{"id":481837,"date":"2025-10-08T02:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/481837\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T02:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:47:20","slug":"the-first-lap-maestros-of-formula-1-plus-is-there-hope-left-for-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/481837\/","title":{"rendered":"The first lap maestros of Formula 1. Plus, is there hope left for Ferrari?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s twice-weekly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/live-blogs\/f1-azerbaijan-gp-live-updates-race-times-results\/KgUScRQtq1Tp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">F1<\/a> newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/newsletters\/prime-tire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we\u2019re wondering whether to bring our 10-gallon hat or our bolo tie to Austin next week for the U.S. Grand Prix. Just kidding. I wouldn\u2019t know what to do with either of those.<\/p>\n<p>I, Patrick, am from Dallas. Luke Smith will be along shortly. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n<p>It Finally HappenedMcLaren wraps up the title<\/p>\n<p>This season was supposed to be tight. Remember that? \u201cLast year of the regulations,\u201d they said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s got the cars figured out,\u201d they said. \u201cHere we go,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, McLaren tore up the script. On Sunday, it secured one of the more commanding F1 constructors\u2019 championships of the modern era. As Luke wrote,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6644988\/2025\/10\/05\/mclaren-win-f1-constructors-championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it boils down to a big risk: a bold chassis\u00a0redesign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The payoff?\u00a0<strong>A championship clinched with six races to spare, tying Red Bull\u2019s 2023 record for earliest title win by rounds remaining.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Across 18 race weekends, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6640850\/2025\/10\/05\/mclaren-2025-f1-constructors-title-by-the-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have been unstoppable<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>12 wins<\/li>\n<li>28 podiums<\/li>\n<li>633 laps led \u2014 nearly 60 of all laps this year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>McLaren\u2019s engineering audacity has produced a car that\u2019s fast everywhere, on every compound, and in every condition.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6644988\/2025\/10\/05\/mclaren-win-f1-constructors-championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read how they did it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Time for \u2018gloves off\u2019 between Norris, Piastri?<\/p>\n<p>But now it\u2019s time for the pleasantries between Norris and Piastri to end.<\/p>\n<p>In Singapore, season-long friction between McLaren\u2019s two championship favorites\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6690981\/2025\/10\/05\/singapore-grand-prix-briefing-mclaren-constructors-title-george-russell-wins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sparked on the opening lap<\/a>. A brush of carbon fiber, a flash of temper on the radio \u2013 and a reminder that parity at the front comes with its own kind of pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Norris\u2019 third-place finish cut Piastri\u2019s title lead to just 22 points.<\/p>\n<p>Team principal Andrea Stella insists the \u201cunity of the team\u201d remains untouchable. Yet, Luke rightly points out that\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6691258\/2025\/10\/06\/f1-championship-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-mclaren\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">every lap between the two young stars has become a test of that unity<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>With six races left, McLaren could still rewrite F1\u2019s record book: most podiums, most fastest laps, even a new wins tally. But as history shows, dynasties are built not just on dominance, but on how teams survive success.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago, after the Italian GP, I argued that<strong>\u00a0racing\u2019s magic lies in its unscripted moments<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 not in McLaren\u2019s choreographed version of \u201cfairness.\u201d I\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6613598\/2025\/09\/09\/mclaren-f1-team-orders-red-bull-max-verstappen-monza-prime-tire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pointed to champions<\/a>\u00a0who valued pure competition over corporate harmony. The civility between Piastri, Norris and the team always felt too fragile to endure. Piastri\u2019s punchy tone on Sunday sounded like the first real crack.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll leave this with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6691258\/2025\/10\/06\/f1-championship-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-mclaren\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a line from Luke\u2019s story<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Singapore again proved just how challenging it will be to keep things fair between Norris and Piastri until the end of the season, especially if the papaya cars remain so close together on the track.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>An Accurate Read<strong>Yuki Tsunoda went backward<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In all the post-race hubbub, I missed Yuki Tsunoda\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/tsunoda-laments-worst-start-of-his-career-as-he-fails-to-score-in-singapore.2WS2d3scOzaA5uHHXI78bQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">saying this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cProbably the worst start I have ever done in my life \u2026 I didn\u2019t have a place to go to be honest, every space I tried to go was covered by someone just randomly, so a terrible first lap.