Xposed Wins CA$1m Playing Slots While Flying on a Private Jet

Popular gambling streamer Xposed was flying on a private jet playing online slots when he hit a seven-figure win this week. With a stake of CA$500 (US$347) per spin on 5 Lions Megaways by Pragmatic Play, the Canadian native got lucky during the free spins round for a return of more than CA$1m (US$694,000):

Cue all-out celebrations on the plane, with one of the men on the stream with Xposed calling the Canadian “the guy in the sky.” The pilot got so concerned about all the noise that he came out of the cockpit to check that everything was okay.

The title of the Kick stream was ‘first-ever streamer gambling $230,000 on a private jet,’ and after his big win it won’t be surprising if this isn’t a one-off experience. Fans persevered with the poor audio quality and the background noise of six kids to see the magic moment. He joked about how the casino wasn’t able to track his IP address and nerf his spins.

win comes after a frustrating period for Xposed

This win comes after a frustrating period for Xposed, in which he didn’t have a max win on slots for two years and also lost US$3m in a day of gambling in Las Vegas. His fortunes started turning when he won big playing live dealer roulette on Monday, followed by Tuesday’s major return in the sky.

In a follow-up stream on Tuesday, he told viewers that he was done complaining about his bad luck after that amazing session.

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COVID-19 Pandemic – How It Changed the Gambling Industry 5 Years On

Changing the way we live

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world forever. People didn’t initially realize the mass disruption the virus would cause after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Most thought it would be just a few weeks before things got back to normal.

All industries had to adapt, with some benefiting from the pandemic while others saw businesses shutter and never reopen again.

the landscape of the US gambling industry has transformed in many ways

The gambling sector had mixed fortunes, as racetracks, retail sportsbooks, and casinos shut down while the online sector boomed. Five years later, the landscape of the US gambling industry has transformed in many ways.

The sudden shutdown

After weeks of speculation about a new virus doing the rounds, the WHO officially declared a global pandemic in March 2020. Every country took its own approach to the matter. Some, like Sweden, kept operating relatively normally, while others, like the UK, plunged into strict lockdowns where people couldn’t go outside a small radius of their homes or be within a few feet of another human.

The commercial land-based US gambling sector shut down overnight, with major hubs like Las Vegas and Atlantic City closing their doors for 78 days and three months, respectively.

people began betting on the most obscure sports

This created a void for many people, so they turned to alternative methods of gambling. With professional sports halted for several months, people began betting on the most obscure events, such as drone racing and table tennis.

Online gambling operators benefited massively. This success provided lifeline income to land-based companies in states like New Jersey that mobile platforms had to tether to for a license.

The slow return to normalcy

As the pandemic’s grip on the country eased, the gaming sector began a slow but steady return to normalcy. Some states relaxed lockdowns and allowed gaming properties to reopen, albeit at reduced capacity. Las Vegas, for example, initially allowed gaming floors to open at 25% capacity once licensees observed strict sanitation and social distancing protocols.

took over a year for casinos in Nevada and New Jersey to be back up and running at 100%

It took over a year for casinos in Nevada and New Jersey to be back up and running at 100% capacity, and people still had to wear masks for some time.

Casino companies like MGM Resorts International mandated that all staff be vaccinated against COVID-19, which caused its own issues. Travel was still a problem that suppressed visitor levels, especially for regions that relied on people coming in from overseas for vacations and conventions.

The interim years

With people pent up for so long, there was a massive demand for travel, resulting in visitor numbers to major gambling hubs quickly increasing and businesses starting to return to normal.

Share prices of land-based casino companies began rebounding sharply as fears that people might stick solely to online gambling platforms were unfounded.

Commercial gaming revenue in the US has hit new highs for the past four years, with the American Gaming Association (AGA) reporting that the 2024 total almost hit $72bn:

The percentage of this total that online operations make up has been increasing, hitting 30% last year. This is only set to rise as more states expand their online gambling laws.

Biggest winners

Online gambling platforms were undoubtedly the biggest winners from the pandemic. People could play casino games or place sports bets from home when they couldn’t leave the house.

Land-based companies like MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment began building up their online offerings, including the latter buying William Hill in April 2021 for £2.9bn ($3.7bn) to help boost its internet portfolio.

The trend was a key reason for sports betting legalization in certain states. New York, for example, was skeptical for several years about allowing the activity before then-Governor Andrew Cuomo included it in his 2022 state budget.

