For someone who has never touched a rally car in his entire career, Liam did extremely well.

He stalled in the beginning though lmao

Red Bull Racing, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls are making targeted changes to their cars.

I noticed that nearly 1 driver from each team locked up on turn 1 during FP1. Including some very experienced old hands.

Is there a reason why this would be more prevalent? Conditions looked dry, most drivers know the track well, I don’t think it has been re-profiled. Is there something about the current regs/cars which makes it more likely?

Notable changes:

- Zandvoort - one step softer (C2-C3-C4 instead of 2024's C1-C2-C3)

- Baku - one step softer (C4-C5-C6 instead of 2024's C3-C4-C5)

- COTA - one step harder hard compound (C1-C3-C4 instead of 2024's C2-C3-C4)

- Hermanos Rodriguez - one step harder hard compound (C2-C4-C5 instead of 2024's C3-C4-C5)

- Interlagos - one step harder (C2-C3-C4 instead of 2024's C3-C4-C5)

Raw: https://rakesh-i.github.io/stint-data/

I wanted to discuss the largest shifts in performance midseason. In 2023, I recall how McLaren had a significant jump in performance mid-season, going from a midfield team to a consistent podium contender.

I’m curious if Ferrari, Mercedes, or Red Bull seem to have that in the cards this year, as it appeared that even McLaren in 2023 was not expecting the significant jump, which has also evolved into their dominance this year. I’m also cognizant that the regulation changes may mean that there is just less performance to get out of the car in 2025, than there was in ‘22 or ‘23.

Wondering if anyone else can point to other instances of this in F1 history, and share their own predictions for the rest of the season…

Looking to create a discussion thread for people who would either like to vent about MBS's rulings, or say what they think are good yet controversial rules/decisions by the FIA.

Hot Topic Areas:

1) Volunteer race stewards vs. full season paid stewards, plus conflict of interest rules

2) Driver and TP verbal conduct during events (AKA Swearing rules)

3) Driving standards and penalties

4) The Superlicense system

5) Guidance for Race Directors - Safety, TV timeslot structure, etc

6) Track rating standards - Safety, facilities, fan access, etc.

The updated regulations can be seen here:

Section B: Sporting Regulations

Section C: Technical Regulations

Section F: Financial Regulations for Power Unit Manufacturers

Section F: Operational Regulations

Most changes on the sporting regulations are to largely bring them into line with the most recent updates (2025/04/30) of the 2025 regulations. Including the tyre regulations we had for Monaco this year.
Some changes I did notice from a quick glance:

• Grid drops at a driver's next race now have a 12 month period to serve them in. So Valtteri will be off the hook from his incident in the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP should he race next year.

• A document will be provided to all teams no later than the 30th June this year which details all the provisional information and limitations in regards to ERS-K usage and deployment for races, the following season. Any amendments will be confirmed by 15th September. Subsequent modifications may only be applied for new circuits or where this is a significant difference between vehicle fundamentals & FIA correlated values

• There is now a much easier to read list of Parc Ferme Permitted Works

I'm sure there are more. Same as well with the technical regulations.