F1Weekly Podcast # 1113

Play Podcast: 09-22-25f1weekly1113.mp3

We have full blown Max Domination all across the F1 nation. McLaren drivers beginning to crack under mighty Max. Ferrari driver swap got stuck on the launch pad and, Fernando says sorry for the jump start led by Piastri. This week’s Nasir Hameed corner: Jack Harvey, a vintage Peter Brazier report and, we have Tech Talk with Tim…Enjoy…The Bonus is Tony Kanaan part 1.

Max:

“It was an incredible weekend and today we had really good pace and it ended up being quite a straightforward race. Starting out in front today was key for us and we managed our tyres well. We were going well on the first stint and executed everything how we wanted to. Our strategy was to go from Hard tyres and then on to Mediums and luckily there were no safety cars in the middle of the race which might have messed this up. This is a tough track to be consistent at, with the challenging layout and also very hard winds so you have to keep reminding yourself to keep out of the walls!

I was happy with the car and we really managed our pace and had quite a big gap to the Mercedes. It has been a great weekend overall and the last two weekends for sure have been amazing. Both are tracks where we have low downforce so we will see how we go on other circuits. Hopefully we can continue forward with this form, but we are just enjoying the moment right now. We are really happy with what we are doing: the relationship that I have with the Team is really good and when the car goes well, everything comes together.”

Yuki:

“We’ve put together a strong weekend here in Azerbaijan, where we showed the performance that we’ve wanted to for a long time. So, scoring my best result with the Team feels deserved. We put ourselves in a great position yesterday in Qualifying and we wanted to capitalise on that with the good promise that we showed in the long runs in practice. There wasn’t a lot of tyre degradation on either the Medium or Hard tyre, so no one was particularly falling away, which made it tricky to pass but still, I am happy with P6. I’ve received massive support from the Team, so it’s nice to repay that with some solid points.

The changes that we’ve made to the car have really worked this weekend and it allowed us to be more competitive than we have been on race days previously. I came into Baku having put in a lot of hard work off track to extract as much performance as possible and today was a step in the right direction. I feel like I have unlocked something that I can take into future races. Also, a huge congratulations to Max as it was a classic drive from him. The Team has been operating at a very sharp level, and we want to continue this momentum. We are not giving up anything until the end of the season.”

Laurent:

“This win started with a Max masterclass in Qualifying yesterday. We didn’t know what race pace would be like as nobody really got any long runs on Friday, but he just pulled away lap after lap, another Grand Chelem, Pole, in the lead from start to finish and setting the fastest lap. The win is down to everyone in Milton Keynes pushing so hard to make the car faster. There is no silver bullet, but no one has ever given up on this season in terms of understanding why we were not reaching the level we wanted and, little by little, the work that Max and Yuki have been doing with the whole Team has been paying off and at least, here and in Monza we were back in the game.

We are not leaving any stone unturned in this 2025 campaign. We are fighting to get more and more learning, to unlock more and more understanding because even if the 2026 regulations are completely different there is always a lot we can carry over from this season. Yuki had a very strong race, keeping the McLaren and Ferrari behind him. He needed a clean weekend and he performed really well scoring important points for the Team in what is his best result of the season.”

Carlos:

Finishing P3 today in Baku and being on the podium is an amazing feeling! I think it’s one of my best races ever! We’ve been working so hard and gone through some really big ups and downs, but this makes it all worth it and we need to feel proud as a team. I’m sure this is just a taste of what’s to come for us at Williams and we need to keep working in this direction.Today we had the pace, and we delivered when it mattered, not making any mistakes and scoring a magnificent podium on pure merit. Thank you to the entire team, here and back at home, for your relentless effort and support! And also, to all our Williams fans out there! I can’t wait for more to come! Vamos!

