F1Weekly Podcast # 1103

Play Podcast: 07-14-25f1weekly1103.mp3

YOU’RE FIRED!!!

The Nasir Hameed corner features Marc Priestly former F1 mechanic for McLaren. Joyeux 14.

Oracle Red Bull Racing is pleased to confirm that Laurent Mekies has been appointed to the role of CEO and Team Principal of the Team with immediate effect.

Looking after all Formula One operational duties, Laurent joins Oracle Red Bull Racing from Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, where he has held the position of Team Principal since 2024.

Laurent Mekies, CEO and Team Principal said: “Over the last year and a half it has been an absolute privilege to lead Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and I would like to thank all of our talented people both in Faenza and Milton Keynes. Looking to the future, I am excited to be taking on the role of CEO and Team Principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing, one of the most successful and dynamic teams in the sport. It’s an honour to be part of this group of brilliant people that embody the Red Bull spirit. Together we will achieve great results, building on the incredible legacy left by Christian Horner during his two decades in charge.”

Oliver Minztlaff, CEO Corporate Projects and Investments said: “We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years. With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula One. Thank you for everything Christian, you will forever remain an important part of our Team history. And of course, welcome Laurent, we wish you all the best in this new venture.

Indycar:

O’Ward Outduels Newgarden to Win
Synk 275 powered by Sukup at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON, Iowa (Saturday, July 12, 2025) – Pato O’Ward again celebrated a victory in a monumental race at Iowa Speedway, this time at the expense of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES rival.

In the 100th series start of O’Ward’s career, the Arrow McLaren driver overcame Josef Newgarden’s dominating performance in the Synk 275 powered by Sukup with late-race execution featuring a pair of restarts in the final 14 laps.

This story is familiar. O’Ward and Newgarden continue to battle each other for race wins, with Newgarden’s signature win in the rivalry coming in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. He passed O’Ward on the last lap.

This time, it was O’Ward making the winning moves. He had a quicker final pit stop to overtake the driver who led the race’s first 232 laps and seemed on his way to a record-extending seventh race win here. Then, following a red flag to repair the track’s Turn 4 wall, O’Ward kept the Team Penske driver behind him on restarts with 14 and nine laps remaining.

O’Ward’s margin of victory in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was .2352 of a second, the closest Iowa finish since 2007 when Dario Franchitti edged Marco Andretti by .0861 of a second.

In oval races where these two drivers finished first and second, O’Ward last got the better of Newgarden in 2021 at Texas Motor Speedway. He had finished second to Newgarden in four other oval races since that day in Fort Worth.

“Josef is the master at these races – he rules around here, so I knew that we had to be spot-on,” O’Ward said. “I was so precise on the in lap to beat him at his own game.

“We’ve had so many duels, Josef and I, but he has a percentage that comes out on top more. Today is the day that changes.”

Coincidentally, O’Ward scored his first victory at this short oval in 2022, and it was the 50th series start. Also that day, O’Ward had Team Penske drivers in his mirrors – it was Will Power followed by Scott McLaughlin. This time, O’Ward led a trio of Roger Penske’s men to the to the finish line: Newgarden, Power and McLaughlin, respectively.

While O’Ward won his first race of the season, he denied Team Penske its first win of the year. One of the three of them had won eight of the past nine series races at Iowa, including doubleheader sweeps each of the past two years. McLaughlin had charged from the last starting position – 27th – after crashing in qualifying earlier in the day.

Chevrolet had its best result of the season, finishing 1-2-3-4 and winning the first time this year.

Newgarden led more than 100 laps for the 14th time in his career and the 10th time at this track. He was disappointed to let this one get away.

“O’Ward got track position and that was game over,” he said. “It was as simple as that.”

The dash to the finish was set up by the Turn 4 accident of O’Ward’s teammate, Nolan Siegel. After running in the top 10 most of the race, Siegel spun into the wall, contact that damaged the energy-absorbing SAFER Barrier. INDYCAR issued a red-flag stoppage to preserve the remaining few laps as workers patched the wall.

