Apex - Motorsport Analysis (2025)

24/07/2025

The impact of Spa’s rollercoaster elevation…🎢

The Circuit de Spa Francorchamps has the most elevation change of any track on the F1 calendar with just over 102 metres between its highest and lowest points. It’s a result of its location in the Belgian Ardennes forest and is 1.6 times that of the track with the second most change over the lap, the Red Bull Ring in the Styrian Mountains, and 2.3x that of the venue with the third most, Sao Paulo.🌲🏔️

But just what difference does this amount of elevation change make? 👀

Despite what it might feel like watching the cars go through Eau Rouge and up to Raidillon, those corners are neither the lowest nor highest points of the Spa Circuit - in fact, the highest is just before turn 7, or the exit of Les Combes, with the lowest coming just before turn 15, or Stavelot.

Even so, the rapid decline into Eau Rouge and incline up to Raidillon requires the teams to carefully setup/monitor their ride heights over the weekend. The cars can be subjected to up to 3Gs of compression pushing them into the track through that change - which is mostly taken flat where fuel loads are low and tyres are softer - adding to the compression even further. 😮

The compression not only impacts the floors, suspension and tyres but also the drivers, albeit not sustained but still to a degree that they will feel the effects as they go through the infamous sequence.

With Spa being so undulating there are also changes in elevation that are perhaps less obvious but still impactful on the lap - like the uphill run along the Kemmel Straight to the highest point of Les Combes, before the downhill run through sector 2 all the way to the circuit’s lowest point of Stavelot or turn 15. The drivers then gain around 47m in elevation from there to the finish line alone!

It’s these elevation changes plus its speed and unique corner sequences that make Spa such a drivers’ track - but who will get the better of it this weekend? 🤔

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📸: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images // Aston Martin F1 Media
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23/07/2025

Can Verstappen get his podium streak back? 👀

Max Verstappen has a pretty impressive record at one of his home grands prix in Belgium. He first ran the Belgian Grand Prix in 2015 and since then has achieved an average finishing position of P4, but since 2020 this has elevated to P2 - including his three consecutive wins. 🏆

While these 3 victories place Max as the driver with just the 9th most wins in Spa, it’s perhaps his recovery drives there in recent years following engine penalties that have made his mark on the race. In fact in the last three Belgian GPs, Max has made up an average of 8.3 places! 😮

💪 In 2022 a new energy store and control electronics were fitted to his RB18, putting him to the back of the grid, or P14 given that other drivers had opted to do the same. By lap 2 though, Max was up to P8 which had become P3 by just lap 8. By the final pitstops, he’d extended an over 26s lead to Perez in P2 allowing him a free stop and to run to the end with a 17.8s win margin.

📈 In 2023, taking new RNCs earned Max a 5-place grid drop putting him to P6 on the grid after he took pole, which he had once again recovered to the win by the chequered flag. Also similarly to the previous year, and to an even greater extent, it was by a significant margin over Perez - 22.3s to be exact.

4️⃣ But last year, Verstappen’s ability to recover from taking his 5th ICE of the year and the resulting 10-place grid drop was limited by his strategy and overtaking being tougher. He did make up two places on the opening lap but became stuck in a DRS train and unable to make up much pace on his rivals on a double hard stint. Even with his podium streak over, Max said it was a “positive day” as he finished ahead of his championship rival, Lando.

Given that Verstappen took a new ICE last time out in Silverstone, he’s unlikely to have to pull off another Belgian recovery drive so might that mean he can regain his podium streak? 🤔

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📸: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images // By Courtesy of Pirelli
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22/07/2025

Will experience pay off in Spa? 🤔

Spa’s current consecutive run on the F1 calendar extends back to 2007 which means 5 of our current drivers have at least 10 starts of the Belgian Grand Prix. But this has resulted in different levels of success in terms of wins, podiums and points for each of them…

⬆️ Fernando Alonso tops the list with 19 starts but he’s never stood on the top step in Spa despite having claimed 3 podiums. He’s now scored points at the last four races following a point-less run all the way from Melbourne to Spain - can he make it 5 top ten finishes in a row?

