Ben Sulayem on back foot as Thai GP edges closer: what you missed from Australian GP

The season-opening race delivered a thriller that went right down to the final lap, but Melbourne was also the first chance in a number of months for the entire paddock to convene. And that meant some interested observers who could well have a significant part to play in F1 in future years.

Towriss in town

Away from the Lewis Hamilton show, one of the bigger stories of the off-season has been the confirmation of Cadillac’s F1 entry for 2026. The team wasted no time in following that news by starting to speak publicly, with team principal Graeme Lowdon spending over an hour with the media on Monday.

Fresh from that call, Lowdon jumped on a plane to Melbourne to continue preparations, which had included commercial discussions as Cadillac was part of the negotiations for the next commercial rights deal, the Concorde Agreement. Those details were finalised and signed ahead of the race.

But it wasn’t just Lowdon on-site in Australia. TWG Motorsports is a significant part of the project alongside General Motors, and that company is headed up by Daniel Towriss. The American businessman – who is also Group 1001 CEO – was already heavily involved in the former Andretti project but was then installed as CEO of TWG Motorsports prior to the official confirmation of the entry.

Towriss was present in Albert Park alongside GM executives as the team’s main shareholders were represented. While they sat in front of the FIA hospitality for much of the weekend, there were plenty of introductions and meetings that could be approached with much more positivity than when there was tension over whether the bid would be accepted.

The presence of so many of Cadillac’s leadership team will also not have gone unnoticed by those looking for a drive in 2026, with multiple driver representatives keen to get an introduction to Towriss as a new player in the driver market arrives on the scene.

Bortoleto answers back to Marko

Kimi Antonelli’s performance on Sunday aside, it was hardly a classic race for the rookie class stepping up this season. Then again, it was exactly the sort of race where experience is so important, as is a cool head under pressure – when there could be so many opportunities to make the wrong decision.

But earlier in the weekend there was a particularly sweet moment. I will caveat this point with the fact that it should be remembered Helmut Marko was being asked to give his opinions on the rookie drivers stepping up, with a television segment on ServusTV seeing him grade them.

Gabriel Bortoleto received a B grading despite winning back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles, and he was confident enough in his own abilities to tell Marko he will prove him wrong.

“I’ve seen that and I love challenges,” Bortoleto said. “Hearing that from Helmut, he’s a guy who has put a lot of talent in Formula 1, and has put a lot of wrong talents in F1. So you can see he got it right and wrong and hopefully I will prove him wrong with time. But nothing I say now in the media will change his mind, just my results on track.

“I’m sure I’ll prove him wrong at some point and hopefully he will admit this when I prove him wrong. For now I’m just focussing on doing my job and improving and doing the best I can. I’m proud of what I did in junior series and I won in F2 and F3 against the Red Bull drivers he has, so good for me.”

Bortoleto had even more reason to smile on Saturday when he made it through to Q2 on debut and the Red Bull of Liam Lawson was one of those not to do advance, while he also outqualified another rookie in Kimi Antonelli. Although Sunday’s race was less successful, it was a well-handled response from Brazilian and one that will likely get a few fans on his side.

The FIA loses its leverage

There was a significant political move on Sunday ahead of the race, when it was announced the 11 teams for 2026 had signed the commercial aspect of the Concorde Agreement.

It capped a few weeks of aligned announcements, with Cadillac’s confirmation from F1 and the FIA paving the way for the newest team to be part of the signatories, and then Stefano Domenicali signing a new long-term contract to remain as F1 CEO.

The Domenicali signing was a big factor in providing the teams with confidence in the future direction of the sports from a commercial rights holder’s point of view, as there is support for his work in the role so far.

The same can’t be said universally for FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who is overseeing his first Concorde Agreement negotiation. The last agreement was signed in 2021 prior to his election as president, and the all-too-regular controversies that involve the governing body have meant it hasn’t been quite so easy to get the teams aligned from a governance standpoint.

At least before there was a commercial agreement in place, Ben Sulayem and the FIA could look for a revision of the commercial terms and perhaps try to weaken the partnership between the teams and F1 in order to achieve that. But now it is facing a united front, and will need to find common ground for the future governance of the sport.

Thailand on the radar

One of the reasons the commercial deal has been agreed before the governance aspect is because of the amount of interest around the sport at the moment. The new F1 film released a trailer this week that builds further hype ahead of its release, and the latest season of Drive to Survive again gives new fans a chance to connect with the characters within the paddock.

The current calendar is another sign of that, with 24 races and teams saying there is no space for expansion in terms of sheer numbers, but rotation opening up opportunities. And a new race in Thailand could well be on the horizon.

A delegation from Bangkok was in Melbourne to understand how the event in Albert Park is executed, as a similar set-up on city streets and parkland in the Chatuchak region is in the planning stages.

Domenicali will head to visit the proposed site on his way to China over the coming days, and while sources suggest a deal is not yet a certainty, Thailand has definitely jumped ahead of potential projects in Africa and return bids from Malaysia and Turkey at this stage.