🏁🏎 Lewis Hamilton and his bacon sandwich | Pit Lane Chronicle
Imola saw McLaren humbled, Hamilton live out his Schumacher dream and Alonso start to believe the world is truly against him
We’re a few days on from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and I still haven’t quite decided whether it was a bad ‘good race’ or a good ‘bad race’. In any case, what we do pretty much know is that, sadly, that’s probably it for Imola on the F1 calendar – for a while, at least. I certainly felt more melancholic than usual when driving out of the circuit on Sunday night. But the world keeps turning and there’s another iconic venue up next at the Monaco Grand Prix.
This newsletter looks beyond just the stories about McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to shine a light on the other six teams that make up the rest of the grid and help make F1 the vibrant sport it is today. Read on for some of the news that made the homepages of the top F1 sites – but also plenty more content that probably didn’t.
The Formation Lap
The main headlines and stories from the Formula 1 paddock this week:
🏁 McLaren were left scratching their heads a little at Imola after Max Verstappen not only got the jump on Oscar Piastri at the start but also found more pace in his upgraded Red Bull than either Piastri or Lando Norris could muster – Andrew Benson’s race report, BBC Sport
🤦♂️ Piastri admitted he had braked too early and made it too easy for Verstappen, while former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve slammed the Aussie for the error which “should never happen” – Sam Goodwin, Yahoo Australia
🔴 Lewis Hamilton was, of course, the star of the show on Sunday as far as the locals were concerned, as Ferrari overcame a qualifying disaster with the seven-time champion securing his best result of the season – Kieran Jackson, The Independent
↳ Hamilton was quite emotional as he reflected on his childhood watching, while eating a bacon sandwich, Michael Schumacher’s connection with the Tifosi as he experienced racing in front of them himself for the first time – Giles Richards, The Guardian
😱 Yuki Tsunoda made headlines for his terrifying crash in qualifying which saw his car flip over, but fortunately he was uninjured and produced a strong comeback drive to score a point on race day – Connor McDonagh, Crash
↳ I asked Christian Horner after the race how he felt about Tsunoda’s performance and he felt the Japanese driver had raced really well, but wants his second driver to get closer to Max Verstappen.
👎 Mercedes really struggled on Sunday and George Russell, who dropped from third on the grid to finish seventh, said it was his team’s “worst day” for several years – Formula1.com
🇮🇹 It was also a rough weekend for his team-mate Kimi Antonelli who admitted he approached his first home race all wrong with an impressive show of maturity and self-awareness in the media pen after the race – Daniel Moxon, The Mirror
Fan Focus
Favourite team?
I am a fan of Williams Racing for what they represent in F1 history: Underdogs who could achieve incredible things while not always having as many resources as other successful teams, even having their own era of dominance at one point. I support Alex Albon, was a big Logan Sargeant fan, and keep an eye on the drivers that are or were part of the Williams Driver Academy.
Favourite memory?
It’s a three-way tie: Silverstone 2023, because the livery was a work of art, how Alex was driving so well and even went wheel-to-wheel against the Ferraris and beat them, while Logan put up a very underrated effort; Austin 2023, for being an example of how a team should never give up when facing a tough race, which led to a surprise double points finish; Australia 2025, because of how well Williams managed to perform in conditions that were just incredibly difficult for everyone in the grid, highlighting how talented Alex Albon really is.
Favourite car?
The Williams FW25 (from 2003) – I love how it looks, the sound of its BMW V10 engine and, though the likes of the FW14B or FW15C won championships, it was still a quick car that won on merit, got 1-2 finishes against McLaren and Ferrari, ended up on the podium a lot and only really lost out on the title because of reliability issues.
F1 hot-take?
There’s a real problem with F1’s feeder series. There are way too many factors outside of the drivers’ control that end up compromising their chances of ever reaching F1. The sport needs to find ways to minimize these issues, that way future talents can have a better chance of success in their quest to reach F1.
Want to feature in a future edition of Fan Focus? Fill out this Google Form and email a photo of yourself to pitlanechronicle@reachplc.com, and keep your eyes peeled on the next Pit Lane Chronicle! 👀
Poll Position - have your say
Paddock Press
Here are the main stories around F1’s six midfield teams this week:
🔵 Alpine
❌ Flavio Briatore said there is “no set limit” on the number of races Franco Colapinto will have to prove he is the right man for that second seat alongside Pierre Gasly – Alan Baldwin, Reuters
↳ Briatore complained about news outlets reporting that Colapinto had been given five races to impress, but that number was confirmed in an Alpine press release so it’s unclear why he’s complaining…
↳ Colapinto had an underwhelming debut for the team, crashing in qualifying at Imola before finishing 16th and well away from the points.
🤔 While we’re talking about Briatore, there was an interesting development in Imola where it became clear that, while he’s fully in charge, he cannot be Alpine’s team principal because he’s not an employee of the team and he doesn’t hold the required F1 licence. – Andrew Benson, BBC Sport
↳ Alpine confirmed that, for now, racing director Dave Greenwood is their team representative as far as the FIA is concerned.
