Welcome back to another edition of Ask Dre, where you, the fine Motorsport101 audience, send me their questions and I do my best to tackle them. Just to let you know, you may want to follow me on BlueSky instead of Twitter (DreHarrison.bsky.social), if you want to get your questions on the show in the near future!
In this edition, preview stuff for all the major series, Will Buxton’s move to IndyCar, and Franco Colapinto’s new role at Alpine. On with the questions!
WDC, WCC, Unsung Hero and Flop of the year. Give a gut answer and heart answer. I wanna know what you WANNA see, not what you think! – Dom
Dom, I’ll invoice you for my time afterwards, this is a LOADED question. Right… *cracks knuckles*
World Drivers Champion
Head Says: Max Verstappen. 5-Peat. Look, if 2024 proved nothing else, it was that Verstappen is without question the best driver on the grid and through sheer force of will at times, bridged the gap between Red Bull getting their wings clipped and finding ways to still be competitive. And 2025 is entering a weird place. The FIA was going to open the floodgates on flexi-wings going into the season, McLaren’s calling card.
But the latest news this week has shown the FIA has gone the other way and is allegedly going to issue a technical directive severely reducing their effectiveness (It’s a 33% reduction in deflection, 15 millimetres to 10), for the Spanish GP in June. It screams entertainment call from the governing body, with the sport itching for reasons to jump on the 2026 regulation change as soon as they feasibly can.
With all that in mind, give me the highest “floor” in the sport right now and a repeat scenario of last year. Max finds a way to win again and we’re looking at the first 5-peat since Michael Schumacher in 2004.
Heart Says: Charles Leclerc. Hard to believe that Ferrari HAS another driver given the pre-season hype, but I honestly look at Leclerc as the Cody Rhodes of F1. He’s been hovering around the top end of the sport for almost half a decade ago, and the nearest he got to a title campaign was the first half of 2022. Ferrari were so close to the WCC last year, and with me always being the brighter side of Leclerc opinions, I want to see what he can do over the year. Finish the story, Charles.
World Constructors Championship
Head Says: McLaren. As I said at the end of last season, I think McLaren had the best all-round car in all conditions for most of 2024 after Miami and the second chunk of the year started. They should have won the Constructors a lot more convincingly than they actually did. Combine that with one of, if not the strongest driver pairing on the grid, and McLaren are bookies favourites for a reason.
Heart Says: Ferrari. Let’s be honest, we all kinda want this to work out for entertainment sake, right? The biggest story of the season is what Lewis Hamilton can do in red. If it works, it’s going to be a fascinating dogfight between a Ferrari with an upgraded driver line-up, vs McLaren’s new juggernaut. I don’t think Red Bull are going to be there for the WCC with Liam Lawson, or Mercedes with Antonelli, so I think it’s McLaren v Ferrari 2. And the prancing horse is just more fun, right?
Unsung Hero
Head Says: Esteban Ocon pushes Haas into the Top 5. They were a good team last year as Ayao Komatsu rejuvenated the Banbury team with a new development path, another really good Hulkenberg season, and ditching any semblance of a Reality TV product. I’m a huge fan of Este Bestie (pudding and pie), and I think this will be the platform that finally pushes him to his full potential. And Bearcon is a good pairing. At least I think so.
Heart Says: Nico Hulkenberg podium finish. GIVE IT TO ME. I know it’s virtually impossible given Sauber are still cheeks, but I need this to happen before he retires. Let him cook!
Flop of the Year
Head Says: The end of Yuki Tsunoda. The latest out of the Red Bull camp isn’t looking great for our favourite Japanese swearing enthusiast. All signs point to a big 2025 development plan for Arvid Lindblad, aka, the real reason the FIA opened up the Superlicense to 17-year-olds. A two-year-old car running programme, a season in F2, and regular FP1’s are all expected from Lindblad as a ramping up to a potential 2026 F1 seat (And the last of Honda’s affiliation, sorry Yuki), smells on the cards. It feels like it doesn’t matter what Yuki does, he’ll be out at the end of the year. And that stinks.
Heart Says: McLaren Gets An Internal Fire. We saw teases of this in 2024 when “Papaya Rules” came into play and Oscar Piastri absolutely bulldozed his man out of the way at Monza, shoving some genuine fire from the stoic Australian. I think more of those days are coming. The Aussie is inconsistent, but at his best might have an even higher ceiling than Lando Norris does. It will be fascinating to see if Brown can manage his two borderline-elite drivers in 2025 if Piastri hits the ground running. Because last year proved that they weren’t ready for primetime yet.
With just over a month before the start of racing season, which team in each series is giving the worst “vibes”? – FormulaMax22
Vibes eh? Let’s see.
F1: Alpine – You’ll probably see why later on in this post.
MotoGP: Honda – Oh man. For the first time in 30 years there’ll be no Repsol on the bike. Somkiat Chantra feels like he might be out of his depth at the highest level. Joan Mir is having a miserable time and Luca Marini is slow. And most importantly, the bike still sucks. No one’s vibes feel worse than theirs right now. #SaveJohannZarco
IndyCar: PREMA – I wasn’t exactly holding out a huge amount of hope for them to begin with given the lack of a charter, but having the bombshell drop last week that renowned engineer and new hire Michael Cannon has already resigned is erm…. Ungood?
