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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES Oliver
OAKES (Alpine), Zak BROWN (McLaren), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)
Q: Can we start by paying tribute to former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan who
sadly passed away yesterday. Christian, can we start with you? Your memories
of EJ?
Christian HORNER: Yeah, incredibly sad. I mean he was such a big
character, an inspirational character to have taken his team from,
effectively, Formula Ford to Formula 1. And he'll be sadly missed. You know,
my personal memories of him go back to 1991 as an aspiring young racing
driver and meeting him for the first time. He had just moved into a factory
that he built at Silverstone. He took the time with me late in the evening
to talk about next steps in your career, and his advice was: "The thing
about motorsport is you need a good sponsor, and welcome to the Piranha
Club." He was just a larger-than-life character. He was always fun to have
around. He was the heart and soul of any party. His love of music was
legendary. He and his band would want to play anywhere. He’ll be very sadly
missed. The sport is a poorer place for not having Eddie around anymore. The
amount of drivers he gave an opportunity to—he was a great champion of young
talent, and not just drivers but engineers, technicians, and designers. So
many people in this paddock owe him a debt of gratitude for the
opportunities he provided. A very sad day to learn of his passing yesterday.
Zak BROWN: Yeah, Eddie was a big personality, a proper racer. Responsible
for a lot of people's great careers in motor racing, a lot of racing
drivers. I remember being at Spa ’91 when Michael Schumacher debuted in his
car and qualified, I think it was, 7th. An iconic looking racing car.
Punched above his weight. I think in the late ‘90s he had a proper run at
the Championship. He was a great personality and will be sorely missed. We
need more individuals like Eddie Jordan in Formula 1, they’re kind of the
life of the party.
Oliver OAKES: Yeah, I mean, I think he’s just an
inspiration, isn't he, as a character. Listening to Flav this morning on a
few stories—obviously he's had a few run-ins with him. Even on my side, my
Hitech started out of a unit at Silverstone that's on his little park there
next to the old Jordan factory. So yeah, I think he was an incredible guy
and obviously leaves a big legacy behind.
Q: Ollie, a sample of one
race, but has the performance of the car met expectations so far?
OO:
Yes, I think we had a pretty good Saturday there with Pierre into Q3. I
think Jack did a good job as well. Was a bit unlucky not to scrape through
or be close to Pierre there with a yellow. But I think Sunday, in those
conditions, we were a bit frustrated to walk away empty-handed. But yeah,
we're feeling pretty confident for the season.
Q: Let’s talk about
the drivers. Pierre, first of all—his third season with the team, he is now
the senior driver. Have you sensed a change in his approach this season?
OO: No. It's a little bit more harmonious between the two of them, but I
think he's just been a good figurehead in the team. Having him there with
Jack definitely gives us a good line-up.
Q: You said last week in
Melbourne that Jack’s had a lot of pressure put on him, and part of that has
come from the team. Can you explain what you meant by that?
OO: Yeah, I
mean, look, there's a balance, isn't there? There's the aspect of we want to
have a good line-up, also want to have some good drivers in the pipeline.
And I think by doing that, we obviously created a little bit of noise around
him. But credit to him that he's got down to business as soon as the season
started, and the job he did in Australia was brilliant. Obviously, we saw a
couple of people getting caught out on Sunday with the conditions, but
that's to be expected when you're a rookie. He just needs to dust himself
off and go again, which this morning he did a good job straight away. A
little bit of a frustration there with a failure at the end, but he was
doing a good start to the weekend again.
Q: Zak, first time since
2012 that McLaren has won the opening race. How does that change things for
you and for the team in terms of pressure?
ZB: I think pressure is always
on in Formula 1—every weekend, every session. It's a great start to the
season. Clearly the car is very fast. The team's done a great job, drivers
did a great job. Felt terrible for Oscar there towards the end. He made a
strong recovery, but conditions were tricky. Was a pretty stressful race
with all the restarts. You had Max in the game—which, every time he’s in the
mix, he’s a difficult guy to beat—did a great job. And I think it's going to
continue to be very close.
Q: Does it require a change in mentality
to be the hunted rather than the hunter?
ZB: I don't think so. You can
definitely tell our drivers have great confidence coming off of a very
strong season. They're in great shape, they're in a great frame of mind, as
is the team. I would say, the pit wall was outstanding given all the
pressures, whether it was the drivers, or the weather, or the rain, or the
tyres, or the restart. I was very happy to see how they reacted to the
constant pressure of a Grand Prix and the changing conditions.
Q:
What about the car? Lando said yesterday that it’s difficult to
drive—quoting him: “It's difficult to drive and it doesn't suit his driving
style.” Is that a cause for concern?
