technical error for which the team was fined. In fact this was part of a deliberate attempt by Red Bull to unsettle rival Lando Norris. The FIA paints a yellow guide line towards the front of the grid box, which stretches out across the track and is supposed to help drivers judge where their front wheels need to be.
The cars must be within their grid box as the lights go green or the driver will suffer a punitive time penalty from race control. But Norris has struggled with seeing this marker properly due to his seat position and the halo obscuring his view.
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Red Bull get in Norris’s head
To assist Norris in positioning his car perfectly for the start, the team have been placing a sticker on the nearby pit wall prior to the formation lap. This helps Lando better position himself come the moments before lights out and the procedure is co-ordinated by his race engineer, Will Jospeh. The sticker lines up with a point of reference on Norris car, allowing him to place his car in the perfect forward position as far as allowed by the rules.
The Red Bull mechanics transgression prior to the US Grand Prix, was not in fact a technical error of timing but a effort at playing mind games with McLaren and Lando Norris. The errant RBR employee was attempting to remove the tape placed on the wall for Norris in an attempt to unsettle him when he brought his car to a standstill after the formation lap.
This apparently is not the first time Red Bull have tampered with Norris temporary visual aid, which is perfectly legal under the FIA rules. Its also perfectly legal for a member of a rival pit lane crew to remove it, and reportedly this time McLaren had made extra precautions to ensure the tape was not easy to move.
Only pantomime villains remain
It all may sound like handbags at dawn, but teams and drivers in F1 prepare meticulously for every eventuality. Should Norris arrive and his marker be absent, for a moment he will question whether his car is properly positioned for the all important start. Whilst its merely a distraction, in those vital moments before 20 cars launch from 0 to over 150kph at breathtaking speeds, its one which distracts from the driver focusing on the rest of his start procedure.
Rather than bitch about poor sportsmanship as many have done so, we should revel in the revelry of Red Bull in their efforts to unsettle their arch rivals. In the UK there’s a Christmas tradition of going to the theatre to watch age old Pantomime tales where the baddy’s presence is exposed to the hero by the audience themselves by way of booing. Yet the anti-hero is often a most loved actor or well known personality and the animosity from the audience is truly fake.
There are no real villains left in F1 as was the case in the days of Senna and Prost, so such small mercies and examples of mind games of what are deep rooted rivalries, should be treasured for the narrative they represent, rather than the portrayal of the paddock Nirvana where everyone is the best of friends.
Franco Colapitno’s quiet resurgence
The Alpine F1 team are the rubbing rags of the F1 championship this season. They currently languish at the bottom of the constructors’ table with just 20 points collected all season.
The team chose to switch its drivers after just six race weekends in 2025, with the unfortunate Jack Doohan being ditched in favour of rising star Franco Colapinto who had impressed whilst performing a stand in role for Williams at the back end of last year.
The Argentinian driver made his mark by scoring points in two of his first four starts, with an eighth place finish in Baku and a tenth at the Circuit of the America’s. Such was the impression he made, Red Bull were reported to be considering him as an alternative to their lack lustre Sergio Perez…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.