The massive annual tax revenue it created for the Empire State helped ease pressures elsewhere, with the total surpassing $1bn in 2024. The revenue opportunity was also a key driver for the authorization of three New York City casino licenses that will cost $500m each.

Biggest losers

Regional casino operators were among those hardest hit by the pandemic as they often didn’t have online operations to fall back on. People also turned to tribal casinos during the pandemic, as many of these facilities remained open for business because sovereign nations didn’t need to adhere to state government restrictions. While they’ve still maintained solid results, regional casinos haven’t seen the same level of growth as other operators.

Even the big gambling destinations like Las Vegas and Atlantic City still haven’t gotten back to pre-pandemic visitor levels:

There has also been a hesitancy to introduce online casinos in more than seven states. Lawmakers in Maryland, for example, want to give land-based facilities a chance to fully recover and fear that online casinos could cannibalize their revenues, which in turn would lead to significant job losses.

This is despite researchers finding that iGaming actually helps land-based revenues. It does seem like only a matter of time before the dam bursts and more states go down the higher-margin online casino route.

Looking ahead

As the gaming industry continues to evolve, the pandemic undoubtedly shaped its trajectory. It accelerated the adoption of online gaming in the US, with some historically conservative states expanding gambling laws in an attempt to boost under-pressure tax coffers.

has emerged stronger on the other side

While the sector certainly faced challenges, it has emerged stronger on the other side. With growing technological advancements and a strong push for gambling expansion nationwide, the gaming industry will continue to transform in the coming years, offering both challenges and opportunities.

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Xposed Turns Around Losing Streak With $369k Live Dealer Roulette Win

Popular gambling streamer Xposed has been on a bad streak as of late, including suffering his biggest single-day loss ever.

His fortunes may have begun to turn, though. He was recently playing live dealer roulette and tried a new strategy by covering numbers 13 to 21 with bets totaling $55,500 when the ball landed on 17, winning him $369,000:

He can be heard shouting, “this is my game,” suggesting a newfound appreciation for roulette following his recent woes. Xposed explained during a recent stream that he has been playing slots for two years without a max win. He also suffered $3m losses at the baccarat and blackjack tables at land-based casinos in Las Vegas in February.

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Darts Legend Mervyn King Bankrupt After Not Realizing He Had to Pay Tax on £2m Winnings

The world of professional sports is littered with stories of people who splurged away their earnings and fell into tough times due to financial mismanagement.

The latest big name in trouble is darts legend Mervyn King, who has claimed that he didn’t realize he had to pay tax on his earnings across his 30-year career. The High Court of Justice in London declared the 58-year-old bankrupt, and he now faces losing his home due to a hefty £500,000 ($646,000) tax bill.

While darts didnvt have the same level of prize money as it does now for most of King’s career, his total earnings still reached £2m ($2.6m). The crux of the issue is that he declared income from tournaments as ‘winnings,’ when in fact, prize money is taxable ‘earnings.’

He revealed that he contacted the authorities to come clean when he realized his mistake and believes that saved him from having to spend time in prison.

King hopes that other players won’t let the same thing happen to them

By sharing his story, King hopes that other players won’t let the same thing happen to them. He questioned why the big darts organizations PDC and BDO don’t properly educate players about what their tax obligations are for prize money. He claimed they hand out winnings without any further help or information.

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Cheltenham 2025: Biggest Past Controversies From the Horse Racing Festival

Cheltenham, here we come

There are few things more British than the Cheltenham Festival. There are also few things more Irish, even though the Festival is held on British soil. We’ll come to that later.

The 2025 Festival runs from Tuesday, March 11 to Friday, March 14. For those unfamiliar with it, allow us to explain…

Basically, it is the biggest and best horse racing meeting in the UK’s National Hunt calendar – which is racing over jumps and fences as opposed to over a flat track.

the highlight of every National Hunt season

In terms of prestige and prize money, it is second only to the Grand National – arguably the most famous horseracing steeplechase in the world – but for many, the four-day Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of every National Hunt season in the UK.

It takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse, which is on the southern tip of the English/Welsh border in the county of Gloucestershire. The date of the meeting often coincides with St. Patrick’s Day and so is very popular with Irish visitors.

Irish winners of the Prestbury Cup?

