What did wreck Daniel’s Career?
Posted on July 24, 2025 Tags: Belgium Formula One
Colombian Ace has his view
I’M NOT TOO SURE F1 legend Juan Pablo Montoya was on the right path this week when he pinpointed a “moment of stupidity” which ruined Daniel Ricciardo’s career.
The 50-year-old Juan Pablo remains among his country’s most iconic sporting figures – and is the only Colombian to have raced in Formula 1.
Juan Carlos was a mighty fine driver – and winner of the Indianapolis 500. But I reckon he’s way off the mark suggesting Daniel was stupid for the dreadful incident in which the Aussie smashed his wrist, costing him five races and virtually destroying his tenure in F1.
Stupidity? No way! Consider the frightening alternative?
In fact, Daniel did serious damage to himself by avoiding spearing into Oscar Piastri’s stationery McLaren = stranded like a sitting duck just metres away on Zandvoort’s perilously high-banked corner – and ploughing into the TecPro barrier at 100+kph thus avoiding potential catastrophe.
Catastrophe for Dan’s Future
THERE’S NO DOUBT the Turn 3 incident on Friday, August 25 – during Free Practice 2 at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix – was catastrophic for Daniel’s future!
And there’s no question it could so easily indeed have ended the careers of both Australians!
Daniel recovers in hospital in Barcelona
Oscar was on the racing line after crashing just moments earlier, losing control and hitting the TecPro barrier.
His car came to rest perpendicular to the wall, effectively blocking part of the corner’s exit path.
Arriving seconds later, Daniel had to make a split-second decision. With no clear escape route – and yellow flags only just being waved – he chose the wall.
It was a decision that effectively ended his career, which included eight F1 victories, including Monaco.
BUT IT WASN’T STUPIDITY. IT WAS HEROISM!
I still firmly believe that 10 second time penalty for Oscar Piastri was harsh and should have been halved.
Oscar meanwhile currently sits on top of top of the F1 ladder, just eight points clear of teammate Lando Norris, before this week’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Heading into Spa, here’s the top five in the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship:
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 234 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 226 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 165 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 147 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 119 |
And here’s how the Constructors’ Championship stands:
| Position | Team | Points |
| 1 | McLaren | 460 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 222 |
| 3 | Mercedes | 210 |
| 4 | Red Bull | 172 |
| 5 | Williams | 59 |
Spooky brake issues for Lewis
Ferrari should feel the positive impact of their new upgrade at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix, with an updated rear suspension for Spa after testing it at a private day of filming around home base Mugello.
The famous Italian team hope it will cure the ills experienced by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the tricky SF-25.
It’ll be interesting to see if the pundits have got it right, after Lewis complained his SF-25 is uncompetitive with brake issues.
Which must be a terrifying prospect when you’re hurtling around at 300kph!
The Brit’s only high note this season was a win in the Sprint race during the F1 Chinese Grand Prix back in March. Both he and teammate Charles Leclerc were DQ’d i
The rumours are rife
Christian Horner is alleged to have been caught up in a “heated” argument with Max Verstappen’s father Jos in the days before he was sacked by Red Bull.
The 51-year-old Briton was relieved of his duties on July 9 after leading Red Bull to eight drivers’ F1 world championships and six constructors’ world titles during the last 20 years.
Max is under contract to Red Bull until the end of 2028 but his deal includes exit clauses that would allow him to leave for 2026 if certain performance conditions are met.
Team Verstappen
Martin Brundle, who for my money is the smartest pundit in the F1 paddock, has seen and heard enough to believe that ‘Team Verstappen’ played a critical role in Red Bull firing Christian Horner, in the days following the British Grand Prix.
While his sacking came as a monumental shock, Martin says he knew his mate was not wanted there by the Verstappen party, and suspects they were “pretty involved” in the choice to axe him.
