Formula 1

[Tetragon213]

Fair play to Lando this season. Was rooting for Piastri, but ultimately Lando held up against the pressure better. A hard fought championship to the end.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Fair play to Lando this season. Was rooting for Piastri, but ultimately Lando held up against the pressure better. A hard fought championship to the end.

Wouldn't have minded him winning it either.

 

[Carlisle]

Tsunoda/RedBull getting just desserts for poor driving trying to keep him behind

Hard to see what else he could’ve done to assist his teammate without having the fastest car .

 

[Leyland Bus]

Hard to see what else he could’ve done to assist his teammate without having the fastest car .

It was all he had left, Perez did a better job with Hamilton afew years ago (cost him 8 seconds over 2 laps) but that was then...

I'm frankly surprised Yuki did anything after being told he'd lost his race seat!

 

[66701GBRF]

Brilliant Lando, by just two points as well!

Without that last minute overtake on Antonelli last week that gave him an extra 2 points Verstappen would have won the DC on countback. Very close indeed.

 

[EYFanatic]

Tsunoda should have got more then the five seconds in my opinion - he was swerving that Red Bull around like a fighter jet evading missile lock

At least the stewards have officially said Lando did go over the limits but it was as the result of evading a collision

 

[DarloRich]

The right result in the end. I thought Norris would let Verstappen and perhaps Piastri go and just manage his pace and position to make sure he won the title and he did.

Tsunoda was way out of order but I thought the FIA were going to go all Hans Gruber and hand the title to Verstappen again by penalising Norris. After Maximilliam was on the radio toward the end asking what could be done to win the title there was a part of me wondering if they would ask Yuki to crash and bring out the safety car in the hope Le Clerc could pass Norris ( ala Hamilton) ! I also noted 2nd Red Bull team driver Lawson have a bit of nibble at Norris as he overtook him following pit stops. Red Bull really tried all the tricks to win but lost.

Verstappen drove well to win the race and had RB been a bit more competitive earlier on he would have won the title IMO - i wonder what that effort in the second half of the season has done to the development of the new RB car ?

Is Norris the 11th British F1 world champion?

 

[SynthD]

Hard to see what else he could’ve done to assist his teammate without having the fastest car .

He could have had a funny radio message about pushing Lando off the track.

Is Norris the 11th British F1 world champion?

Yes. Two more, Russell and Bearman?, to go before we equal the rest of Europe.

 

[JD2168]

A very steady but tense final race. Not sure what Max could have done much differently in the race as Russell’s pace was poor particularly on the hard tyre & Leclerc only had great pace for a short period until his went off as if Lando had gone behind Leclerc McLaren would have got Piastri to drop behind him.

The backing up wasn’t as possible as the track is much faster in this configuration than when Lewis did it in 2016.

Tsunoda’s holding up of Norris was poor particularly compared with Perez in 2021. His 5 second penalty felt correct.

Overall the race wasn’t great although some action lower down looked interesting.

The next action is the testing next year with the all new 2026 cars.

This race marked the end of:
DRS
Pirelli C6 tyre
Renault engines
MGU Heat
Ground effects

2026 will see the following:
New cars with moveable wings
New Power Units
Sustainable fuels
Narrower tyres
Cadillac
Sergio Perez & Valterri Bottas return
Arvid Lindblad as the only true rookie driver
Spanish Grand Prix at the MadRing

 

[Bald Rick]

McLaren’s strategy today was bang on. Always had options.

Interesting to see the different opinions on Tsunoda’s penalty between the Sky team and C4 team.

 

[DarloRich]

nteresting to see the different opinions on Tsunoda’s penalty between the Sky team and C4 team.

Damon Hill on five Live basically said Norris took a big risk to pass where he did and should have waited but that Yuki had behaved poorly in trying to run him off the road.

 

[EYFanatic]

He could have had a funny radio message about pushing Lando off the track.

"Yuki... We need heat in the tires - repeat, we need heat in the tires so can you swerve a bit. Confirm you understand that please"

 

[Tetchytyke]

Tsunoda's weaving was disagraceful, to be honest. It was the last move just as Norris was about to come alongside that did it for me, Tsunoda moved to the right thinking Norris would go the 'long way round' then squeezed Norris to the left when he didn't. A bit of weaving to break the tow is one thing, that was something else. He was lucky it wasn't more than five seconds. I'd agree with Hill that Norris took a risk in keeping his foot in, though.

I get the distinct impression that McLaren hadn't really done any development work on their car since the summer break, which is what allowed Red Bull to come back at them for the drivers' title. It would make sense, they had the championship title sewn up and that's what pays the bills. It'll be interesting to see how much development work Red Bull did and whether that will cost them at the start of next year.