That the Festival is before St. Patrick’s Day will not, however, deter the Irish invaders, who will have many Irish horses, trainers, and jockeys to cheer on over the course of its four days. Its proximity to Ireland also makes it easy to reach from the Emerald Isle.

The meeting also benefits from a beautiful location – in the heart of the Cotswolds – and is held on a course that has hosted racing since 1829.

Over the course of the Festival’s four days, there are 28 races, half of which are Grade 1 events (the top division of horse racing), including the famous Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Around 70,000 racegoers will be in attendance at the Festival each day, which, to continue the Anglo-Irish theme, also includes an official on-track rivalry – the Prestbury Cup.

This trophy, first introduced to the meeting in 2014, sees the horses owned and trained in the Republic of Ireland compete against those from the UK.

Ireland leads the way

In 2024, it was won by the Irish, with 18 wins compared to nine for the UK, and that’s pretty much been the tale of the tape since its inception. The 2024 win made it four in a row for the Irish, and while 2019 was a draw, the UK hasn’t won it since 2015.

Overall, the Irish have won eight times and the UK just twice, with those from the Emerald Isle totaling 184 winners compared to 120 from those this side of the Irish Sea.

unlikely stories, heart-warning moments

But Cheltenham is not just about the winners. For horse racing lovers, it’s a mystical place that is guaranteed to throw up unlikely stories, heart-warming moments, and sometimes, events that are, maybe, best forgotten.

Here are just a few…

The fairytale of 1990

If you’re a lover of a long shot, then this one is definitely for you. It could be argued that it is one of the greatest underdog stories in British horse racing.

It was in the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup – the meeting’s blue-ribbon race – that a completely unfancied and unknown horse named Norton’s Coin won the race after starting at a massive +10,000.

This barely believable feat was made all the more unbelievable by the fact the horse was trained by Welsh dairy farmer Sirrell Griffiths, who did so as just a hobby. He had just two other horses in his stable.

On the morning of the race, Griffiths was, as always, milking his herd of cows, but he ended it with a handshake from the Queen Mother as she handed over the famous trophy and after Norton’s Coin had left the legendary Desert Orchid in his wake, which finished third.

It wasn’t, however, the start of an illustrious career for Norton’s Coin. After his Cheltenham triumph, he went on to win just one of his next 18 races before he was retired.

The Festival that never was

The 2001 Festival is one remembered for all the wrong reasons – namely that it didn’t happen. It was the year that foot-and-mouth disease spread like wildfire across the UK.

It sadly resulted in more than six million cows and sheep being killed in response to the outbreak. All public rights of way in the UK were closed, and any animal within three kilometers of a live case had to be culled.

The impact on horse racing was massive – many meetings were canceled – but despite Cheltenham’s original meeting being postponed, organizers were confident that a new date in April 2001 would enable it to go ahead.

Everything looked set for the meeting, and all the usual preparations from organizers, trainers, horses, hospitality providers, and spectators were almost complete when it was announced that a new case had been confirmed in a village just five miles from the Prestbury Park course.

The British Horseracing Board was, unfortunately, forced to cancel the whole event and with no other dates available, Cheltenham 2001 became the one that got away.

Frustratingly for racegoers, the 2001 Grand National was unaffected and went ahead as normal less than three days later.

Amateur lives the dream

People who play sports at an amateur level dream of performing on the biggest stage. Local soccer players in the UK dream of scoring a goal at Wembley. Amateur golfers in the US  dream of hitting a winning putt at Augusta.

For most, that dream remains a dream. But at Cheltenham 2011, that dream became a reality for amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen.

he rode against and beat some of jump racing’s royalty

Racing was only a relatively small part of Waley-Cohen’s life. He was also a very successful entrepreneur who, among other things, set up a huge chain of dental practices. But it was in horse racing that he made his name when, on his dream day, he rode against and beat some of jump racing’s royalty, like AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh, and Barry Geraghty.

In the 2011 Gold Cup, Waley-Cohen rode a fancied horse named Long Run to victory on the big day and said afterward of how he struggled to comprehend that he was passing some of the sport’s greats, like Kauto Star and Denman, on his way to the finish line.

He became the first amateur in three decades to ride to victory in the sport’s biggest race.

Switching codes … and saddles

While Waley-Cohen was, in sporting terms, a nobody when he won the Gold Cup, Victoria Pendleton was most definitely a somebody when she rode at the Festival in 2016. But she wasn’t when it came to horse riding.