O’Ward got a noticeable jump on Newgarden on the first restart, but PREMA Racing’s Callum Ilott drifted high on that lap and brushed the Turn 1 wall. As Ilott was able to get to the pits without much trouble, the race restarted with nine laps remaining.

Newgarden got a better run on O’Ward on that try, but on the second time around the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet almost got away from him in Turn 1. O’Ward was able to slip away a bit, eating up laps that would have been valuable to Newgarden’s bid.

Trailing the Penske cars to the finish was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, the series points leader who finished fifth. Palou lost seven points off his lead as O’Ward used the victory to jump to second in the standings, but the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda still holds a 106-point cushion with six races to go.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood took a big hit in both the race and in points when his No. 27 Sukup Honda veered hard into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 153. An issue with the right-front corner of the car appeared to cause the excursion. That was the second accident of the day as he crashed at the other end of the track after appearing to get too low in Turn 3.

Kirkwood not only lost a standings position to O’Ward, Palou pulled away by another 27 points, putting the season’s three-time winner 140 points in arrears.

On the race’s 75th lap, series rookie Jacob Abel saw his No. 51 Abel Construction Honda drift high in Turn 2, where he, too, hit the wall. Neither he nor Kirkwood were injured.

NXT

Rowe Breaks Through with First Series Win

NEWTON, Iowa (Saturday, July 12, 2025) – Myles Rowe took a historic INDY NXT by Firestone victory at Iowa Speedway and then took a bow.

Rowe earned the INDY NXT by Firestone at Iowa Speedway win by executing a stirring late-race pass for the lead, then held on to become the first Black driver to win a race in this series. His margin at the finish was 1.3927 seconds.

This is the second season in the series for the 25-year-old Georgia native who resides in New York and in 2023 captured the USF Pro 2000 Championship.

“It’s so good,” Rowe said after driving the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy entry to victory lane. “We’ve been working a minute for this, and we knew we had the pace. It was about waiting for the last half of the race and seeing what we could do with it.”

Fourteen laps from the finish, Rowe went around series points leader Dennis Hauger on the outside in Turn 4 as they came upon lapped traffic. Rowe’s experience paid off as Hauger, a series rookie, was competing in just his second oval race.

“We don’t stop here — I’m looking for a lot more than this,” said Rowe, who is fourth in the standings. “But I’m glad we could get this (win), for sure.”

The race featured 130 on-track passes and 55 passes for position, both figures ranking in the top three of INDY NXT by Firestone races staged at this short oval track.

Hauger’s strong run in Andretti Global’s No. 28 Nammo machine helped extend his series lead to 73 points over teammate Lochie Hughes, a rookie driving the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship entry. Hughes finished 16th in the 19-car race after being penalized for a Lap 3 incident with Rowe.

Hughes, the winner of last month’s oval race at World Wide Technology Raceway, was trying to hold off Rowe for second place when Rowe moved to the inside on the backstretch. Their cars touched, with Hughes’ left rear tire taking a brush from Rowe’s front wing. Race control deemed that Hughes moved defensively, drawing a drive-through penalty that dropped him down a lap to the field.

Andretti Global’s Salvador de Alba, who had turned the fastest lap in Friday’s practice, finished third in the No. 27 Grupo Indi entry.

Several drivers had spins off Turn 4 without contact. HMD Motorsports’ Josh Pierson tried to take the high line around teammate Caio Collet for third place on Lap 26, but he lost the back end of the car. On the ensuing restarts, Juan Manuel Correa of HMD Motorsports and Ricardo Escotto of Andretti-Cape Motorsport spun on Lap 30 while Davey Hamilton Jr. of HMD Motorsports did the same on Lap 34.

Palou Runs Season Win Total
to Seven at Iowa Speedway

NEWTON, Iowa (Sunday, July 13, 2025) – Alex Palou hasn’t needed much luck in this historically strong NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, but he got some in a big way at Iowa Speedway.

Palou was in third place late in the Farm to Finish 275 powered by Sukup when it came time for the final round of pit stops. Josef Newgarden and David Malukas brought their Chevrolet-powered cars in for fuel ahead of Palou, but Palou’s Honda was able to stay out longer.