I'm a McLaren fan and not a driver fan, I don't care which McLaren driver wins the title as long as one of them does. That said, the conspiracy theory nutjobs in Piastri's fanbase have made me far more lukewarm towards Oscar, especially when he was liking stupid Instagram posts. Mark Webber let his own paranoia get to him at Red Bull, it'd be a shame if he passes it on to the drivers he manages. I can't imagine Zak Brown would go to all the trouble of pinching Oscar from under the noses of Renault, a decision which has inadvertently caused them a lot of legal issues with Alex Palou in IndyCar, only to deliberately sabotage Oscar.

 

[Leyland Bus]

Tsunoda's weaving was disagraceful, to be honest. It was the last move just as Norris was about to come alongside that did it for me, Tsunoda moved to the right thinking Norris would go the 'long way round' then squeezed Norris to the left when he didn't. A bit of weaving to break the tow is one thing, that was something else. He was lucky it wasn't more than five seconds. I'd agree with Hill that Norris took a risk in keeping his foot in, though.

I get the distinct impression that McLaren hadn't really done any development work on their car since the summer break, which is what allowed Red Bull to come back at them for the drivers' title. It would make sense, they had the championship title sewn up and that's what pays the bills. It'll be interesting to see how much development work Red Bull did and whether that will cost them at the start of next year.

I'm a McLaren fan and not a driver fan, I don't care which McLaren driver wins the title as long as one of them does. That said, the conspiracy theory nutjobs in Piastri's fanbase have made me far more lukewarm towards Oscar, especially when he was liking stupid Instagram posts. Mark Webber let his own paranoia get to him at Red Bull, it'd be a shame if he passes it on to the drivers he manages. I can't imagine Zak Brown would go to all the trouble of pinching Oscar from under the noses of Renault, a decision which has inadvertently caused them a lot of legal issues with Alex Palou in IndyCar, only to deliberately sabotage Oscar.

I forget when exactly McLaren stopped development but I think it was before the summer break with the odd bit here and there that filtered through after (tweaked wings etc)... RedBull went much further into the season with theirs and may well hamper them next season... Of note is Williams, who switched to the 2026 car extremely early in the year and yet did amazing towards the year end, especially Sainz!

 

[EYFanatic]

especially Sainz

Well, Carlos had the aid of Mr Sparkles

 

[Leyland Bus]

Well, Carlos had the aid of Mr Sparkles

He did and boy, wasn't he a boost!!!

 

[QSK19]

I forget when exactly McLaren stopped development but I think it was before the summer break with the odd bit here and there that filtered through after (tweaked wings etc)... RedBull went much further into the season with theirs and may well hamper them next season... Of note is Williams, who switched to the 2026 car extremely early in the year and yet did amazing towards the year end, especially Sainz!

Makes me think back to Brawn GP: I think Honda focussed on the 2009 car very early on and, after the management buyout, then came the season when the F1 world got turned on its head.

Wise move by Williams to do this IMO.

 

[gswindale]

Well, seems more change is afoot in the Toro Rosso camp - Helmut Marko is to leave the team(s) at the end of the year.

This might mean a bit more stability for the drivers within the 2 teams for the short term at least, although it does inevitably lead onto the usual speculation about Max Verstappen's future at the end of next year.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Wise move by Williams to do this IMO

It’ll be interesting how it plays out as they’re clearly not the only team to have stopped their development early. Alpine and Aston Martin, at the very least, seem to have done the same.

Honda/Brawn had designed a mega car but they weren’t the only ones to focus on the 2009 car. The two Toyota teams- Toyota and Williams- also had the double diffuser.

 

[QSK19]

It’ll be interesting how it plays out as they’re clearly not the only team to have stopped their development early. Alpine and Aston Martin, at the very least, seem to have done the same.

Honda/Brawn had designed a mega car but they weren’t the only ones to focus on the 2009 car. The two Toyota teams- Toyota and Williams- also had the double diffuser.

Ah yes, the good old double diffuser. And the other teams threw the toys out the pram (or the steering wheel out the cockpit?) that they’d been caught out.

Epic season that was.

 

[Tetragon213]

Ah yes, the good old double diffuser. And the other teams threw the toys out the pram (or the steering wheel out the cockpit?) that they’d been caught out.

Epic season that was.

If one is willing to believe what is heard along the grapevine, allegedly Mosley was involved in wanting to give the big teams a bit of a slap when they shot down his (in hindsight good) idea for a cost cap, and letting the smaller teams get away with the double diffuser was a great way of doing that.