Instead, Pendleton made her name in a different type of saddle – that of a racing bike. And very successful she was, too, winning two Olympic Gold medals in the colors of Great Britain in the 2008 and 2012 Games.

But even when she had retired from pro cycling, the urge to get in the saddle and go fast lingered. So much so that in 2016, she decided to go all-in on swapping the velodrome for the racecourse.

While many dismissed it as little more than a publicity stunt, it was anything but, and the same determination that saw Pendleton win those two golds and nine world titles shone through in her quest to ride at the Cheltenham Festival.

She did it the hard way, earning her stripes through grit and hard work rather than being gifted a fast track, and she was rewarded   

While she may not have won the 2016 St James’s Palace Foxhunters Chase, she gave her mount Pacha Du Polder a good, solid ride, and their hard-earned fifth-place finish forced the cynics to eat some humble pie.

Afterward, Pendleton described it as “probably the greatest achievement of my life” – quite a statement from someone who had enjoyed so much cycling success.

Dickinson’s glorious five-star day

For most racehorse trainers, the dream is to have a runner in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Only the elite get to train a contender or live the ultimate dream of training a winner.

the greatest training feat in the long history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup

So imagine how Michael Dickinson felt after the 1983 race when, that day, the horses finishing first, second, third, fourth, and fifth were all trained by him! His achievement is unlikely to ever be matched and goes down as the greatest training feat in the long history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

In the 1980s, all the big races in Britain were called home by the late, great commentator, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, but even he was lost for words that day as Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck, and Ashley House all came home first.

Power failure saves the bookies

There are not many days in British racing that cost the bookmakers over $150m, but one so nearly came about in 2015. Nearly … but didn’t.

As the odds-on favorite Annie Power approached the final fence in the Mares’ Hurdle with top jockey Ruby Walsh on board, the British bookmaking industry and the whole of Cheltenham held its collective breath.

Now, it’s not often that a horse’s mistake is cheered, but it’s hard to believe there weren’t a few smiles and relieved faces as Annie Power and Walsh faltered at that final hurdle and fell.

Both were thankfully fine, but trainer Willie Mullins was, with that fall, denied the chance to see four of his horses win Grade 1 races that afternoon.

A Mullins four-way accumulator would have been the bookie-buster to end all bookie-busters. The total payout would have been of epic, record-breaking proportions, but Annie’s trip saved them

Her mistake gave the bookies a reprieve from something some may never have recovered from, but will also have cost some punters the payday of their lives!

And finally…

I wrote earlier about the Festival that never was. Well, in 2020, there was the Festival that was but probably shouldn’t have been.

Just ten days before the UK was locked down in order to try and stop the spread of coronavirus, over 150,000 people attended the Festival’s four days at a time when most other sporting events and large gatherings were being postponed.

In the week following, a former government chief scientific adviser said that it could have helped to “accelerate the spread” of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sir David King, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, went a step further, saying “it was the best possible way to accelerate the spread of the virus”.

While the UK government of the day claimed it had followed all the advice available to them at the time, they faced a huge backlash for permitting the event to go ahead.

***

So, while the Festival is unquestionably a gathering of the crème de la crème and produces some of the best quality racing of the National Hunt season, it’s rarely without controversy.

Who or what will be at the center of it this year?

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F1 Season 2025: Unknown Ground as New Partnerships Across the Grid

Melbourne calling…

We’re nearly there. F1’s 2025 season is almost upon us.

The three-day preseason test in Bahrain is done and dusted, and now all eyes turn to Melbourne, where the opening race of the season takes place on Saturday, March 15 at 11pm ET. 

new 2025 engines turned up to the max

The testing threw up its usual ambiguous mix of optimism, skepticism, mystery, and hope, but ultimately, it matters little. All will become much clearer in Australia, where there will be no sandbagging, and teams will have their new 2025 engines turned up to the max (no pun intended).   

While the 2024 season had a sense of the same old – there were no new drivers on the grid, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his fourth straight world drivers’ championship – this new season has seen changes aplenty.

Hamilton goes Italian

The first domino to fall, which was announced just before the start of the 2024 season, was Lewis Hamilton’s bombshell move from Mercedes to Ferrari. But it was just the start.

