#peter bayer

SUZUKA, JAPAN - MARCH 26: Alan Permane, Team Principal of Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, Arvid Lindblad of Great Britain and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and Peter Bayer, CEO of Visa Cash App Racing Bulls pose for a team photo in the Pitlane during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on March 26, 2026 in Suzuka, Japan.

Reporter: so, singapore is Daniel’s last race?

It's so *nice* of Peter Bayer to admit, now in 2025, that when VCarb introduced their new floor in Abu Dhabi 2023 that they did so in the knowledge it would be a development direction that would not favour Daniel. And despite Bayer trying to link Daniel's struggles with this floor to this "generation of car" - I don't think anyone with half a brain can look at Daniel matching or beating Yuki prior to Abu Dhabi, to then being a long way off, and blame the generation of car and not the floor upgrade itself.

And considering Daniel's feedback was the driving force behind the team moving from P10 to P8 in the constructors that year, there's something incredibly nonsensical and self-defeating about the team then choosing to develop the floor in such a way that would put Daniel at a huge disadvantage considering his driving style and setup preferences. (And while yes I do agree that it is a driver's job to adapt to their car, I also think an engineering/design team not taking their lead drivers' preferences into account is absolutely idiotic. Also Daniel did a huge amount of work to adapt and find solutions and made huge progress with the car over the season.)

It's also hard to argue it was a successful design/engineering decision, given that VCarb ultimately has been totally unable to further develop this car concept throughout the 2024 season. Nor did it make sense from a competitive standpoint, given it meant one of their drivers was starting the season with a car that was ultimately balanced completely opposite to what he prefers to drive.

It's also WILD to me that it's taken the team this long to either realise this was the driving force behind Daniel's issues, or at least to publicly admit to that being the case, because I picked that the floor was causing Daniel issues the very same weekend they introduced it - and also continued to point out Daniel was struggling with it early into the 2024 season. And I don't say that to brag but it just confounds me that somehow with NO engineering background whatsoever I was able to deduce this when apparently an F1 team full of engineers couldn't forsee or mitigate these problems??

All this to say I hate that Yuki was literally setup to succeed from day one this season, while Daniel was left not only starting the season at a disadvantage but also having to fend off increasingly nasty F1 media from Red Bull and Marko regularly throwing him to the wolves - and meanwhile VCarb refused to publicly explain the mitigating circumstances as to why Daniel was struggling.