🥇 Lewis Hamilton is the most successful active driver at Spa with 5 wins & 11 podiums - one of which was last year following Russell’s DSQ. He’s switched to Ferrari now though and his most successful result for them so far was his victory of the Shanghai Sprint - can he repeat the result at this Sprint event too?

📈 Nico Hulkenberg has started 11 Belgian GPs and arrives this year with incredible momentum from his maiden career podium in Silverstone. Last year Sauber recored a DNF and a P15 in Spa, but huge progress has been made from then until now, so what might they achieve?

🔄 For Sainz, Belgium hasn’t been a lucky race: he’s DNF’ed 3 times & has only scored 29.5 points in total there, despite a podium in 2022. He’ll be wanting to add to that total this weekend and bring Williams their first top 10 in Spa since 2022, also correcting his current two race run outside the points.

🏆 Verstappen has claimed 3 wins in Spa as one of only 3 current drivers to have done so (VER, HAM & LEC), but things have been tougher as of late. Max was 5th in Silverstone and DNF’ed from the Austrian GP and there’s big change for Red Bull this weekend as it’s Mekies’ first with the team, so can Max add to this success even with all the noise around him & the team?

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📸: Aston Martin F1 Media // Mercedes AMG Media // LAT Images / Haas F1 Media // By Courtesy of Pirelli // Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images
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21/07/2025

Red Bull’s longest point-less streak in 16 years…🫣

With a run of five point-less races from Monaco to Silverstone, Yuki Tsunoda has become the driver to go on Red Bull Racing’s longest point-less run in 16 years - since Mark Webber in 2009…

Webber didn’t score points from the 2009 European GP to the Japanese GP five races later, eventually breaking it with a win in Brazil, but it’s important to note that the first two races of this run were ones where he finished 9th; just one place away from the points at that time. 🤏

And while it’s not quite a similar near-miss story for Tsunoda, who has averaged a finishing position of 14.6 since Monaco, his chance at scoring points has been compromised by his average qualifying position also of 14.6 which has converted to an average grid position of 15.6 as he took a pit lane start in Spain and received a 10-place grid drop in Canada…📉

Where he has qualified above this average, Yuki has then dropped back over the Grand Prix. In Monaco it was due to strategy, but in Silverstone it came down to an overall lack of pace in the wet & dry, high levels of tyre degradation and also an incident with Ollie Bearman and subsequent 10s penalty.

But heading into Belgium there’s big change at Red Bull - Horner is out as team boss and Mekies is in - someone Tsunoda worked with extensively over his last season at Racing Bulls. 🔄

Whether or not that will make a difference to his performance remains to be seen, but fortunately for Tsunoda, he’s still a way off holding the longest point-less streak for a Red Bull Racing driver - a record that sits with Christian Klien who went 10 races with no points in 2006. 😮

Even so, Yuki needs to find a way of recovering this run and scoring points in the last two races before summer break, not only for his and Red Bull’s seasons, but also to give him a chance of remaining in contention for a seat into next year as silly season will undoubtedly ramp up over the summer…👀

Can he do it? 🤔

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📸: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images
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20/07/2025

Near misses for Lewis Hamilton…👀

At 12 races into the season, Lewis Hamilton is yet to finish on a grand prix podium; making 2025 the longest he’s waited for a top 3 finish in a GP in any of his 19 seasons in F1. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t come close…

In fact, P4 is Lewis’ peak finishing position so far this year and he’s recorded it 3 times - in Imola, then back-to-back in Austria & Silverstone - so just how much of a near miss of the podium were each of them? 🤔

🇮🇹 The P4 finish in Imola came after a pretty disastrous qualifying that put Lewis P12 on the grid. But from there he made a fantastic recovery, aided by him being on the right side of Ferrari’s split strategies & the safety cars. Even so, Lewis said he “felt much more at one with the car” and he undoubtedly would have been questioning whether it could have been P3 as he ended just 1.4s off the podium…

🇦🇹 In Austria, Lewis was a bit further off P3 than he had been before - 9.2s to be exact. Whereas before it had been qualifying that let them down, this time it was race pace as it ultimately wasn’t enough to challenge McLaren for the win in Charles’ case or for Lewis to challenge Charles’ for the final podium place and Ferrari were adrift of McLaren who were in a world of their own.