The freeing up of a seat in one of the top four teams was always going to cause a tsunami within the sport as it also meant that Hamilton pushed Carlos Sainz out of his seat at Ferrari.

And so it proved with the subsequent merry-go-round resulting in only two teams – McLaren and Aston Martin – retaining their driver pairing from 2024. The rest saw either one or two driver changes, with no fewer than over a quarter of the field lining up for their first full season in the sport.     

Of those six, three of them – Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), and Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) – have yet to even experience the high-octane intensity of an F1 race.  

All change … but not the cars

Only ten of the 20 drivers who started the 2024 season will be sitting in the same seat of the same car on the Melbourne starting grid – a huge change that will massively alter the dynamic in the garages, on the track, and in the media room.

Ironically, the one thing that won’t change this season, at least not massively, is the cars.

2026 is the season that will see huge, fundamental changes

Yes, the teams have updated their liveries and, as always, there are a few new technical tweaks imposed by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), but 2026 is the season that will see huge, fundamental changes to the design and power units of the cars.

To the untrained eye, the 2025 cars will – and, in fact, are – very similar to their 2024 cousins.

All of which plays nicely into the hands of McLaren who, despite not winning the 2024 drivers’ championship – Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive title – finished the season as the strongest team and, in the process, won the constructors championship.   

And nothing that happened in the three days of Bahrain testing did anything to alter the view that McLaren is the team to beat in 2025. Lando Norris starts the season as a short +175 favorite to win the driver’s title, while his team is an even shorter favorite (evens) to win the constructors.

No change for Team Papaya

As discussed earlier, part of McLaren’s perceived advantage for 2025 is around the continuity as a result of them making no significant changes, not just in their driver team but also in their garage and high-level management team.  

The papaya team – as they are known – have adopted the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra, and why not?

But, elsewhere in the pitlane, key components of a successful F1 season are having to be forged, in some cases from scratch. I refer, of course, to partnerships and relationships.       

For some, this will be a big issue. For others, less so, but one driver for whom this is going to be a massive challenge is Hamilton.

Not only does he now drive for a team that is not based in the UK and which speaks a language in which he is not (yet) fluent, he crucially has to develop a relationship with a new race engineer.

Bono to stay at Mercedes

Since he joined Mercedes in 2013, Hamilton’s race engineer has been Pete “Bono” Bonnington, and as a partnership, they have enjoyed almost unrivaled success: six drivers’ championships and seven constructors’.

a bond and a mutual respect that is rare in F1

While Hamilton is renowned for speaking his mind, especially in the white heat of an F1 battle, he and Bonnington developed a bond and a mutual respect that is rare in F1, where the high-level pressure lends itself to touchiness, tension, and fallouts.

But any cross words between the pair – and in the past few seasons, Hamilton had a poorly performing Mercedes to complain about – were quickly forgotten once a race was over. The aforementioned self-respect always shone through.

Hamilton once likened Bonnington to a “brother” and said that they had “supported each other on and off the track in good and bad times.”

No more “hammer time”

Bonnington even developed his own now-famous catchphrase: “Lewis, it’s hammer time.” It was his subtle way of telling Hamilton to go faster without telling him to go faster.          

But there will be no more hammer time. Bonnington opted not to make the move to Ferrari with Hamilton, whose new race engineer is Riccardo Adami, previously the Ferrari race engineer of Sebastian Vettel and Sainz.

The British driver has officially confirmed there will be no more “hammer time” and that he and Adami will come up with a new phrase for the Italian to use when he needs more pace from his driver.  

For Bonnington, there has been a promotion further up the internal Mercedes ladder, but he will also be the race engineer this season for Hamilton’s replacement, 18-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli.  

Yet, while there will be no “Bono” on Team Hamilton this season, a familiar face is returning to the team after a two-year absence.

The return of a familiar face

It came as something of a surprise when, in March 2023, Hamilton’s performance coach and close friend, New Zealander Angela Cullen, announced her intention to quit Mercedes and go off to explore other ventures.

Like Bonnington, Cullen was someone that Hamilton had developed a bond with and a close working relationship – they worked together from 2016 to 2023 – and many perceived their split as a contributing factor to the Brit’s miserable final two seasons at Mercedes.

reuniting for the new season

But during Hamilton’s first week at Maranello (Ferrari’s HQ) in January, Cullen was spotted, and it was later revealed that she and the British driver were reuniting for the new season.