“We don’t know what’s gone on behind closed doors, but I do know that Team Verstappen were not happy with him there,” he told Sky F1’s The F1 Show podcast.
Asked if he believed that Red Bull was given an ultimatum of ‘it’s either us or him’ by the Verstappens, at a time when speculation was swirling that Max could break free of his Red Bull contract via an exit clause to join Mercedes.
“I don’t know,” Martin said. “But what’s absolutely clear is that the Verstappen camp have been lobbing in hand grenades for quite some months now, and some of them have gone off, and it’s been pretty relentless in that respect.
“And I think at times, Max’s dad, Jos, has made it absolutely clear that he thinks Christian shouldn’t be leading the company and leading the team.
“So, I would say, yes, they played a key role in Christian’s exit.”
A Stellar Career in F1
Christian Horner and his wife, Jeri, in more pleasant times.
Christian Horner has built his legacy as one of the most successful F1 team bosses of all-time, Red Bull winning 14 world championships in 20 years under his watch.
It was on the Wednesday after the British Grand Prix Silverstone that Red Bull confirmed Christian had been released with immediate effect – with no explanation offered.
And Martin Brundle had noticed that something was a little off with his fellow Brit two days earlier.
“I saw Christian on Monday at the Eddie Jordan Memorial, and he was very, very quiet and very introvert, I must say. Clearly, a bit out of sorts,” he recalled.
“So, I’m perhaps not totally surprised. I’m saddened, because I think Christian’s done an incredible job picking up the bones of what was the Jaguar F1 team and what he’s achieved in the last 20 years there. And I consider him a friend. So, it’s a pity it’s ended so abruptly like this.
“It is seismic, because he was such an integral part of the Red Bull team.
He got Adrian Newey involved and for example, every point, every podium, every victory, every World Championship that Max has, and other drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Christian was at the helm.
“For whatever reason, they’ve decided that Christian’s not the man to lead them into the next phase, that Laurent Mekies is, and other people they’ll, no doubt, put around him,” Martin said.
“So, it’s just odd. This is a strange time to do it, and a strange urgency, I would say to that.”
There is little doubt that losing key people like Adrian Newey, like Rob Marshall, like Jonathan Wheatley in recent times has not helped Christian’s waning star at Red Bull.
But consider this: If Max was not scoring points for the team, Red Bull would be sitting last on the 2025 points tally after Silverstone!
Farewell to Ozzi Osbourne
\
\
While Christian has been officially relieved of his duties, technically he’s on gardening leave until Red Bull decides how to pay out the remaining five years of his contract. The Brit could be in line for an eye-watering payout worth up to £60 million (A$125m), accounting for his salary and his vital role in attracting major sponsors to the team.
Ralf bursts onto the scene
Meanwhile ex-F1 driver turned pundit Ralf Schumacher has claimed he witnessed a heated row between Christian and Jos Verstappen at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
“There was another argument or a heated exchange, at least visually and verbally between Jos Verstappen, Christian Horner and the press officer,” Ralf told the popular German Boxengasse-podcast.
Yachts belonging to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff and Max were spotted in Sardinia.
And that fueled rumours the four-time world champion was talking to Mercedes about making a huge move for next season.
The mill was sent into overdrive when Max and lady and Toto were tracked arriving into the same harbour, aligning with Ralf Schumacher’s prediction.
Ralf found it “funny” the duo supposedly decided to meet in Sardinia given the large presence of paparazzi in the area.
“In Sardinia it’s always like this, when you end up there, the paparazzi already know, I know that from my own experience,” said the German.
The 2025 Formula 1 summer break kicks off after the Hungarian Grand Prix, which takes place next weekend from August 1st to 3rd at the Hungaroring. Racing resumes nearly a month later with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort from August 29th to 31st.
Sprinting through the Ardennes
The superb 7004 metre Circuit Spa-Francorchamps winds its way through the glorious Ardennes Hills and is one of Formula 1’s truly classic circuits, as the second half of the 2025 season gets underway this week with the Belgian Grand Prix.