James:

The result is fantastic. I’ve been fortunate to have a few podiums in my career, but this is one I’ll remember forever. We earned this together as a team – a team that, in recent years, has been at the back, fighting just to survive, and now has battled its way back into this position. Carlos delivered a phenomenal race — an exceptional drive from start to finish, and a joy to watch. You could see and hear just how much it meant to him.

I believe in positive momentum, and this gives Carlos a real foundation to build on. With Alex, sometimes you just have those days. He absolutely had the pace — we’ve seen it all weekend — but after that early incident in Qualifying, it was always going to be difficult. Still, he fought back and finished close to the points. For now, I can’t wait to get back to the factory on Monday with the trophy and feel the roof come off the place. This result is a reward for the incredible dedication of the entire workforce, who give so much of their lives to this team.

George:

I am really happy to be back on the podium. It’s been a tough run of races recently and I also have not felt well this weekend. That made today even more challenging than it could have been, so I am very pleased to finish P2. I was pretty glad when I saw the chequered flag! Congratulations to Carlos (Sainz) and Williams too. That was a very well-deserved result for them.

On our side, the car felt great throughout and Kimi did a superb job to bring home P4 too. That is important points for the team as we look to battle Ferrari and Red Bull for second in the Constructors’ Championship. Hopefully we can build on this result over what is sure to be a tight battle across the final seven races of the season.

Toto:

That was a strong weekend for us as a team, and we come away from Azerbaijan with a good result. It felt good to get back on the podium in P2 and for Kimi to bring home solid points in P4. Of course, we are always hoping to be on the top step of the podium, but this gives us some positive momentum after two difficult races after the summer break.

Congratulations to Carlos (Sainz), James (Vowles), and Williams on their P3 too. That was totally earned on merit. Kimi did what he could to get close enough to attack but their pace was a bit too strong. Kimi nevertheless did a great job to get past (Liam) Lawson; we saw how several cars such as the Ferrari of Leclerc and the Red Bull of Tsunoda were unable to do so when they were in DRS range. He will use this weekend to take momentum into the final seven races. George meanwhile drove a fantastic race; he’s been suffering with illness all weekend and it was touch-and-go whether he’d even be able to drive on Friday and Saturday. It was a big push from him and to perform like this was mega.

Cadillac F1 news:

In a bid to further extend its reach both in the U.S. and globally, Jim Beam has now formed a multi-year partnership with the Cadillac Formula 1 racing team, which will enter the FIA Formula 1 World Championship next year as the first new addition to the grid since 2016. “Formula 1 is growing at an unprecedented rate, and we thought with our music and sports platforms that there’s not a better avenue for future growth opportunities than to partner with a Formula 1 team,” explains Hodari.

Jim Beam also has a link with Cadillac going back decades, with the company noting that the Bourbon brand’s founder and namesake was known to place a mason jar of his proprietary yeast in the front seat of his Cadillac each evening and bring it home with him to protect the brand’s legacy. Jim Beam’s seventh-generation master distiller Fred Noe still drives a Cadillac today.

Cadillac signs with Jim Beam…

Formula 1’s global audience is a key facet of the partnership, says Hodari. “That’s one of the most attractive components of Formula 1, the fact that it’s a global footprint across 20-plus markets, and that there’s a growing fan base across all of those markets,” he observes. The increased visibility is intended to help extend Jim Beam’s global momentum, with the brand up 3% to 10.7 million cases worldwide last year, including flavors, according to Impact Databank. 

The move to partner with Formula 1 continues Jim Beam’s strategy of leveraging sports and music audiences both in the U.S. and around the world to draw new drinkers. The brand also sponsors the National Football League’s Kansas City

Fernando:

“It was a difficult race without much happening and we simply didn’t have the pace. At the start, I reacted to Oscar’s movement and unfortunately got the penalty. I don’t think this impacted our race in the end, because we just didn’t have the performance. Hopefully our car will suit Singapore better and we can fight for the points again.”

Jack Harvey with Nasir Hameed at Laguna Seca 2012, Jack is currently an Indycar series commentator.