Tbf though, Brawn had a lot of other brilliant ideas, and the double diffuser simply acted as the big smokescreen to deflect any scrutiny away from those parts.

 

[D365]

Tbf though, Brawn had a lot of other brilliant ideas, and the double diffuser simply acted as the big smokescreen to deflect any scrutiny away from those parts.

Absolutely. The smokescreen worked so well, that it's seemingly still in effect to this day!

 

[Tetchytyke]

letting the smaller teams get away with the double diffuser was a great way of doing that.

Tbf though, Brawn had a lot of other brilliant ideas, and the double diffuser simply acted as the big smokescreen to deflect any scrutiny away from those parts.

Toyota had the double diffuser too, for what good it did them. And they threw lots of money at F1. They weren’t a small team.

The Brawn car had more to it than that. As you say, Brawn were happy to let the others think it was the double diffuser.

McLaren just screwed up the aerodynamics. It’s been said that the previous era required lots of outwash but the 09 era needed the opposite. Once McLaren got to the bottom of it they were back towards the front.

 

[JD2168]

A very behind closed doors test (called a shakedown) is taking place at Barcelona this week featuring the team’s. Each team is allowed to run any 3 of the 5 days but it doesn’t have to be on consecutive days.

Not running are Williams as the car is not ready (rumours of failed crash tests), Aston Martin may not run until the last 2 days & McLaren have so far not turned a wheel.

 

[Bald Rick]

A very behind closed doors test (called a shakedown) is taking place at Barcelona this week featuring the team’s. Each team is allowed to run any 3 of the 5 days but it doesn’t have to be on consecutive days.

Not running are Williams as the car is not ready (rumours of failed crash tests), Aston Martin may not run until the last 2 days & McLaren have so far not turned a wheel.

McLaren were never planning to run on the first two days, they were quite public about that.

 

[JD2168]

After the Barcelona shakedown where Mercedes was comfortably fastest more testing is taking place this week & next at Bahrain. All teams are taking part including Williams who missed the first test.

Audi emerged from the garage worth rather different sidepods.

The stoppages included Racing Bulls (which didn’t appear in the afternoon) & Alpine, Aston Martin only ran in the morning after a power unit issue appeared.

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was fastest for the majority of the day until Lando Norris went fastest late on.

 

[Leyland Bus]

After the Barcelona shakedown where Mercedes was comfortably fastest more testing is taking place this week & next at Bahrain. All teams are taking part including Williams who missed the first test.

Audi emerged from the garage worth rather different sidepods.

The stoppages included Racing Bulls (which didn’t appear in the afternoon) & Alpine, Aston Martin only ran in the morning after a power unit issue appeared.

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was fastest for the majority of the day until Lando Norris went fastest late on.

Was quite interesting watching the final hour yesterday (just the final hour is being broadcast this week due to F1 testing new camera equipment or some such, normal viewing resumes next week) just how lairy the cars now seem. Very oversteery. They also appear alot more nimble, look less bulky and visually look faster, which is good.

 

[75A]

Disappointing that it was the same old names @ the top of the times, I was rather hoping that with completely new cars other Drivers and or Teams would challenge, still it's early days.

Thought the commentary was better though, always better to hear any voice other than Mr Croft's.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Feb 2026 ==

Disappointing that it was the same old names @ the top of the times, I was rather hoping that with completely new cars other Drivers and or Teams would challenge, still it's early days.

Thought the commentary was better though, always better to hear any voice other than Mr Croft's.

Unfortunately the commentary returned to normal today with the banal David Croft back in the chair.

 

[JD2168]

After 2 weeks of testing in Bahrain a pecking order has started to emerge as the following:

Back: Aston Martin (poor test with reliability & lack of pace concerning) & Cadillac

Midfield: Haas, Alpine, Audi, Williams, Racing Bulls with Haas & Alpine towards the front of these

Top: Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren in this order it appears

The compression rate issue appears to have been fixed with a new technical directive coming in around the summer break.

The issue of starts has seen a new idea trialled with a blue light shown to enable drivers to rev the engines up to get the turbo & other systems working

 

[EYFanatic]

Back: Aston Martin (poor test with reliability & lack of pace concerning) & Cadillac

Not surprising really given Cadillac is a new team

Midfield: Haas, Alpine, Audi, Williams, Racing Bulls with Haas & Alpine towards the front of these

Haas being toward the front of the midfield pack doesn't bring much of an eyebrow raise given its the Ferrari B team... Still, not bad going for Mr Haas who is a second hand tractor salesman amongst other things