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I went back to the onboard views at the race start to see what he meant. Tsunoda qualified 15th but started 13th after both Williams cars were disqualified on Saturday. And, yep, this is my traffic nightmare:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-6697848 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Oct-07-2025-11-48-51.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"274\"\/><\/p>\n<p>To recap:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn 1: Cut off and sandwiched<\/li>\n<li>Turn 3: Cut off and forced to slow by rejoining cars<\/li>\n<li>Turn 6 &amp; 7: Couldn\u2019t get past the Alpine, passed by Lance Stroll<\/li>\n<li>Turn 9: Passed by Gabriel Bortoleto<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By the time he crossed the line again, he had fallen to P17. Finished P12, though, so somewhat salvaged But surely points left on the table.<\/p>\n<p>This got me thinking \u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who are the first lap aces in 2025?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda\u2019s miserable first lap made me wonder if this is a trend for him or not. We usually focus on the top five cars on the first laps, or race-altering collisions. Good or bad days are made by position swaps in the chaos, too.<\/p>\n<p>I tabbed up all of the positions gained and lost by each driver on lap one of each race. I excluded the British GP \u2014 much of the grid dove into the pits to change tires on the formation lap, skewing the data.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out, uh, yeah, Tsunoda has not been great when the lights go out.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Some insights from that graphic:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It\u2019s obviously still skewed. If you start near the front all the time, you have nowhere to go but backward (and vice versa). Still, it speaks to McLaren\u2019s dominance that neither Norris nor Piastri has lost more than two net spots all season.<\/li>\n<li>Charles Leclerc is the best first-lap gainer among drivers on the top four teams. That has to make Ferrari fans crazy. If he just had a better car \u2026<\/li>\n<li>Lance Stroll: quietly been quite good early in races. That might be the most I\u2019ve written about Lance Stroll all season.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0It\u2019s not shocking to see two rookies (Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto) bringing up the rear. Navigating the F1 first-corner madness is an art.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anyway. There\u2019s some #data for you. Let\u2019s toss it to Luke, who spoke to another downcast driver.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-6697853 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239167674-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\n      Charles Leclerc is looking forward to 2026 (Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What hope remains for Ferrari in F1 this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Charles Leclerc cut a fairly dejected figure in the media pen after Sunday\u2019s race in Singapore. While George Russell dominated for Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull and the dueling McLarens, Ferrari was nowhere.<\/p>\n<p>Leclerc had been managing a brake issue since the early stages of the race, leaving him to finish a lonely sixth, gaining a place after teammate Lewis Hamilton was hit by a similar problem in the final few laps. Leclerc also couldn\u2019t keep Kimi Antonelli back in the final stint.<\/p>\n<p>Leclerc was frank: Ferrari doesn\u2019t have the car to fight at the very front. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the moment, it just feels like we kind of passengers to the car, and we cannot extract much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He made the outlook for the rest of the year sound bleak. \u201cI don\u2019t think there will be anything special,\u201d Leclerc said, having seen his one real shot of winning this season pass by in Hungary. Barring something out of the ordinary in the last six races, a winless season \u2014 only the fifth in the last 20 years for Ferrari \u2014 looks likely.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a frankness from the team about this season falling short of expectations, having come close to winning the constructors\u2019 title last year. I spoke to team principal Fred Vasseur on Saturday for an upcoming feature on The Athletic, and he was very good at explaining the team-building process that has been ongoing at Maranello since he started in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>One thing that struck me while speaking to Vasseur was his excitement over 2026, when the rule reset could change the picture completely in F1. For Leclerc and Ferrari, the hope will be its form ends up making up for the rest of this year being one of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yabadabadoo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mercedes\u2019 man puts F1 on notice again<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>George Russell, who famously crashed on the final lap in Singapore in 2023, delivered a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6690981\/2025\/10\/05\/singapore-grand-prix-briefing-mclaren-constructors-title-george-russell-wins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flawless lights-to-flag victory<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0Managing both the heat and Max Verstappen\u2019s early challenge, he kept his Mercedes steady while rivals wilted. By the flag, he was 4.2 seconds clear \u2014 calm, precise, unshaken.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve said it for a while \u2014 I feel ready to fight for a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Madeline Coleman wrote today,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6691646\/2025\/10\/07\/george-russell-singapore-grand-prix-win-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maybe it\u2019s time to start wondering if he\u2019s right<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5803046\/2024\/09\/30\/the-athletic-newsletters-sign-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">(Top photo: Guido De Bortoli\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-481837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115336265705889534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}