🇬🇧 Silverstone was a tricky race to manage thanks to the weather, and Ferrari found themselves on the wrong side of the early decisions with Charles and struggling for pace in the wet with Lewis. After running his second set of inters long like much of the field, Lewis came in a few laps too soon for the wet-dry crossover which cost him and meant he couldn’t chase down the Sauber for P3 - ending over 5s back.

It’s safe to say it’s not been the easiest start to his Ferrari career with the podium proving elusive. But given that Lewis has claimed 11 podiums in Spa before, can he make it 12 next week? 🇧🇪

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📸: Scuderia Ferrari Media // By Courtesy of Pirelli
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19/07/2025

McLaren’s most 1-2s in 27 years…😮

In the first 12 races, or 50%, of the 2025 season, McLaren have claimed five 1-2 finishes - their most of any season in the 21st century, and in fact since 1998 when they also earned five 1-2s but over the full season with Hakkinen & Coulthard! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇫🇮

It means that so far this year, every 2.4 races have ended in a 1-2 for the papaya squad and the margin this has been by over the field has varied quite drastically each time…🤔

The biggest was in Miami where 33.014s separated the McLaren drivers from George Russell in P3, while the smallest was in China where just 1.349s split Norris in P2 from Russell again in P3 as he was contending with a worsening brake issue over the race’s late stages! ⏱️

So far, three of these 1-2s have ended with Piastri on top while two have gone Norris’ way. Where Norris has been ahead, it’s been by an average of 4.754s over Piastri but where Piastri has been ahead, it’s been by 5.616s on average over Norris.

Aside from 1-2s, 4 wins have gone to Norris while Piastri has claimed 5; setting us up perfectly for the second half of the year particularly given that there are now just 8 points separating them in the world championship… ⚖️

Taking any more 1-2s over the rest of the year will make 2025 McLaren’s season with the second most 1-2 finishes, that is unless they reach 11 which would see them overtake their current 1-2 season record of 10 in 1988 - a season of another epic intra-team title fight! 🥇🥈

Can they do it? 👀

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📸: By Courtesy of Pirelli // Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images
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18/07/2025

1491 days between Germans on the F1 podium…🥉

With his career first podium at Silverstone 12 days ago, Nico Hulkenberg became the latest German to stand on the podium, and the first since Sebastian Vettel’s at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - a gap of 1491 days 😮

Unlike Hulkenberg, this of course wasn’t a maiden podium for Vettel but was in fact his last in Formula 1 officially. It added to Vettel’s total of 122, making him the German with the 2nd most podiums only behind Michael Schumacher, who has 33 more over a career that was just 8 races longer than Sebastian’s…

Michael also isn’t the only Schumacher on the list of top 5 podium earning German F1 drivers, as his brother Ralf is P4 with 27 podiums for teams like Jordan, Williams and Toyota.

Separating Vettel and Ralf Schumacher at P3 in the ranking is Nico Rosberg with his 57 podiums over a 206 race long career in F1 that spanned ten seasons. With Rosberg having one driver’s title, it means the top three German podium earners are also the nation’s only world champions in F1 history…🇩🇪

5th on the list is Heinz Harald-Frentzen, who spent 10 seasons in F1, started in 156 grands prix and finished on the podium at 18 of them - 2 of which were also for Sauber!

All of these drivers’ podiums, plus those of the 9 German podium earners in F1 history add up to make Germany the 2nd most podium earning nation, 2nd only to the United Kingdom who have 1.89 times the number of podiums (789 versus 416)…🥈

Given that next year Nico will be the only German on the grid (currently) at a German team in Audi, will we see them become the first German driver-team combo to earn a podium since Rosberg & Mercedes? 👀

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📸: Aston Martin F1 Media // Sauber Motorsport AG // I, SilverArrows, CC BY-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons // By Courtesy of Pirelli // Mercedes AMG Media
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17/07/2025

Are these two of F1’s strangest race winning cars? 🤔

F1’s 75 year history is full of brilliant, yet sometimes unconventional, innovations. The Brabham BT46B ‘fan car’ and the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 are maybe the best examples of unusual, yet race winning designs…

🪭 The fan car was designed by Gordon Murray as a response to Lotus’ success in the 1977 season with the first ground effect car to run in F1. Most teams couldn’t grasp how it was working, but by early 1978 Murray knew but his ability to create the venturi tunnels needed was prevented by the width of their Alfa Romeo flat-12 engine…

To overcome this, Murray opted to add a fan to the rear of the Brabham. To ensure it would pass any questioning about its legality, its primary purpose had to be cooling - which it was - but there was still plenty of margin left for creating the negative pressure under the car for huge levels of downforce.