Before the series points leader came for service, a caution flag waved for Colton Herta’s wall contact on the backstretch. That gave the advantage to Palou, who was able to stop under yellow as the other frontrunners did so under green.

The race resumed with 11 laps remaining, and the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda kept the lead and held on for his seventh race win of the season.

“Speechless, honestly speechless,” Palou said in victory lane. “It’s been an unbelievable day, an unbelievable weekend. More than anything, what an incredible year for us.

“I really cannot believe it, honestly.”

Palou became the first driver since Al Unser Jr. in 1994 to win seven of the first 12 races of the season. Unser Jr. won only one more race that season; Palou has five more opportunities, which means he is within striking distance of the all-time record.

In 1964, A.J. Foyt won 10 races. Six years later, Al Unser finished the 1970 season with the same number. Mario Andretti won nine races in 1969, and Unser Jr. is one of five drivers to end a season with eight race wins.

Still to come this season are two venues where Palou has won series races previously. He has won one race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (site of the July 27 race) and two at Portland International Raceway (Aug. 10). Two years ago, Palou finished second in Toronto, site of next weekend’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.

It wasn’t as if Palou wasn’t a deserving winner on this day. He led 194 of the 275 laps, the second-highest total of the weekend. Newgarden, a six-time winner at the track, led 232 laps in Saturday’s Synk 275 powered by Sukup despite finishing second to Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward.

The win completed the INDYCAR cycle for Palou, this year’s Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge champion. He has now won races on street circuits, road courses, superspeedways and now short ovals. And in doing so, he pushed his series lead to a seemingly insurmountable 129 points over O’Ward. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is third, 173 points in arrears.

“Winning here is super special,” Palou said. “I’ve struggled on short ovals for so long. Today, although the strategy helped us a little bit there at the end when we were P3, we were trying everything that we could and (delaying the pit stop) worked for us.

“Yeah, super happy.”

Scott Dixon finished second in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to give Chip Ganassi’s organization its third 1-2 finish of the season, although the recent race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course went in Dixon’s favor. Palou edged his teammate in the season-opening race on the Streets of St. Petersburg.

Marcus Armstrong finished third in the No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda. Armstrong drives for Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian, which has a technical alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing. Thus, it was a podium sweep for the combined group.

Malukas finished fourth in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet of AJ Foyt Racing while O’Ward came home fifth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Newgarden left disappointed for the second consecutive race. On this day, he twice had to restart deep in the field due to the unfortunate timing of caution flags. It happened the first time on Lap 130 when Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson hit the Turn 4 wall as Newgarden headed to pit road. Newgarden restarted 13th but fought back to take the lead on Lap 241.

Then, the caution on Lap 254 was again bad for Newgarden and Malukas. Newgarden’s No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet faded in the late going, finishing 10th.

“We all got (disadvantaged) the caution,” O’Ward said.

Palou didn’t, which is why he remains solidly on his way to a third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years, a run of titles not seen since Dario Franchitti won three in a row in 2009, 2010 and 2011 after previously winning in 2007.

Again in this Sukup INDYCAR Race Weekend, trouble found the field on the first lap. This time, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Devlin DeFrancesco spun his No. 30 Luther Automotive Honda entering Turn 4, and it collected Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and his No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet. Both cars hit the outside wall and needed to be removed from the event on the hook of a tow truck.

McLaughlin had hoped to deliver a repeat of Saturday’s performance, when he advanced from the 27th starting position to finish fourth. But he was on the high side as DeFrancesco slid up in his path. “There’s only so much you can do to avoid it,” McLaughlin said.

Team Penske had more trouble soon thereafter. On Lap 21, Will Power and his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet began fading from the fourth position, and he retreated to pit road. The third-place finisher in Saturday’s race was done with a mechanical failure.

On Lap 50, Sting Ray Robb crashed in Turn 2, hitting the outside wall with the rear of the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet.

The race featured 26 car-and-driver combinations, one fewer than normal as Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel was not cleared to drive following wall contact late in Saturday’s race.