😡 Jack Doohan’s dad Mick slammed “customer team” Alpine as he made it clear he’s still angry about his son’s demotion – DAZN (in Spanish)
↳ Jack was in the paddock last weekend, flying out to Imola in the early hours of Saturday morning after working on the team simulator in Enstone, Oxfordshire.
↳ But afterwards he had to beg trolls to “stop harassing my family” after his dad was targeted by a faked social media post which sparked a torrent of abuse – Simon Chapman, SpeedCafe
🟢 Aston Martin
🏎 Speaking to team principal Andy Cowell last Thursday, it was clear so much relied on their huge upgrades this weekend and they made an immediate impact as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both qualified in the top 10!
↳ But Sunday didn’t go their way and the timing of the safety car really ruined their race, leading to Fernando Alonso, who remains pointless in 2025, declaring himself the “unluckiest driver in the world” – Mat Coch, PlanetF1
↳ Alonso was delighted with how “super” the car felt in race trim, though, noting that, at one point, they were even able to match the pace of Mercedes driver Russell and the McLaren cars – Formula1.com
🆙 To say their upgrades worked would be obvious, but Cowell offered even more exciting news as he declared that they had improved the car across low, medium and high-speed corners, making the AMR25 a better racing machine all around – Sam Cooper, PlanetF1
⚫ Haas
🤬 Ollie Bearman finished second-to-last, but that doesn’t tell anything like the full story of his Sunday afternoon, as he explained while dispelling the myth that he had “a s*** race” – Scott Mitchell-Malm; Josh Suttill, The Race
↳ It might have been better still had qualifying gone better, which Haas believe should have been the case as video evidence, they claim, suggests Bearman’s fastest lap, good enough to make it through to Q2, was completed before the red flag caused by Franco Colapinto’s crash. The FIA disagreed, but Haas have asked for more information from the governing body over the matter.
🏡 The start of the European season means the travelling team motorhomes are back! And Haas have a shiny new one which debuted at Imola – Haas F1 Website
❌ A week on from Max Verstappen’s surprise Nurburgring appearance, Haas boss Ayao Komatsu made it clear he’d never allow his drivers to drive in another series alongside their F1 duties – Stuart Codling; Filip Cleeren, Autosport
⚪ Racing Bulls
😬 Another “difficult weekend” for Liam Lawson who remains pointless and continues to be outshone by rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar – Barry Guy, RNZ
↳ Completely agree with this column which says Lawson can’t keep getting outshone by his junior team-mate Hadjar if he is to ever have a shot of winning back a seat at the top Red Bull team – Alex Powell, New Zealand Herald
↳ But former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat, who knows a thing or two about being dropped unceremoniously mid-season, has backed Lawson to get back to his best – Jake Nichol; Ian Parkes, RacingNews365
🔃 With Hadjar doing so well despite his lack of experience in F1, Jacques Villeneuve believes Yuki Tsunoda should be worried about being replaced by the Frenchman if he does not make swift improvements – Lewis Larkam, Crash
🟢 Sauber
📼 I’ll start off the Sauber section with a shameless plug for my interview with team principal Jonathan Wheatley to mark Sauber’s 600th race in F1, discussing both drivers in detail and the transition into Audi – Daniel Moxon, The Mirror
↳ There’s plenty more to come from my 30-minute interview with Wheatley at Imola so keep your eyes peeled, Sauber fans 👀
🔮 Nico Hulkenberg was running in the points for a time on Sunday and, though, they left empty-handed in the end, the German said their performance was “a bit more encouraging” for the races ahead – Formula1.com
🏆 Hulkenberg also said Wheatley’s vast experience of winning with Red Bull will be “powerful and valuable” to Sauber and Audi going forward – Owen Bellwood; Frederick Hackbarth, Autosport
🔵 Williams
👏 Williams were very strong again at Imola and, at one point, even had Alex Albon running in the podium positions. He finished fifthand felt so good in the car that he said he “thought he could even get Piastri” – Jake Boxall-Legge, Motorsport.com
🙁 Carlos Sainz also finished in the points but was disappointed with eighth, having declared Williams quicker than both Mercedes and Ferrari on track – Keith Collantine, RaceFans
↳ Sainz also questioned the team’s race tactics, admitting he was close to “disobeying” the order to make his first pit stop as it came much earlier than he had expected and “was never in the plan.” – Sam Cooper, PlanetF1
↳ Team principal James Vowles admitted the team “didn’t get it right” when it came to the strategy for Sainz – Williams F1 website
🇦🇷 Vowles also had a word for former Williams academy driver Colapinto and backed the Argentine to become stronger by dealing with the “difficult environment” at Alpine – Michelle Foster, PlanetF1
Best of Substack
Here are some of the F1-related posts I enjoyed elsewhere on Substack this week:
📊 This piece, in collaboration with Aston Martin and their partner Juniper Networks, does a great job of explaining how teams deal with and use the obscene amount of data they collect over the course of a race weekend – Toni Cowan-Brown, Idée Fixe
🎬 Enjoyed this look ahead at what we can expect from the much-anticipated F1 movie, which hits cinemas next month – Lottie, Beyond the Credits
🏎 This is a fun piece about what it’s like to experience a track day at a former F1 track, specifically Aintree which is just a few miles from where I live! – Liam Jones, F8 and Fly
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 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.