Formula 2

Crawford holds off Duerksen to take superb victory in Baku.

Jak Crawford held off a charging Joshua Duerksen across the line to take a third Feature Race
victory of the season in Baku, putting the DAMS Lucas Oil driver up to second in the Drivers’
Championship Standings.
The American lost pole at the start, but following a Safety Car restart, managed to regain the
lead, before going on to win the race. Leonardo Fornaroli finished third on the road, but a 10-
second time penalty dropped him to fifth, promoting Dino Beganovic onto the podium in third.

It was a superb start from Fornaroli in second, as he took the lead ahead of pole-sitter Jak
Crawford going into Turn 1. The DAMS driver was then down to third after losing out to Gabriele
Minì on the run to Turn 3. However, as they came across the line to start Lap 2, Crawford took the place back from Minì, while Martinius Stenshorne, having overtaken Alexander Dunne on the opening lap, got past Josep María Martí for fourth into Turn 1.
Luke Browning, whose slow start dropped him from fifth to eighth then ran wide at Turn 16,
allowing teammate Beganovic through. At the start of Lap 4 of 29, Fornaroli had a lead of 2.2s to Crawford, while in the battle for the points, Duerksen overtook Browning for P9 into Turn 1.
On the next lap and after going side-by-side with Martí into Turn 1, Stenshorne wound up in the
barrier, bringing out the Safety Car. With the majority of the grid having started on the Supersoft tyres, they all took their mandatory stops on Lap 6, changing to the Softs.
Minì came out of the busy pitlane in front Crawford, with Martí third, while Fornaroli was down
to fourth but ahead of Dunne. Racing resumed on Lap 8, and the PREMA driver kept the lead, while further behind, Duerksen dived to the inside of Beganovic at Turn 1 to take P6. However, the race leader ran too wide at Turn 16, allowing Crawford to briefly take the position, although Minì retook P1 at Turn 1 with the slipstream.

Browning lost out in the mandatory stops and was down to P16 at the restart, before a collision
with Roman Stanek caused him to stop on track. The Briton brought his car back into the pitlane,
before coming back out a lap down.
Fornaroli’s frustrating few laps were then made even worse when Dunne dived to the inside of
the Invicta driver at Turn 3, demoting him to P5.
Onto Lap 10 and the top two were continuing their battle as Crawford used the DRS to take the
lead into Turn 1.
Fornaroli was looking to retake fifth place from Dunne at the end of Lap 12. However, the Italian
ran into the back of his rival at Turn 1, sending the Rodin Motorsport off the road. He was able to
continue on, but dropped to P10. Fornaroli was later handed a 10-second time penalty for
causing the collision.
Lap 15 got underway with Duerksen, having taken advantage of Fornaroli and Dunne’s incident
to get up to fourth, right on the back of Martí in the battle for P3.
The AIX driver made his move at the start of Lap 17, getting past his Campos rival for the final
spot on the podium into Turn 1.
Minì had lost more ground to the leader and was down to P3 at the start of Lap 19, with
Duerksen getting past once again at Turn 1.

Fornaroli was now keen to get a move on, and after going wheel-to-wheel through the first
sector with Martí, he overtook the Spaniard down the main straight for fourth.
The Invicta driver was up to third on Lap 21, getting past Minì into Turn 1, while right behind him,
Beganovic also got ahead of Martí for fifth.
The Swede was up to fourth on the next lap, with a move Minì for down the main straight. Out in
front, Duerksen was slowly closing in on the lead, and was 1.1s behind Crawford on Lap 24.
The AIX driver closed to within 0.5s by lap 26, and while he had the DRS advantage, the race
leader kept him at bay through both zones at the start of the lap.
On the penultimate lap, Crawford once again resisted Duerksen’s attempts to overtake, all while
Fornaroli was closing in on the leading pair.
Duerksen did all he could to get ahead, but Crawford held him off to convert pole into a third
Feature Race victory of the season, while the AIX driver went from P15 to second.