“In very short order, I felt that the majority of my advice and counsel was being disregarded or simply ignored. It was my opinion that my time at Prema was not going to be used wisely and I thus resigned my position.” – Michael Cannon
…YIKES. If Cannon’s to be believed, that is a torching. Why hire one of the best engineers in the field who had done excellent work making AJ Foyt a competitive team, only to ignore his advice? I’m not sure that kind of arrogance is a good way to run an IndyCar team. All of a sudden, I wouldn’t be ruling out a bumping in the Indy 500 depending on the state of the field.
As a new Sportscar fan, what did you make of BMW and Corvette’s shenanigans at the Rolex 24? – Toki
This… is a tricky one. For those who missed the Rolex 24 (And if you did, what the fuck were you doing instead?), there was beef between BMW and Corvette across the race. Earlier on in the race, the #48 BMW was given a drive-through penalty for blocking one of the Corvettes in the battle for the lead in the GTD Pro division. Once the penalty was given, the 48 acted in a manner that looked a lot like a brake test going into the International Horseshoe. Tommy Milner decided to send them a message as they served their penalty, telling BMW he was going for first in the style of John Cleland. If you know, you know.
“I’m going for first, said John Cleland!” – Murray Walker
With just minutes to go until the end of the race, with the leading group bunched together due to a late caution, Corvette decided to retaliate by wiping out the #1 BMW with Kelvin van der Linde and taking them out of contention as the Ford Thiccstang would go on to take its first win in the class.
My take? BMW knew what they were doing earlier on in the race. The thing about blocking and giving penalties for them, is that it’s a very subjective call with a big ol’ grey area to evaluate within it. At what point is a car going over the limit? I don’t know. I could definitely argue that the BMW deserved a penalty, and the immediate reaction to said penalty is a very easy way of killing any goodwill you may have gotten in regards to a benefit of the doubt.
However, that in no way justifies the Corvette retaliating with that seemed to be a deliberate takeout. It’s childish, it’s immature, and it’s dangerous. I’m kinda glad with karmic justice that neither factory won in the end, but yeah, it’s something that IMSA needs to nip in the bud now before it gets out of hand. The stewards handled that one about as well as they could have, mind.
Hey Dre! How do you see the Ocon/Bearman relationship evolving in 25? Personally, I think it’s going to be box office and not in a good way?! Keep up the good work – ThunderPob
Thanks for the kind words, Paul! This feels like a reputational bias kicking in here. Is this based off the Alpine fallout and the long-standing narrative that Ocon’s a bad teammate?
I feel bad for Ocon here, because I’ve never really seen it that way. He’s been a damn solid F1 driver for sometime, and I don’t think he’s been the aggressor in any of his teams he’s been a part of. Perez was sloppy on track with him at times, as was Fernando Alonso towards the end of their time at Alpine. And while he was at fault for the Monaco clash last year with Pierre Gasly, Gasly already let the cat out of the bag at Imola on the radio that there were disagreements about Qualifying and who got priority.
I’ve not had any real reason to think that Ocon and Bearman won’t get along. They’ve already got their own team nickname and everything with Bearcon 2025… which sounds like a convention for teddy bears or something. But it’s cute!
But yeah, can’t get there on an Ocon/Bearman falling out. I like Bearman’s talent a lot from his time in F2, but I’d be surprised if he was close to Ocon in his rookie season.
Genuinely, how long do we give Doohan until Colapinto takes his seat? It feels inevitable at this point. – Legion
I was generous and said he gets the whole season, but the longer this goes on, the more inevitable this feels and I agree with you here.
As said in the Newswipe last week, you don’t give this much social media attention on top of a five-year deal to Franco Colapinto if you didn’t have some degree of long-term plan for him. I’ve said from the start it’s a weird one as the story seemed to be that Alpine’s interest in Colapinto had cooled off after his string of expensive crashes, but this feels like bet hedging between a raw but fast Colapinto, and a Jack Doohan you don’t seem to have full confidence in.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Doohan, who could be done before the end of May if the rumours about performance targets are to be believed. It makes me wonder why he was ever announced for the seat to begin with if you always had Colapinto interest, not to mention the hirings of Paul Aron and Ryo Hirakawa as reserve/development drivers. But as said before, this is Flavio Briatore, and this is the weird bullshit as to how he runs his teams. It’s gone well, right?
Is Will Buxton moving to IndyCar an indictment of a limited potential in F1? – Alexander Pitt
Short answer… probably not? If anything, I think it’s a big commitment from Buxton to switch. Now I don’t know what he’s on as a freelance journo for F1 TV, but you’ve got to consider that he’s moving to the States full-time to cover IndyCar as their anchor, and he has a wife and kids to think about. Not easy.
Not to mention, the man himself did admit in talking to the American media that his contract was up at F1 TV and that there were no signs or discussions about a new deal to stay, so I suspect he’s grabbed the big opportunity by the horns. New big TV deal with FOX and getting to lead and commentate as essentially the voice of the series? Phew, big deal.
I don’t think the F1 TV gig limits potential. It’s made some genuinely great pundits in recent years. The people involved, may not have necessarily needed it (Ruth Buscombe-Divey, James Hinchcliffe, Jolyon Palmer, etc.), but they have so many talented people on their broadcast that’s worth watching, I can see why Biggin Hill may have thought that Buxton wasn’t a priority to keep. Welcome to the competitive landscape that is sports broadcasting. Don’t think it’s much more than that.
We’ll be back in March for another Ask Dre, stay tuned for The Hater’s Guide…
