🏁🏎 F1's long wait is over, but was it worth it? | (Brad) Pitt Lane Chronicle
This is a great week for those who'd like to see 61-year-old Hollywood legend Brad Pitt do his best Lewis Hamilton impression
Hello! On Tuesday I drove down to Silverstone for my first visit to Cadillac’s new F1 base, right opposite the circuit that will host the British Grand Prix in a couple of weeks. I had a look around the whole facility and sat down with Graeme Lowdon, the team principal of F1’s 11th team which will be joining the grid next year. Sadly, that’s all I can say for now as there’s an embargo that I have to respect that doesn’t lift until next week. You’ll have to come back for the next edition of this newsletter to find out more!
Besides, there’s still plenty for us to sink our teeth into this week including the long-awaited release of F1: The Movie, approval for F1 owner Liberty Media’s massive new purchase and the news that a couple of big-name drivers will be sitting out first practice in Austria this weekend…
This newsletter looks beyond just the stories about McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to shine a light on the other six teams making up the rest of the grid and help make F1 the vibrant sport it is today – and there are dedicated sections for each below. So read on for some of the news covering the homepages of the top F1 sites, but also plenty more content which probably didn’t.
QUICK QUIZ QUESTION – Ahead of Alex Dunne’s Formula 1 practice debut this weekend, can you remember who the last driver representing the Republic of Ireland at a Grand Prix weekend was? The answer is at the bottom of this newsletter.
The Formation Lap
The main headlines and stories from the Formula 1 paddock this week:
🎬 F1: The Movie starring Brad Pitt is finally in UK cinemas! (Sorry to those of you in America, who have to wait until Friday to see it). Monday saw Leicester Square host the European premiere of the film with Tom Cruise making a surprise appearance to support Pitt – Zack Sharf, Variety
✍ Here’s my spoiler-free review of the movie, in case you’d like to get a sense of what the finished product is like. There are some truly outstanding elements but, as I explain in the piece, also plenty of problems – Daniel Moxon, The Mirror
🇺🇸 Pitt got a taste of real-life F1 machinery last week as he took part in a private test with McLaren at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. My understanding is he drove the team’s 2023 race car, the MCL60, last Thursday – McLaren F1, X
🏍 Liberty Media will soon officially own the majority of MotoGP as well as Formula 1, after the European Commission confirmed on Monday that it had no objections to the American company’s purchase of an 84 percent stake in Dorna Motorsports – Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter
↳ The deal values MotoGP, which is nowhere near as popular as F1 worldwide and particularly not in the US, at around £3.7billion ($5bn), which makes you wonder how much Liberty could get for F1 these days if the Saudis follow through on their interest in buying the commercial rights! (Not that it’s likely to happen any time soon).
🔎 There shouldn’t be much of an F1 silly season this year with the majority of drivers under multi-year contracts, but there remains a lot of talk around Mercedes with George Russell still not tied down beyond 2025, and of course Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s long-term plans. This is a good bit of analysis looking into how both of them, and Fernando Alonso, fit into the jigsaw – Ronald Vording, Autosport
👀 Speaking of the driver market, one man hoping to land a new job in 2026 is Valtteri Bottas who’s currently reserve driver at Mercedes. He recently told me in an interview that he thinks the new Cadillac project is “really cool and interesting” and, at the weekend, teased F1 fans with a fun video of himself touching the seat of a Cadillac road car and saying he “wouldn’t mind” sitting in it, which has naturally got a few people excited – Valtteri Bottas, Instagram
🔃 We’ve had confirmation of a couple of rookie FP1 outings this Friday in Austria. First, McLaren announced that Lando Norris will sit out the first practice session of the weekend so that Formula 2 standings leader Alex Dunne can make his debut in an official F1 session – Andy Gray, BBC Sport
🔴 And Ferrari have also confirmed that Charles Leclerc can put his feet up in that first hour of running on Friday, with Dino Beganovic getting another taste of F1 machinery – Samuel Coop, RacingNews365
↳ Beganovic drove FP1 in Bahrain earlier this year, also in Leclerc’s car, meaning Ferrari still have two practice sessions to give to rookies this year and both of them must be in Lewis Hamilton’s car.