ZB: I think you're always trying to
make the car a little bit easier for the drivers. Someone said to me
yesterday it didn’t look like we put a lap time down in Bahrain testing—we
tried, we just didn’t put one down. So I think we need to make the car a
little bit more compliant. It's clearly very quick, but when you get it up
on its nose, so to speak, and you're flinging it around at ten-tenths, yeah,
the drivers want to make it a little bit more compliant. So they put it
together in Q3 in Australia. I think we have the benefit of both drivers
pushing each other because we were pleasantly surprised by the gap in Q3.
You didn’t see that in Q1 and Q2, and I think maybe some others
underperformed on their lap. It's one race in tricky conditions, so let’s
see how things play out over the next few races. I don’t think we’ve seen
the final line-up yet.
Q: Christian, what did you make of the pace of
McLaren last weekend in Melbourne? Are they on another planet or are they
catchable?
CH: It was certainly very quick—both in qualifying and
particularly the first half of the race. On the Inter tyre, the degradation
was very low. They've obviously done a very good job. They have a good car,
they've got two good drivers that are pushing each other hard. The race came
back to us, I think, as the conditions became a bit more variable. Others
made mistakes and we were able to capitalise on that. Max got pretty close
at the end—0.8 of a second—who knows, another lap or two what would have
happened? But it was a very strong finish to the Grand Prix for us. McLaren
looked very strong—and again here, I think they’ll probably be the car to
beat.
Q: How much better is this year’s RB21 to the one you ended
last season with?
CH: We can see by the lap times—everybody's going
significantly quicker. I think we’ve significantly changed certain
characteristics of the car. It gives us a broader base from which to work
with now. It’s a development race between now and Abu Dhabi in December, so
it’s going to be a nine-month marathon. From what we saw in Melbourne, if
the racing’s like that all the way through, it could be a bumper year.
Q: To win the championship, do you think you need to develop your car
until the end?
CH: Inevitably, depending on how the championship plays
out. But you’ve got to keep developing. In this business, if you're standing
still, you're going backwards. And of course, there's that dilemma with next
year's regulations—where you apply resource, where you don't. But
inevitably, you've got to keep chasing performance, keep getting performance
on the car.
Q: Final one from me—tough start for Liam last weekend.
What advice have you given him coming into race two here in China?
CH: I
think Liam's got a pretty sensible head on his shoulders. It was a tough
baptism for him. He still came away with the second fastest race lap. And I
just told him: "Ignore the naysayers, ignore social media, put your head
down and you'll be fine." He just needs a bit of time.
QUESTIONS FROM
THE FLOOR
Q: (Jon Noble – Motorsport.com) The idea of the V10 coming
back to F1 has moved from something that could be considered in the future
to parties now actively pushing for it. There’s talk about scrapping the
2026 regulations, potentially rolling these engines on for two years, and
moving in 2028. In this debate, what do you think should happen now as we
move forward into 2026 and the new rule cycle?
CH: I mean, obviously
there's a lot of debate about the future. We've got a set of regulations for
next year, for 2026. I think there's some limitations to those regulations
as far as the show and the racing is concerned. I think there's some aspects
that… We've ended up in a situation where the chassis is having to
compensate a huge amount for perhaps some of the shortcomings of the split
in electrification and combustion. But, you know, it's sort of ten past
midnight and Cinderella's left the building. So, the romantic in you—a
screaming V10—so long as it's done responsibly, with fully sustainable
fuels, is hugely attractive. I think the big question is: when would that be
for? And what would be the game plan between where we sit today and then?
Because it would be a massive departure obviously to move away from what is
currently being worked on very hard for 2026. But I think, from the fan in
me, the concept of a screaming V10 engine would be very exciting for the
sport—at whatever point it’s chosen for the future.
ZB: You know, Formula
1’s always been a very technical challenge when you have new regulations. I
think this is no different for 2026. We’re happy to race and ready to race
in whatever the rules may be. I think a V10, definitely—as Christian
said—would be pretty cool with sustainable fuels. I don't really see how you
can unwind what's in place, really because of all the different power unit
changes that are happening right now. Audi's coming in, Alpine's going to
Merc for an engine. Logistically, I'm not sure how you put the genie back in
the bottle. But from our standpoint, we're with HPP, very happy. They're
ready to go—or will be ready to go. And so that wouldn't impact us. But it
is a bit of a head-scratcher of how you would put that in place if you did
want to make a change. And I think every time there's a rule change, I
remember when hybrids came in last time there was some concern, and that’s
worked out just fine. So I’m sure the engineers will get on the technical
challenge and remain very excited, as Formula 1’s always been.
