A first rocket is fired signalling that the corral is open. A second rocket announces that all have been released. You set off confident over any impending threats. You skip out to what you think is an insurmountable lead. Just as you start surmising that this could very well be your time, there's a rumbling commotion coming up from behind. That once insurmountable lead seems to be shrinking rapidly. Only this is not Pamplona and not the running of the bulls. It's Formula One. And that bull charging unrelentingly up behind the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris is the Red Bull of reigning 4 time champ Max Verstappen.
    Championship leader Piastri just endured arguably his worst weekend in F1 at Azerbaijan with closest rival and team mate Norris unable to cash in on a potential massive points haul. Conversely, Verstappen has just come off back to back grand slam results at Monza and Baku. That is, pole position, fastest lap and GP victory. Now there are many suggesting that Verstappen has just entered the race for the driver's championship. Red Bull just introduced a raft of upgrades, most notable a new floor rendering the car more conducive to set up changes and thus more competitive. A real test of Red Bull's competitiveness is next weekend's Singapore GP which has traditionally been a bogey track.
    With 7 races left in the season starting with Singapore, then the Americas and lastly the Middle East, can McLaren afford to continue with their "drivers are free to race" mantra? Will a couple of strong results for current leader Piastri render that point moot? The constructor's championship seemingly is a mere formality for McLaren. In the next couple of races if Piastri and Norris take points off each other, will McLaren be spooked into abandoning their racing ethos to throw their full support behind one of their drivers? That way, some argue that they can sure up the driver's championship with the second driver playing rear gunner against the impending Verstappen threat. More to the point, with a maiden championship on the line, would one of their drivers simply refuse a team order because McLaren wanted to manipulate a race result all in the name of fairness like they just pulled in Monza? I suppose what we are asking is, when the final rocket is fired, will it be a McLaren driver that safely enters the bull ring before the Red Bull catches up?

    2025 has all the hallmarks of an epic Formula One season. Australians are unashamedly buoyant as one of their own, McLaren's Oscar Piastri currently leads the championship. Piastri has won four of the first six GP's and has achieved for McLaren something that has not been done since Mika Hakkinen's 1998 championship year. That is, won three in succession. 
    Don't be mistaken. Our excitement does not stem from some parochial, nationalistic bias. We believe Oscar to be the real deal. His pedigree is impressive. Formula Renault Eurocup champ in 2019, F3 champ in 2020 and F2 champ in 2021. After a year as reserve driver he arrived in F1 in 2023 and his all too obvious racing prowess was clearly evident. We always said that when Oscar learnt how to manage his tyres, he'd be unstoppable. We frequently heard over team radio that his tyres had reached their used by date before team mate Lando Norris'. 2024 saw Oscar address that, but there was still a qualifying deficit. Now that box is largely ticked for 2025. Many may suggest that Lando still has a minute qualifying edge, but Oscar's racecraft is exemplary. Remember Oscar's mugging of Lando at the Roggia chicane at last year's Italian GP or Oscar's reconnaissance of Red Bull's Max Verstappen's braking points at T1 at the recent Miami GP before putting him to the sword? It's not uncommon for Oscar to back off and cool his tyres if unable to immediately complete an overtake and bide his time. This is especially useful when racing Max. He knows that because Max has an aggressively pointy front end that his tyres will cry enough before his, leaving his opponent vulnerable. A cool head on mature shoulders whose starts are phenomenal and seldom makes a mistake. Alternatively, when push comes to shove between Max and Lando, it's usually Max doing the pushing and shoving. Oscar vs Max however, you can't help but come to the conclusion that Max has a higher respect for Oscar and races accordingly. Oscar, like Max, has this innate talent of knowing exactly where to place his car. 
    Six victories so far in Oscar's short F1 career, but the 2025 wins are another level again. He's not won because he was the benefactor of a fortuitous Safety Car or some other catalyst. He's won because he's dominated and then controlled the race comprehensively. While some pundits who certainly know more than we do seem reluctant to endorse Oscar over his more experienced team mate, isn't Oscar currently leaving Lando in his Pirelli tyre tracks? Conversely, after only six GP's, is reigning 4 time champ Max Verstappen able to bridge the gap to the McLaren duo? Not to mention Mercedes' George Russell quietly accumulating podiums and points. With power unit and chassis regulations changing for next season,  should McLaren push development right to season's end to win both driver's and constructor's championships?
    The European season beckons, with Monaco peering over the horizon. The teams usually instal a raft of updates at this stage of the season. Will they condense even more amid the law of diminishing returns in the last year of the current regulations? Let's hope this battle just runs all the way up to Abu Dhabi.        
    