🏭 Ferrari are currently the only F1 team without some sort of base in the UK, or at least plans for one, but Nico Rosberg has suggested that could soon change with the Italians said to be considering opening a new facility in ‘Motorsport Valley’ with the rest of their rivals – Harry Whitfield, Motorsport Week
⏪ With 20 years of experience running Red Bull in F1, Christian Horner has explained how he has seen the sport change since starting out as a rookie team principal back in 2005 – Thomas Maher, PlanetF1
🇭🇺 Ahead of August’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the 40th edition of the event, Hungaroring bosses have confirmed huge circuit refurbishment works including a brand new pit building that has been rebuilt from the ground up. Modernisation was a condition of the deal that saw the race’s contract extended until 2032 – Christian Nimmervoll, Motorsport.com
There’s no fan focus this week, but you can take part in future editions by filling out this super simple Google Form and email a photo of yourself to pitlanechronicle@reachplc.com, and keeping your eyes peeled on the next Pit Lane Chronicle! 👀
Paddock Press
Here are the main stories around F1’s six midfield teams this week:
🔵 Alpine
🇦🇷 Franco Colapinto’s future remains under the microscope as he reaches the fifth of the five races Alpine said they would give him before a “review” of their driver situation. The Argentine press has taken an understandable interest in his progress but Flavio Briatore has slammed outlets in Colapinto’s homeland for “publishing too much crap” about him, which the Alpine chief feels is harming the 22-year-old’s chances of success – Fernando Romero Nunez, Buenos Aires Herald
↳ Jack Doohan remains at Alpine as a reserve and simulator driver and has been given some sage advice by Alex Albon on how to give himself the best chance of getting back onto the F1 grid – Taylor Powling, Motorsport Week
🗣 Mick Schumacher, who drives for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship, said he is “always in talks” about a potential return to the F1 grid as he searches for a way back into the sport – Sport.de (in German)
😬 Alpine remain rooted to the bottom of the constructors’ championship with just 11 points scored and Pierre Gasly, responsible for earning all of them so far, has admitted the team “has some work to do” ahead of this weekend’s race in Austria – Mark Schofield, SBNation
🟢 Aston Martin
🤝 Aston Martin have hired former Red Bull Racing head of simulation Giles Wood as simulation and vehicle modelling director. He reunited with former colleague Adrian Newey, who recently said Aston has particularly “weak” simulation tools – Jon Noble, The Race
↳ It’s clear Newey has a huge amount of influence already, but team principal Andy Cowell insists the legendary designer isn’t acting like a “dictator” in his quest to improve the team’s fortunes – Norberto Mujica, GPBlog
🇪🇸 Cowell also recently discussed the future of Fernando Alonso, who has been the subject of some speculation of late, and said he hopes the Spaniard will see out his F1 career with Aston Martin before taking up an ambassadorial role with the team – Jaden Diaz-Ndisang, LWOS
🚨 Aston Martin announced this week that it has relaunched its driver academy, with Formula 3 driver Mari Boya becoming its first member – Aston Martin F1
⚫ Haas
🔎 This is a good look at how Haas has gone from its terrible pandemic woes to a much happier and more competitive, albeit still inconsistent, outfit on the Formula 1 grid – Filip Cleeren, Autosport
🗣 Esteban Ocon has enjoyed a fine start to life as a Haas driver while his former team Alpine is struggling, but the Frenchman insists he would “never smile” at seeing his previous employer hit hard times – Connor McDonagh, Crash
👀 Super Formula champion Sho Tsuboi has asked for a Formula 1 test through Haas’ link-up with Toyota Gazoo Racing, and is believed to be “a likely candidate” to get the chance to show what he can do in F1 machinery – Jamie Klein, Motorsport.com
⚪ Racing Bulls
❌ Isack Hadjar continues to be linked with a potential promotion to the main Red Bull team, though the Frenchman says he has not asked team-mate Liam Lawson about his brief spell as Max Verstappen’s team-mate as it’s a “tough subject” – Samuel Coop; Aaron Deckers, RacingNews365