It won the only race it ran in, the 1978 Swedish GP, before Ecclestone, Brabham’s owner at the time, withdrew it. He was concerned that the uproar it had caused would collapse the teams’ association (FOCA). The loophole was later closed by the FIA too…

🛞 The six-wheeled Tyrrell was created to overcome a regulation around the front wing’s width that meant the front tyres sat outboard of it, creating drag and compromising airflow to the rear.

Tyrrell’s concept was to run tyres that were small enough to sit neatly behind the wing, and while just 2 tyres compromised cornering performance, 4 worked well - resulting in a car with 6 wheels in total!

It wasn’t the only 6 wheel car experimented with, but it was the only one to race and win a grand prix, doing so with a 1-2 in Sweden in 1976. Even with the win, Jody Scheckter called the car “a piece of junk”…

The concept was raced again for ’77 but the FIA later banned cars with 4 driven wheels before outlawing cars with more than 4 wheels in total.

Which of F1’s unusual race winners is your favourite? 👀

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📸: Media Invite to
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16/07/2025

McLaren’s 26 year wait for another title…👀

While McLaren are currently top of the Constructors’ championship with a significant margin (238 points) to the rest of the field, it wasn’t always this way. And in fact, up until their title earning season last year, they hadn’t won a Constructors’ championship for 26 years…😮

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard’s 1998 season was the last time McLaren held the team title and it came after they earned 9 wins from 16 races, 20 podiums inclusive of these wins and 156 points - giving them a 23 point margin over Ferrari who were their closest rivals with Schumacher and Irvine. 🏆

But from then until 2012, McLaren’s form slipped slightly and they averaged 2.42 in the standings over that 14 year period. While they didn’t achieve a constructors’ title over this time, Lewis Hamilton did claim the driver’s title in 2008; just his second year in F1. 💪

But from 2013 until their most recent title earning season, McLaren struggled for performance and ranked as low as P9 in the standings in 2015/17…📉

This persisted even into their 2023 season with Norris and Piastri racing at the back of the field at the start of the campaign. But changes made to their technical department and a significant upgrade package put McLaren “back in the game” in Zak Brown’s words…📈

Come 2024 and a similar pattern was seen - a slow start, a significant upgrade package in Miami, and almost instantaneous effects. From Miami to Abu Dhabi they claimed 6 victories - 4 for Norris and 2 for Piastri. 🥇

It was a tough battle with Ferrari similarly to 1998 but the papaya team ended the year with just 14 points more, securing the title at the last race in Abu Dhabi!

It’s been an incredible journey for the team, and one that is most likely going to see either Norris or Piastri have the chance at the driver’s title - so who will be their first driver’s champion in 17 years and bring another long wait to an end? 🤔

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📸: Media Invite to // By Courtesy of Pirelli
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15/07/2025

Are these Newey’s most dominant cars? 🤔

Adrian Newey is one of Formula 1’s greatest designers, so much so that 12 of the cars he’s been behind over his 20+ year career in the sport have earned a constructors’ title. 😮

He’s now worked at 7 teams, given his recent move to Aston Martin, but after stints at Fittipaldi Automotive and March/Leyton House, his first championship winning car came at Williams with the FW14B…

🔵 Driven by Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese over the 1992 season, the FW14B was taken to 10 wins from 16 grands prix, a driver’s title for Mansell, and a constructors’ title for Williams. It’s considered one of the most technically advanced cars in F1 history given its cutting-edge active suspension, power steering, ABS and traction control. It meant Newey had an ideal platform on which to develop the aerodynamics, and with the reliability of its Renault engine too, it was a dominant force…

