Sim Work, IMSA, and an Ironman:

Fred Vesti’s 2025 Diary

We were straight back into the heavy sim work; it’s my job to make sure I support the team and lead the simulator in the right direction.

George and Kimi can’t be in the sim all the time, and if they are experiencing something on the track, it is up to me to understand what they are saying and help fix that issue from back at base.

We had success with this last year, improving through the weekend, and it’s something I really enjoy doing. I get to bring the skills I’ve learned from Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 3 to help bring the team forward.

No day is the same, either. You have normal sim days, which are like development days. That could look into the tyres, the aerodynamics or the suspension.

Then you have the simpler days, which is when me and the team will look into any other issues that need solving.

My favourite sessions are the live runs. That is when we directly support the running at the track, to correlate the data.

Doing the overnight support shifts are very exciting, because you get to work so closely with the car and the team – as a racing driver that obviously means a lot.

Australia will be a good one for the body clock, because we will be up in the daytime in Brackley. Miami will be tougher, because it’s during the UK night-time. A couple of years ago I did 11pm to 9am – that was horrible. You are destroyed for days after!

Don’t worry, though, I’ll be getting to the track this year as well.

The plan is to run FP1s again, which is a great opportunity for a young driver, as I can showcase my skills.

Being in that environment is what I love the most, because this is all about me trying to prove I can be in F1.

I will be at a few races as reserve too, so getting to work with some of the best engineers in the world – not an opportunity everyone has – is so important.

One of the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year was to be able to say whenever I step out of an F1 car in 2025, that I have maximised the potential I have with the car.

It's not easy to just jump into and F1 car if you haven’t been testing. If you push at 105% you crash, if you push at 95% you underperform. You need to hit 100%.

I’m sure George and Kimi will do that this year. It says a lot about the Junior Programme Mercedes has had that we are all here performing at such a high level this year.

George was really good at taking me on board and helping me out when I joined the programme in 2021, and I want to be the guy this year’s juniors can lean on if they need, because I’ve been through that journey myself.

Looking back, I’ve realised you need to enjoy that journey. It’s like the final scenes in the US Office when one of the characters says: ‘I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days, before you’ve left them.’

My racing year will revolve around IMSA Sportscar Championship. IMSA is the North American version of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) – the cars are the same and the drivers are from the highest level. It will be the perfect chance to practise my race skills.

I did Daytona in January for the first time, which was going well until it wasn’t! We had a suspension failure and I ended up crashing.

Traffic management is so key in endurance racing. It’s not like F1, you are rarely on low fuel with new tyres. There are always other GT cars and prototypes around you from the moment the lights go green. It can all get messy, like weaving in between slower traffic on a motorway.

You really feel alive when driving on an American track. Layouts like Road America, Sebring, and Watkins Glen are a real driving thrill. There are walls, grass, and no room for mistakes.

Away from racing, I have signed up to an Ironman in Luxembourg this summer. A 2km swim, a 90km bike ride and a half marathon. The training is intense, and it is more cardio than I have been used to.

There’s no big goal behind registering, it is more just a passion for sports. My target is to do it in under six hours.

That’s later this year, but I’m sure that time will fly – just like the first two months of the year have.

Enjoy the start of the season, everyone. Think of me putting those sim laps in over the Australian GP weekend!

Talk soon,

Fred