The 2024 Formula One post-season brought some (not unexpected) drama courtesy of Red Bull, but now the 2025 field is finally set. You can see the line up here.
Manchester United Win. Now What?
Okay, now that the FA Cup enthusiasm has waned, let me analyze it.
Erik Ten Hag had the players he wanted for the first time this season: Raphael Varane partnering in the back with Lautaro Martinez, with Amrabat in front of them, Marcus Rashford on one flank and Alejandro Garnacho on the other. United did not play with an out-and-out striker — Bruno Fernandez was the shadow striker – so clearly Ten Hag was going to rely on his inverted players to score, and he had no choice but to play on the counter against a team that is probably the best in the world at the high press.
It worked. They defended deep, and worked the flanks deftly switching play – that long searching pass from Rashford over the top to Garnacho from left to right flank so Garnacho could find Kobbie Mainoo on the opposite flank with space and nobody marking him was brilliant. Then when United got a 2-0 lead, they brought in Hojlund as a target man to replace Fernandez, keeping City defenders in the back instead of charging forward.
All that said, Ten Hag needs to be replaced. Even though he had the suffocating injury issues they had all season and was not able to play the players he wanted to play, there was tons of depth on United to put together a patchwork team that at least should have finished in the top four. Scoring should not have been the issue it was, not with scoring inverted forwards Rashford, Garnacho, and soon Jadon Sancho available (Sancho is coming back after his loan spell at Dortmund, so here’s hoping the next manager will know what he has).
With a porous defense his high press was not going to work, leaving way too much space in the middle and center. He was way too loyal to players he acquired who played for him before (Antony in particular). Most of all, he sacrificed chemistry and familiarity for ad hoc discipline – Sancho should have never been banished from the locker room, and Rashford should have never been deactivated – so he lost the locker room; the players simply just don’t like playing for him.
This was so obvious the several times they lost to inferior teams and bottom feeders they had no business either drawing or losing to, even at home. Ten Hag never has a set lineup, and he doesn’t clearly define what the players’ roles are. Glad he came up with a game plan to defeat City in this one really important game finally with the players he wanted all along, but it isn’t the cup competitions that a manager is judged by. It’s the league season, and with expectations as they are at United, this was just unacceptable.
Ugo Ugochukwu: The Next Lando Or The Next Lewis?
The “McLaren Driver Support Programme” started in 1998 and the Formula One team signed two young kart drivers, 12 year old Wesley Graves (who was dropped after one season) and a 13 year old whom you may have heard of, Lewis Hamilton. After having no one in the program since 2019, in 2021 they signed a 13 year old American Ugo Ugochukwu Orlandi. In 2022 he graduated to Formula 4, running a full season in the British championship with Carlin, as well as making late season appearances in the ADAC (German) and Italian championships with Prema Racing. It’s fair to say he acquitted himself nicely.
His full season in British F4 started with a podium finish (on his 15th birthday) and over the course of 30 races Ugochukwu scored 2 wins, 11 podiums, 2 pole positions and 8 fastest laps on his way to 290 points and a third place finish in the championship. He was beaten only by two drivers each with a full season of F4 racing already under their belt, Williams Racing Driver Academy’s Oliver Grey and eventual champion, Alex Dunne.
Meanwhile with Prema he scored 4 podium finishes in 6 races in the Italian F4 series, plus 2 more podiums in 6 ADAC F4 races. Quite the accomplishment in his first season of open wheel car racing.
Photo credit: British F4
Many think he could be the next F1 superstar, though he still has a long way to go to follow the incredible trajectory set by Lando Norris who took 4 seasons (and 3 championships) to go from karting to F1 and, of course, Lewis Hamilton (6 seasons and 3 championships).
Born in New York to Nigerian-born supermodel Oluchi Onweagba and her Italian fashion designer husband, Luca Orlandi, Ugochukwu began karting at age 6 and quickly stepped up to national competitions, winning the Micro Max class of the Florida Winter Tour in 2015 and the Junior ROK class of the Challenge of the Americas in 2018.
Then a huge change came when the young driver moved to Italy with Ugo taking his maiden European karting title in the X30 Mini Cup in 2017, before joining Ricky Flynn Motorsport for the 2019 season – the team that had run Lando Norris and Dan Ticktum in the past – managing eighth position in his first year of the FIA Karting European Junior Championship, including a podium at Le Mans..
For 2020 Ugo moved to the Sauber KR Team and claimed the OKJ European title. He remained with the team for 2021, but McLaren’s Zak Brown was already working on signing up the youngster and did so in March 2021.
Fast forward to 2023 and young Ugo is running a full program with the Italian Prema Racing team, beginning with finishing 3rd in the winter Formula UAE series with 5 wins, 8 podiums, 2 pole positions and 4 fastest laps. Then he returned to Europe where he currently leads the inaugural Euro 4 Championship after 6 of 9 races, and lies a close 3rd in the Italian F4 Championship with 3 races to go in the 22 race calendar.
Though his management may keep him in F4 for another full season, don’t be surprised to see him in a Formula 3 car in 2024 – most probably with Prema Racing – on at least a few occasions. We’re going to be hearing his name a lot more in years to come.