Motor sports: NASCAR's Suarez takes aim at title after Atlanta win; F1 preview
Hampton, Ga. — Daniel Suarez knows he will return to Atlanta Motor Speedway as a playoff contender on Sept. 8.
Suarez also can count on retaining his spot on Trackhouse Racing's team when the NASCAR Cup Series makes its 2025 stops in Atlanta. The popular driver from Monterrey, Mexico, ended speculation about his future with the team by winning Sunday's Cup race in a memorable three-wide finish.
It was only the second career win in 253 Cup races for Suarez and the first since June 2022 at Sonoma. A winless 2023 raised speculation about the future for Suarez entering his 2024 contract year with Trackhouse Racing. Co-owner Justin Marks insisted Sunday he never saw this season as an audition for the driver.
“On the hot seat? He just didn’t have the year that he wanted last year,” Marks said. “But we know that he can get it done, and he’s a guy that can get it done. I don’t envision necessarily a situation where Daniel is not a driver for Trackhouse Racing.”
Suarez scoffed at suggestions he should be relieved to know he secured his spot in the playoff field in only the second race of the season or that he may no longer have to worry about his future with Trackhouse.
Instead, Suarez emphasized the goal of winning more than one race and competing for a championship. Atlanta will host the opening race of the playoff schedule.
Bolstered by the addition of new crew chief Max Swiderski, Suarez says it's time to win more races and forget about contract talk that continued after he signed a one-year extension in 2023.
“I never felt like I was in the hot seat,” Suarez said. “A lot of people were talking about it. … I knew that last year wasn’t the year that I really wanted. … We worked hard, but we were not efficient. We were missing something. We were not firing on all eight cylinders.”
Suarez said even before Sunday's win he could sense a change in the team's direction. He finished only 34th in the season-opening Daytona 500 but led two laps.
Suarez finished strong in his Chevrolet to narrowly beat Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in the closest finish in Atlanta history and the third-closest finish in any Cup Series race with electronic scoring since 1993.
Suarez said he has been saying “I can feel the team strong, I can feel the communication, the preparation, everything that we have.” He said Swiderski “has done a hell of a job helping me to build a strong team, and I can feel it. I can feel it.”
Swiderski's skills were put to the test when Suarez was part of a massive pileup of at least 16 cars at the start of the second lap. Swiderski said “the tape started flying” as short-term fixes were made to the hood of the Chevrolet on pit row.
“We had to get some more pictures of it and come up with another plan and had to work on it again,” Swiderski said, referring to the end of the stage. “Everybody kept their heads in it and stayed calm. We were able to get the car back to where we felt we were pretty decent and could be competitive."
The “pretty decent” version of the No. 99 was good enough on a day all but a handful of cars were impacted by at least one wreck. Now comes next Sunday's race at Las Vegas, where Suarez will have his opportunity to prove he can compete for a championship this season.
“The goal for me personally has never been to win a race a year, to win two races a year,” Suarez said. "The goal is bigger than that. I knew that to be able to get that, we needed to do something.
“I feel that right now we are slowly making steps in the direction of where I want to be, where I want to go with this race team, that I want to accomplish to be able to win several races a year, to be able to be strong in the playoffs, not just to make the playoffs but to be strong in the playoffs and to be able to have a real shot for the championship.”
Verstappen aims for fourth F1 title
A still-unresolved investigation into the boss of Formula 1's champion team is overshadowing the start of the new season this week at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
It's been three weeks since Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was confirmed to be under investigation over alleged misconduct toward a team employee. No timeline has been given for a decision on his future.
The team's parent company is facing callsfrom senior F1 figures such as Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and McLaren counterpart Zak Brown for the investigation – conducted by an external lawyer – to be handled transparently.
In a letter to the team, Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley insisted on a resolution and said Ford was “frustrated by the lack of full transparency surrounding this matter." Ford is set to become Red Bull’s engine supplier in 2026.
The Red Bull drinks company said on Feb. 5 it was investigating Horner but didn't give any details. Horner denies any wrongdoing and has not been suspended from his role. He has continued to be the face of the F1 team, declaring “business as normal.”
Horner has led Red Bull since its 2005 debut in F1, and had a prominent role at the team's car launch – far more visible than three-time defending champion driver Max Verstappen or his teammate Sergio Perez. Horner was on site for three days of preseason testing in Bahrain last week.
“For everyone, it’s nice, of course, when things are resolved,” Verstappen said Friday at testing.
On the track, Red Bull again seems to be the team to beat after a season in which Verstappen and Perez won all but one race. Verstappen finished with a record 19 wins. While most teams seem to have used the 2023 Red Bull as inspiration for their new cars, Red Bull has evolved, using a slim sidepod design that Mercedes previously tried with little success.
Red Bull was strong throughout the three days of testing, though Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc posted the fastest times on the second and third days. Times set in testing are generally considered a poor guide for racing.
Hamilton's switch
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton is going into his last season with Mercedes ahead of joining Ferrari next year.
For the 39-year-old Hamilton, there's the hope that Ferrari allow him to fight for an eighth title after Mercedes was uncompetitive in the last two years. It's also making a childhood dream come true. At testing in Bahrain, Hamilton reminisced about driving Michael Schumacher's Ferrari in a video game as a child.
“We’ve had an absolutely incredible journey together, we’ve created history within the sport, and I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved," Hamilton said of his time with Mercedes. "I’m writing my story and I felt like it was time to start a new chapter.”
The sudden announcement shook up F1 and leaves some leading drivers unsure of their places for next year. Sainz was expecting a contract extension at Ferrari but is making way for Hamilton to partner Leclerc.
The open seat at Mercedes has fueled speculation about drivers ranging from 41-year-old two-time champion Fernando Alonso, still at Aston Martin, to the 17-year-old Mercedes junior driver Kimi Antonelli, who is making his Formula 2 debut this week.
Andretti's fight
Michael Andretti and General Motors are still developing a car for F1 but they don't have a spot on the grid yet.
The governing body, the FIA, has approved Andretti's application to become the 11th team but F1 rejectedthe proposed U.S. team for 2025 and 2026, arguing it would not be competitive – something Andretti and GM dispute.
In GM and its Cadillac brand, Andretti has the backing of one of the world's leading auto manufacturers, and GM has applied to be an F1 engine supplier from 2028. “Our joint teams are continuing to develop our car at pace,” GM Racing director Jim Campbell said this month.
The series' existing American team, Haas, looks to be headed for a difficult season, its first since Guenther Steiner – a star of the “Drive To Survive” series on Netflix – was dropped as team principal last month. Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were consistently among the slowest over the three days of testing.
Saturday start
Don't tune in on a Sunday to watch the race. The Bahrain GP and the following week's race in Saudi Arabia are being held on Saturday, with qualifying on Friday.
That's because the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts on March 10, the Sunday of the race week in Saudi Arabia, and that race was moved forward a day. F1 rules stipulate there has to be a week between races, so the Bahrain Grand Prix had to move up, too.
Last year's race in Las Vegas set a precedent when it was held on a Saturday to maximize the audience in the U.S. and around the world. That was the first F1 race held on a day other than Sunday since 1985.