🔴 After moving to McLaren for 1997, Newey developed the MP4/13 for 1998 to be driven by Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. It won 9 out of 16 races, 8 of which were Hakkinen’s on his way to his first driver’s title, while a further 11 podiums from both drivers put McLaren top of the constructors’. In fact, until last year and the MCL38, it was McLaren’s last championship winning car…

🟡 From 2006, and almost the start of Red Bull’s journey into F1, until earlier this year, Newey was instrumental to their championship years - perhaps no more so than in 2023 & the RB19. Statistically, it’s the most dominant Formula 1 car in history - earning a driver’s title with Verstappen, a constructors’ title, but also an incredible 21 victories from 22 races - the highest number of race wins in a year by any team.

This year though Newey has shifted to a new challenge once again at Aston Martin, and once again there’s a new regulatory era incoming, so could we see an Aston Martin join this list in the future? 👀

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📸: Media Invite to // Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images
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14/07/2025

2 Saubers, 12 years and the same driver…👀

Nico Hulkenberg is of course currently driving for Kick Sauber, but it’s not the first time he’s raced for them. In fact, Nico drove for Sauber in just his fourth season in F1, twelve years ago in 2013…

And this, the C32, was his car, and it was also the one Kick Sauber were running up the Hill Climb as part of F1’s 75th anniversary celebrations just one week after Nico claimed his maiden career podium at Silverstone. 🥉

But how has his, and his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto’s, performance in the C45 so far compared to Nico and Esteban Gutierrez’s in the C32? 🤔

With 12 races down and 12 to go, we’re officially halfway through the F1 season and Sauber have 41 points on the board, a podium, and are sitting P6 in the standings. 6️⃣

And while this points total is still a bit off where Sauber ended the 2013 season (57 points), after the halfway mark of that year they had just 7 points and were P8 in the Constructors’…

It meant that 50 of their points were scored in the last 9 races, once again partly due to an incredible performance from Hulkenberg where he qualified P3 and ended P5 in Monza - bringing 10 points in a single weekend!👏

While they’re less in need of a mid-season turnaround this year than they were in 2013, they do need to keep this momentum going for as long as possible given how tight the midfield is…

So could we see another Sauber podium before they become Audi next year?💪

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📸: Media Invite to FOS // Sauber Motorsport AG (LAT Images)
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13/07/2025

A champions’ celebration…🏆

is marking F1’s 75 year history, including of course its champions. In these 75 years just 34 drivers who’ve won the sport’s biggest trophy and earned a drivers’ title, and 17 of these have done it more than once…🥇

Two of these multiple champions are Emerson Fittipaldi and Jackie Stewart, both of whom raced and won their titles in the late 1960s and 1970s making them fierce competitors over this period.

But even with Stewart’s shorter tenure as a driver, he achieved more wins, pole positions and podiums than Fittipaldi - and in fact, Stewart still sits in the top 10 drivers for all time race wins to this day…

5th on that same all time wins list is Alain Prost - he claimed 51 wins over his career, earning him four drivers’ titles in the 1980s and early 90s. He’s also one of just three drivers to have 4 titles exactly - alongside Vettel and Verstappen. 4️⃣

3 of Prost’s titles came with McLaren, and 9 years on from his final championship for the team came a first for another McLaren driver: Mika Hakkinen. Hakkinen won two back to back titles at McLaren (1998/99), making him just the third driver to do so after Prost and Senna. 🇫🇮

Looking to some one-time champions, and we find Mario Andretti who won the title in 1978 for Lotus by earning 6 GP wins.

Nigel Mansell claimed his driver’s title in 1992 for Williams in the FW16B. But the FW11 was also a championship winning car, as Mansell and Piquet won 9 of 16 grands prix in 1986 and earned Williams their 3rd constructors’ title. 💪

Jacques Villeneuve also claimed one F1 title right at the start of his 11 season long career - in 1997 for Williams. He claimed an impressive 7 wins, but that would be the final year where he’d do so as the rest of his Grand Prix career was win-less…🤔

Who gets your vote as F1’s most iconic champion of the last 75 years? 👀

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📸: Media Invite to FOS
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Apex - Motorsport Analysis