She will attend race weekends with physiotherapy among her duties, as she works as part of the Project 44 performance team led by another key Hamilton ally who is returning: long-time friend and race director Marc Hynes.      

In short, while Hamilton had no choice but to leave Bonnington behind at Mercedes, part of that void has been filled by the return of some familiar faces who will work as part of the wider Hamilton team rather than as direct employees of Ferrari – a shrewd move that will surely help ease the transition for the seven-time world champion.

New partnerships are key

But while Hamilton’s move may be the most high-profile example of the need to build new partnerships and relationships, plenty more are developing.

For the six “rookies,” the need to build a relationship with their race engineer is vital if they are to hit the ground running in their first full F1 season. Antonelli has, as mentioned above, hit the jackpot by having Pete Bonnington in his corner, but few can rely on such an experienced right-hand man.

Liam Lawson, the new teammate of Max Verstappen at Red Bull, has, for example, a newly appointed race engineer guiding him through the new season.

Richard Wood has been a performance engineer for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for the last four seasons, but after a brief stint covering the job in the Perez garage in 2024, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner decided he was the man to hand-hold Lawson in his first season.

Ruthless Red Bull

The pressure is very much on both Lawson and Wood – both as individuals and as a partnership – to deliver in Red Bull’s second car. Perez failed to do so and was unceremoniously dumped from the team.

Other teams – most, in fact – are more forgiving than Red Bull, but there is pressure to deliver wherever you look across the grid; if not to compete for the championship, then to be the best of the rest outside of the so-called “big four.”

undertaken at the expense of many experienced Aston Martin employees

Leading that race over the past three seasons has been Aston Martin. At one point, they even looked like gate-crashing it, but that quest has been undertaken at the expense of many experienced Aston Martin employees, some of whom have been shown the door after many years of service.

Team owner Lawrence Stroll has been ruthless in his approach and has head-hunted many engineers and high-level officials from other teams, including the brains behind many a super-fast Red Bull championship-winning car, Adrian Newey.

Newey and Cardile wooed by Stroll

While Newey is widely regarded as F1’s number one car designer, also hopping aboard the Aston Martin express is former chief Ferrari technical officer Enrico Cardile. Both have taken up senior positions in the Aston Martin hierarchy, but many more junior posts have also been filled with new faces, including both race engineer positions.

These all came about as part of a major reorganization of Aston Martin’s technical structure, which was overseen by the recently appointed CEO and new team principal, Andy Cowell.            

Therefore, the partnerships and relationships formed amid the new Aston Martin structure will be key to the team’s success this season. Given the sheer scale of change within the team, no one should be too surprised if they have a slow start to the new season.       

If that is the case, Stroll will be hoping that any short-term pain will be more than compensated for by long-term gain.

Vowles rings the changes

Also hoping that a winter of change, both behind the scenes and on the track, will benefit them in the long-term is Williams.

Team principal James Vowles fought hard in the second half of 2024 to get Carlos Sainz on board and was eventually successful.

Sainz joining the talented Alex Albon

It means the Oxfordshire-based team now has an enviable driving pairing, with Sainz joining the talented Alex Albon, who is set to start his fourth season at the wheel of the Williams car.  

In terms of partnerships, Vowles will be hoping that Albon and Sainz can work well in tandem and take the team forward sufficiently to see them challenge Aston Martin and company for that lucrative fifth spot in the constructors’ championship.

New-found harmony at Alpine?

Also in that same hunt is the France-based Alpine team, which will be hoping that the splitting up of their 2024 driver partnership will have a positive impact on the team’s success. Over the last couple of seasons, the French pairing of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly has proved an explosive one, with the former best friends clashing both on and off the track.

New team principal Oliver Oakes – who took the role in July of last year – identified that in order to progress, and for the sake of team harmony, one of the two would have to be sacrificed.

Ocon was chosen as the sacrificial lamb – he will drive for Haas this season – and Gasly has now been partnered with Australian rookie Jack Doohan, who Oakes hopes will prove not only fast, but who will also have a good impact on the team’s morale.

So, in this case, the hope for Alpine is that the building of new partnerships and relationships will be a positive, even if they take time to develop.

So, all eyes now turn to Melbourne. And while the race winner and winning constructors will, as ever, capture the headlines, much of what happens off the track will ultimately dictate what happens over the coming nine months and 23 races.          

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