    Every so often Formula One produces a thoroughly enthralling Grand Prix, and the 2025 iteration of the Australian Grand Prix (AGP) was nothing short of chaotic bedlam. It was one of those occasions where you just didn't know where to look or what was going to happen next. Certainly renders predictions based on pre-season form redundant. Congratulations to Lando Norris and McLaren starting their championship challenge off in style. Norris withstood immense pressure from not only his team mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but also the elements in the form of Melbourne's unpredictable weather.
    With the performance window converging between the teams as we commence the last season of the current regulations, could 2025 be the season where keeping the car on track result in the accumulation of points? Nico Hulkenberg in a Sauber finishing P7, or both Williams' qualifying in the top 10, with Alex Albon finishing P5 for example. It was a testing time for all the full time rookies at Albert Park. Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoletto all had challenging weekends. Even the most experienced on the grid, two time champ Fernando Alonso crashed out in the race. Mercedes rookie however, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, despite sustaining floor damage in qualifying to line up P16, demonstrated the potential the team knew he possessed by finishing an impressive P4 at the chequered flag. A future star perhaps?
    What was obvious to us, was whether it was the excruciatingly oppressive heat of qualifying or the cold wet conditions of the GP, McLaren have a well balanced car in all conditions that clearly looks a cut above the other teams at this early stage of the season. Now the Chinese GP is on this weekend and we've only just caught our breath from the AGP! 

   
    It is with great sadness that we've just learned of the passing of former Jordan F1 Team owner, media pundit and business entrepreneur, Eddie Jordan. Fiercely determined, driven and passionate about motorsport who also loved a good party. Even if you didn't know him, you felt like you did, such was his charisma. His Jordan team after transforming through various guises, lives on today as the Aston Martin F1 Team. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.
​    Vale EJ.  
               



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    The Formula One teams have decamped Bahrain after pre-season testing and are well and truly in transit to Melbourne to embark on yet another quest for F1 supremacy at the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Comes around quick doesn't it? Saying that we're pleased Australia has returned to its traditional opening round status in the Melbourne era is an understatement. 
    What can we conclude from testing though? Pundits and punters alike attempt to dissect the 3 day test, but we feel this is fraught with assumptions and speculations. As much as we love to speculate, isn't testing simply an acclimatisation process with extended systems checks, analysing the car's response to various fuel loads, and evaluating different parts and set up changes? Unless one team is consistently smashing everyone else's time over the whole test, are some reading more into it as what's warranted? 
    Last year the teams' disparities were closing, and with 2025 being the last year of the current regulations, we suggest this year will be even closer fought and may unveil multiple winners. We will certainly obtain some sort of indication of outright pace after qualifying next weekend, but Albert Park is a bit of an outlier. In fact, the first real "aero" circuit is Suzuka in Japan for Round 3. After that we may not get a real understanding until the teams return to Europe. Even then, there's bound to be a few tenths of a second between first and last. Uh oh! Speculating aren't we?
    There's always a bumper program at the Australian GP. F2, F3, Supercars and Porsche Carrera Cup. The track action is fast and frenetic and off track there's numerous car displays, kid's zones, interactive displays, fan forums and a massive music festival. A sensory overload! A large number of rookies are competing this year in F1. How will they fare? How will Lewis Hamilton shape up against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari? Can Carlos Sainz make an immediate impact at Williams? No doubt a large contingent of the parochial sellout crowd will be cheering for the two Aussies, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Alpine's rookie Jack Doohan.
​    To answer the question, "Who's hot and who's not?" Who knows? See you in Melbourne....