Spa-Francorchamps is fourth on the list of circuits that have hosted the most rounds of the world championship, including in the first season, 75 years ago.
It is one of the most spectacular tracks, very popular with teams and drivers because of its technical complexity and the challenges it presents.
It’s the longest track on the calendar, exceeding the seven-kilometre mark by four metres and Its three sectors have very different characteristics.
The first is the quickest and includes what are probably the most famous corners, Eau-Rouge and Raidillon.
After which comes a long straight and the braking area at the end of it has been the scene for some epic overtaking moves; the second is more twisty, featuring a mix of medium-speed corners, several of them downhill; the third is more flowing with a slight but nevertheless noticeable incline.
Finding a competitive set-up for all three sectors is quite a task and it is often the case that cars are fast in one sector and slow in another.
Much of the track was resurfaced before last year’s Grand Prix with the aim of increasing grip and smoothing out some bumps. This led to a much lower level of abrasiveness and with more grip available, lap times were significantly quicker.
After the races in Shanghai and Miami, this is the third weekend of the year run to the Sprint format: just one free practice session on Friday, after which it’s Sprint Qualifying, with the Sprint race itself run over 15 laps on Saturday, following by qualifying.
It’s the second time this circuit has hosted a Sprint, following on from the one in 2023.
The usual 44 laps of the Belgian Grand Prix proper take place on Sunday.
The Compounds
For Belgium, Pirelli has chosen three dry weather compounds that, unusually, are not consecutive: the Hard is the hardest in the 2025 range, the C1, but then there’s a jump to the Medium C3 and the Soft C4.
Pirelli tells me that anomaly has not happened since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, which featured the C2 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C5 as Soft.
The new compound here is the Hard, as the Medium (C3) and Soft (C4) are the same as last year.
According to the simulations, this trio should make a two-stop strategy even more competitive in Sunday’s race, while adding a greater degree of uncertainty to tyre management over the course of the weekend, especially as it is a Sprint event, with just one hour of free practice and a different dry tyre allocation.
With this format, the regulations stipulate one fewer set of tyres than on a normal weekend: each driver has 12 sets, six of Soft, four of Medium and two of Hard.
And the Medium is the only tyre permitted for the first two parts of Sprint Qualifying and the Soft must be used in the third.
Pirelli’s Statistics Corner
Max – the Sprint Master!
This weekend’s race is the 70th edition of the Belgian Grand Prix to count for the World Championship, the 57th to be held at Spa-Francorchamps. Nivelles has hosted the race twice and Zolder ten times.
The most successful driver at Spa-Francorchamps is Michael Schumacher with six wins to his name, making his Formula 1 debut at this track in 1991, taking the first of his 91 wins one year later and Spa was also where he clinched his seventh and last world title in 2004.
Lewis Hamilton leads the way when it comes to pole positions with six, and podium places (11). Of the teams, Ferrari tops the tables for wins (18), pole positions (17) and podium places (51).
The Belgium Grand Prix is the third round of the season run to the Sprint format, a discipline in which Max Verstappen is the undoubted master. Of the 20 Sprint races run to date, the four-time world champion has won 11 of them and finished on the podium a further five times.
Seven drivers have won at least one Sprint: two wins apiece for Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris and one each for George Russell, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton.
To date, 19 drivers have scored points in the short format, a table headed naturally enough by Max Verstappen on 117 point
Race Schedule
BELGIUM GRAND PRIX
25th July – 27th July
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
PRACTICE 1
Friday 25th July 18:30
SPRINT SHOOTOUT
Friday 25th July 22.30
SPRINT RACE
Saturday 26th July 18:00
F1 QUALIFYING
Saturday 26th July 22:00
RACE
Sunday 27th July 21:00
NEXT EVENT
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX
01 August – 03 August
The Hungaroring
EDITED by AC
Leave a Reply