OO: I
think they've both summarised it pretty well there. I think it's quite a
romantic idea, but obviously the train has left the station now for 2026. I
think it's probably something beyond that that will be looked at because it
does sound quite good for Formula 1 to go that way a little bit. But as Zak
said, we are quite far along already.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas –
Autosport). Question to Zak. You mentioned that both drivers are feeling
very confident as 2025 has begun. What could you tell us, please, about
Lando? Outside the car, he does seem very at ease and sort of getting on
with his big opportunity running at the front. But what's it like inside the
team, how is he working with you guys?
ZB: Yeah. You know, our drivers
disappear in January—we give them January off—and he and Oscar came back in
fantastic. You could just tell they've been very focused, training, very
engaged with the racing team to understand the developments on the car,
because we have quite a bit of innovation on the car. We’ve definitely not
just polished last year's car and continued. And just kind of the way he's
carrying himself. In Australia he felt very in control. Lot of pressure on
you when you've got your teammate and Max in your DRS when you have those
conditions, and I think there were three or four restarts. He was just very
in control. The team was great. He knew what he wanted. He knew when to
listen and just felt like a very mature drive in what were very tricky
conditions.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic). It was announced last
week that the Concorde Commercial Agreement has been signed over the next
cycle, which is obviously very good news for you guys. But the governance
side is still in the works. Can you talk a little bit about that? Is it
frustrating at all that we've not got that side over the line, as normally
they are done coterminously?
OO: This is the first one I've done, I'm the
new guy. From my side, I think it was pretty straightforward. I think it was
impressive to see all the teams get together, get behind Liberty, everything
they’re doing. I think the governance side will obviously fall into place
shortly. But yeah, first one I’ve done—it was probably a walk in the park
compared to what they’ve been through before.
ZB: Yeah, the commercial
agreement came together pretty quietly, which was nice, because we know
historically there can be some drama around that. I would expect that to be
the same on the governance side. So I’m sure we’ll turn our attention to
that now. And kind of like the commercial agreement, which was a bit of a
rinse and repeat—updated, modified—but there were no substantial changes. I
would anticipate the governance being in the same situation. So yeah, it'll
get done here shortly.
CH: Yeah, I mean, it was all rather unexciting in
the end compared to previous years. I think the important thing—it is
unusual to have a tripartite agreement signed by only two sides—but the most
important thing for the teams is they need to know what they're going to be
paid, which is what that agreement is all about: how the money is
distributed. Of course, governance forms a crucial part of that, but that is
more of an issue between the commercial rights holder and the FIA, so it's
in their capable hands to work that out.
Q: (Michael Butterworth –
Xinhua News Agency). Zak and Christian, you both run very successful teams,
both very ambitious individuals. I'm just wondering, what's the quality that
each of you most admires about the other?
ZB: I'll go first. I mean,
obviously the results Red Bull have put up—what has it been now, 20 years?
They’re pretty awesome, right? And we're in the results-oriented business.
They've won a lot of races, a lot of championships—pretty awesome.
CH: I
think there always has to be respect, and you have to respect competitors'
performances. I think McLaren obviously turned their season around last
year. They did a very good job. They've built on that and they look like the
car to beat this year. So credit where credit is due. Everybody operates in
different ways. Every team has a different style—style of management, style
of going racing. That's part of the appeal and attraction of Formula One.
You get fans that follow their teams and their drivers accordingly. But I
always think that it's important to have respect where respect is due.
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) A question to Zak on the driving
style comments that Lando made. Neil Oatley said this morning that if you
made the car more suitable for a particular driving style you could actually
make it slower. Is that the balancing act you’re facing now. Secondly, Lando
himself said that in the past one and a half years he got much better in
adapting his driving style to a specific car. Is that a development you’ve
seen as well.
ZB: Yeah, definitely. Keep in mind in testing you only
have three days and drivers split it. Then in Australia you had tricky
conditions in the race and as I mentioned earlier we have some innovations
on the car that give it a different feel, so clearly he did adapt to it
pretty well in Australia, so yeah, trying to get it more compliant. We
certainly don’t want to make it slower and I’m sure he’s still getting used
to it. Not too worried about the two of them coming together.
Q:
(Adam Cooper – Adamcooperf1.com) One for all three of you. The Cadillac
entry was finally confirmed a couple of weeks ago. Now the dust has settled,
what are your thoughts on competing with an 11th team on and off the track?
Are you happy with the anti-dilution deal, and what can GM bring to Formula
1?
Christian HORNER: Well, I mean, GM is a big brand. I think if it was
anybody other than GM, we'd probably have a bigger issue with it. The
prospect of a GM versus Ford competition, I think, is somewhat appealing.
Look, they've hit the criteria in terms of coming into the sport. The
dilution – obviously the cake is split between 11 now rather than 10. We all
got an early Christmas bonus as part of their signing on fee, so that’s
obviously negated the impact in the short term. A big brand like GM coming
into the sport—I think it’s a positive. It shows the appeal of Formula 1. It
would have been unimaginable probably five or six years ago to think of a
brand like Ford Motor Company and GM coming into Formula 1. I think it just
demonstrates the strength and power of the sport and the global appeal of
Formula 1 to have these big American brands coming in.