🤔 Hadjar, though, says he is “a fighter” and would be up for the challenge of stepping up to the main Red Bull outfit, even if he admits he probably isn’t ready for it yet – Ben Waterworth, Speedcafe
🏎 Red Bull prodigy Arvid Lindblad is being tipped as a potential rookie on the 2026 grid after landing his FIA superlicence early, and properly tested F1 machinery for the first time this week, driving the AT04 at Imola for Racing Bulls – Savannah Lenz, GPBlog
🟢 Sauber
🔮 Nico Hulkenberg has said he believes Audi’s entry into F1 from next year will provide him with “a good opportunity” to finally race towards the front of the grid in years to come, as he continues to wait for a maiden podium – Lawrence Barretto, Formula1.com
🤝 In the same interview, Hulkenberg also spoke about his rookie team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, urging people to look beyond the fact the Formula 2 champion has yet to score a point in F1 and saying of the 20-year-old: “He's very impressive and he's definitely pushing me.”
🏁 Bortoleto has opened up on how manager Fernando Alonso saved his racing career by stepping in when he was struggling to find the finances he needed to land the Formula 3 seat in which he ended up winning the title, which boosted his rise to F1 – Lewis Larkam, Crash
🔵 Williams
📝 Some big contract news at Williams this week, as team principal James Vowles put his commitment to his task of restoring the team to its former glory in writing – Williams F1
😅 One of the stranger stories of the week saw Vowles admit that the FIA had investigated the team because it had been paid by the makers of the F1 movie in return for being allowed to film in its wind tunnel, and so Williams had to reassure the governing body that it had not benefitted from the ‘fan on’ time used by the production – Molly Hudson, The Times
😳 Williams considered signing IndyCar champion Alex Palou, Vowles has revealed, but turned down the chance partly because he wouldn’t have come cheap, but also because the amount of testing the Spaniard would need in F1 machinery would have meant a year off competitive racing – Phillip van Osten, F1i
Best of Substack
Here are some of the F1-related posts I enjoyed elsewhere on Substack this week:
🎬 This is a great piece on Apple’s extraordinary technological efforts that went into filming F1: The Movie, in particular how filmmakers managed to get Hollywood-quality shots from inside the car! – Vincenzo Landino, Business of Speed
🏁 I’ve got my own section dedicated to the teams that don’t get the media coverage they deserve, so I was always going to shout out any effort to focus on those midfield outfits, like this one – Aaron Guy Leroux, The Installation Lap
🏎 This piece left me wanting to know more about an engineer’s first experience of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which is widely used in the design of F1 cars, back when they dreamt of a career in motorsport – Nasser M, The Digital Engineer
QUICK QUIZ QUESTION ANSWER – Ralph Firman was born in Norwich, England, but represented the Republic of Ireland during a brief F1 career that saw him start 14 times for Jordan Grand Prix in 2003, scoring one point.
The Chequered Flag
Thanks so much for reading this week’s edition of Pit Lane Chronicle. This newsletter is FREE for all to enjoy. Please do let me know what you think, with any tips, comments and suggestions always welcome!
✍ My name is Daniel Moxon and I’ve been an F1 fan since I was old enough to listen to my dad’s tales about Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. I clearly caught the bug as I now work as the Daily Mirror’s Formula 1 Correspondent. I live in Merseyside, in the north west of England, with my fiancée Abby and our one-year-old daughter Eve who isn’t speaking yet but already knows how to make race car noises – “Vroom vroom!”
🏎 My aim is to provide a clear path to news about the teams or drivers you love and support without having to get past the mountain of content all focused on the Lewis Hamiltons and Max Verstappens of the F1 world.