ZB: I think it’s
going to be exciting for the fans – they like new teams, new tracks, new
power units, new drivers. So it’ll be something that everyone’s going to be
looking at. As Christian said, around the economics, it’s fine. I think
they’ll find Formula 1’s a big, big challenge, but I think it’s going to be
exciting for the sport. And it’s amazing—if you look at where the sport’s
come in five years—five years ago we were fighting to keep teams. Now, five
years later, people are fighting to get on the grid. I think that speaks to
the health of the sport and the job that Stefano and Liberty have done to
grow it. You look at the health of all the racing teams and the people who
want to join—it just shows how strong our sport is and that it’s going from
strength to strength.
OO: Yeah, I mean, look—it’s a great brand to come
in. I think it’s another good storyline for 2026 along with the reg change.
And I guess, as both said, we’ve got a few financial directors who are
probably quite happy now looking at their bank balances. It’s all good.
Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) A question for Christian on the current
engine partner. Can you just reflect on how Honda has been as an engine
partner compared to maybe some of the ones you’ve had in the past? And also,
how concerned are you about Honda teaming up with Adrian Newey and Aston
Martin next year and competing against them?
CH: Well, Honda are a great
racing organisation. We've had a wonderful relationship since they obviously
stepped away from McLaren in 2018 and then joined with us in 2019. We've won
six World Championships so far together and in excess of 60 races. It’s been
the most successful Honda relationship in Formula One. I think their
passion, their commitment has been outstanding and, of course, their product
is very strong. They'll continue that journey with Aston. I’m sure they’ll
continue under the new regulations to provide competitive engines. We’ll be
sad to say sayonara at the end of the year, but we’ll look back on this
period with great pride. And, of course, the next chapter for us is what’s
particularly exciting as we produce our own power unit under our own roof in
Milton Keynes in the UK.
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) Another
one for Christian. You raised the question before—when it comes to
flexi-wings, why do the stricter tests for the front wing only come into
play from Barcelona onwards? And when it comes to the rear wing, are you at
least happy with the way it’s monitored now with the changes for China?
CH: Well, I mean, the FIA—it’s their job obviously to police these things.
They obviously saw things they weren’t particularly happy with at the last
race, so as is their prerogative, they’ve tightened up those regulations
through a TD that came out this week. Now, what effect it has up and down
the grid—I don’t know. But that’s just part and parcel of Formula 1. TDs are
almost forthcoming on a weekly basis.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas –
Autosport). Another question to Zak. The sort of reverse of what I asked you
earlier—what can you tell us about how Oscar’s been in 2025? He always seems
a very cool, sort of cleverly detached character, but with all this pressure
on the team as being a proper front-runner, has he been different this time?
ZB: No. He always comes very prepared. He's got a very cool mindset—always.
I think that’s one of the things that makes him so strong. Very impressed
with Oscar—have been from day one. Hence signing him up to a longer-term
deal so we could have stability in our team and just let everyone focus on
racing. I think he drove a brilliant race in Australia. Great recovery from
an unfortunate incident. Yeah, couldn’t be happier with my two drivers.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adamcooperf1.com) One for all three of you again. The
trailer for the F1 movie was released—I think a week ago today. From the
footage you’ve seen, what do you think of it? What are your expectations for
the film? And what do you think it can do for Formula 1 and for your
sponsors?
ZB: I think it’s going to create a lot more exposure for
Formula 1. I think—if you think back to Top Gun—everyone wanted to be a
fighter pilot and Tom Cruise after watching that movie. I think that’ll be
the case with Brad Pitt and motor racing. So I think it’ll bring in some
more fans, continue to bring in a more diverse fan base, a younger fan base.
I think it’ll be great exposure for our sport.
CH: Yeah, it’s truly
exciting. Jerry Bruckheimer just produces great movies. I think this
movie—from what we’ve seen so far—puts Formula 1 on the big screen. The way
they’ve played out the story, it interacts with the last couple of years of
racing on track. In terms of the value added that it brings the sport, to
our partners, to the brands associated with Formula 1, it puts it in front
of yet another audience. I’m sure the storyline will fit all categories, but
in terms of exposure for Formula 1, it’s outstanding. Looking forward to
seeing it released, I think, in the summer of this year.
OO: Yeah, I
think it’s exciting for F1. I think a whole new audience will potentially
get hooked on the sport. You could see it at the launch in London, as soon
as they put a snippet on the screen, everybody was sort of excited and
looking when it was coming out. Yeah, looking forward to it. |
